The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

My first SMW as SIG Leader and what an experience that was, sorry but I was too knackered to post anything last night after a 3 hour drive home in absolutely pants weather. I've never done the full weekend at Telford before and it is very surprising how tiring it can be standing behind a collection of models and nattering on about them to various interested (and in one case, alas, not so very interested) parties. The display attracted a lot of attention and IMHO caught the eyes of the roving punters who, in the first instance, saw something very different. Here was something other than the usual fare of serried rows of aircraft, ships or vehicles.

From the visitors I spoke to and comments I heard, the display really brought home the nostalgia and, in my view, tapping into that is largely job done as far as a display of classic kits is concerned. The way we had displayed the models also gained favourable comments, one guy said to me that it wouldn't have been the same just lining the models up, the fact that we had made a layout put everything into context so much better. The fact that we didn't have motion didn't seem to matter and I think we all agreed that running models could, in fact, have been a little distracting. I only had one negative viewpoint from one guy who couldn't understand why a regular aircraft and military vehicle builder such as myself would want to be making model trains as a one off and he wasn't having any of it when I tried to explain the ethos of what we were trying to do. Ho hum, you can't win them all and I suppose a line up of aeroplanes would have suited him just fine! Children on the other hand had no such preconceptions and loved the trains, some dragging their parents back for multiple views and, you never know, we might have inspired some modellers of the future - albeit railway modellers

Then there were the two guys from a publication called, IIRC, British Railway Magazine (please correct me if I'm wrong) who caught James and I without the support of our resident railwaymen Alan Bean and Matt Bacon and decided to do an impromptu interview - on film I might add - as their eyes had popped when they actually found a display of railway models at a general model show (no, we couldn't understand why a team from a specialist railway mag were there either!). They loved the display but how James and I have come across on their blog is anybody's guess - hopefully not like aircraft modelling rabbits caught in the locomotive headlights

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the hard work of all of you that were involved in taking the time, trouble and expense to build the fantastic display of models that brought so many positive comments, I really cannot thank you all enough. Whilst I am on the subject of thanks, I think all of you will agree that special thanks and a round of applause must go to Alan Bean for the display design and construction, not to mention cramming it all into his car - it looked great Alan, top work with it In addition, Matt and James must IMHO also feature for special thanks for the design and preparation of t-shirts, labels and flyers, all of which helped to lift the display out of the ordinary. Finally there are those who could make the display and helped to man and, in the case of Chris, woman the tables - Alan, Matt (who won a silver for his Alfa Romeo in the SMW competition, how good is that!) Chris, Darryl, Iain, James, Tom (together with a box containing 1300g of biscuits to help keep us fortified ), who did the SIG proud in front of the public - trust me, their contributions were fantastic, I did little more than stand around mumbling and looking vacant If I've forgotten anybody, please accept my sincere apologies and let me know accordingly!

That's my sum up sorry if it isn't great, I'm no Shakespeare after all, but there is one thing that I am and that is proud to have been the leader of the CBK at this excellent weekend - we didn't win the best display award from the IPMS but it was the best display as far as I am concerned. Roll on 2016

Well done, everyone, and many thanks, Shaun!

As Paul just said, Well done everyone for producing an outstanding display.

Seeing those photos has made all the effort worth while.

Regards Splash

Great write up Shaun!

Two of the Airifix guys who had notebook in hand and I guess were judging tables, walked straight past our stand as I guess they assume we had a display of Hornby models. I tried to draw there attention to the fact the that all many of the kits were Airfix but didn't seem to have much effect.

I probably lost the forest for the trees while we were prepping for this, but then seeing it all together (in the photos), I think we made an excellent presentation of a small town, long ago, preparing for a their local Remembrance Day event. The elements were broad enough in scope but seemed to converge to that central theme, at least in my eyes. I am certainly very pleased with our result.

Ayup All...

A nice display. Well done Shaun for surviving, and it was nice to meet you at last. Roll on 'Classic space kits' next year LOL.

Well done to all concerned, I'm no train buff by any means but I was very impressed with the layout and overall display. The level of work and detail was excellent. A unique display yet again and unfortunately probably overlooked by most of the "purists" and modelling Illuminati!! Great to see you all again and have a natter and to meet Dazzled in the flesh.

Great result guys! I'd have loved to have seen this one in person as looked great in the pictures.

It certainly stood out and provided a visually different display. I really liked it as I was seeing things I hadn't seen before in the context of a scale model display. I also learned a little bit more about a rather forgotten chapter of British kitbuilding companies - Rosebud and their kit building division, Kitmaster.