Looks like fun, sounds like fun, must be fun! Belgiums National Convention 2002 is underway and shall take place on Sunday October 6th 2002 in Roselare Belgium. You will be able to fins that latest heart throb (albeit in plastic!) organized with the participation of numerous traders, this looks to be an interesting event.

A new museum on Cape Cod dedicated to the vast world of scale models. Subsections of the museum are : The National Scale Model Museum and The Scale Model Builders Hall of Fame. Consists of Referance and Resreach library, Art Gallery of related display art, many select artifacts, heavy emphasis on military modeling.

Trackjam Models, specializing in Canadian Armour detail parts, has a new web address. They can now be found at www.trackjam.com. They carry a selection of products from Grief, Hong Kong Creation Workshop, Maple Leaf Models, Model Point, and more.

The 2002 Washington Armor Club and National Capital Model Soldiers Society be holding their annual show September 6-7 at the Sheraton Premier in Tysons Corner, Virginia. The theme for this years show is "D-Day to the Breakout" with judging in thirteen categories including an 'Old Dogs' category where prizes are awarded for work performed on older kits.

We are off to Switzerland over the weekend (neither Kiribati nor Seyschelles!) It looks to be a good fun time all around. This is a weekend long event held every year in the beautiful Payerne Valley, located halfway between the French Jura mountain range and Lausanne. Known as Eurominiatures 2002 and sposored by ARPFAM (now there's a mouthfull!) the Romand (rheto-romantsch language group) Association for the promotion of the Figurine and miniature art.

On Sept. 14 AMPS CT and Eastern Front AMPS will be hosting the third annual regional show, competition and vendor free-for-all at the Wayne, NJ PAL center, from 8AM to 4PMish. Fliers have been heavily distributed saying that the model limit is five. Having "done the math", given the historical turnout, and the new judging system, that would keep us there until sometime Monday, really ticking off the bingo ladies that take over the space at six! (The awards ceremony is held in a different part of the facility) Due to the short duration of the show, we have to reduce this to two models for judging, however we invite modellers to bring up to five for display.

We will be unveiling a new look for the site in a week or so. This has been a 4 month project that I am just now finishing up. I would like users that are currently using other themes (aviator, figures) to log-out and re-login. This will restore your selection to the default theme for now. I will be phasing the new site and themes in gradually and for now it would be better if everyone was on the default theme (otherwise you might get errors).

On December 7th, 2002, the Texas town of LaVernia will take a step back in time. A unique living event will take place at 9:30 AM. The year; Late 1944. In this small village, the Axis have occupied the very heart of their center of commerce. The Allies must sweep the town free of these Axis soldiers. The jeeps, the trucks, the armor, the planes will be there.

It wasn't a long drive. Only 200 or so miles from where I live in Charlottesville to Virginia Beach. But after spending 2 and a half weeks on a cross country trip in the first half of July, I wasn't eager to drive a long distance again. My apprehension increased when I hit heavy traffic after Richmond and the 3 hr drive turned into 4 and a half. But from the moment I arrived in Virginia Beach and called up Bryan (Tin_Can) on the phone, it was smooth sailing.

The World Expo Rome 2002 show was held in Rome, Italy on July 12-14th. Eternal, ancient Rome that was the birthplace of western culture, epicentre of world tourism, was the ideal place to host such a global event like the World Expo because of the city's historical and artistic background. The show featured a strong display of talent from all over the globe and photos of the event are now starting to appear on the Internet. You can peruse the following sites...

Crisis 2002 is Belgiums largest wargaming show, to be held on October 26th 2002 from 10.00 till 17.00 in Antwerp. More than 40 international traders will be present at the show as well as wargaming clubs from 6 countries who will play historical and fantasy demonstration games on 25+ tables. Besides that there is also an open painting competition and a 2nd hand shop. To top it it off there is a fully licensed bar on the premises.

On January 19th 2003, the second edition of "Passion Modelisme" will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. It's a show / contest that centers around 15 modeling clubs. The goal of this show is to promote the passion of model building for everyone, young and old, and to develop interest in this art.

