IPMS Birmingham

Midland Air Museum Chistmas Modelling Fayre and Committee changes.

2011-11-27T15:01:00.001Z

The Midland Air Museum at Coventry will be holding its annual Christmas Modelling Fayre on Sunday 4th December and IPMS Birmingham will have a display in the Argosy Centre.

Last year's show started with an early morning mist which gave the opportunity to take some atmospheric photographs of the outdoor exhibits.

The November meeting was the also the branch Annual General Meeting, with the usual election/re-election of committee members. Terry Walton had already announced his intention to stand down as Branch Secretary and the role has now been taken on by Roland Turner. The posts of Chairman, Treasurer and Newsletter Editor were unchanged with Pete Betteridge, Matt Nicholls and John Duffield receptively continuing in the rolls. George Green also retained the post of Competition Secretary but is now sharing it with Karl Robinson.

Scale Modelworld 2011, Day Two

2011-11-13T22:45:00.001Z

The second day of SMW 2011 brought more members to the show and the club display.

"Biggles" Betteridge goes to Telford.

Our club Chairman Pete Betteridge lived up to his recently acquired nick-name of Biggles by briefly appearing on the Biggles SIG stand.

As always at Telford a great deal of time was spent foraging for bargains, searching for that kit for which you have been looking for ages or simply looking at the the traders' displays and discovering an item that you suddenly realise you have wanted all along!

Steve Newton's Merchant Ship

In the competition two IPMS Birmingham members, Steve Newton and Matt Nicholls won silver medals in their classes, congratulations to them both.

Jim and John with Paul Regan.

John Kesler and Jim Marconi, our visitors from IPMS Syracuse, USA spent a couple of hours in the morning at the RAF Museum, Cosford before coming to the show. During the course of the day they met some of the UK National committee including Paul Regan (President) and Richard Farrah (Hon. Sec.).

John and Jim with Richard Farrah.

John and Jim will be flying back to the USA tomorrow (Monday) and we wish them bonne voyage and look forward to seeing them again in the future, meanwhile many thanks to Mike and Lynn Gossage for putting them up during their stay.

Links:

IPMS Birmingham Facebook Album; John and Jim's visit.

IPMS Birmingham Facebook Album; Scale Modelworld 2011.

Scale Modelworld 2011 - Day One

2011-11-12T18:51:00.001Z


The IPMS Birmingham stand manned by Pete Betteridge and Harry Newton.

The first day of Scale Modelworld 2011 saw the club's stand already and waiting for members to display their models, Pete Betteridge and Terry Walton having gone up to Telford on Friday to set it up.

1/144 scale diorama of the Boeing Dreamliner roll-out.

As always the members set about hunting down bargains, viewing the models on display on other branches stands and renewing old acquaintanceships.

Our friends from IPMS Syracuse, John Kesler and Jim Marconi enjoyed the day wandering around the show and sampling the hospitality at the Overseas Members Reception.


John Kesler and Jim Marconi in front of the IPMS Birmingham stand.

Links;

Facebook album; Scale Modelworld 2011.

Facebook Album; John Kesler and Jim Marconi's visit to SMW 2011,

The Boys from Syracuse go north!

2011-11-11T22:37:00.001Z

Today we took John Kesler and Jim Marconi north to Yorkshire, visiting the Royal Armouries in Leeds before continuing on to the city of York to allow John to see some Roman relics in the undercroft of the Minster.

Jim Marconi and John Kesler at the Royal Armouries.

From there we travelled back via Nottingham for a meal at England's oldest inn, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.

Facebook album of John and Jim's visit.

The Boys from Syracuse are here!

2011-11-10T22:27:00.001Z

Jim Marconi and John Kesler of IPMS Syracuse, our twin chapter in the USA arrived at Heathrow Airport this morning to attend Scale Modelworld 2011. They were met by Michael Gossage and Roland Turner and then taken to visit the Imperial War Museum's Duxford airfield followed by a brief visit to the Shuttleworth Collection.

Jim and John in front of the American Air Museum, Duxford.

Tomorrow we will be taking to see the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the National Railway Museum in York.

To see photographs of their visit please go to the IPMS Birmingham Facebook album.

