EVERY time he sees an excavator or steam shovel, 32-year-old Sholahuddien smiles with satisfaction. He recalls his experience late last year when he worked on an unusual order: painting excavators. The owner of Pay Airgrafix studio in East Jakarta who specializes in airbrush painting could already decorate motorcycles and cars. But painting steam shovels was a first. “I did ten a day,” says this fellow usually called Pay.

The steam shovels