The Peter&Partner Jakarta Model Expo is our annual model festival here in Jakarta, Indonesia, going through 8-14th of July 2002. 150 model kits from our local modelers are displayed with varius models from armor, aircraft to Gundam. Including a giant 180 x 85 cm diorama of massing German armor heading towards the Battle of Kursk.

Modelpoint have just released the first volume of the CD based reference system they have been working on for the past few months. It has a really user friendly menu – just click on the topic – all the pictures are on the right of screen you just click to enlarge & the manual pages on the left. The pictures are either taken by Modelpoint or from official technical manuals or rare archive pictures. I have only dipped into the CD but looks excellent!

DGeraths' Dragon Wagon diorama has won the Best of Show - Contestants Choice Award at the recent IPMS Lt. Alexander Pearson Invitational held on June 15, 2002. More images of this event are on display here. We are all very proud of Dana for his excellent work on this project and for sharing it with us (and other modeling sites) the way he did.

Greg Allan a.k.a. Adam_Baum, the lead core developer and one of the four founding members of the PostNuke CMS Development Project passed away from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. The accident occurred June 16, 2002 near his home in Meaford, Ontario in Canada.

Accurate Armour announces that they're accepting advance orders for their M114 model which will despatch to customers at the end of June. The M114 can be build as a M114A1 or M114A1E1 Command and Reconnaissance Scout Vehicle. The kit includes a 50 Cal Machine gun for the A1version and a 20mm cannon for the A1E1.

Images courtesy of the Acurate Armor site.

We would like to anounce that we at the Dallas Armor Modeling Society, D.A.M.S., will be holding our first annual DAMS Fest Model Show. It will be held on September 14th, in Richardson, Texas. The show will be for ALL modelers with complete
categories, but concentrating on ARMOR!! We have several sponsors including Tamiya, and the US Navy. Click Here for more info. And Here to contact them.

On 8 september an event called Scale World will be taking place at St. Armands Hall in Geel (Belgium). There's gonna be a contest, clubstands and kit-sales. As special guests Tony Greenland and Phil Stutcinskas are announced.

Story by: Werner Kampfhofer
Photos by: Wolfram Bradac

On 8.Jun.2002 an international plastic model exhibition took place at the technical museum in Brno (CZ). The show has been organised by the local clubs KPM Brno, DDM Junior Brno and the technical museum. After the first shock caused by the exchange rates we soon got another one caused by people in soviet WWII uniforms who were located with weapons and equipment at the entrance of the exhibition. Luckily these women and men did not belong to a unit which was not informed about the end of the war, but were from a group of local reenactors and responsible for tickets-sales. The show consisted of the model exhibition with contest, kit-sales, airbrush and RC-model presentations. It was not possible to visit the museum.

Digital Dioramas, a new Webzine dedicated to the art of the diorama, launched today with it's Premier Issue. The site is the brainchild of David Yarnell of Philadelphia, PA. Along the way he has recruited help from an array of modelers across the globe including Michael Sheads, Michael Woodward, Keith Forsyth, Charles Latham, and many more.

The VLS Corporation, home of many well known brands like Warriors, Custom Dioramics, Trakz, and Techstar among others, has unveiled it's new Web site at www.modelmecca.com. The site features a very clean and polished design. Access to their vast array of inventory through their online store. And special pricing through plans like the Master's Group.

Fine Molds has announced plans to build a 1/72 scale version of Obi Wan's Jedi Starfighter from Star Wars Episode II. This will be the third in their series of highly detailed ships from the Star Wars saga. Prior to this model they have release a T.I.E. Figther and X-wing Fighter, both in 1/72 scale. The Jedi Starfighter will include the hyperspace drive unit which allows the ship to travel at hyper-light speeds. The projected release date is July of 2002.

Just when you thought it was safe to peek into your storage room, Jack whips up another new release. This latest, is a three man recon team form the IDF. It is called "under fire" and I can say I love it, since I did not sculpt it! I asked my sculptors to work hard for realistic poses. I don't care how long the figures take as long as when I get them, I want to paint them yeasterday! I like em, and I think you will too. Check out the image here!

