Great War SIG at West Norfolk IPMS show

.. first post taking in the SIGs at last week's IPMS West Norfolk show. These fine 1:72 models are all the work of Mr Steve Cox. Although there were no triplanes on the table until I pointed it out. Note that Steve doesn't rig his builds - his 'philosophy' is that building model kits should be 'for fun' and rigging is not fun! Note that some of these 72nd scale models like the Friedrichshafen and Gotha bombers are vac-forms!  That doesn't sound like fun either to be honest!

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... 

Airfix Henschel Hs 123 'vintage classic' 72nd scale

My first completed build of 2024 - in mid-August! Airfix 72nd Hs 123, nowadays a 'vintage classic'. That means 'not very good' and/or 'lacking in detail'.  Quite a few builds of this kit can be found on youtube, but all of them are pretty poor! None of the modellers attempt to add some extra detail, which given the 'age' of the model, it desperately needs.

A few easy 'adds' including cutting out and posing the tail surfaces, sanding away all the horrible raised detail, adding a 'cockpit' (reshaping the seat, adding belts, a 'stick' and the characteristic 'double' instrument panel) along with the usual wine bottle foil seat belts. Rather like the Gladiator there was no cockpit floor as such. Cut away the pilot's entry doors and replace with plastic card - on the model the coaming is about a scale foot thick! As is the appallingly thick windscreen which is easily replaced with a cut-out from clear plastic - I used an empty water bottle.

 I had a number of disasters during construction, including snapping off a cabane strut and losing one of the footsteps - a replacement was made from wire. 

I've dug out some replacement decals - for some reason the 'Schlacht' triangle is presented in 'red' on the kit decal sheet - and I've chosen an overall green 71 scheme from the MMP booklet on the HS 123. There is some debate on the colour scheme found on these machines - some suggest that they would have been finished in the 'classic' 70/71 splinter scheme, others argue that the type was too early for this.

More pics and some 'reference' material on my Luftwaffe blog.

Welling Model show and 'open day', Saturday April 15 2023

 

Welling in south-east London, England, in the borough of Bexley, 'used' to be in the historical county of Kent but is now just part of the huge suburban city sprawl....but it does have a model club and an annual show and 'open day' which a few members of our club attended on Saturday. We headed there on Saturday morning, just 60 miles up the motorway from Canterbury. By 10:00 we had our tables set up and we managed quite a respectable display. I was even tempted to put a few entries into the competition which was a bit of a 'first' for me. There wasn't really much point going up against a scratch-built BE 2a in 32nd scale or Rod Janes' Bristol F2b 'Crocodile' (eventual 'Gold' winner) or even his Junkers D.1 ('Bronze' winner), but still, the point was to support the club. Shame the competition categories were not 'broken down' into scales - Rod might not have won the 72nd scale class after all. In total there were only 67 competition entries, well down on the last 'pre-Covid' show's 200+.  And Medway/East Kent club member Callum's was the only entry in the 'Junior' category. A special shout-out to the bust and figure models from the Faversham club. A few pictures from the event follow.

Your blog host behind our East Kent Modellers table display.

 A selection of club colleague Bob's builds including a couple of superlative Airfix 48th Vampires and an Airfix Blenheim I in Finnish markings. Below these, his T-62 from Tamiya..

 Brush-painted Meng Fokker Dr.1 in 24th scale by David from the Gravesham club. A previous 'Gold' winner at the show..

Rod Janes' WnW  Junkers D.1 (above) and David's brush-painted Eduard D.V in 72nd

A couple of Andy's  Luftwaffe 32nd scale masterpieces

Cast of 'Dad's Army' in bust form by the Faversham club.

'Aircraft' class in the competition. 'Gold' winner was the WnW Bristol F2b and probably the reason why there were so few entries! The checkered masked and painted 'Brisfit' was Rod's 'covid lock-down' project! CSM Caudron was another of Rod's superlative builds...