Midland Expo

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?)

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

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

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.

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

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

Huddersfield Model Show

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.