With some small alterations here and there, this show was similar to last year's. But there were plenty of new games and miniatures to check. And the 11 meter long table which featured a version of a huge Age of Sigmar battle was really an eye catcher.
Last year I bought a small cardboard KR Multicase box there, but in the meantime my expanded Mordor army needs something bigger. For a special show prize I bought a large bag, containing two large cardboard boxes each filled with foam. This should really take me a long way and its extra bags are very useful to carry my rulebooks, dice, etc around. Apart from the bag I bought some brushes, paints, drill bits and the new Rathcore miniature holder.
I was not able to attend last year's Scale Model Challenge, but the 2017 edition was marked in my calendar well up front. Since I'm still knee-deep in several tabletop quality painting projects I did not participate in the painting competition. But a show like SMC is very exciting even without the thrill of competing.
The two major factors to add to this excitement are probable the show's size: over 6.500 square meters, more than 3000 visitors, 120 traders, 50 clubs and the overall quality (and also size with 2000 entries) of its painting competition. The entire show spans two days, but I only visited on Sunday, arriving around 11h. I went straight to the painting competition area to start taking pictures, assuming it would be calmer in the morning instead of in the afternoon. Afterwards it seemed the afternoon was calmer, but anyway I managed to get good pictures of most of it. I had plenty of time so I just went with the flow of the crowd. What I didn't like was a guy from the organization shouting at me to remove my shoulder bag (which I took with me because I know backpacks are prohibited in the contest area), instead of politely asking. Overall the crowd was very respectful towards the pieces on display so this kind of behaviour is not necessary in my opinion. Anyway my photo tour took me about 1.5 hour. You can see the results in one of the image galleries linked below or some highlights further in this post.
After lunch I decided to see the rest of the show and having a chat with my painting friends & acquaintance, some of which I did not see since my previous visit to SMC, two years earlier. Only then did I began to grasp how immensly the event has grown. I forgot to mention that the painting competition is now hosted in a separate hall, but the other areas have spilled into neighbouring rooms and halls as well. More or less the same traders were present in the dedicated hall, but the main room had a mix of clubs, traders and exposition, which really resulted in a nice buys atmosphere with lots of variation. On the far side of this hall there were more tables for clubs lined up, maybe this was a bit too far away from the main action because it was quieter there.
So the afternoon was mainly taken up by a lot of nice conversations. I went to the contest area again to have another again. Somebody told me "everytime you go there you see something new", this is definitely true! Around 16h the prize ceremony started. As usual it was fun, but very long, I didn't manage to catch the end since I had to leave at 17h15.
I went home with a very satisfied feeling. Although I did not compete in the competition this time I had a great day. Did it inspire me enough to enter the competition next time? Maybe, when my current projects are finished it would be great to take part in this huge event again.
I hope to see some of you at Crisis 2017 next week, or else at Scale Model Challenge 2018!
Scale Model Challenge 2015 was held on 10 & 11 October. For the first time it was a two day event, with workshops on Saturday and the main show on Sunday.
Due to circumstances I arrived around 14h (on Sunday) when the event was already well underway. For the past few years I always spent the entire day at Scale Model Challenge, which gives the false impression that there's plenty of time to check everything out. With only a few hours to walk around the miniature goodness filled halls of the NH Conference Center in Veldhoven I really had to rush!
The usual combination of taking pictures & video, chatting with people and spending time shopping and checking out the painting competition entries proved very difficult due to the time constraint. I basically made a quick tour of the show with my camera, the results can be viewed below. Then I did some shopping and spent a bit more time at the painting competition. I met a lot of people underway, spending way too little time catching up on the hobby gossip. On the other hand I also missed quite a few people as well. So sorry to all of you which I have only spoken very briefly, or wasn't able to meet at all.
When walking around the club area I noticed it was a lot quieter than the last two years. This was probably caused by the fact that there were some extra halls added. Some wargame demos together with a hosted Warmachine tournament were held in a room in the back, just like some of the RC club stands. Another thing which attributed to this was the fact that the catering area was also setup somewhere else. In a way this was good because there was more room for the crowd, but on the other hand clubs are at the heart of the sociable atmosphere of the event, so it's better to busy.
The trader's room didn't change much. I bought some regular supplies: paints, wooden plinths, some new tweezers, etc. There's plenty of choice if you're looking for tools, miniatures or accessories.
The competition area had some layout changes as well, and while still pretty crowded I felt that the traffic of people flowed very well. Of course most of my interest went to the SF & Fantasy figure painting categories. To me they appeared to contain less entries than last year, but that could also be caused by the layout of the display. Anyway the overall level was very high and I really had some regret that I didn't take part this year. Another trend that I noticed is that there's less and less 28-32mm miniatures being entered. Most of the entires are larger scale and even busts. Sometimes I go to a show and completely miss out on the best of show miniature. But this year I was able to have a good at them, they were really standing out! So I managed to have a good look and multiple angled photos of these entries, which you can see below.
Below you can see a video I made, followed by some selected pictures.
The competition area buzzing with activity.
The fantasy & sf figure categories.
The best of show of the figure painting contest. 100% scratch built model.
Scale modeling best of show. Not the hundreds of tiny figures on the ships.