Scale Model Challenge 2015 – Part I

For the first time i went to the Scale Model Challenge in Eindhoven. It was hold at the weekend from 10th to 11th October 2015 at the NH Koningshof in a suburb of Eindhoven.

It is a surprisingly large hotel, and i booked it by accident. I was planning a prolonged weekend and was just looking for a nice hotel in / near Eindhoven, and well, good ratings and solid price made me choose the Koningshof.

But what do i mean, when i write "large hotel"? It has over 1.100 parking lots (free), more than 500 rooms and 80 (!) show rooms for upto 8.000 visitors. While heading to the room from the reception, i got a good feeling, why they chosed this hotel as a location for the event. Beside the usual restaurant and lobby, the even have a vintage bar, sport centre and small parks within the hotel. And three bus lines going from the hotel directly into the city centre, 6 times per hour... But enough about the hotel, let's get to the show.

The show is split across the different halls and rooms of the venue. After the entrance, you have to your right a large hall with traders, to your left are the manufacturers and workshops, as well as the exhibition and competition.

Beside a large cafeteria, there were Workshops and a demo room, with plenty of seats and artists showing their work on the big screen.

A Warmachine Tournament was held at the SMC, and a local gaming club, the Militia Brabantia, some of you may know them from the Crisis, hosted participation rounds for Bolt Action, Legends of the Old West and Flames of War.

One room was decitated to RC vehicles, mostly trucks, lorries and tanks. So beside large scaled utility vehicles, you could see some really large tank kits, like these two moving Tiger I.

There was even a large Carrera track set up, as well as RC cars and ships (i am not 100% sure if the ships were RC as well, or "just" display models).

An impressive sight was this ship, when you got closer you realised it was scratchbuild with after market guns and custom turrets from MDF etc.

One of the vendors had the croatian resin kits from Tabletop World for sale. It was the first time, i saw those in person. Impressive amount of details and very clean cast. Had a nice talk with Celticwerks, who do scenery casts for displays, like street segments or structured walls.

You could find a lot of diorama parts, to display your vehicles and miniatures. Among them TM Models from the Netherlands, and RT-Diorama from Germany. The german company had really a lot of different kits on display and sale. It is a shame, that those are to large for 28mm.

In the workshop area they even a Kids workshop. The world war one display caught my eye, beside the set up, they had memorabilia from the great war.

Funny coincidence with Custom Scale. I recently saw the GW Tiger in a facebook group, Panzer 1946, and assumed that it was a scratchbuild. Well, it is a scratchbuild, but you can buy it. Michael told me, he cooperates with Denis from Heer46, so we might see one or more of these kits from 1:35 and 1:72 converted into 1:56 or 1:100.

Scars Miniatures sounded familiar to me, and i wasn't sure at first, but then i remembered, these guys have a great project log on Warseer. You should check it out.

Among the vendors, like Dan Taylor Modelworks, you could not only find terrain. But also miniatures in several scales, like Not Yet Dead with their 40mm survivors and Zombies.

More familiar names (at least for me) were Juweela, with their stones and plants in all imaginable scales. And the combined booth of Kellerkind Miniatures and Savage Forged Minis. Kellerkind may be ringing a bell or two for Wargamers, as they have a range of 28-30mm Sci-Fi Prussians. Savage Forged has a 1:48 range, that might be interesting for Eden players.

I'll make a cut here, and continue in part II of the coverage about Scale Model Challenge 2015 in Eindhoven.

Link: Scale Model Challenge