Online Album of Intermodellbau 2012 Modelling Fair

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi all,

it's been almost a year since I last uploaded an album with pics from a show/convention I visited, and I finally managed to get a good haul of pics from one.

Today, I went to Intermodellbau Modelling Fair, which is held in Dortmund and is one of the largest public fairs for all kinds of modelling. The last time I visited was in 2006, and it has changed somewhat - hall allocations were all over the place, not really for the better, as all traffic was funneled through the model aviation hall which was just packed with throngs. Also, I had the feeling that the ratio of clubs vs. traders had shifted, with more (good quality) displays and less traders, especially for plastic modelling.

In relation to that, the shopping aspect was severely disappointing. Little choice, most stuff quite expensive, which stopped me from getting some books. Went home with two kits (one of which turned out to be quite crappy and far too small, so I'm a bit miffed right now), some cogwheels to make 1/1200 railway tracks with, a bottle of "miracle glue" (have to see how that works, but the demonstration I saw was amazing). So that was far less successful than hoped. Intermodellbau was never cheap (although I did get some good deals now and then), but combined with the lack of choice it was just disappointing. Also, four halls of function modelling (cars, aircraft, railroads and ships), and just two traders selling cogwheels, and then not even the size I was after. Ridiculous.

Anyway, /rant, I did manage to take a lot of pics, and was quite happy to see some actually new models (a lot were still the same after 20 years, they always seem to invite the same clubs), but there were some great ships on display, with my personal favourite being a (static) display of Cherbourg port in the Summer of 1944, all in 1/100 (15mm) scale, with dozens of ships and even more little tanks, running trains, and whatnot. Here are some examples of it:











It certainly strengthened my resolve to build a table-edge port for Dystopian Wars, although the actual implementation is somewhat hindered by the fact that not a single trader seemed to sell thin XPS styrofoam. 

The rest of the pics, including some incredible cardboard models, can be seen on my Photobucket pages here:

Chris' visit to Intermodellbau 2012