November Meeting and Club AGM.

IPMS Birmingham's November meeting includes the club's Annual General Meeting at which committee members are either elected  or re-elected (When same person is going to continue in the role) and any changes to the way the club is run are agreed upon.

Two changes were proposed and accepted: First that henceforth the changeover date for newly elected committee members should be the 1st of January following their election (Proposed by Roland Turner outgoing Branch Secretary). And second that a new system of judging proposed by George Green, Competition Secretary be adopted - details see the Monthly Competition Page.

Rob Barwick, Branch Secretary Elect.

All the existing committee were re-elected apart from Roland Turner who is standing down, with Rob Barwick being elected as the new Branch Secretary and will take over the position on 1st January 2014. Rob is already the Exhibitor Booking Secretary on the Midland Expo Management Committee and will no doubt bring his enthusiasm and dedication to this role.





Of course it wasn't all serious business and a few die-hards actually got some modelling done in one corner while the meeting progressed.

Live action model building at the meeting!

Isaac's Gold Medal and diorama.

Isaac Peat also brought along his Gold Medal wining diorama from Scale ModelWorld 2013 for us to have a closer look at. A well deserved win for a young and talented modeller.

Looking back on Scale ModelWorld 2013

Well, Scale ModelWorld 2013 is over and we can look back on a show that lived up to its billing as "The best model show in the World".

First of all,  thanks go to our club Chairman Pete Betteridge , Treasurer Matt Nicholls and Dave McQueen who went up to Telford to set up our stand on the Friday afternoon so everything was ready for members to put their models on the table when they arrived on Saturday morning.

In the competition the  club had three winners, Bill Mohan got a Bronze award for his 1/72 scale Short Sherpa and David Allison also received a Bronze for his 1/43 Lola Judd T88 Indy car but pride of place goes to our only junior member Isaac Peat who gained a Gold Medal for his Jeep and Sherman diorama, congratulations Isaac.

John King meeting IPMS (UK) President Paul Regan

We had our friends from IPMS Syracuse, USA, John Kesler, Jim Marconi and John King visiting for the show. This was John King's first time at SMW and his his first trip to Great Britain. "The Boys from Syracuse" had arrived at Heathrow on Wednesday morning and been met by Michael Gossage, Gareth Thomas and Roland Turner and taken to the RAF Museum at Hendon. After an overnight stay at Eastleigh they went on to the Tank Museum at Bovington and the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton before travelling up to Birmingham. Friday was taken up with a visit to Warwick Castle.

Gary Wenko, Overseas Liaison Officer

The show was a celebration of the Society's 50th Anniversary and was bigger than ever, at the Branch Secretaries and SIG Leaders meeting on the Sunday morning it was announced that the visitor numbers were up by 6% on the Saturday compared to 2012 and competition entries had increased from 900 plus to over 1300.

There were many foreign visitors with people who had travelled from as far afield as South Korea, Argentina, Canada, USA and most European countries to menion but a few, either to display at the show or just as members of the general public, keeping Gary Wenko the society's Overseas Liaison  Officer busy, a task on which he appeared to thrive.

The AMV 83 team from the south of France

 
As always the overseas visitors brought a selection of local delicacies and liquid refreshments with them to share with visitors to their stands adding to the convivial atmosphere.



A number of awards were given for the best displays with the Aerobatic Display Teams Special Interest Group winning Gold for the best SIG display.

As already mentioned the competition had a huge number of entries this year and all to a very high standard with the best in show going to Stefano Marchetti (for the second year running) for his remarkable fantasy piece "Bugatti/Tesla Type 159sc - magnetic levitation race car".

Inevitably with anything of the magnitude and complexity of Scale ModelWorld something is almost certainly going to go wrong at some stage and this year was no exception with a problem on the Saturday morning at the members' entrance. This appears to have been due to conflicting information which the show organisers attempted to resolve quickly but were frustrated by the centre management. While it was annoying for the people involved, it should not be allowed to detract from an otherwise superb event and the IPMS (UK) Executive Committee, all of them unpaid volunteers, are to be congratulated on its success.

The "Boys from Syracuse" are here

Our good friends John Kesler, Jim Marconi and John King from IPMS Syracuse arrived at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday morning at 08.30 and were met by Michael Gossage, Gareth Thomas and Roland Turner from IPMS Birmingham.

Once through baggage reclaim, customs and suitably refreshed at one of the airport's coffee shops the first port of call was the RAF Museum Hendon.

 After several hours exploring the museum's treasures and a brief visit th the local Hannants outlet the party headed southwest to Eastleigh, Hampshire for an overnight stay at a Travelodge hotel.

A convivial evening meal at the adjoining Harvester restaurant followed by a good night's sleep set everyone up for Thursday's itinerary taking in the Tank Museum at Bovington and the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton before traveling to Birmingham in the evening.

Friday's plans include a trip to the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire and possibly a visit to Kenilworth Castle.

Saturday and Sunday will of course be taken up with attending Scale ModelWorld 2013.