On a clear and sunny day, two adventurous young modellers (@Dioramartin and myself) escaped the shackles of domestic servitude to meet up at the 2024 Australian Capital Territory Scale Model Show (ACTSMS) held at the Canberra race course. We resisted the urge to do laps of the track and focused on the models on show, but there’s always next year…
The show was well patronised with lots of different competition categories, swap and sell opportunities, practical demonstrations, as well as vendors. Bigger and busier than I thought it would be which was a nice surprise.
I got out of there with two cheap models although could have bought more.
Great to meet you today Sam, and at a really impressive Show. Far larger than I was expecting, I didn’t count but seemed like at least 500 entries covering the entire range of model-making. And a scary-high standard, basically everything what Sam said. I regretted (a) not also attending the previous day (b) not allowing more time today. And having returned to the Swap/Sell market to mull over two obscure kits, realising it was cash-only & we were a loooong way from an ATM. Rookie error, I considered a mugging but doubt Sam would’ve posted my bail.
His photography was far superior to mine so I’ll just add a couple. Several entries deserved Best in Show, but for me the Air Crane frazzled more brain cells than any other, not only for the insane detail but also for the brilliant levitation illusion…
Thanks for the comments. I’m glad I went (apart from meeting @Dioramartin) as it showed how big the scale model community is in this area. In a city of 470,000 (yes it’s our capital and yes it’s piddly small and yes it’s in the bush and yes we have kangaroos in our streets) we don’t have a specialist hobby shop, only some Gundam/Warhammer outlets and a Toy World. Online purchases from BNA, Hobbyco, Metro Hobbies and the like is fine but Tim and I agreed there is nothing like browsing in a ‘brick and mortar’ hobby shop.
Thanks too more broadly to those who post photos of scale model shows in their regions. I really like to see photos from all the shows (US, UK, Europe etc…) as it provides insight into what is ‘hot’ in different locations. It also gives me ideas for future dioramas or even purchases. Seeing a model made can be a real selling point (looks cool in the flesh=got to buy it) or a wake up call! some of the 1/16th stuff at this show reinforced to me how impressive the details of the various models but how impossible they’d be to fit in my location.
I also met an old work mate there who said he was unable to buy anything but stared longingly around the room. When I asked why he wasn’t buying, he confided his wife had just found out about his stash storage shed that he had been using for three years. The shed was filled with kits which he would only bring home to build one at a time. His wife had thought he was hiding something, like a human skin suit or whatever, and had followed him one day. She confronted him so he had to show her the stash. Some difficult conversations after all this resulted in him being banned indefinitely from purchasing more kits, or as he put it at least until he can find another location his wife doesn’t know about!
Thanks for posting some lovely photos. Really high standards. “The Trophy Hunter”, “Lions of Carentan” and “USS Curtis Wilber” really stand out for me.
Nice pics of some very talented modelers work, the USS Wilbur gets my vote, if I ever finish my current (long term) project I’d like to tackle a warship of some type. Thanks for sharing, wish I could’ve been there.
