Scale Model World 2016

[Army of One]

To all going.....hope you have a great time....I'm in the pissing rain in central London.....

[Weaver]

Well everything is either working or safe so I'm setting off shortly.

[Thorvic]

After deciding some time ago I wouldn't be able to go. I found myself last night actually free to attend, so an early night and up early to set off in time to be in the car park as early as possible. Poor sleep, woke up and it was raining. went to the local garage to fuel up and it was closed so got some cash our and went into the town to try there, no luck either as the only 24hr superstore in the town doesn't have a Petrol station, end up going out the other side of town fuel up in the rain and jump on the M61 motorway just after 5:30, get past the next junction and traffic comes to halt before it joins the Bolton road and on to the M60, 50m short of a two car prang that blocked the carriageway, . Then have numerous emergency services turn up who have to cut open one of the cars to extract the people inside. Finally get released single file about 7:20 and see the two mangled cars, so hope both set of occupants are OK.
After that I noticed my eta had slipped from 7:40 to 9:10, that meant I wouldn't get in the car park now at SMW and would have to find a spot in the town centre, I was hungry and needed the loo as was going to stop in Telford for breakfast so took the junction back into Bolton, picked up breakfast and went home. After the look so far and still not actually getting outside the town boundary I decided it just wasn't my day and thought I would be much safer just going home rather than tempt fate on the rest of the journey or the return this evening.
Unfortunate but as I hadn't actually planned on going till last night I think it was the wiser choice, feeling tired now, but rather chuffed that one of my kit wishes for a new 1/72nd British Naval Phantom has just been announced today and have pre-ordered a pair already so things balance out in the end.
Hope everybody who has gone has a great day/weekend and have a safe journey home as it can so easily go south through no fault of your own 

[Mossie]

Sorry to hear that Geoff.  Probably wise to turn back, last time I aimed to get to Telford for 9am I didn't get in the centre until 11.30.

I'm going tomorrow.

[Martin H]

Oh yes the Airfix Phantom news made my weekend. And two have just been preordered. This was despite me picking up a pair of Fujimi Toom FG-1's about 5 mins before the anouncement of the new airfix kit.

The new AZ Martin-Baker MB5 looks tasty. My pre ordered pair were picked up once the AZ stand's location was confirmed.
Ive finaly added an Italeri MC-130E Combat talon to my stash, due to Wonderland models reducing the price by a good amount.
Matador model gained a lot of my hard earned for a load of their ex Cromwell models range. Including the new British light armour (Ajax and Aeries).
The Mach2 Avro York was a must buy for me, despite the £45 price tag.
I cancelled my plans for adding to very large resin kits to my stash, mainly due to the Matador purchase mentioned above.

the pics ive taken of the what if and project cancelled stands can be seen here

[Steel Penguin]

had a great day today with everyone    the mini rolls, and Jaffa cakes went well ( as always)
my humble additions to the stand seemed to go down well enough, and we seemed to have a good few visitors who appreciated the display. 
a think public day one is a success

[Weaver]

Well I didn't have as hard a time of it as Geoff, but due to roadworks on the A466, I didn't get to the show until 2.00pm, so not very satisfactory. I'm going to try to get off early to get in for 10am tomorrow.

Got home to find that the electrical circuit that was 'fixed' this morning had blown it's fuse again by the time I got home. After a day in an empty house where nothing on that circuit has changed or switched on/off automatically....   

On the up side, picked up a 1/72nd Huma Do.27 for £13. Not especially cheap, but since they're OOP and it's a plane I've always really liked, I couldn't pass it up.

Also got an Airfix Army Lynx which is, of course, a whiff-in-a-box with it's HOT missiles. An in-service update with a Viviane IIR HOT sight and exhaust suppressors sound like a plan.

[zenrat]

Thanks for sharing the pics Martin.

[Steel Penguin]

woke up this morning feeling weirdly energised, so happily went back, spent most of the day at the SIG stand, we had enough people walk away with smiles, and certainly a few walk away with "the light" in there eyes to say, success.
Was present for the award announcement for the 2 best models on the table, both of which certainly deserved the accolades,   

[Martin H]

now im home, My final views of the event. (no new photos from me)

The totaly unofficial freightdog award for the best whiff on the sig stand was shared between two models.

For actualy managing to make a decent model from a Unicraft kit was Andy Luxton with his Shorts PD13


And for one hell of a back story as well as a first class model, was Dave Drake (Kitbasher) with his Vickers Wellington/Hawker Hurricane Misletoe combo.


Both recieved a very generous prize in the shape of an Airfix Shackelton from Colin.
My thanks go to Colin for offering the award and providing the prizes. And his very able assitant judge, the venrable Mike McEvoy.

