Ian Shumsky braved the winter weather and went to Milton Keynes!
I had been looking forward to Milton Keynes ModelKraft for a while, however as Saturday afternoon drifted into night and the snow continued falling I started wondering what Sunday would bring. I was a bit concerned, as for me ModelKraft is the first modelling show of the year and a great opportunity to catch up with friends, traders and other modellers and is the perfect way to kick off the modelling year. By the time I gave up weather watching and headed for some sleep, the car was packed and I had every intention of making the trip.
On Sunday morning there was a light layer of snow around, about an inch or so, and the temperature had crept above zero so I felt confident on making the journey. In the end getting out of my driveway was probably the trickiest bit of the trip and once I was on the main roads there were no issues getting to the show at all, except, of course, for Milton Keynes’ notorious roundabouts!
All my attending Club members managed to make it to the show as well and arrived before 9 a.m., which gave us plenty of time to get our stand up, models out and grab a bacon butty before the doors opened and the public started rolling in.
While Newbury Scale Model Club managed to make it to the show, a large number of other Clubs and SIG's (especially those from North and East London) and one or two traders were unable to make it through the weather. The Milton Keynes Club did what they could to consolidate the attending Clubs and Traders it into the main halls, but there were a number of empty tables around and the second hall was particularly empty. Unfortunately the weather also impacted the number of people visiting the show and the afternoon was rather quiet.
Even with fewer displays than planned there was still much to see on the day, including a couple of excellent demonstrations on airbrushing and weathering from some visiting Czech modellers. As always the various Clubs and SIG's put on an interesting and diverse selection of models for viewing. It did feel that there was more armour builds than aircraft models on display this year, but that just have been my biased eye! I have to admit I chuckled at the Sci-Fi SIG’s display of the cloaked Klingon Warbird, injured Predator lying in the mud and invisible man on the beach!
Overall it was a good show, especially given the impact the weather had on the event. I’m sure if it the wintery conditions had held off it would have been a very busy day, especially in the main hall, but despite the limited Club and public attendance it was still a very enjoyable day.
