Shoreham a Successful Show & Airfix Gossip

The mobile model shop did well! With the weather recently I was in much trepidation about this years Aero Mart and would it be worth attending.Although visitor numbers only picked up slightly on last year I sold 60 + kits which will pay towards a new pair of glasses to correct my ruined eyesight gained from trying to paint small objects and a camping holiday.

A bit of an into the sun shot but it shows the stall set out to attract buyers. I was very pleased that all my regulars of the past few years turned up and we 'chewed the fat' about latest models, aviation and the aeromart in general. I was very pleased that a follower of this blog David made an appearance and asked if we had sold the Zulu's yet!! a pleasure meeting you David and I look forward to seeing some painted AC W's  in the future.

Some stalls were selling 1:1 scale models! Can anyone guess what this cockpit section is of? It was sold by the end of the day and was just a shell but I expect it will be renovated to turn up at a 'cockpiters show' perhaps at Newark Aviation Museum.

The show basically takes place at the end of Shoreham's runway and it was very entertaining with Tiger Moths, Stampe's, 2 Chipmunks (1 in Portuguese colours , v Nice), Bulldog, Cessna's & Pipers galore taking off and landing.

More bits apparently the Heritage Aviation guys from Biggin Hill were buying parts for their fleet of Spitfires/Hurricane. Anyway the Airfix Gossip at the show is that the re tooling will continue for most of the old Airfix Catalogue with a special emphasis on D Day next year. Also the heavy hint is that they will be concentrating 1/48th efforts on British 50's-60's jets ...so the Sea Vixen and upcoming Gloster Javelin are the tip of the iceberg......lets hope for all marks of Meteor, a decent 1/48th Hunter and a Scimitar! The design team at Airfix are now all very much aviation fans this is why the accuracy is getting better.

The only really annoying thing about the show is it has a car boot mentality amongst many stallholders who get there at 7.30 am and start packing up by midday....which upsets quite rightly the paying public who are allowed in at 10am. We were one of the last stalls to go and took extra money because we stayed. Above is the Tiger Clubs Stampe which was visiting the airfield from Headcorn.

The only trouble is at shows you are tempted as well but only 3 kits were bought (60 + sold not a bad ratio!). I never have had the superb 1/24th Airfix Stuka and it was going very cheaply & still 'bagged' inside.

I needed a replacement Vulcan as my kit in the loft had a couple of parts missing and I had to have the Arrow to go with the TSR2

This was the star purchase a superb photo of '50's chaps' standing by their Gloster Meteor T7 trainer a large photo mounted on card with the Gloster Aircraft Co, Ltd Hucclecote Glos. stamp on the back Photograph by Russell Adams.

Shoreham Airport terminal building  is art deco in design from the 1920's and is used in many film sets. The propeller is from a B26 Marauder.

This is a Socata TBM-850 (I had to look that one up!) from the Isle of man with Lancing College behind on the hill

This was the last photo of the day as I left to make my weary way home to Kent..... And those Zulu's well they came home too!

That was Saturday, on Sunday we had a family day out and I noticed that a famous fictional character had a model soldier collection at 4 Privet Drive!