We went to Edinburgh on Friday, to the Scale Scotland Model Show, which was held in the amazingly big Murrayfield Rugby Stadium on Saturday.
Peter Vardy 🤣
for a while I thought the chap in the middle was called Peter Vardy, but there were pictures of other chaps wearing shirts with Peter Vardy on them so I realised Mr. Vardy must be a sponsor or suchlike. Because of Corona the show hadn’t been on for a couple of years, so it was good to be back, and it was very well attended.
This was our exhibition table
Some of Ren’s busts..
Paul’s cars, and Phil’s tank and busts.
Paul’s cars are amazing pieces of work
Phil’s Tank battalion on display..
Phil put his model in the competition and came out with a Gold medal and 3 awards!
We saw a lot of modelers we hadn’t seen in ages, and had a grand day. The chaps running the show are Lovely Scots, not pesky in the slightest, and we’ll be back next year for more of the same.
After completing the first level of the TT, (see day 302) he has levelled up (sounds like a video game 😀 ) and is adding more bits and pieces to the interior.
Day 317 ~ Tenacity Tank
All the shells you can see (the dark things that look a bit like bullets) had to be put together, painted, weathered ( used/worn/scratched/chipped) and put in their holders then attached to the side of the tank. They are about 2cm high in fact. The 2 stacks of boxes, also built and painted to look weathered, held the charges for the shells to make them explosive, and the little rod thingy in between them was for ramming the shells into the tanks gun ready for firing. To the right of the shells he’s put an M42 and a satchel of rounds for it. So things are moving along. Slowly 🙂
It’s October so its the annual SMC Model show in Eindhoeven, Holland. Phil has been asked to judge again, so he can’t enter the competion, but gets a display space for his stuff. So off we go again on our travels tomorrow, this time on an overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam, which will be a lovely change from the 13 hour drive we used to do when going from Dover to Calais. Fingers crossed it’s not too choppy, Phil doesn’t sail well!
After his success at the weekend, Phil is ready to go with the next project, which is something that’s been ongoing for 25 years. Back then model kits were not always the most accurate rendition of the tank they purported to be. German WW2 tanks were especially bereft of information but the model companies cobbled together what they could with the scarce information they had (and a few-as it turned out wrong- guesses), and Phil did what he could with what there was, including scratchbuilding parts that the company got wrong. One of those model kits is known as a Grille (which is German for cricket (the insect not the game) Maggot, or strangely, Spleen. In this case we’re going with Cricket as another tank was named Bumblebee so it kinda fits. A Grille is a self propelled 15cm howitzer, basically a big gun on wheels with a driver, loader, shooter, and a bossman.
In 1994 Phil purchased this kit from a company called Dragon (who went on to make top notch tanks eventually) built it, scratchbuilt parts for it, altered what they got wrong, and painted it. Then in 1995 new information became apparent which showed up where it had all gone wrong with the model, so he stripped it down, fixed the flaws, and painted it again. Then, in 2002, a complete WW2 Grille was found out in the boonies somewhere and it was apparent that the model was still not right. So in 2017 Phil stripped it all down again, sorted it all out and then.. put it on the shelf and moved on with other things.
And here we are in 2019, the Grill is back on the bench, and I’m looking forward to seeing this when it’s finished. How amazing is it to be so dedicated to historical accuracy? He could have just bought a now perfect kit of the same model, it would be so much simpler, or even just let it go, I mean who cares? and there’s plenty more tanks in the seas. I’m sure people think these (usually) older (usually) chaps with their model tanks and planes and cars etc, are bonkers, geeks maybe. But I admire the dedication that goes into making just one model, let alone the hundreds going on around the world, the intricacy and artistry it involves to make it look right, the striving for perfection. Phil is at the top of his game at this malarky, and well respected in the modelling world too. Tenacity, my blokes got it in spades!
As you know already dear reader, Phil and I travelled to Edinburgh on Friday for a Scale Model Show which was held at Murrayfield Rugby Stadium in one of the conference centres there. As far as we knew there was only us going from our Tyneside club, so Phil took loads of his models, to fill up the display table, as well as some of my old girls. The Tanks & Tits department as Phil put it. 🤣
Day 271~ The Tanks & Tits Brigade.
