We finally had the official 'de-briefing' on Saturday (the 12th) and I must say, it was worth the wait! First off, ALL Singaporean entries submitted scored medals. Calvin bagged a gold with his menagerie of Alpine Miniatures' boxart figure collection; Both MWS artists KG Lim and John Tham received silver medals for their armor entries...well done guys!
Here they are, receiving their awards from a proud and happy Bernard..
Paul Quek received a bronze for his figure entry as well..congrats Paul! Allan Yong too received a bronze for his entry, which comprised all animals...that's got to be a first surely! [We're trying very hard to convince him to become a Singapore PR at least...but as he's currently on assignment in Vietnam, it will be a tough call!]
While we were waiting for Calvin Tan to turn up and share some of his experiences and advice for the M Workshop artists, Bernard entertained us with his exploits at tackling..no, not the Spanish women (thank goodness!) but Spanish food, like tapas, chorizos and of course paella. Terrible fellow..made us all hungry! But being the true blue Singaporean he is, we KNEW he must have been missing his noodles and curry. True enough, he confessed to raiding his neighbourhood kopi tiam soon after returning home.
Eventually Calvin came...
..and we had a real in-depth 2+ hour debriefing, via a comprehensive slideshow (over 700 slides!) cum talk of what makes Girona such a premier event! The talent showcased was simply breath-taking!
As usual, Bernard sat in a corner playing with toys and didn't pay attention...just like his Uni days!
Seriously though, the eye-opening slideshow really was a sobering reminder of the awesome talent out there, especially in Europe, and hopefully an impelling force to inspire local modelers to keep pushing our standards to world-class levels. The encouraging news is..we're not far behind! What we need is to keep the passion alive (a real challenge in our work oriented culture), a determination to keep honing and improving our skills, and the willingness to experiment with new mediums, approaches and techniques.
If you'd like to be inspired by some of the awesome exhibits on display in Girona, why not visit Calvin's blog report at: www.zyclyon.blogspot.com
There's also this report by Spanish modeler Jose Azorin, taken from the xtreme modelling site:
http://www.xtrememodelling.com/news.htm
Well, after all was said and done, we couldn't let these medal winners strut around without even giving us home-bound guys a little treat could we?!...so, off we went around the corner to have some gelato!
Ok ok, so gelato's Italian and not Spanish..but hey...at least its a closer deal than Ice Kachang right?!
The Spain trip also had other hidden benefits.
Besides the Expo show itself, Calvin had brought Bernard and the guys to tour the Andrea factory to be amazed by some of the displays (1/35 scale full U-Boot replica, dioramas to drool over...) and they also had the opportunity to speak with some of the stellar personalities of this hobby, like Shepherd Paine, Alan Ball, Adrian Bay, Marijn Van Gills, Jaume Ortiz, Adam Wilder, and many others besides. What all this has done is that it has really given a new life and meaning to preperations for M Con.
We're under no illusions...With the kind of official governmental support the World Expo receives, along with a budget that we locally can only dream of, there's still a long way to go to get even close in scale and impact with a show like Girona. But now there is a definite and tangible standard to serve as a guide. With the whole-hearted support and participation of the local modeling community, much can be achieved with patient determination and time. Never despise the day of small things...they have a habit of growing!
It had been a wonderful, satisfying day, and I went home thinking things couldn't get any better. Then I walked in to this...
Salmon belly sashimi and home-made pickle maki washed down with a chilled Semillon Sauvignon Blanc. Unreal!
You know, sometimes...just sometimes...life gets it right.