Anticipating Scale Modelworld 2011

2011-11-06T20:48:00.001Z

The IPMS Birmingham stand SMW 2010

Scale Modelworld, still known to many as "The Nationals", is now less than a week away and as always IPMS Birmingham will have their display stand set up and members ready and willing to talk to anyone and everyone about our models, your models or just modelling in general.

This year we will be having two guests, John Kesler and Jim Marconi, from our twin branch/chapter, IPMS Syracuse in New York State, USA. John has been to SMW a number of times before but this will Jim's first visit to the show and the UK.

John and Jim will be flying in on Thursday morning and a few members will be taking them to selected museums and places of interest on the two days prior to the show. Thursday we plan to go to Duxford and possibly the Shuttleworth Collection and on Friday The Royal Armouries, Leeds plus the National Railway Museum at York with a brief visit to York Minster.

So if you are passing the Birmingham display please come over and say hello, we will be happy to see you.

Droitwich Salt Day 2011 and Yate Show.

2011-08-28T13:19:00.002+01:00

Forever Forties vehicles, Salt Day 2010.

Salt Day

David Child has again arranged for the club to attend Droitwich's Salt Day, Saturday 10th September as guests of the Forever Forties Group. We have displayed at this event for the past two years and it has been a thoroughly enjoyable day for those of us who have manned the club stand, it being one of the occasions when we have the opportunity to promote our hobby to a wider public rather than other modellers. There is always room for more club members to contribute, so if you would like to bring along some of your models please do so but please remember the theme is the 1940s (Predominantly WWII). If you are not a club member but are in the area we will be pleased to see you and talk about our models or try to answer any modelling questions you may have.

Report on last year's Salt Day.

IPMS Avon Model Show, Yate

1/72 scale Bristol Brabazon (A-Model kit) on the Avon display.

The Avon show was held Sunday 21st August at Yate Leisure Centre and as usual was well attended by IPMS Birmingham, which was fortunate as we had four tables to fill with models. The club was represented by Peter Betteridge, Norman Otty, Roger Hartill, Bill Nicholls, Terry Walton and Roland Turner.

One feature was the first sighting of a completed A-Model 1/72 scale Bristol Brabazon (Photo above), a kit with a price tag that will make serious dent in most peoples' bank balance. For the less well heeled there were plenty of bargains to be had from both traders and private sellers.

To see more photographs of the Yate show please go to the IPMS Birmingham Facebook album "IPMS Avon Show 2011".

September Club meeting and Sutton Coldfield Model Spectacular.

Finally a reminder that September's club meeting has been put back one week (25th Sept.) to avoid clashing with the Sutton Coldfield show, 18th Sept. where the club has a stand and which most of the membership will be attending.

IPMS Syracuse website.

2011-06-18T11:16:00.004+01:00

Our friends at IPMS Syracuse, New York, USA have their own website edited by Tony Casella. IPMS Syracuse website.

Sad News

2011-04-13T11:52:00.000+01:00

We have received the sad news that Lynn Hartill wife of our former club chairman Roger Hartill has died.

The thoughts, prayers and condolences of the club members go out to Roger and their daughter Anne-Marie.

March Meeting and model shows

2011-04-04T20:04:00.001+01:00

The website hasn't been properly updated for a while now due to the webmaster being otherwise engaged (Poor excuse you may, justifiably, say) so here is a bumper issue.

The club has attended several shows in the past couple of months including Milton Keynes (Modelkraft), Huddersfield and Hinckley and here are a few photographs taken at these venues.

Milton Keynes

Bill Nicholls mans the club display at Modelkraft 2011

1/48 scale Baltimore on one of the other club stands.

To see more photographs of models on display at Modelkarft 2011 go to the album on the IPMS Birmingham Facebook page.

Huddersfield


1/48 scale Avro Vulcan B.2 on the Bomber Command SIG table

Neil Robinson and Trevor Snowden on the Model Alliance stand.

For more photos of the Huddersfield show go to the IPMS Birmingham Facebook page.

East Midlands Model Show, Hinckley.

1/48 scale Gloster Gauntlet

"Old Bill" bus.

