Name: Raymond YapPseudonym / Nickname: Alphaleo
Usual Genre: Gunpla, Sci-fi,
Being a commercial artist, he has idea. However, in modeling, the most impressive stuff is, he is willing to break his own zone to recreate his vision into a 3D model kit.
When I first knew him, he was still quite new in the hobby, learning all the basics. However, as far as that's his vision concern. there is nothing can stop him. Can't find the model? Can't find the parts that suits the modification? He just go and scratch build it!! no matter how risky they r in the eyes of old school modeler like me, he just went full gear n try his best to create it.
Yes, in terms of bigger size scratch building, probably among my group of friends, there are Alphaleo and Julius Lim (that is another crazy builder whom i am tempted to talk about later).
From his first work that caught my attention: HG unicorn where he build to join Unicorn vs Blue Frame GB in ZeroG forum, which he used 4 (or 5?) HG unicorn and various scratchbuild to create a unicorn Centaur. Ok, the weathering n finishing wasn't top notch, but the modification got my jaw dropped. It was just too beautiful!!!!.
Later on, he build another HG Kshatriya, and this time he modified it to become a 2 footed dragon!!!! On his second piece, the weathering n finishing is already a level up from the unicorn. This work of his, Unicorn Centaur vs Kshatriya has won Malaysia's BAKUC Champion and world's 1st runner up in the year of 2010!!
Monster Modification vs Finishing
After that, he tried on another scratchbuild frenzy project: converting a PG Zaku into a High Mobility Zaku (note: is for Weathering vs Metallic GB). Personally, for the modification part, i think is absolutely impressive!!!! The only thing is, besides scratchbuilding a ton of parts there, he made it a candy color zaku; which is like a almost zero tolerance to finishing n flaws; the finishing of the kit was being compromised. This, I really think is a pity.
After that, a unicorn/sinanju hybrid, which personally, i think there s a lot of improvement in finishing, but still, in comparison to his modification work, still consider a weak point in his build. (Please dont get it wrong, although i might sound like his work is crap, but in fact they r not. he's still winning in competition after competitions. I am merely comparing the level of his modification to his finishing.)
Not sure whether it is because of this or due to his work load, after that, his projects started to become smaller.
- Gundam NT1, won (2012?) 3rd in GBWC, with not as much modification as his previous projects, but he showed the world he is capable of achieving great finishing.
- Leo San. This is definitely another gem!!!! With loads n loads of highly skilled modification and scratchbuilding, not as lous as his previous projects, but he manage to keep a high quality scratchbuilding and pretty good finishing!!!! I am so love of this project!!!!
- Ball Minion. This one can show his level of confidence in scratchbuilding n finishing. Seems like it s a rush project, but he managed to pull it off with no problem at all. More importantly he showed that his is comfortable in building kits with such high level.
And as for competition wise, I hope Bandai will not push their not-value-finishing judging criteria to far too soon. I believe his work will awe the world.
Yes, I am hoping to see a classic born from his hands!!!
Website: The only site i know where he share his work is his Deviantart. http://alphaleo14.deviantart.com/
