IPMS Avon modelling & gaming show, Bristol 13/8/17

[Craig Austin]

Once again IPMS Avon & Lincombe Barn Wargaming Society are pleased to present this years modelling & Wargaming show held at Thornbury Leisure Centre BS35 3JB just north of Bristol.
3 large halls full of modelling & gaming clubs, traders & displays.

For more info see the show website http://www.ipmsavon.org.uk/shows.php
Though please be aware the site isn’t completely up to date with the Wargaming clubs or traders.

For more info please ask here or contact me direct at [email protected].

Craig

[Craig Austin]

Just a reminder folks that the show is this coming Sunday.

The web site (link above) has been updated but there is still a couple more people to add. I’ll add these here if they aren’t on the website by the weekend.

The painting & modelling competitions includes a class for a Wargames unit & it would be great to see that well supported.

Finally our good friends the Berkley Vale Wargaming Group are once again running an Art de la Guerre completion throughout the day.

Craig

[willz]

I was hoping to attend Graig but sadly I won’t be able to make it, have a great time and if possible post some photo’s please.

[Alan Millicheap]

As well as the LADG comp the Berkeley Vale Wargaming club is also putting on a 10mm demo game of Magenta using Bloody Big Battles

[John D Salt]

I bimbled along to this today — seemed like a reasonable way to waste a Sunday, and a fiver to get in seems very reasonable.

Was if worth a fiver and a hundred mile round trip from Swindon? I should definitely say yes. The combination of modelling and wargaming exhibits works tremendously well, although of course it is always chasterning to see row upon row of models built and painted to a vastly higher standard than I could ever hope to achieve.

Elsewhere you’ll see that David Manley’s “Mad Wet Max” game won the prize for best participation game. I somehow managed to miss Dave (as I did at Colours last year), but I did run in to a an old friend or two. The modelling displays were, as one might expect from IPMS, of an extraordinarily high standard, and included some very unusual subjects. I especially liked the Piasecki “flying banana” gunship in ALAT coulours, the FV432 crashed into a road barrier outside Bordon Kebabs (from an incident witnessed by the model builder), and the big-scale Scammel Pioneer on a rotating display stand — I bored one of the exhibitors with my tales of scraping the paint of a Scammell Pioneer at Warnham War Museum back in ’76, and remarked that all the pulleys and widgets and iskermoffits in the stowage bins seemed to have been captured exactly in the model. I was also rather taken by the 1/72nd scale Bear, the 1/144th Zeppelin, the hypothetical Gulf War TSR-2, and the wonderful selection of 1920s and 30s RAF aircraft in silver dope — the Overstrand, the Ripon, the Baffin, and some types so ugly I have forgotten their names already. Marvellous stuff. I had a bit of a lump in my throat looking at the 1/192nd scale scratch-built “Black Swan”, which the note accompanying it said had been submitted posthumously by the model-builder’s family, and also the 1/600th Glamorgan, briliantly super-detailed from the old Airfix Devonshire kit, as she was in ’82 before she took the Exocet.

My intention was to avoid spending any money beyond the entry fee, but there really was a splendid selection of traders. I like to think I got off fairly lightly. The 1/72nd ready-painted die-cast BA-64s from Clive’s Diecasts were the first to crack me — I have no idea where else I would get BA-64s, and four for £20 is my idea of a good deal. Having once cracked, I also succumbed to a pack of 1/72nd ZiS-2/3 guns from Grubby Tanks, and then — a bit more pricey, but we’re talking novelty value here — an Ace Models FV 4005, just because I’ve read the firing trials reports of what 183mm HESH can do to an up-armoured Conqueror target.

Executive summary: Great show, will go again next year.

All the best,

John.

[Guy Farrish]

Agree with John’s executive summary.

Can’t hope to compete with the modelling reviews: lack the expertise and had son (10) along – keen to buy a B-17, not so keen to let Dad mumble about tanks and things with other oldies.

Managed to speak to the Magenta chaps – lovely table and great looking battle using Bloody Big Battles, and helpful and knowledgeable people. I too missed Dave – Sorry! Also didn’t see John. Have to check on a recognition point – do you still have the beard?

Would like to say a big thank you to the chap who approached my son and I out of the blue and asked if my son likes aircraft – silly question. The result was a fistful of aircraft books handed over to said son for free. I should have asked the chap’s name and I have no idea if he was a modeller only or wargamer as well. If he reads this or anyone knows of a Father Christmas type handing out books from his shed clearance, many many thanks. Should keep son going for some time – of course it will mean an extended shopping list of aircraft models, but Thank You! A very kind and much appreciated act of generosity.

 

[Steve Johnson]

Hi Guy,

well that chap was my good friend Tim Perry. I had a feeling it might be him and while chatting about the show, he mentioned this very act. When I told him how happy it had made you son, he said it “had made my day”.  He’s a modeller and a very good one at that. Not into wargaming at all but a great font of knowledge, especially on the aircraft front.

As the day was so nice, my wife and I went out for the day on a well earned break. I had planned on attending the show, but given the weather of late it was too good an opportunity to miss. Sounds like it was a good show again and fingers crossed I can make it next year.

[Guy Farrish]

Hi Steve!

Small world eh?

Thank you for passing on my thanks, it was such a lovely gesture.

Conaire was a bit tongue tied, he has ASD and somewhat overwhelmed, but he was so happy.

Lots of colour schemes in one at least for B-17s so I can see us spending quite some using that one to decide on the final painting on Conaire’s model (just as soon as we finish it).

Hope you are well and maybe we will bump into each other again soon at Lincombe Barn or somewhere.

Best wishes

Guy

[John D Salt]

Guy Farrish wrote:

Have to check on a recognition point – do you still have the beard?

Still big beard, beer belly, bald head, black hat, walking-stick, birkenstocks and moleskins. So not the sort of thing that would really stand out at a wargaming and modelling show.

The other thing I should have mentioned, but didn’t, was discovering the existence of Kitrescue (www.kitrescue.net). Now I know of their service, once I have got all the crap out of the boxes in my garage, I may well flog off my giant stack of unbuilt 1/76th armour and invest instead in PSC 1/72nd armour, which didn’t exist when I started accumulating kits to not build.

All the best,

John.

[Steve Johnson]

Hi Guy,

all well here but sadly no gaming for several months. Our son has ASD too,  so pretty impressed that Conaire was ok at the show at 10 years of age. I think it would have been a bit too much for Thomas. The plan is to attend Colours this year, so maybe bump into you and Conaire then?

TTFN,

Steve J.

[Guy Farrish]

Hoping to go at the moment. Not sure about Conaire though – the good thing about Thornbury and Lincombe Barn is they are close. Travel tends to get him if he feels too far out of his comfort zone.

All the best.

Guy

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