More pictures from Hinckley can be seen in the album at the IPMS Facebook page

March Meeting

A major feature of the March club meeting on Sunday 20th was the judging of Hospice trophy, or at least those models that had been completed, quite a few members preferred to pay the fine (Thereby increasing the money raised for the Acorns Hospice).


The competition table at the March meeting.

The monthly competition was won by Shaun Bowater with his impressive piece of 1/35 scale armour.

The monthly winner.

Future Events.

On 31st July there will be a model show in the Griffin Pub, Rugby in aid of Help for Heroes, for more details please go to the dedicated website.

The next show the club will be attending will be at the RAF Museum, Cosford on Sunday 10th April.

And last but not least our own show, Midland Expo will be making its long anticipated return on 15th May, Midland Expo website.

December meeting cancelled

2010-12-18T17:21:00.000Z

Due to the heavy snowfall over the past 24 hours, tomorrow's meeting/Christmas party has been cancelled.

The Hospice Trophy draw will take place at the January meeting, full details to be given in a future update.

November/December update

2010-12-12T19:19:00.086Z

A lot has happened in November and early December, first there was Scale Modelworld on the weekend of 13th & 14th November and then there was the club AGM on the following Sunday so rather than trying to cover these in a single update separate pages have been created, to see them click on the following links:

Scale Modelworld

Committee Members and AGM

Sunday 5th December the club attended the Midland Air Museum Model Show at Bagington.

Aeroplanes in the mist.

This is a small show with a few local clubs displaying their models in the heated education centre while a few hardy traders sell there wares in the unheated hangar. Of course this was one of the coldest weekends of the year and the day started with a freezing mist which at least gave the opportunity for taking some atmospheric photographs.

The club was represented by Peter Betteridge, Terry Walton, Gareth Thomas and Roland Turner.

December meeting and Christmas Party

The next meeting will be on Sunday 19th December and as in previous years will be the club Christmas party. Members bring along food which is shared among the membership while those who have won monthly competitions bring back their winning models to voted on for the branch championship.

Another traditional feature of the Christmas party is the Hospice Trophy draw - everyone brings a kit, either a surplus one from their collection or one bought especially for the occasion, packed in gift wrapping which then goes into a lucky dip. Members pay £2 for each kit they draw and then are expected to build the kit by the February meeting when it will be judged, if the kit has not been built by this time then another £2 is paid with all proceeds going to the Acorns Hospice for terminally ill children. There are of course a couple of rules: 1) No swapping of kits, you build what you draw. 2) Apart from glue and paint you can only use what is in the kit - no aftermarket decals, photo-etch, resin etc. this in the past has lead to some fairly inventive use of instruction sheets, decal backing paper and sprues. The Hospice Trophy usually leads to a good deal of humour with people seeking out kits of some fairly esoteric subjects, will this year see something even more unlikely than a plastic kit of a bus shelter in 1/76 scale with individual bricks?

Hackers compromise credit card details.

2010-10-31T10:57:00.001Z

Both Hannants and Hobby Search have had clients' credit card details stolen by hackers.

Hannants' website has up-dates of the latest situation which appear as soon as you log into their home page. Hobby Search's website has a separate information page giving details of the theft of information.

If you have made purchases from either of these companies it would be advisable to check your credit/debit card accounts for any suspicious activity.

October Meeting

2010-10-24T11:42:00.001+01:00

Sunday 17th October was the date for the pre Scale Modelworld club meeting. As ever, most of the membership will be attending and we expect to put on a display of a wide variety of models. This year being the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain many of the club and SIG displays will be commemorating the campaign.

This month's competition had only only one entrant, George Green's SE.5A in Russian markings - leading to humourous comments that it still didn't win - which needless to say it did.

Although the competition was sparsely supported a number of members brought along models that they have recently finished or are currently working on, including Steve Newton with a scratch built rowing boat and a tugboat built (Unusually for Steve) from a kit.

The next club meeting will be on Sunday 21st November 9 (A week after SMW) and will be our AGM, so if any members want to stand for committee posts please make yourselves known.

Meanwhile enjoy Scale Modelworld, we hope to see you at Telford.

September Meeting

2010-09-28T18:13:00.001+01:00

For this month's meeting John Duffield brought along his airbrushes and associated equipment for everyone to have a play with and see what results they can achieve.


