Shepway Military Modelling, Saturday 13 June (Part 2)

 

Held every year at the Community Centre in Hawkinge, this is our small local club show. Arrived at 08:00 on the dot to find that set-up was well underway. Bacon roll and teas at 09:00, and the show opened at 10:00. Plenty of clubs and traders present and the competition tables soon started to fill up.  We (Shepway) were opposite the Gravesham and East surrey clubs... 

and some views of the competition tables. Best in show was this U-boat with Steve's Airfix Spitfire also in the running. Alan's Antonov was very nice too... 

Shepway Military Modelling and West Norfolk IPMS shows, 13/14 June 2026 (Part 1)

 

On Saturday we made the short trip to Hawkinge for the annual Shepway show. More on that soon. The next morning we drove up to Littleport near Cambridge for the West Norfolk IPMS show, or, as they call it, the 'West Anglia Scale Model Show'. The West Norfolk/Anglia show is a comparatively large one, filling Littleport leisure centre  - around 50 clubs and SIGs exhibiting and 20-30 traders and stands. We were located next to IMPS Rivenhall, Thurrock Model Club and the Sherman SIG opposite Marilyn's East Anglia Books and the incredible 'Models for Sale' stand. Theme of the show as the 90th anniversary of the Spitfire. A few views of the table and some models from the shows.

John's Trumpeter 1:48 SM.79 was awarded 'Best Aircraft' (on the right) at the West Norfolk show. My Dr.1s and Udet's red Me 109 lurking in the background below and my Jaguar in the middle of the table in the first view above.

HMS Belfast 1:350

 Simon's competition winner from the Trumpeter kit at the IPMS East Kent June club meet.

unknown Eastern Front Tiger in a diorama setting

 

 Ade's (Shepway Military Modelling Society -SMMS) on-going Tamiya Tiger dio. Identification of the Tiger I, unit, location and time frame is proving difficult. Kharkov, s.Pz. Abt 505 possibly but the Tiger is 'white-washed', it appears to be late winter and s.Pz. Abt 505 was not deployed to that region until summer 1943. Note the Tiger is devoid of markings. The roof tiles were individually 3-D printed. 

A couple of images from a French publication entitled 'Tigers at Leningrad', a special issue by 'Batailles' in 2006 (Histoire et Collections). This was not a random magazine article on Tigers but a special issue based on the photo album of Max Loetsch of s.Pz.Abt 502 (1/502) - these images from the chapter covering the second battle of Lake Ladoga (February 1943) depict some of the first combats of Operation Iskra, the Soviet operation to relieve Leningrad. Note there are no markings of any sort on the Tiger. The timber building to the left appears to be in a very similar style to the subject photograph, a location where the battalion was quartered briefly..

Revell Bf 109 G-6 in 32nd

 

This model blog has just finished a Revell G-6 in 32nd scale OOB - a first build of this kit that has been in the stash for some 13 years now! It's a decent kit, goes together reasonably well - except for the horrible spinner arrangement - and is here finished in AK Real Colors. The spinner spiral was masked and painted as were the fuselage 'Bauchbinde'. As usual I bought some Quick Boost add-ons (bulges, charger intake) and then decided that really the kit parts were just as good so the model was finished OOB in the kit markings - this is a late-war machine with the tall tail and Erla Haube to represent the machine as flown by the Gruppenkommandeur III./JG 5 ace Franz Dörr. Dörr achieved around 120 victories, his last in late October 1944 in the Eismeer Geschwader flying over the Far North. 

below;  essentially the same kit - in the G-10 version - as built by Auguste Kleinpeter to represent 'yellow 8' of 9./JG 300

May model club night - Challengers in 1/35

Here's a few images from the two club nights I've attended this month at IPMS East Kent ( RAF Manston History museum) and Shepway Military Modelling..(Kent Battle of Britain Museum) 

First up, some Challenger tanks, including  Robert's build of the Trumpeter kit followed by two of Steve's from the complex Rye Field kit to the more simplified (and 'desertised') Tamiya kit...