Post by PitYak Studios on May 14, 2007 12:00:54 GMT 12
Yesterday (and the day before) saw the Wellington Chapter of the International Plastic Model Society hold their bi-annual (I think) show in Lower Hutt town hall.
I trotted along after lunch*, and it was an interesting afternoon. Particularly if you like planes, trains and automobiles. Around half (if not more) of the entrants are aircraft, perhaps not surprisingly for what is a plastic model show. Civil, military, from 1:144 to 1:48, just about every sort of flying thing was represented, including (brief highlights, planes aren't really my thing) a tour through the ages of RAF bombers, one of which was a large, probably 1:48 Vulcan, one of my personal favourites, a 1:72 autogyro that was very nicely put together, and a wide array of mostly WWII dioramas, featuring crashed and landed (and crash-landed?) planes.
Cars also got a good showing, and again I'm not a huge fan of car kits but these where stunning. Car modelling seems to go the exact opposite of my usual build up techniques; with the exception of the subaru rally diorama, all the cars were finished in pristene show room-finish. No oil streaks, rust patches or caked-on mud here. And definately no bullet holes. You would be forgiven for thinking many of these kits were actually high qulity diecasts, the paint finishes looked as good as factory jobs on real cars (The rod with a schott interference finish comes to mind - I've never seen that on a scale model, but boy, do I want some of that paint!). The level of detail on these was unbeatable too, with enough aftermarket brass and custom parts to make your eyes water.
The back half of the hall was taken up with a train set-up. Once again, I'm no fan of trains (why was I here at all...
) but this one was quite impressive. Don't know what scale it was, but they were BIIGGG! the carriages were about 2' long, and could have been about 1:32, or whatever is the standard for big train sets. The fat controller controlling them seemed to be having a good time too; the whole set up was computer controlled, with cctv cameras planted around the track, and a four-window split screen display for him to view it all. No fan of trains, but then again, I hadn't fully appreciated just how many toys a train habit requires. Maybe...
A table of ships, boats and submarines. Again, BIG models. A couple in diorama settings, and it's interesting to note one area where all (highly skilled) model makers seem to come unstuck - realistic water. None of these leviathanic models sat in what you would call really realistic water.
Next biggest section after planes would be AFVs. Again not surprising; go into any shop selling plastic kits and the first thing you will see are planes and tanks. 1:35 was the most popular scale, with a few larger, quite few smaller (1:72) and one FOW diorama (in the junior section). Good contrast to the car section, not one of the tanks was in anything other than "campaign order". Much more my sort of thing. Sadly, in amongst so many little placcy tanks, it was hard for any to stand out, plus I didn't have a whole lot of time to peruse, but a couple of noteworthys;
"Bonjour Monsiuer" I believe it was called, a large diorama featuring British armour rolling through a battered french street. I didn't actually pay much attention to the tanks themselves, I think one may have been a churchill, because I was enthralled by the diorama itself. Not-completely-bombed-out facades, and the most realistic broken window panes I have ever seen. I could not work out how they had been done, suffice to say they were better than anything I've ever turned out. Looked like small pieces of clear plastic, like blister packaging, with irregular holes cut in them, but also spider web cracks through the remainder. I think it was these cracks that gave the windows such a realistic appearance, and I will be re-thinking how I do broken glass now (afterwards I convinced myself I had seen something like this for sale, but I'm not sure now.)
Two universal carriers, both in desert scheme, one 1:72, the other 1:48 I think. Nothing particularly eyecatching about these, but UCs don't seem to be a popular subject so it was a pleasant change. Plus, I've just painted a dozen or so for FOW myself, so I know a thing or two about them.
Best of all though, the kit who's description read something like "original design for all-terrain fighting vehicle. Six independant legs and armoured carapace". It was a life size (i suppose) model of a scarab beetle!
No show of this sort would be complete ther obligatory "money-sinks", or stalls as the stall holders themselves prefer. "Capital Books", the best source in Wellington for modelling and technical books, and "Modelcrafts and Hobbies" the best source in Wellington for everything else, both had stalls, and I got suckered into buying yet more plastic figures. One of the things I like about collecting plastics in this country is that you can make your wish list, and know you will never find all the figures you want at once, so you just need to buy them as they appear in the shops. The model shop seemed to somehow have got hold of my wish list, and had every box of figures I need for my medievals, not mention every box for my next few projects (namely medieval middle-east, Asia and early-post medieval europe). Considerably lighter walleted I moved on, straight past the book stall (that would have to wait for another day) and onto the sections of the competition I was interested in; figures and sci-fi.