"Big Bob" Nash examines the results of John's airbrushing on an Airfix Vulcan wing.

Bill Nicholls was able to join us, it is good to see that he is on the mend, and intends to be at Scale Modelworld in November.

There were only two entries in the competition, Terry Walton's Canadair Sabre in No. 3 Squadron markings and Ron Adams' HMS Suffolk which was this month's winner.

Ron Adams' HMS Suffolk.

Terry Walton's Canadair Sabre

For those who remember the evocative paintings of Roy Cross that used to adorn Airfix's boxes and headers, Dave Marsh has found a website from which you can download free examples to use as you computer desktop wallpaper called WallPapers King .

Sutton Coldfield Show

2010-09-22T19:59:00.000+01:00

Despite worries regarding road closures owing to the Pope's visit to the nearby New Oscott College everyone who wanted to attend the show managed to get there with little or no difficulty.

Members manning the stand apparently in pensive mood.

Being local quite a few members put in an appearance during the course of the day including Peter Betteridge, Norman Otty, Paul Hickman along with his son Lewis, Roger Hartill, David Child, Dave Marsh, Terry Walton and Roland Turner. Notably absent was Bill Nicholls who is still recuperating from an accident and surgery to his broken wrist, Sutton wasn't quite the same without him and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

Sutton Coldfield Town Hall provides a pleasant venue overlooking the park.

A good display of models was put on by the clubs attending, covering a wide range of subjects and an album of photographs can be seen on our Facebook page.

Sutton Coldfield Model Makers Show

2010-09-14T14:58:00.004+01:00

This coming Sunday, 19th Sept, Sutton Coldfield Model Makers' Society will be holding their annual show at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, Upper Clifton Road, Sutton Coldfield, B73 6AB.

Please be aware the that Pope Benedict XVI will be in Birmingham on the same day and will be making a private visit to New Oscott College in the Sutton Coldfield area. This will result in the closure of a number of main and side roads between central Birmingham/M6 junction 6 (Spaghetti Junction) and Sutton Coldfield from around 10 a.m.including the most direct route the A5127 Sutton New Road through Erdington and Wylde Green.

While this should not effect people approaching from the north, anyone using the M6 or A38M (Aston Expressway) will be well advised to get there early.

For anyone heading for the show after this time the route shown on the map below is recommended, using the A38 Tyburn Road and B4148 Eachelhurst Road/Walmley Road, however please bear in mind these will probably become heavily congested.

View Larger Map

Droitwich Salt Day, 2010.

2010-09-12T12:34:00.002+01:00

The team report for duty!

Last year we were invited by the Forever Forties Group to put on a display of models at Droitwich's annual Salt Day and they were kind enough to ask us to attend again this year on Saturday 11th September.

The club was represented by David Child, Peter Betteridge, Terry Walton and Roland Turner, we arrived early and having found our pitch, set up our stand only to be caught by a sudden downpour, rapid action was taken to protect the models but some of us got a good soaking.

The day's activities were officially opened by the mayor of Droitwich's French twin town who made a speech in French translated into English to, what must have appeared to him, an unusual audience comprising of the local Air Cadet squadron band, a troop of Roman Legionaries, a few modellers from Birmingham, a quantity of people in assorted WWII uniforms plus ordinary members of the public.

Our display, in keeping with the Forever Forties theme, was of World War Two subjects and in particular, as we are in the 70th anniversary year, the Battle of Britain.

As the day progressed the sky cleared, the sun shone and we had a steady stream of people coming to look at our models, talk about either modelling techniques or reminisce about the types of aircraft and vehicles giving us the opportunity to hand out flyers for next year's Midland Expo.

RAF Jeep

The Forever Forties people brought along a variety of 1940s vintage vehicles both military and civilian and dressed themselves in the appropriate uniforms and styles.

Members of the Forever Forties Group.

Two Austin Sixs and an Austin Ten.

RAF military police Velocette motorcycle.

To see more photographs of Salt Day 2010 go to the album on IPMS Birmingham's Facebook page.

By the end of the day we had talked to a lot of people including one former club member and a couple of potential new members, such events give us an opportunity to show our hobby to a wider public.