Phil entered 3 models and won 2 gold and a silver, which today I’ve done an arty farty B&W of, but I will also include the colour version, as that’s more historically accurate 🙂
day 272~ On the winning side. Sturmpanzer 4, Panzer 2 Ausf B, Jagdpanzer 4 L48
A couple of other club members did turn up in the end, but we still had another table to fill so they took care of that.
All in all a great day out and Phil had a blast. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get into photographing there, I think I might be burned out on model shows! but I had a lovely day reading my book, which I rarely get time to do any more!
Back on day 201 I took a shot of Phil photographing his Panzer II tank which was a work-in-progress. The tank and its commander have been finished this week so I thought I’d share it here as it’s a pretty good job he’s done, in spite of all the swearing and gnashing of teeth. The model is 1/35th scale, which in this case is 5 1/2 inches long, 2 1/2 wide and 4 inches tall. The figure is 2 inches tall.
Panzer II Ausf B. France June 1940 + Tank commander.
I was taking pictures in the garden when Phil came down with his latest tank to do some Work In Progress shots in the conservatory, so I got a sneaky shot in. It’s a Panzer 2 Ausf B, should be good when it’s finished!
One of the chaps who does a modeling magazine in Holland, has asked for pictures of Phil’s winter finish Wirblewind as he’s doing an article on winter tanks, so I got the job 🙂
Day 94 ~ Wirblewind
Of course he wants the colour versions for the magazine, but I think it looks just as cool in B&W.
The Flakpanzer IV “Wirbelwind” (Whirlwind in English) was a German self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on the Panzer IV tank. It was developed in 1944 as a successor to the earlier Möbelwagen self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
Phil has been spending his past few weeks re-acquainting himself with the painting techniques required to paint the faces of his little men. It’s been 5 years since he’s done any, as he’s been busy with house stuff, and also concentrated on building tanks. Lots of tanks. They need a fair few little men to go with them. He’s been trying different paints and new techniques but struggled to get the results that he wanted, or even to get results as good as he had in the past with his regular paints and techniques. It’s been a painful process, but he’s finally getting there.
As I’ve been listening to him tell me all about it as he went along, I can ‘hear’ the creative process those of us who paint/write/craft/photograph etc live by. I think we’re called ‘creatives’ for short. I read other photography blogs and some writers blogs and often hear of ‘writers block’ or the creative slump’ (which I experienced myself over the past few weeks), and the advice is always to just keep doing it, even if you don’t like what you come up with, it WILL spark you up again given a chance.
I’ve never heard Phil ever say he’s stuck and doesn’t know what to do next, he always just carries on trying this and trying that until he gets there with what he wants to do, so seeing him go through all this whilst I was just reading books inspired me to get back to my photo course and hence get on with a project. Thanks Hubby! You rock 😘
It was our model show this weekend gone, scale models of course, not lingerie ones (sorry chaps) of tanks and ships, sc-fi and figures. Known as The Northern Model Show, it’s well thought of and well attended by modellers and model clubs who display their stuff within a fair radius and traders from all over. I’ve been busy with updating the club’s facebook page, answering questions, and giving out info. On the day, Sunday I also judged the junior class and the vignette class in the competition and took photo’s of all the competition models that won, plus a few more. So a good day out. Phil doesn’t enter in his own club competition, bad form he says, so he was judging armour and the like. It’s a really good atmosphere, everyone’s on the same page no matter what station in life/religion/political views etc they have, it’s all about the modelling and everyone is having a good day and is happy. Well maybe not those who hoped to win in the competition and didn’t, but that’s a whole other post.
Modelling really is just another art form, a blend of sculpture and painting, and some of the models at the show were fantastic. I’m posting a few of my favourites, and a couple of the happy peeps at the show.
bonkers display club
bonkers traders
The full album of models and other stuff can be found HERE
Fraggle's Otherverse 
You must be logged in to post a comment.