He painstakingly customises figurines

He is a friend of Battle Bunker owner Kenny Tan and is a store manager there.

And for a fee, Mr Daniel Levinge will turn your original models into tiny works of art.

Examine closely one of the figures he has worked on and you will notice, for instance, the delicate gold trim of a swordsman's robe which you originally thought was only red.

The 29-year-old will even add textures to the bases on which the models stand in a process known as basing.

For example, one model set features a desert theme and its base contains sanitised sand and tiny tufts of grass.

But the workmanship does not come cheap as it can cost more than the models themselves. Indeed, a customer paid Mr Levinge $800 to work on his $500 collection.

Depending on its complexity, work on a single model can take him hours or days, and finishing a whole army can sometimes take months.

And after using the same colours on the same models repeatedly in some cases, Mr Levinge admits that it does get tedious, but seeing the end result in its full glory is worth the effort.

Although there are "official" colours designated for certain factions within the Warhammer universe, players are encouraged to develop their own colours and stories for their armies.

"Adrian (another staff member) simply spray-painted his whole Tyranid army gold, and added a brown wash," says Mr Levinge.

"One customer painted his Orks pink and put tutus on them. There's no right or wrong as it's really up to you," he adds.

But he recalls a player from Australia who got his army banned in British tournaments because of insensitivity - he had painted them in the colours of Nazi Germany, complete with swastika-adorned armbands.

Other than that, players are free to explore the established lore or ignore it at will when customising their models.

Simply trying to achieve certain effects can prove to be exercises in patience. For example, a set of tanks can take multiple layers of paint to make them look old and battle-worn. And each layer has to dry fully before the next is applied.

The tools of the trade include tiny brushes (for different purposes such as base coats and detailing), Citadel hobby paints and boxes of fake flora. For certain small features such as rocks, Mr Levinge may use wine corks.

While most models today are made of plastic or resin, some of Mr Levinge's most prized possessions are 20-year-old discontinued figurines made of pewter.

"This model is a Commissar from the Astra Militarum... I got it about 15 years ago, before I was married, before I had kids," he says of one of his pewter figurines, which took him three weeks to paint.

He took nearly a year to finish painting the whole pewter army set.

"It was one of the first few models I bought with my pocket money back then," he says.

Mr Levinge also creates elaborate terrain settings for large-scale games and is working on a snowy mountainside setting made from foam during our visit to Battle Bunker.

According to him, many parents are supportive of their children getting involved in the hobby despite the cost.

"They say they're glad that their son is out here doing something social, or something artistic if he's doing the painting," he says.