We would like to invite you and your friends to Hungary. Our Club the Red Devils Modeler Club is organizing the 9th Red Devils Modelshow. This is the biggest Hungarian exhibition and competition in this year from 23 to 25 of August. Over 40 categories, separated figure contest in 17 figure-categories.

PanzerNet has posted some excellent pics of an event in their backyard, Concurso AMT, Torrent (Valencia) 2002. You can view them here. The event looks to have attracted modelers from all over Europe.

Now it was for the second time that this big German exhibition and contest took place at Nürnberg/Germany. It seems that the troubles that led to the relocation from Erding to Nürnberg have not yet been overcome. Some well-known German modelers did not show up. But despite this the quality of the exhibits (especially on Sunday) was very high. Due to the fact that this was a two days event, at Saturday there were not so many models yet in the competition, but already all of the traders were present. This was an “offend” to all of the visitors, who tried to avoid getting poorer and poorer after buying kits after kits…. So “thank God it’s Sunday” was the motto for all those, who were eager to be able to see more high quality competition models (, which showed up finally,) instead of spending the day with shopping again!

Photos can be seen at:
www.panzermodellbau.com

William De Coster (www.prinzite.com) has contributed over 100 photos from the Lier (Belgium) 2001 event. There is a wide assortment of photos here including, armor, figures, and aircraft. The 2002 event will be taking place on December 8, 2002 in Lier (near Antwerp). The event generally sees more than several hundred entries and even more visitors. For more information see the IPMS Lier site.

This was one mighty fine place to be. If you were anywhere else in the universe, you made a mistake! Besides the consumption of exceedingly good French cuisine, served by glamorous, long legged French demoiselles, and copious amounts of the national beverage, you also missed out on the rantings and ravings of mad Jack and company discoursing on everything from the creation of the univers to........modellisme. The competition was top notch as you will see. The company was the 3 star variety, and a grand time was had by all. I HONESTLY consider this one of the finest, and certainly the most fun shows in town! Gallery pictures.

Replacement resin tyre set for the Ural 4320/BM21 kits. These are resin cast slip ons I'll post photos this week. But they are yummy!! I've already put into production the next three sets. Due out in May will be DCWP 012 Gaz 66 replacement resin tyre set, and DCWP 013 BTR 152 Replacement tyre set.

I just wanted to alert the 10 or so people who signed up on the site from Monday thru mid-day Wednesday that you will unfortunately have to do so again. And I am very sorry about the loss of any posts you may have made on your first time around. This site has been up for about 4 months and this is the first time we have had to restore and older version of the database. Hopefully it will be the last time. Rest assured we are working on a system were the sites database and core files will be backed up regularly.

Wolfram Bradac, of "The Luftwaffe in Scale" (www.rlm.at), has taken some amazing pictures of a model contest in Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary (April 12 & 14, 2002). There are two pages of photos. Make sure to click the link at the bottom for the armor photos. There are some truly awesome dioramas there by Dietrich Wolf, George Schachinger, and our own Werner Kampfhofer! Here is the link.

The National Cemetery Administration (NCA), a part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!), are partnering to undertake a project to inventory and document for the first time an estimated 300 major monuments dedicated to fallen soldiers. The monuments are located in more than 100 NCA cemetery properties across the country. NCA will provide volunteers with inventory forms and instructions, cemetery maps, and 35mm film. Volunteers will be required to take photographs and measurements and perform some basic research. Volunteers will be responsible for supplying their own 35mm cameras, the cost of film development, and personal transportation.

TAMIYA/CON 2002 has come and gone. You can check out the results on the Tamiya homepage or here. Taking home the highest honors of Best Finished, Most Creative, Director's Choice, and Master Modeler from Tamiya/Con 2002 were Steve Kays, Gene Kozicki, Dennis Weaver, and Dale King, respectively.

Lou Masses will be the guest host of the first Figure Chat. He will be discussing figure painting techniques, tips, and answering your questions. So mark the time and date. Set your alarms for Monday, April 15th at 21:00 Eastern Standard Time (US). The event will be held in the Chatter-box "The Barracks".

