Model Expo 2011 Queen's Birthday Monday

Robin and I manned the NWA table with our troops in a membership drive, encouraging interested onlookers to come along to the club. Several middle-aged dads trailing small boys had a nostalgic glint rekindled in their eyes as they reminisced about past wargaming glories. Hopefully we've encouraged them to go beyond just reminiscing and they'll become new members!

I took a few photos of some of the amazing dioramas on display in the competition section. Amazing skills! There were plenty of model planes, too, but for some reason I didn't take any photos. I meant to, but didn't get around to it. My favourite was the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in Luftwaffe markings and camouflage! It was based on a 'what-if' premise that the Japanese-Nazi alliance was sealed a year and half before it actually was and that the Manchurian border spat with the Soviet Union had been smoothed over, so that a squadron of Zeroes with long-range tanks had done a trans-continental hop across to Northern France to be in time for the Battle of Britain. The display notes went so far as to say that they could have been a battle winner for the fascists as they would have had far greater range, theoretically being able to reach Glasgow and back. After thinking about it I decided that they would have been as useful as the Italians' assistance in the battle, ie. not much! Once they crossed the coast, they still would have been jumped by the RAF and external fuel tanks in a dog-fight were always jettisoned as an encumbrance, leaving the Zeroes just as useful as the Me-109s. Anyway, it was a cute effort!