We went along to this show (Title post is linked) over the weekend of 3rd April 2010, and had a jolly good day out. We got there around midday, as I was suffering from a beer overdose from the night before, and had to park on the muddy field which wasn't great, especially for one of our chums, (lots of mud splatter, revving of engine and spinning of wheels), so lesson learnt to get to these events earlier to be able to park on a good solid tarmac surface instead. Tickets were about £8 each, rather more than a wargames show, and the place seemed busy and happy enough. The food wasn't cheap either, but you get what you pay for, and the steak pie was a big improvement on the usual fayre at these sort of shows.
On walking in, this was the first layout I saw .. see, I do say there is some overlap between the hobbies!
A fine array of 20mm scale tanks and so on, on a WW2 English setting, which made me wonder if this fellow was a gamer too.
This was a huge layout, and the range and skill of the modelling was exceptional. This sort of layout would lend itself to a good skirmish game I thought.
Hobby in a suitcase? A nice touch, the case itself looked old and used, and I could just imagine it being used on an old train journey. Indeed, was a similar one used by Trevor Howard in a Brief Encounter?
This was a wonderful one, very localised in part, whilst giving a larger countryside view also. It must have took an awful lot of time and effort to get it just right.
No, not a model layout, but the actual racecourse itself.. 
The scale varied from around 25mm, down to this, I think around 2mm, so they could pack in a large area display on a smallish board.
Another picture of that first display, you really had to see this to appreciate it, it was that impressive. All it needed was an opposing army, some rules and dice.
A good day was had, the stalls were busy, and I was amazed at the amount of modelling array there was to buy. Picked up a fair few tips on flocking and blending different ideas into each other, and on general modelling too. I resisted the urge to dip into the model train hobby itself, and restricted my purchases to some paints and a few terrain bits.
Afterwards, we spent an hour or two in nearby York, and I saw this .. a Maybach, so my children told me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybach). Now, my green Rover 75, parked behind, is a largeish car I thought, but this Maybach thing just dwarfed it. It was huge and massive. And I had to put this picture up, only because I hadn't seen one before. Not that I'd want one of course. Much.
A sift witter, and a welcome to Geordie, Grekwood, Fraxinus, Ubique, Michael, Sgt Steiner, Erwin, Joao, and Prufrock, thankyou all for joining and I hope you enjoy the Blog, apologies for a bit of a lack of posting lately as time has been tight but will improve soon, and I now have a nice backlog of various games to post up, which I will as soon as I can. Thanks for viewing, I do appreciate it.
Regards to all,
8 comments:
Yeah I would guess there is a strong possiblity that the guy whi done the 1st display is at least a modeller if not a wargamer as his tanks look the real deal (maybe milicast?) with AB figures doing the rounds.
My brother and I used to drop in on railway shows because of the accessories they offer but we decided the entry was getting too expensive (£10 in Glasgow around 10 years ago)
cheers
paul
I like model railway shows as well - used to take the little'uns to them when they were younger as they were more "interesting" for them than wargame shows as the trains actually moved! :o))
Great place to get terrain items, paints and tools...
My only regeret about being a wargamer is that I cannot do model railways as well. Still always worth the enrance fee just to see how another hobby tackles things.
Are Railway shows expensive or are wargamers just cheapskates? - discuss.
One thing that always puzzled me was that the figures were generally badly painted in comparison to the fine detail on everything else, though that does seem to be changing.
Hi all, yes indeed they were AB figures, and looked the part. There was a lot of terrain making stuff on sale, and ranges of paints.. Tamya? that I hadn't seen before, with lots of variants too.
Us wargamers, cheapskates? I think that's a bit of a given at times! :-) True enough about the train figures though, they do seem to get a "that will do paint job", now you mention it.
Still, it was good to see, not sure if I'd go again, but then I probably will, you know how it is. And trains do move on their own, and I now have a spare room, and well just a small one wouldn't cost much.. :-) .. would it?
Hi.
Well, here's someone who does both (and model ships as well!) I'm building an O gauge railway round my garden - a very long term project which will certainly take longer than my current effort to recreate Fontenoy and cost a lot more too.
I find there is quite a bit of cross-over in materials and techniques. There's been a very nice WW1 trench railway setup going the rounds recently and I've also met the son of Charles Stadden of Tradition fame who makes figures for model railways.
It's all fun.
Peeler, if you're looking to build a little layout then have a word with my dad. He should be able to help you get on the right track, no pun intended...much :)
I started my Modelling life in Railways and still have a look off and on . There is some good stuff there and I often buy model Railway stuff in the scenery area- flocks and suck and if you are a 20mm gamer there is a lot of really useful kit out there.
Hi, John that game sounds the business, I'll keep a look out for it. Richie, that dangerous talk! From a quick word many hours of hobbying can follow.. :-) Andy, agreed, a lot of the scenery stuff looked useful.
It's all good fun really. :-)
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