Model Boat Show

Well, I managed to spend four hours drooling over the model boats at the National Model Boat Show in Leamington yesterday. A lot of it studying the subject of my last post, The Spithead Review, and I can now tell you more about it.

Begun in 1980, with about 600 models to date, the ships are all to a standard scale of 1:200, and are mainly plasticard. They cover the whole history of the ship, from a dug-out canoe and Noah's Ark through ancient Egypt to Medieval and historic vessels to modern ones. Mainly warships, covering the history of the Capital ship, there is a selection of liners, royal yachts, etc. The models are far better than I can attain, though some are showing the results of not being on a base as they are beginning to curl at the waterline. Not noticeable though, unless you get really close. A few photos follow, apologies for the quality of some, but my little camera can't quite cope with some of the close up work.

A few pictures of other parts of the show as well. A barge for the royal music (how soon before the Duke of Tradgardland wants one?) and a nice selection of late 19th century warships.

Finally, there were some novelty items performing on the indoor pool. Among them was a radio controlled swan, and this duck with ducklings, which, we were told, is so lifelike when on it's normal pond, people have tried to feed them.

I hope this has made a change from reporting a wargame show. It's worth seeing (next years dates are November 6th to 8th). It was nice to have a commentator telling us what boats were on the pond, a bit about the model and the original ship.