Speaking of cats,
There's one right there. On a tree outside the hall of EC's IU day. Which was... I don't know cause I was there for 15 minutes. Then me, Julz, Jack, and Melv went to Friday's for the best Sunday lunch money can buy. Even if it's not your money.
Somewhere in between, Jeremy asked me a very weird question. He asked: Is this like the best or worst birthday ever?
And I didn't know, because I never thought about things like that. But after a day or two, I realized this was not the best OR the worst. It was just my favourite.
I got to see old friends, and meet at least one new one. I didn't have to be the host of a party. I didn't have to end up drunk (and deal with the hangover). And I got to choose my own presents. More importantly, I got a shit load more money than I did last year. I'm sorry, I'm just being honest.
I mean, it's not enough to but me another XBOX(why would I even THINK of that), but it's enough to keep me financially sound for at least a fortnight. Which, by my standards, is saying something.
Three years on, and my savings account still has a little over three hundred bucks. I spend more money per year than I've saved in my entire life.
I'm not rich. I'm a poor man with some money. And trust me, there's a big difference. Because I'm not poor enough to be too left out, but not rich enough to be involved in every cool thing 18 year old's get to do.
So, yeah. This was a good birthday. Gurdave probably hates me for not going to Eden with him, but I'm sick, so, sorry. Hanging out with Jackson and Julz was awesome. Mostly because of Friday's Burgers=D Brendan called, and that call triggered something in me. Which has worn out now. I don't know. I'm making a lot of stuff as I go.
Let's just talk about tanks! Because I just assembled another!
StuG IV. It's pretty cool. Decided to not do any camo OR Zimmerit pattern(more on that later). Because I've got TWO tanks to build, 12 infantry men, a mortar kit, and a diorama. So, this StuG IV's quality wasn't put on priority.
This StuG IV is the second hardest tank I've built so far. If I had to rank the five tanks in order of difficulty to build, starting from the hardest, it'd be
1)Panzer III
2)StuG IV
3)Crusader
4)Tiger I
5)Sherman
I decided to go for a simple gray spray as the paint job. It took only 3 days to paint and assemble the main sections(still a lot of details to fill in, including a machine gunner on top).
I experimented with blu-tack to achieve a Zimmerit coating effect. Zimmerit is a anti-magnetic mine paste that German's used midway through the war. Halfway through the war, the Germans invented magnetic explosives for infantry to disable tanks. Fearing the Allies would copy their magnetic invention, they began coating their own tanks. But, by the last 2 years of the war, there were false reports of Zimmerit coatings setting fire. So, they stopped applying it. Either way, it was pretty redundant to begin with.
Zimmerit coating was pretty common in German tanks. Sometimes more than 100 KGs of Zimmerit Paste was applied onto tanks. But it's really hard to mimic the complex patterns the Germans carved into the paste. Here's an example of a Tiger II(production turret, not Porsche turret) that a professional modeler fitted with Zimmerit paste using epoxy:
Don't look at the color. That's before the model was painted. The main point here is that it looks VERY hard to do. Before I begin work on the Tiger II, I might have to bring it down to Skudai Parade and get some advice on how to do it. OR, just go ahead and do a non Zimmerit Tiger II.
Speaking of Skudai Parade, I think I forgot to mention that when I bought all those tanks and infantrymen, the owner decided to sell these 2 miniature tanks for 5 ringgit a piece. My brother was uninterested, so he just pointed at the one he recognized from Company Of Heroes.
Unfortunately, he picked wrongly. The one in Company of Heroes is an M10 Tank Destroyer, this one is either and M18 or something else.
I got myself a snow camo Tiger I.
Just to show you how tiny these factory made models are, here they are next to my mouse.
It was impossible to get a clear picture of that tiny Tiger. I wanted to show you guys the Zimmerit they managed to make on the tiny models. So I got my dad to take a shot with his Nikon D300:
See? Effing crazy. That's craftsmanship.
Oh well, Zimmerit or not, I can't wait to start the Tiger II. Must pace myself though. I want this one to look unlike anything else I've made.
Here's just a look at how GIGANTIC this Tiger II must have been. That's just the top part of the Tiger II. Wait till it's done!
Oh, and if you like jaw droppingly good photographs, click this link, done by the Best photographer... ever.
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