IPMS Avon Model Show 2004 

Pictures by Philip Jones

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The 22nd of August 2004 saw the 15th annual show held by IPMS Avon. Last year, I had attended the show as "Joe Public" and it was my first contact with the club. By sheer coincidence my submission of pictures of the show to ARC was seen by some of the club members whom I met at the Scale Modelworld show in Telford. I "signed up" there and then and have since had a great time at club meetings and various events. Here, then, is my report on the 2004 show - my first as a member of IPMS Avon (and the organiser of the tombola!).

 

Over the past 15 years, the IPMS Avon show has gone from strength to strength and is widely recognised as one of the biggest one-day hobby shows of its kind. It is, of course, in such a position after the hard work of the members of the club and the on-going support of the model trade. 

IPMS AVON'S DISPLAY

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Firstly, here are some pictures of what was on display from the "Home Team". Getting ever closer to the IPMS(UK) Nationals in Telford we had quite a few models for our chosen theme of "1944 - Curtain Up On The Final Act". As is always the case however, it was a diverse display of many scales and subjects. We also had a "demo table" with one or two modellers working on their projects and offering show goers some of their many "tips and tricks".

Here's what the tombola looked like before the show opened. I had fantastic number of donations from members of IPMS Avon and the traders at the show. In all there were about 100 prizes - mostly kits and books, but we also had biscuits, choccies and fizzy pop!

After volunteering to do this I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to match previous years' numbers - but as you can see, I needn't have worried!

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COMPETITION ENTRIES

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The standard of models entered for the competition was very high indeed. Here are just a few of the aircraft entries - I was most impressed by the large Ju-52 and the CF-188 in CAF anniversary markings. The presentation is made at the end of the day - and usually via a P.A. system at the venue. This year, the prize winners were announced town-crier-style by one particularly loud club member!

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VISITING DISPLAYS

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Here is a pick of some of the many displays at the show. Two that were of particular interest to your scribe were the Quarter Scale Group's Fleet Air Arm themed display and Steve "Cloggy" Cladingboel's Special Markings SIG on its farewell tour.

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In conclusion, this was an excellent show and one I really enjoyed being a part of. I came away with 2 kits: The 1/48th Revel Phantom FGR.2 and the 1/72nd Hasegawa F-14A, which I was pretty happy with - the latter only being £10.
I look forward to the 2005 show and hope by writing this report that I have encouraged a few more people to come along!  
Phil

Photos and text © by Philip Jones