On 4th June the club once again made the short trip north to the Northern Model Show organised by IPMS Tyneside. As always, it’s a popular show with the guys in the club so once again I went and booked 18ft of display space, and once again the 25 who attended didn’t disappoint and easily filled it. One advantage this year was having Gav living in close proximity to the event. This meant he was able to set up the display on Saturday prior to Sunday, making it a quick set up on the day.
One member who couldn’t make it was Hughie who was denied because he had a chest infection and his mum said he couldn’t come out to play; so said Sandra! That meant that poor old John Tate had to man the Leopard SiG table all by himself. He managed it valiantly, and as promised I did check up on him once in a while to make sure he wasn’t too lonely.
After getting the display organised ready for the public it was time for a quick tour around the traders. Not so many bargains to be had these days, unless you look at under the table sales. One place where bargains were to be had was the burger van where 2nd breakfast was purchased by just about everyone. £7.50 for 3 sausage buns was a definite bargain in my book. Chris was so impressed he went back for lunch, £7 for a burger and chips with gravy was also a bargain. Trade was so brisk that he had completely sold out by 2.00pm. Hope he’s back and better stocked next year.
The display attracted lots of attention and it was pleasing to see the Vulcans on display. It was supposed to be a 4 ship but unfortunately Sqn Ldr Furness had a prior commitment, so it was reduced to a 3 ship (I thought Vulcans were aircraft not ships! – Ed). We were hoping to get them featured in the Airfix magazine, but we were thwarted by the lack of an Airfix representative. Obviously too far north for him to travel.
Several of the members tried their hand in the competition and the guys did very well indeed. Patrick got a gold, Gav got a gold and a silver, Jon got a gold, Allan Harrison came away with a silver as did Greg. All in all a pretty good haul.
Before all too long though it was time to pack up though and head back home. An excellent day out was had by all and congratulations to Stuart Pacitto and Paul Walker who notched up their first shows with the club. They certainly seemed to enjoy themselves.
