by Magnus Fridsell

This article is a photo extract from the full story in Swedish, provided here for the benefit of our English-reading visitors. The original article by Magnus Fridsell is available here: Fem vikingar i västerled – Reportage from Scale Modelworld 2002 (Ed.)

Scale Modelworld

Scale Modelworld is the current name of what has once been called IPMS UK Nationals. It is arguably the World’s biggest event aimed solely at scale model builders.

I have been a regular visitor of the show since 1994. England is not a perfect holiday country this time of the year, but the show is well worth the journey!

Here are some personal highlights from this year’s competition.

The competition tables were well filled as always, so it is impossible to tell if there were more or fewer models than last year. It is interesting to see the trends going the same way in England as they do in Scandinavia – over the last 5 years or so the centre point of the competition gradually shifted from 1/48 aircraft to 1/35 armour. My impression was that there were more models competing in armour than aircraft classes. This is not only about the numbers as level of modelling and painting skills displayed in the armour classes is sometimes simply amazing!

A wonderful Spitfire in 1/72, with very crisp detailing job. Everything was perfectly aligned and true to scale.

The judges were not quite so impressed as myself – no awards!

Revell’s fine Tornado in 1/72. This is model building at its best!

Ths was not a winning model either, but I gladly lift off my hat for anyone who manages

to turn a High Planes kit to a so nicely finished model!

Sea Vixen; big, bad and … beautiful? Hardly so!

Can you guess the scale? Wrong! Guess again… I’ll bet you’re wrong again: the right answer is 1/76!

More 1/76: Diamond T wrecker. Small-scale armour classes at Scale Modelworld have always been top-notch.

I couldn’t resist this one. French armoured cars are just so pretty.

And it looks like rolling directly off the Sahara desert!

Another favourite of mine, a service truck in 1/35 with complete mechanical workshop.

The chief mechanic himself warms a teapot over a gas cutting torch, cute.

A scratchbuilt Autocar tow truck in the 1/35 scale. This is the painted master for a future resin kit.

Figures were not the strongest part of the display, my impression is that British figure painters rank other competitions higher than Scale Modelworld. Anyway, the figures on display were of very high standard. They were, however, very difficult to photograph, so this samurai will have to suffice as a sample.

Good aricraft dioramas are a true rarity, especially those with good figures. This one fulfilled all requirements, and then more. Desert servicing diorama with Tamiya’s Beaufighter in 1/48.

Two British soldiers in North Africa about to set fire on an abandoned Italian Semovente. The builder was one of the gang from Leeds who all build armour models in a way that made me just stand and gape open-mouthed.

I’m not sure if this was particularly noteworthy as a diorama, but I liked the vehicle. And since it is me who selected the pictures…

Next year’s Scale Modelworld will be held two weeks later, 22-23rd November 2003. It will also mark the 40th anniversary of IPMS, so it can be well worth a visit!

This article was originally published in IPMS Stockholm Magazine in November 2002.