What a great day I’ve had![:D] Went to the nationals in Telford and had a great day out. We saw some truly fantastic displays and the models on the competition tables left me in total awe[:0] The standard of the models on display was very impressive.
I came away with one or two “goodies” as well![;)] But the best thing of all was meeting lots of old and new faces who enjoy our hobby and sharing it with them[^] Thanks to everyone involved for a great show[bow][bow].
Special thanks to Sgt.H for the grub on the way home! [:D][:D]
Very special thanks to my wonderful wife for not attempting to kill me when she saw the stuff I brought home with me[angel][:D]
I did’nt enter the comp. If I did, I would have got my butt kicked![:I] I have only entered one comp. and that was at Hinkley last April. I don’t consider myself to be good enough for that sort of thing to be honest, but my pal egged me on to enter a “small” comp. Anyhow, I did’nt win-but I was very surprized at how many people liked my kit[:)][^](it was the tomcat I posted here ages ago.)Basically everyone there had a kit 100 times better than mine and I felt a little out of place[:(] So I am quite content to marvel at everyone elses work![:)]
As for goodies, I came back with a 1/35 mrc UH-1B with loads of extra brass,figures and weapons in the box, a 1/32 UH-1H by revell, the old ESCI C-130 spectre gunship in 1/72(Great looking kit!) a very nice Hasagawa spitfire MK7 in 48th and I came across some new products from a company called Ledgend. They do lots of resin bits like verlinden. I got myself some lovely resin 35th scale Air Cav figures posed to be leaping from a huey! (they were a nice price too[;)])) I grabbed some UK mail order details-I’ll be shopping there again[:D]
I also grabbed loads of detail sets for my unbuilt jets and some cool decal sheets. The natioals are a great place to find the “little bargains”[:D] But the highlight for me was the competion tables. The quality of work there was outstanding. I wish I had taken my camera, I’d love to show you what I saw there.
You ever go to the nationals? Or enter comps.? I would’nt mind some hints as to what judges look for!
Darren, my last visit to the UK Nationals was at Peterborough, I think, and that was quite a few years ago now! No, it was at Donnington, probably in 95 or 96… I did enter twice the comp and got away with a number of prizes at Peterborough, and a couple at Donnington. My ‘best’ was a 1st prize in Civil Aircraft, with a detailled, ‘everything down’ Matchbox Boeing 737-200, in BA colours. That was at Peterborough, in 92 I think.
Looks like you found tons of great stuff in Telford this year… Looking forward to seeing some stuff completed soon!