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.

December meeting cancelled

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

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.

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.