If I put my mind to it I could probably list every figure present - there weren't that many, relative to all the hardware on display. As usual NZ-centric subjects were well represented; a North African ANZAC (who didn't look quite right to me - his unifom and webbing were very pale, sunbleached or whatever, but his lemon squeezer hat looked like it had just come of the production line); several Maori-War vintage colonial troops, an maori chief with a superb moko'ed face; a 1:6 maori-war infantryman; an NZ mounted rifles infantryman.
From the rest of the world; three versions of a Kursk veteran bust, all quite different. Good to see three such different finishes to the same kit; an ACW federal officer. Don't know who made this kit, but it was nicely done (both in terms of manufacture and finish). something described as "An Anglican warrior". not sure about the title, but it was an early medieval figure in mail and sutton-hoo type helmet, with a huge dog with a spiked collar on a chain. Anglo-Saxon warrior maybe? More medievals, this time a diorama of four teutonic knights. These figures I did know the origin of, as I just bought the same figures last week! The Warehouse had these kids toy knights for $5 each, and I bought the whole set. For kids' toys they aren't bad, nicely scuplted detail, but ropey factory paint jobs. I had planned to repaint the whole set, but someone obviously beat me to it. I have to say these weren't the best models in the show (still good - just paled into insignificance next to some of the really good stuff) but the modeller had done a pretty convincing snow diorama setting. Good snow it was too, a bit yellow, not like the virginal white snow you often see, with some very life-like icicles thrown in too.
In the Sci-fi figures section we had a catwoman (Michelle Pfieffer version - Sol/elfin 1:8 I think), a couple of fantasy-female types and a couple of warhammer eldar in jetpacky things. In the sci-fi-not-figures section a Mad Max interceptor, power loader, and ships and craft of various sorts. Also a velociraptor, described as box stock. Don't know what brand the kit was, but if it was stock it was definately not the Jurassic park one I've got. Not a bad job on the raptor, if a little drab for my liking. It was done in a scheme that looked a lot like a modern anole's colouring, but I prefer the more colourful, tiger-striped style of raptors we often see around.
So all in all, not a bad way to kill a Sunday afternoon.
*I had just been out to the pub for Mother's Day lunch. Waiting at the bar I was browsing through all the Tui and DB hats, keyrings and the like for sale when I spotted an absolute gem; for $50 you can get a model of the Tui Brewery. Looked like it stood about 300mm tall, maybe about 1:72 - 1:100? Anyways, it would make a unique terrain piece!
I trotted along after lunch*, and it was an interesting afternoon. Particularly if you like planes, trains and automobiles. Around half (if not more) of the entrants are aircraft, perhaps not surprisingly for what is a plastic model show. Civil, military, from 1:144 to 1:48, just about every sort of flying thing was represented, including (brief highlights, planes aren't really my thing) a tour through the ages of RAF bombers, one of which was a large, probably 1:48 Vulcan, one of my personal favourites, a 1:72 autogyro that was very nicely put together, and a wide array of mostly WWII dioramas, featuring crashed and landed (and crash-landed?) planes.
Cars also got a good showing, and again I'm not a huge fan of car kits but these where stunning. Car modelling seems to go the exact opposite of my usual build up techniques; with the exception of the subaru rally diorama, all the cars were finished in pristene show room-finish. No oil streaks, rust patches or caked-on mud here. And definately no bullet holes. You would be forgiven for thinking many of these kits were actually high qulity diecasts, the paint finishes looked as good as factory jobs on real cars (The rod with a schott interference finish comes to mind - I've never seen that on a scale model, but boy, do I want some of that paint!). The level of detail on these was unbeatable too, with enough aftermarket brass and custom parts to make your eyes water.
The back half of the hall was taken up with a train set-up. Once again, I'm no fan of trains (why was I here at all...
) but this one was quite impressive. Don't know what scale it was, but they were BIIGGG! the carriages were about 2' long, and could have been about 1:32, or whatever is the standard for big train sets. The fat controller controlling them seemed to be having a good time too; the whole set up was computer controlled, with cctv cameras planted around the track, and a four-window split screen display for him to view it all. No fan of trains, but then again, I hadn't fully appreciated just how many toys a train habit requires. Maybe...A table of ships, boats and submarines. Again, BIG models. A couple in diorama settings, and it's interesting to note one area where all (highly skilled) model makers seem to come unstuck - realistic water. None of these leviathanic models sat in what you would call really realistic water.
