Midland Air Museum Chistmas Modelling Fayre and Committee changes.

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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

Sad News

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

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.