2010 Scale Model World: a personal view by Bill Curtis – with an Armour slant!
Well it was that time of year and plans were underway to go to the “NATS” as it will always be known to us of a certain age. This year I could only manage one day which was to be the Sunday, so bright and early we set off from darkest Lincolnshire on the annual pilgrimage with a three hour something drive.
We arrived and our wives bid us farewell for the day and we walked the familiar path into the venue and once in made our way firstly to the Lincoln table and stood for the remembrance silence with them. We then moved on to the SLAM table and met the guys and after exchanging the usual banter dropped the rucksack and started a tour of the halls.
It appears that the attendance on the Saturday was very good with not a lot of room in the aisles and Sunday started fairly busy too. The trade stands were as usual well attended and most of the traders seemed happy with the weekend’s takings.
The club and special interest group stands were good and it was good to see old faces and to chat with them.
The competition tables were well attended and drew a lot of attention all the time I was there with some good models. I took some pictures here not necessarily of winners but of things I liked in the comp and elsewhere…
There are more pics below, but one model which I liked for the groundwork was the Panzer II with crew near the water, and I thought this a stunning piece of work but the vehicle wasn’t quite up to the same standard as the terrain.
I had been asked to photograph the non competition models as I think that there are models on these tables which are as good if not better than in the competition. I have to say I was not disappointed and will not pick out any particular club or group but let the accompanying pictures testify to the quality of work on show.
My particular list of wants was small this year and I managed to get most of it and of course those extra items that are must have.
I will say that my favourite model of the show came not from the competition but from one of the other club tables and was of the Death Star which you could have walked by but on a closer look was astonishing for the amount of work carried out , not to mention the finish.
It was good to see Geoff, Sara and the boys, hard at it on the Scale Modelling Now stand.
Well all too quickly the day came to an end and we packed up our purchases and left after another good show with the hope to making it again next year. The models on display had some real classy items which are an inspiration to us all and a tribute to the craftsmanship of the modellers who built them.
Best armour was a WW1 bull nose Mack with a tank in the back in 1:72 scale and guess what? I didn’t get a shot of it… oh well, there’s always next year to look forward to.
Bill C.