Next biggest section after planes would be AFVs. Again not surprising; go into any shop selling plastic kits and the first thing you will see are planes and tanks. 1:35 was the most popular scale, with a few larger, quite few smaller (1:72) and one FOW diorama (in the junior section). Good contrast to the car section, not one of the tanks was in anything other than "campaign order". Much more my sort of thing. Sadly, in amongst so many little placcy tanks, it was hard for any to stand out, plus I didn't have a whole lot of time to peruse, but a couple of noteworthys;
"Bonjour Monsiuer" I believe it was called, a large diorama featuring British armour rolling through a battered french street. I didn't actually pay much attention to the tanks themselves, I think one may have been a churchill, because I was enthralled by the diorama itself. Not-completely-bombed-out facades, and the most realistic broken window panes I have ever seen. I could not work out how they had been done, suffice to say they were better than anything I've ever turned out. Looked like small pieces of clear plastic, like blister packaging, with irregular holes cut in them, but also spider web cracks through the remainder. I think it was these cracks that gave the windows such a realistic appearance, and I will be re-thinking how I do broken glass now (afterwards I convinced myself I had seen something like this for sale, but I'm not sure now.)
Two universal carriers, both in desert scheme, one 1:72, the other 1:48 I think. Nothing particularly eyecatching about these, but UCs don't seem to be a popular subject so it was a pleasant change. Plus, I've just painted a dozen or so for FOW myself, so I know a thing or two about them.
Best of all though, the kit who's description read something like "original design for all-terrain fighting vehicle. Six independant legs and armoured carapace". It was a life size (i suppose) model of a scarab beetle!
No show of this sort would be complete ther obligatory "money-sinks", or stalls as the stall holders themselves prefer. "Capital Books", the best source in Wellington for modelling and technical books, and "Modelcrafts and Hobbies" the best source in Wellington for everything else, both had stalls, and I got suckered into buying yet more plastic figures. One of the things I like about collecting plastics in this country is that you can make your wish list, and know you will never find all the figures you want at once, so you just need to buy them as they appear in the shops. The model shop seemed to somehow have got hold of my wish list, and had every box of figures I need for my medievals, not mention every box for my next few projects (namely medieval middle-east, Asia and early-post medieval europe). Considerably lighter walleted I moved on, straight past the book stall (that would have to wait for another day) and onto the sections of the competition I was interested in; figures and sci-fi.
If I put my mind to it I could probably list every figure present - there weren't that many, relative to all the hardware on display. As usual NZ-centric subjects were well represented; a North African ANZAC (who didn't look quite right to me - his unifom and webbing were very pale, sunbleached or whatever, but his lemon squeezer hat looked like it had just come of the production line); several Maori-War vintage colonial troops, an maori chief with a superb moko'ed face; a 1:6 maori-war infantryman; an NZ mounted rifles infantryman.
From the rest of the world; three versions of a Kursk veteran bust, all quite different. Good to see three such different finishes to the same kit; an ACW federal officer. Don't know who made this kit, but it was nicely done (both in terms of manufacture and finish). something described as "An Anglican warrior". not sure about the title, but it was an early medieval figure in mail and sutton-hoo type helmet, with a huge dog with a spiked collar on a chain. Anglo-Saxon warrior maybe? More medievals, this time a diorama of four teutonic knights. These figures I did know the origin of, as I just bought the same figures last week! The Warehouse had these kids toy knights for $5 each, and I bought the whole set. For kids' toys they aren't bad, nicely scuplted detail, but ropey factory paint jobs. I had planned to repaint the whole set, but someone obviously beat me to it. I have to say these weren't the best models in the show (still good - just paled into insignificance next to some of the really good stuff) but the modeller had done a pretty convincing snow diorama setting. Good snow it was too, a bit yellow, not like the virginal white snow you often see, with some very life-like icicles thrown in too.
In the Sci-fi figures section we had a catwoman (Michelle Pfieffer version - Sol/elfin 1:8 I think), a couple of fantasy-female types and a couple of warhammer eldar in jetpacky things. In the sci-fi-not-figures section a Mad Max interceptor, power loader, and ships and craft of various sorts. Also a velociraptor, described as box stock. Don't know what brand the kit was, but if it was stock it was definately not the Jurassic park one I've got. Not a bad job on the raptor, if a little drab for my liking. It was done in a scheme that looked a lot like a modern anole's colouring, but I prefer the more colourful, tiger-striped style of raptors we often see around.
So all in all, not a bad way to kill a Sunday afternoon.
*I had just been out to the pub for Mother's Day lunch. Waiting at the bar I was browsing through all the Tui and DB hats, keyrings and the like for sale when I spotted an absolute gem; for $50 you can get a model of the Tui Brewery. Looked like it stood about 300mm tall, maybe about 1:72 - 1:100? Anyways, it would make a unique terrain piece!
