Middleton Cheney Scale Model Club

2020 AGM and Plans

The club’s AGM once again took place in January of this year, with only one change to the leadership line up. The titles of Vice Chair and Secretary have now been re-combined after Matt stepped down as Secretary last year.

The current leadership committee is:

Position	Name
Chairman	Sam Evins
Vice Chair & Secretary	Richard Coughtrey
Treasurer	Gary Evins
Webmaster	James Clarke

We are also getting new club polo shirts and t-shirts to go with our new updated logo. The polo shirt colour will still be yellow, and the t-shirts will be olive coloured.

2019 AGM and plans

The club’s 2019 AGM took place on Thursday 17th January, and plans for the coming year were discussed. Compared to previous years, there’s a bit of change this time around!

There have been some changes on the club’s committee. Martin Aris has stepped down from the chairman position and taking his place is former club secretary Sam Evins. Assuming Sam’s role as secretary will be Matt Smith, a long-serving club member who makes his debut on the committee. We’re delighted to have Matt on board and we’re very grateful for the time and dedication that Martin has put into the club, from its very beginning to the present. It’s fair to say we wouldn’t be where we are now without Martin, cheers fella!

In addition, Richard Coughtrey has taken up the role of vice-chairman to support the committee when required. The remaining roles of treasurer and webmaster remain unchanged, held by Gary Evins and James Clarke respectively. All in all, despite the changes, the club remains as healthy as it ever has been and we’re looking forward to a good 2019.

We have a small selection of shows lined up for the first half of 2019, with more to be announced in due course. At present the list is made up of our annual pilgrimage to the south coast for the Poole Vikings show on 13th April, the Thames Con convention on 28th April and our usual display at the Bloxham Steam Rally on 29th and 30th June. Our pub themed display will be coming with us to all of the shows we do this year, so if you missed it at Scale ModelWorld back in November, or if you just want to see it again, here’s your chance!

A number of smaller matters were covered in the AGM, but they’re far too tedious to be discussed here! Enough of the chat, get back to those modelling benches and get to work the lot of you!

Saturday at Scale ModelWorld, 2018

The 2018 edition of Scale ModelWorld marks the second appearance of IPMS Middleton Cheney at the biggest and best model show on earth! But what theme to use for the club’s stand? Star Trek had done the business back in 2016, netting us the Best Club Display award, so how could we top that?

Bereft of ideas, we decided to call off an initial brainstorming session and instead did something far more enjoyable: we cracked open the beers and let liquid inspiration play its part. Of course, the answer hit us right away – why don’t we combine the delights of the golden nectar with our favourite pasttime and create a display that unites the two passions in our lives?

Apologies to the wives/girlfriends/significant others!

We welcome you therefore to “The Sprue and Decal Free House”, serving up model kit-themed liquid delights in Hall 2 of the International Centre, Telford. You’ll have to drink it all in with your eyes though, we’re not that generous! Featuring an impressive, thirst-quenching array of real ales and a smattering of ciders, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages, it really is a sight to be seen.

Thanks to all of those who came over to see our latest creation today and for all of the kind an generous feedback you lavished upon us. We are not worthy! Pop down and see us on Sunday to catch a glimpse of what we’ve created, or if you can’t make it to Telford, keep a look out for photos of the display. And if you’re planning show visits in 2019, you might just get to spot us again. More on that another time!

Plans for 2018

As Spring finally draws nearer, it’s time for a quick round-up of the club’s plans for 2018.

We’re excited to confirm a number of shows in the early part of the year, as we make our debut at the Stoke on Trent Model Show on 25th March and follow that up with a return to the South Coast and the Poole Vikings show on 14th April.

Two weeks later we will be making an appearance at the inaugural Thames Con event, which will bring together lots of different attractions from the TV, film and sci-fi world including guest appearances from famous faces including Sir Tony Robinson. Should be a great day out!

The club’s AGM was held during the January meeting with a small number of changes to the club’s activities while Sam has assumed the role of Vice Chairman alongside his existing role of Secretary.

We have some big plans for our show display later in the year, and we tentatively have a number of other shows in the pipeline to attend. Watch this space for new announcements on that!

New shows for the second half of 2017

Over the past few months we’ve been slowly growing our calendar of events for the latter half of 2017, so it’s time for a run-down of what we have lined up for the rest of this year.

In July, we have two shows, firstly Smallspace 6 – the model show for all things space, science fiction and fantasy, which will be taking place on Sunday 16th July at Hanslope Village Hall, Buckinghamshire, MK19 7NZ. Then on the following weekend, we shall be present for the last ever Midland Model Expo, at Leasowes Sports Centre, Halesowen, B62 8PJ.

Next, we will return to the IPMS Avon Show on Sunday 13th August, the third time we’ll have displayed here. The venue for this one is Thornbury Leisure Centre, South Gloucestershire, BS35 3JB.

And finally (for the time being!) we are scheduled to be at the Sutton Coldfield Model Spectacular on 10th September at Shire Oak Academy, Walsall, WS8 7AQ.

As always, we will continue to hold our monthly meetings throughout the year on top of our show commitments. We’re always open to new invitations as well – if your club is hosting a show, why not drop us a line and see if we can make it! All of our details can be found on the Contact Us page.

It’s twins!

Not the identical kind though! We are delighted to announce that IPMS Middleton Cheney is now twinned with the Central Jersey Plastic Model Club from the other side of the ‘pond’. Having met one of the founding members of CJPMC, John Ezzo, during Scale ModelWorld in 2016 we were blown away by his and his club’s dedication to the hobby. We’ve kept in touch in the meantime, and like a young couple ready to take the next step, we are now officially twinned clubs, giving both a truly international flavour (or should that be flavor?!).