With the new set up crew rules inplace, the following happened.
As I thought would be the case, around 3pm most of the overseas clubs section facing us started to dismantle their displays. that caused a ripple effect around the show. And as a result, full on stand break down across the whole show was well underway come 4pm (the offical closing time for the public).

the island we and the Project cancelled sig were on was compleatly stripped bare and ready to head home before 4:30pm.
Getting offsite wasnt to bad for me either, I was home after about a 120 mile drive by 6:45pm.

[PR19_Kit]

While the contents of the show, the Club and SIG stands and the traders, was as good as ever, the surrounding 'organisation' was somewhat lacking for me as a mere user. On neither day was I able to get into the Centre car parks and had to go the multi-storey parks in the town centre, much too far away for me to carry my model box in to the Centre, so none of my models appeared on the stand. It was notable that the Whiff SIG stand seemed much emptier than on previous occasions, but the Project Cancelled side was pretty well populated.

To my mind the place has outgrown its car parking capability for a show like ours. I'm sure it's fine for an event where people just have to get themselves there, but if you need to carry big boxes and stuff you HAVE to be closer to the venue.

After talking to the Centre management it seems they don't give a damn and it's going to get WORSE! They have plans to build a hotel on the site of the south car park so there'll be even less space in future!! 

I'm not at all sure I'll attend in future if it's headed that way, I get much more from the Coventry and Milton Keynes shows than Telford myself.

[Weaver]

Enjoyed the show, although due to my various dramas this weekend I had considerably less time there than usual. I did manage to take a lot of photos and some video, but when or whether the latter will appear is a moot point due to technicalities and uncertainties.

Was so tired I stopped and had an hour's kip in the car at Stafford services before I killed myself and/or somebody else...

[The Wooksta!]

TBH, I wasn't looking forward to the event due to a number of reasons and nearly pulled out on Thursday at the last minute.  Didn't enjoy the drive down, being cramped in the back of a Renault Twingo, thought the whole designated attendee thing was a pain in the arse, but once I'd hit the motherlode of deleted kits that The Aviation Bookshop were selling, it all turned round and it was all worth it.

Having said that, the traders were a disappointment this year, with many of the second hand dealers charging ridiculous prices for tat.  Some of the major players were well and truly gouging their customers - I'll choose one particular kit that I'm rather enamored of.  Eduard's Spitfire mk IX Royal Combo.  Tiger Models had them for £37, I saw another one for £45 on the Antics stand, another somewhere else for £50, £61 at Wonderland but £65 from Hannants.  Don't know how much Eduard* themselves were flogging them for but surely Hannants are taking the proverbial?  I'll also mention AZ.  One of the up and coming Czech companies, they were at it too - one of the smaller traders were selling their Spitfire mk Vb new tooling for a tenner, but AZ were charging £12.

The two things that I wanted, I didn't get - A2Zee's Shackleton MR1/T4 conversion as they'd sold out by the time I got out of the kitswap and the S&M HP Hastings because the price had shot up to £125.  Yeah, it's resin and I know a fair bit of what causes the price, but I simply didn't want to pay it.

Still, it was well and truly worth it.


*Their website is selling them for 64 Euros, which is just about £54, so anything under that is a bargain.  Looks like the Big H is simply changing the € for £.  I shall refrain from commenting further on legal grounds.

[JayBee]

Got home last night at about 2315, after a good clean run North. Lots of rain and spray, and the traffic was pretty horrendous at least until you are North of Preston then it always thins out.

SMW was it's usual self, meeting up with old friends, buying stuff (although this year I was a model of restraint. Mind you the Wooksta made up for me and several other people as well!).

So I have put the photos into four albums depending on their general category, some may have ended up in the wrong place, and of course Photobucket has messed about with the order of the shots within the albums.
Hope you enjoy.


The What If and Project Cancelled displays.


http://s652.photobucket.com/user/JBricknell/library/SMW2016%20WhatIf%20SIG?sort=3&page=1


Other What Ifs from around the show.


http://s652.photobucket.com/user/JBricknell/library/SMW2016%20OtherWhatIfs?sort=3&page=1

The Competition Tables.


http://s652.photobucket.com/user/JBricknell/library/SMW2016%20Competition%20Tables?sort=3&page=1


Other Models.


http://s652.photobucket.com/user/JBricknell/library/SMW2016%20Other%20Models?sort=3&page=1

[kitbasher]

Great (as ever) to meet up with the SIG folk and I hope everyone got home safe and sound.

I'd pre-ordered an MB5 and was buying stuff off JayBee so wasn't I the mood for much browsing but enjoyed what I saw (including 'best in show' (NARSES2 knows what I mean)).

Flattered beyond belief to win the Freightdog prize - big thanks Colin and yes I will be buying one of those forthcoming sets for a whif project.

Pics to follow.