Photos by Jim Baumann and Vladimir Yakubov
The UK Nationals were held this year (as in previous years) on the 21/22 November in the International Center at Telford, a prestigious location in the center of England slightly north-west of Birmingham.
The international flavor of this (relatively!) huge event is comprised of competitors and visitors from as far afield as China, Canada, the USA along with Greece, France, Denmark Portugal, Spain, Malta, Tenerife, Israel, Poland, Russia, Holland, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Spain mingling with many Austrians, Germans, Czechs, Italians; I even saw someone from IPMS Argentina chatting with someone from Norway whilst surrounded by swarms of BRITISH!! All had come to Telford to look at models, chat about models, compete with models and hunt model kit bargains!!
The model industry's health was demonstrated by the comprehensive Trade support ranging from the main Plastic kit manufacturers right through to the 'cottage/garage' industry specialist manufacturers of obscure resin kits, accessories, photoetch and decals for all modeling disciplines....!
The show is held in two large adjacent halls with good parking, good catering and beverage facilities within the show.
For many years model boats have been overshadowed by the vast array of aircraft and armor models on display; this year however whilst still massively outnumbered (!!) the presence of shipping as a model force to be reckoned with was unmistakable by the sheer number of ship models present in and out of the competition.
In the UK especially there is very strong support for the Nationals
from the area clubs and SIG's (Special Interest
Groups) who have enormous displays of general models as well
as dedicated themes( such as the COMPLETE
evolution of the Spitfire as well as some slightly bizarre
exhibits which were very popular with young and old modelers such as the
1:1 scale HARRIER COCKPIT!!
The ship competition aspect is divided into a number of classes,
In the UK it is permissible to exhibit ships and for that matter any model within a glass case for protection . In the instance of ship models especially I find this eminently sensible as they are particularly vulnerable to heavy breathing admirers blowing at delicate rigging .....
Vladimir Yakubov came over from the USA and brought his beautiful
fleet of Russian Pre dreadnoughts( for which I offered a permanent UK mooring
in my wall cases; strangely he declined....!) The photos presented
herewith are mix of both of our shots, that said we hardly took any photos
of our own models, these can be viewed here at
modelwarships in the gallery anyhow...!
THE high point of the show was when a SHIP was the OVERALL winner of the whole event.
This fine model of the HMS CENTURION was scratchbuilt of PLASTIC entirely to the scale of 1/350 and was about 8 inches loa, the model demonstrated superb delicacy and depth with rigging that was near perfect! Mark Slota of the UK deservedly vanquished all tanks, figures and aircraft to become the Senior national Champion
Of particular note off the competition tables was the 1/400 Heller Scharnhorst built by German modeler Helmut Latoschinski who showed his model on the WEM stand whilst wearing along with the rest of the WEM staff full naval/military/Wrens uniform which was very distinctive and certainly made the WEM people instantly identifiable...!!
YS Masterpieces were there alongside L'Arsenal, both stands had much to tempt money to leave pockets!!!
Adjacent were some fine ready built liner models in 1/500, metal and PE for sale for £ 1100.00 as well as a beautiful 1/100 IJN Turret flanked by a 'builders model' type of G.Averoff in 1/192 for rather more ££££,s
RC Cammet ltd had the prototype 1/350 RMS Queen Marry Hull molding on show, a veritable monster!!
I have enclosed with this report a large number of photos showing the highlights of the show. Mr. D Griffith of the UK won a Gold medal for his 1/700 USS Texas ( Samek),
and I received similar for my 1/350 G Averoff( YS Masterpieces)
There were many superb ship models on view, too many to list accurately here, if there are any particular photos of interest please leave message on the Forum and I will try to remember the kit/ manufacturer/builder...!!
Enjoy.....
JIM BAUMANN