Thanks are due to David Bowlas and the Forever Forties Group for inviting us again, those of us that participated had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Avon Show, Yate

2010-09-01T10:43:00.002+01:00

Sunday 22nd August and the club attended the ever popular Avon Show held in the Community Centre at Yate, just north of Bristol.

We were allocated a large L shaped stand and fortunately were able to to fill the space with a varied selection of models, one end being given over, appropriately in the 70th anniversary year, to a Battle of Britain display.

The branch was represented by David and Christian Child, Pete Betteridge, Terry Walton, Norman Otty, Roger Hartill and Roland Turner. Unfortunately Bill Nicholls, who had intended to attend, had fall a few days earlier and has broken his wrist, however we did speak to him by telephone from the show so he was there in spirit so to speak.

This superbly finished 1/48 scale Fiat BR.20 Cicogna built from the Special Hobby kit was displayed on the Locate & Cement stand.

Imposing in 1/32 scale on the 580 Modellers stand, this Phantom F-4B was in the markings of VA-111 "Sundowners"

It's always good to see a bit of humour creeping in at model shows, sometimes we modellers can take things a bit too seriously, so a variation on "Compare the Meerkat" was welcome - it looks like one of Alexander's relatives managed to get a commission in the British Army!

Meanwhile outside the hall there was a small display of military vehicles including this Royal Marines, helicopter portable, Citroen 2CV.

For more photos from the show go to the show album on the new IPMS Birmingham Facebook page.

Shows that we will be attending in September:

Sunday 5th - Wombourne, The Community Centre, Church Road, Wombourne. WV5 9EZ

Saturday 11th - Droitwich Salt Day, Victoria Square, Droitwich, Worcestershire.

Sunday 19th - Sutton Coldfield Model Makers' Society Show, Sutton Coldfield Town Hall.

August Meeting

2010-08-24T14:44:00.000+01:00

At this month's meeting Roger Hartill gave us an excellent talk on the use of Milliput.

Most of us have used the product at one time or another, with varying degrees of success but Roger covered a whole range of possibilities encompassing all aspects of the hobby from aircraft via armour to figures.

Even those people that have used Millput for a long time learned some new techniques or uses for the two part epoxy putty.

To illustrate his talk Roger brought along some examples of his own work, particularly impressive were the figures and busts that he modified or resculpted as can be seen from the photographs here.

The Forever Forties group have again invited us to attend Droitwich's annual Salt Day. We will be based in the town's Victoria Square, as last year, and any members are welcome to come along and exhibit there models - but please only 1940s/ WWII subjects. Those of us who attended last year had a thoroughly good day and was worth the visit for having a look at the vehicles on display if nothing else.

The monthly competition was won by Terry Walton with his 1/48 scale Hawker Hurricane Mk.I which achieved the remarkable score of 27 points out of 25!

Coventry and Staffordshire Moorlands Shows

2010-07-06T13:19:00.001+01:00

The club has attended two model shows in the past fortnight, Coventry and Warwickshire at the Midland Air Museum, Coventry Airport 27th June and the first Stafforshire Moorlands Show in Stoke-on-Trent on 4th July.

At Coventry the club was represented by Terry Walton, Mike Johnson and Roland Turner on a sweltering hot day. Our stand was in a small hangar at the far end of the site and frequent trips were made to the cafeteria for liquids and ice cream.

A good many of the visitors to our stand took flyers for next year's Midland Expo and we received a fair number of favourable comments regarding its return.

Staffordshire Moorlands was a completely new show on the circuit and its organisers did an excellent job. Held in the Territorial Army drill hall at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent the local Air Cadet Squadron marshaled the car parking efficiently and with admirable courtesy while the TA supplied the catering.

Terry Walton, Roger Hartill, Norman Otty, Gareth Thomas, along with his son Christopher, David Child and Roland Turner all helped to man the stand during the day.

In the competition Roger was the class winner for his "Blood Warrior" bust.

Even though Bill Nicholls was not in attendance the tombola did well and that's where "Big Bob" Nash from UMS found a new friend.

Meanwhile outside the hall there was a small display of army vehicles, a Landrover, a Ferret Scout Car and a Humber Pig. There was also a piper who gave us a rendition on the bagpipes (Perhaps not every body's cup of tea!).

A gallery of photographs of models on display at the show is available on Facebook.