Below is a shot of CJPMC’s meeting location in West Windsor, NJ – an outbuilding belonging to John which he has heated and air conditioned and converted into a modeller’s paradise! John has been building models for more than 50 years, and having been founded in 1995, the club has been meeting there since 1998.

Besides an extensive built model collection John also collects American Military uniforms and now has over 70 mannequins dressed in period uniforms ranging from WWI to present day lining the walls – you can see some of them in the cabinets in the photo below.

It’s an honour to have an association with a club on the other side of the world, especially one that shares our passion and outlook on the hobby as something to be enjoyed, whatever your ability. Now we’re looking forward to arranging some activities together in the future – best get checking those flights across the Atlantic! We at IPMS Middleton Cheney raise a glass and say ‘cheers!’ to our new friends Stateside!

Report: 2017 Poole Vikings Model Show

This one’s a bit late. Apologies! What seems like quite a while ago now, in April we made our annual pilgrimage to the south coast for the Poole Vikings Model Show. As we’ve come to expect, it was another very well organised event with a fantastic number of clubs and traders in attendance. Hosting shows in school buildings and the like must be difficult, but the organisers should take great credit in getting us all in and making the event that much better by having such a wide array of stands in the limited space.

Our own display evolved from the previous show in Hinckley, as we narrowed down our aircraft to focus on 1:72 subjects from the Second World War. On the left, the Allied planes, and on the right, their Axis foes. The aim here is to showcase some of the more colourful and unusual planes that saw action, so there’s no shortage of variety, and certainly not a sea of brown, green and grey!

In addition we had a smattering of other subjects, some ever-popular movie stars for the young ‘uns and the more pop culture savvy among the crowds. All in all, a nice variety that demonstrates that the club’s membership really does dabble in a bit of everything.

In addition, a few of us got involved in the competition with both Sam and James scooping certificates, Sam mostly in the sci-fi category, and James in the civilian vehicles where he received overall silver for his Lotus 99T F1 car.

On an absolutely beautiful day, we had another brilliant time in Poole and we’ll be back again next year for more of the same! Our thanks go out to the Poole Vikings club for having us and for putting on a great event. It remains one of the highlights of the club’s year. Keep up the good work guys!

Report: 2017 East Midlands Model Show

On the 12th March IPMS Middleton Cheney made it’s first 2017 show appearance, at the East Midlands Model Show in Hinckley. A strong contingent of seven members were there helping out on the stand and a great time was had by all. The Star Trek display was no more, replaced by a fantastic array of different genres from the membership. A smattering of movie stars made up the backdrop and were surrounded by Allied and Axis WWII aircraft, F1 cars, Warhammer and plenty more too!

A big thank you to the show organisers for putting on a fantastic event. It was well-attended with a great spread of displaying clubs and many traders. We all came away with plenty more kits for the stash – some things never change!

Check out the photos of our display below. We’ll be attending many more events in 2017 – we’d love for you to stop by the stand to say hi and have a chat. Next up is the Poole Vikings’ show on the 8th April. We hope to see you there!

February 2017 Club Meeting Review

Slightly delayed, but a brief report on the February 2017 club night finally reaches the website! It was the first competition month of the new year and there were a whole host of entries and really excellent spread of model genres really highlighting the club’s diversity and talent. Check out the photos below.

Not familiar with the IPMS Middleton Cheney club competition? Swot up on the details here.

A great turn out of 11 members enjoyed a couple of hours of chat, jokes and a bit of modelling too. But the big focus was on the competition entries and who to cast the vote for. With each member getting a vote, there were plenty of points up for grabs, but with the results a closely guarded secret everyone went away none the wiser as to who had taken an early lead. All will be revealed in January 2018!

With that, it’s on to the photos! Don’t forget you can view all of the images here, and many more in much higher resolution on our Flickr page at this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/119092223@N07/

Like what you see? Come and join us at a future club meeting, normally held on the third Thursday of every month, from 7pm at the Parish Meeting Rooms in Middleton Cheney. Full details are available here.

KFOR Mercedes Unimog truck, built by Craig Wilcock.

PzKpfw VI Tiger I tank, built by Matt Smith.

A Panzer III diorama, built by Rob French.

Desert diorama — A desert diorama, built by Rob French.

Alfa Romeo 158/159 F1 car, built by Pete Preston.

Warhammer 40,000 The Visarch, Sword of Ynnead figure, built by Richard Coughtrey.

Emperor's Children Legion Palatine Blades Squad — Warhammer 40,000 Emperor’s Children Legion Palatine Blades Squad, built by Richard Coughtrey.

US Army Tanker — US Army tanker, built by Matt Smith.

Ghostbusters Ecto-1, built by Martin Aris.

McLaren-Honda MP4-30 F1 car, built by James Clarke.

Sweeney Todd figure, built by Sam Evins.

Challenger 1 tank, built by Craig Wilcock.

First Model Shows Confirmed for 2017

We’re delighted to announce that our first two shows for 2017 have now been confirmed. We will be returning to both the East Midlands Model Show on the 12th March, as well as Poole Vikings Model Show on the 8th April.

Both shows are favourites of ours and we’re looking forward to getting back out to some events and showing off a new display. Unfortunately for all you Trekkies this year we intend to offer a broader spectrum of our members’ interests on our tables, so hopefully there’ll be something for everyone.

We hope to see you at one (or both!) of the shows. Keep checking on the website for further updates on our show plans for the rest of 2017. If you’d like us to display at your model show, just let us know! Check out the Contact Us page for full details of how to reach out to us.