I will get the photos posted on my site in the next couple of days, the Peterborough ones are already there, see post above, I will post a link for the Hinckley ones when they are up.
It was, as last year, a great show marred only by having a virtually none existent budget, been a bad month. I did get some MDF bases for a knock down price and a few scenic bits. My beloved Kate came to pick me up later in the afternoon as I was looking at a couple of Verliden 120mm figures which she bought for me as she couldn't stand to see me start stamping my feet and crying again.....
Loads of superb models on show, quite a few I had seen at Peterborough but Hinckley is a much bigger show than Peterborough so there was plenty of new stuff to look at. The diorama based on a Vietnam river scene, pictured in the Peterborough Show set, with a M113 being towed by an elephant(!) as a patrol boat works its way upstream with a chopper offering air cover skimming the trees is a stunning piece of work and I was really pleased to get a better look at it at Hinckley as it was in the competition room and easy to view.
I did cross off one of those jobs that never seems to get done, I finally joined the IPMS (International Plastic Modellers Society). Anyone planning to go to SMW (Scale Model World) at Telford in the autumn, the membership of the IPMS gets you in free for both days, add to that the six high class magazines you get through the year and your joining fee of £20 is covered. I think it is worth it even though there is no way I will be at Telford.
All in all, a classic Hinckley show with some superb modelling and some great traders to. I was impressed with one trader who spent ages looking through old kits he was selling off cheap to find something suitable for a quite elderly gent to build. He eventually took a fiver for a good kit so it was a great example of customer service, probably the only thing the elderly chap bought but the trader made sure he got what he wanted.
Oddly enough, the model that stood out above everything for me was a figurine bust from 'Gone with the wind'. If I could paint like that, I would do nothing but figures, it is stunning as below.
