SMW 2015 Telford

Scale Model World 2015 ‘IPMS Nationals’
For the third consecutive year the KitMaker Network attended the Scale Model World event held in the Telford International Centre. Also known as the IPMS Nationals this event is one of the premier shows in the world let alone UK and Europe. I finally managed to make it to the competition area this time around, and the first 250 plus pictures cover that area of the event. While upstairs in the competition area I heard someone describe this event as the best of the UK verse the rest of the world, I have to say that is a very good analogy as walking around the event you could hear accents form all over the globe all talking the same language without a cross word. This really is a global event in the modelling calendar.

This year I actually took the step of becoming an IPMS member and I look forward to seeing the magazines that are sent to members. I will also be making a request to become a Bulldogs Member on the site under my new membership.

The event this year was a disappointment in one respect and that is the lack of any life sized displays that have been present in the previous 2 years. With that said the event was very well attended, on Saturday the event was so well attended that it was difficult to move in any of the three main halls, and there were so many in the kit selling area that it must have been hard to see the boxes. On Sunday things were a little easier to move around and the space in the isles made it far easier to take photographs of anything that caught your eye without getting in the way or stopping other move past you.

Retailers were well represented this year, and I got to meet many current contacts and make some new ones as well. This is one of those events were it is all too easy to blow a small fortune on plastic, tools and consumables. I was very good this year in that a bought some paints from a couple of manufacturers, a diorama base from Zoukei-Mura, 3 barrels from AA for the Chieftains, some turned barrels from Master and some consumables/tools from Pinnacle and Treemendus Models. My only major purchase was a new LED daylight flexi arm magnifier and it was money well spent.

With everyone talking the same language and everything you can think of as model related being available, this is one event you must go to at least once.