Midland Expo

2010-05-06T11:06:00.001+01:00

We are pleased to announce the return of Midland Expo at a new venue, Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre and Golf Course, Alcester Road South, Kings Heath, Birmingham. B14 6ER., in 2011.

Cocks Moors Woods represents a considerable improvement in facilities over our previous venue, the Leasows Centre, with a larger hall, a restaurant and licensed bar, also on site are a swimming pool and a golf course.

We have a confirmed date of Sunday 15th May 2011 for the show and look forward to seeing many of the regular exhibitors, traders and vistors who used to attend Midland Expo at the Leasows Centre.

For more information please see the dedicated Midland Expo website.

Hinckley Show (and a mystery new member?)

2010-04-30T11:28:00.006+01:00

Sunday 25th April the club attended the East Midlands Model Show at Hinckley putting on our usual diverse display of models from the members in attendance.

The club was represented by Pete Betteridge, Terry Walton, Roger Hartill, Norman Otty, Bill Nicholls, Mike Johnson and Roland Turner, Gareth Thomas also came along with his son Christopher for part of the day.

As there was a football match on Bill brought along his transistor radio and kept us entertained with his attempts at tuning it into the right station. This leads neatly to the burning question of the day, following a conversation with Bill on the way to the show in Pete's car:

Who is John Thibthrub?

Is he a mystery new member?

Is he the Highways Agency's answer to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen with a contract to re-decorate Spaghetti Junction?

The answers to these questions and possibly even more confusing ones may be resolved at the next meeting on 16th May, make sure you are there.

April Meeting - Airbrushing

2010-04-20T15:17:00.003+01:00

Airbrushes and airbrushing techniques was the main subject of this month's meeting and several members brought along their own equipment including compressors and air tanks, a variety of proprietory and home built items to show to other members and in some cases set up and do some actual airbrushing.

John Duffield, the instigator of the theme took centre stage and demostrated his techniques and the different makes of airbrush that he uses, giving members the opportunity to try them out for themselves. Here Rob Barwick uses one of John's airbrushes, applying some camouflage to a set of 1/48 scale Spitfire wings.

Meanwhile, Club Chairman, Peter Betteridge (left with George Green and Steve Newton) dispayed his home built modelling spray booth, constructed from MDF board and using various bits and pieces from domestic appliances. Does his wife know where those spotlights and the extractor fan came from?

As always there was the monthly competition which was won this month by Terry Walton with his 1/35 scale Bofors Gun.

Cosford Show

2010-04-13T10:33:00.013+01:00

Sunday 11th April, the club attended the IPMS Telford/Shropshire Modellers Show at the RAF Museum, Cosford. As usual our stand was alongside the nose of the TSR2 and being local we had a good turnout of members resulting in a varied display of models reflecting the diverse interest of the membership.

Manning the stand
(From left to right)Gareth Thomas, Rob, Harry and Steve Newton.

Meanwhile Bill Nicholls had his own table to sell off some of his treasures.

John Duffield's Superb Collection.

2010-03-30T23:51:00.003+01:00

my models
Originally uploaded by modelmaker24

John Duffield, our esteemed newsletter editor has recently put this photograph onto his Flickr photostream showing his model collection in all its glory.

A superb collection imaginatively and professionally displayed, every home should have one!

IPMS Birminghm on YouTube

2010-03-05T00:05:00.000Z

There is now an IPMS Birmingham video slideshow on YouTube, please click below to view it.

Huddersfield Model Show

2010-02-25T13:08:00.005Z

IPMS Birmingham were represented at the Huddersfield show on Sunday 21st Feb. by Gareth Thomas and Roland Turner.

Having travelled up to Yorkshire on Saturday afternoon we stayed overnight at Richard Farrah's house in Leeds going out in the evening for a meal with Richard and IPMS(UK) President Paul Regan. Despite having moved from Birmingham over ten years ago Paul remains a member of the Birminham branch and although he has few opportunities to attend our meetings frequently lends his support to our activities.

At seven a.m. on Sunday morning we were joined by Paul Hughes of the local branch and leader of the Bomber Command SIG, for breakfast at which time it was noticed that it had started to snow, at this stage only very fine flakes but it was begining to settle. By the time breakfast was finished the snow had become heavier and was now about an inch deep on the ground.

