Once again, modellers from all over the world make their way to Telford for the UK IPMS Nationals, better known as Scale ModelWorld 2005. We are not sure whether it is the biggest model show in the world, some of the ones in Japan look pretty big and busy, but ours is the biggest IPMS show. Traders and Club stands occupied two and a half of the halls at the Telford International Centre this year. The competition area was moved into the same hall as the refreshments area, along with a handful of club stands. This move was a vast improvement, much more space around the competition tables and the lighting looked better too. Another move that helped relieve the congestion around the competition was the completion of the judging, followed by the opening of the competition area, mid-afternoon on Saturday. The usual crush on Sunday morning to see the results of the judging was avoided. It was all much more civilized. It is difficult to tell whether competition entries were up or down on last year as it appeared that more table acreage had been provided for the models. There appeared to be fewer gaps, the vast majority of classes were well supported. What is sure is that the standard of the models was staggeringly high. Small scale aircraft, armour and ships models exhibited some superb skill.