Cars were quickly loaded with models and show paraphinallia and we set off in convoy for the relativly short trip to Huddesfield, Paul and Richard leading the way in Paul's car, through ever deeper snow. Because of the speed that the snow had fallen there had been no chance to grit the roads and even on the motorways (M621 & M62) we had to crawl along at as little as 25 mph leading us to wonder if the show might be abandoned. Despite the conditions we arrived safely at the venue to find that the show was going ahead and clubs and traders were already setting up in the sports centre, the only problem being access to the car park which is up a short but fairly steep incline and quite a few vehicles had to abandon the attempt and park in surrounding streets. Fortunatly our car, a hired Vectra estate, was able to maintain traction and we managed to get into the covered area of the car park.

Our display was quickly set up and because there were only two of us to man the stand we individually went off to see who had made it to the show and of course forage for bargains. It soon became evident that the weather had put off a number of clubs and traders, there being lot of empty tables and those that had made it to the show had stories of long delays and appalling driving conditions, one trader, Paul Davis, taking over five hours to travel from Solihull. None-the-less a good show was put on with a steady flow of visitors through the doors and everone seemed to enjoy the show although Garath was feeling unwell, he had planned to do some actual modelling on the stand but in the end spent the day quietly, taking things easy and manning the stand. We had been allocated tables near the centre of the hall and received quite a lot of attention with regular questions and discussions about the techniques used to achieve various effects and finishes.

IPMS (UK)'s favorite frenchman Jean-Pierre Desprez, proprietor of Model Art Decals, lent the proceedings some gallic flair.

'El Presidente' Paul Regan was in attendance selling off some of his kit hoard.

At the end of the day we emerged from the hall to find that most of the snow had melted and we were able to travel home without any problems. All-in-all a pleasant weekend spent with fellow modellers and of course a big thank you to Richard Farrah for his hospitality.

Milton Keynes Model Show

2010-02-14T13:20:00.007Z

On Sunday 7th February the club attended the Milton Keynes show putting a display of our members' models demonstrating their wide range of interests. As always Norman Otty's and Roger Hartill's figures as well as Norman's Hunley Diorama drew a great many admirers.

As well as Roger and Norman, the show was also attended by club
members Peter Betteridge, Paul Hickman, Jim and Chris Maher, Terry Walton, Roland Turner and Bill Nicholls. Bill spent part of the day glued to his transistor radio - he claims that he was listening to the Birmingham City vs. Wolverhampton Wanders football match - but we all suspect that he is still waiting for the secret coded message from SOE to go out and blow up German munitions trains in occupied France!

The IPMS Birmingham Brick, Newark Air Museum.

2010-02-06T20:30:00.001Z

The story behind the IPMS Birmingham brick goes back to June 2001 when three of us (Jim Maher, Terry Walton and Roland Turner) paid a visit to Newark Air Museum on our way to the Newcastle show.

At that time the museum was trying to raise funds for a new hangar/display hall by selling bricks that were going to be used in its construction for £10 each. Ever eager to help we bought a brick on behalf of the club and each of us signed it.

Little more was thought about the brick until last November when four of us (Michael Gossage, Gareth Thomas, Terry Walton and Roland Turner) along with our good friend John Kesler from IPMS Syracuse, New York, USA visited the museum. The new display hall had been built and filled with exhibits, so we went looking for 'our brick' and soon found it inside the entrance lobby where it was duly admired and photographed for posterity - funny how you can become quite proprietorial over a piece of baked clay!

For those who have not yet visited Newark Air Museum we can give it our wholehearted recommendation.

Link to Newark Air Museum.

January Meeting

2010-02-01T20:43:00.001Z

At January's club meeting we had a a couple of demonstrations of re-polishing clear parts such as canopies.

John Duffield also brought along the Airfix Lightning that he is working on to show how he is getting a genuine bare metal finish using the foil wrappers from chocolates. Now there's a good excuse for scoffing so many!

The monthly competition was won by Ron Adams with his superb 1/1200 scale HMS Prince of Wales.

We were also had the pleasure of being able to welcome a new member, Dave Marsh who we hope will enjoy being one of our band of modellers.