I have been keeping an eye on the expired domain list lately for "modelmaker.org". It's available, but I have decided to pass on getting it. Too busy with other things to make use of it. I thought I would share the news of this with the community though in case someone else wants it. There are also some other model related names that I saw today. All these domains were available as of this morning (in other words no one owns them right now). You can register domains through DirectNic (www.directnic.com) for only $15 a year. Read on for the list.

IPMS Lier Convention 2002 will take place sunday 08-12-2002, in cultural centre "De Mol", Lier, Belgium. The theme for this years contest is (battle) damage. There will be various international traders. For more information visit our website www.ipms-lier.be.tf

Just received news about what appears to be a SUPER fantastic, cool, (well you get the idea!) trans kit for the Italeri M984 series. I think this one is destined to be a winner, and I'll update you when I receive the kit which is in the post. Just couldn't wait to share the good news. The set is done by a Flemish modelling club here in Belgium. Mastered by Dirk at pro-art models. A work of art it is. Cast in yummy white resin, this looks good enough to eat! I'm going to rake in a few for my shop as well. These are the kind of kits that make the modelling world buzz and humm. Looking eagerly forward to their next release.

The IPMS Fort Worth Scale Modelers are holding the 2002 SuperCon on August 10th at the Arlington Community Center in Vandergriff Park. Squadron Mail Order will also be holding it's Open House during the same weekend in Carrollton, Texas.(which is about 30 miles away). For more information please read on and or check this link.

We shall be participating at a show in the lovely Payerne Valley in Switzerland. The show shall take place the last week-end of August, 2002. It is organized by Heer Schulé of the Payerne tourist board, and it is always a fun time. Fondue and Swiss french on ice.

Jaguar recently released a double set of vietnam period grunts. They are depicted dispensing with any pretence of any hearts and minds policy. This is more in the lines of S&D mission. These guy's, at first, look a little wierd anatomically, and I'll probably twitch them a little to get the pose I'm looking for, but then again that is generally S.O.P. in my workshop! The equipment and details are sharp, I would however question the tactical logic of standing in the doorway in front of someone about to toss a hot tomatoe into harms way.

Yes, any IDF stuff sets my imagination whizz banging into hyperspace! This extra cool kit comes from Hong Kong Creation Workshop. It includes all that funky ribbed side up-armoured and armoured cuppola package that you have all been secretly admiring in the news footage of recent events (it's ok to like machines they don't have a political stance!!) My wife has been complaing that I'm drooling in front of the T.V.!

It apprears that the guy's over at Warriors have cottoned on to a good thing. In the last few months they have popped several new and exciting sets from the figure oven. These are all based upon the recent events in Afghanistan. The one's that I ran straight out and scooped up were: References 35421/35423/35424/35425/ and 35426. These were all great with a few minor reservations./ I only got one seated guy, and most of the Northern Allaince guy's appear to spend more time on their hind quarters than standing.

Military Hobbies is hosting a trivia contest on their new site. Two (2) winners with most correct answers will be chosen on Friday, April 5th at midnight EST. The winners will receive a one day '10% off - everything in the store' shopping spree! In the case of ties, the earlier entry will be deemed the winner. If you are a member of the sites "Club" you will also get your 5% discount on top of the 10%! You can enter the contest here.

Hugh Downs, a northern-California horseman and artist, in collaboration with John Tremelling of Powys, Wales have rather amazingly and very accurately, recreated the figure of Owain Glyn Dwr---armour, horse and all. Downs has taken images of Tremelling as Glyn Dwr and created some computer-generated artwork. You can visit the Web site to see the results and learn more about the project. http://www.hughman.com

Italeri has finally updated it's site with the new catalog for this year! This also includes Dragon/DML, Zvezda and Protar!!!!
Go to http://www.italeri.com and click on "Products".

The Apparel Store at Armorama.com is now open for business. To get there just use the "Apparel Store" link at the bottom of the Main Menu. You can also just click here. I hope everyone who can afford one, and is going to AMPS or IPMS Nats can wear their shirts so we can all meet up easier! And even if your not going to those events you can show your pride in your hobby and support the site in the process! My thanks to the site regulars who covered the cost of the embroidery set-up for this project.

The AMPS site has put out an update on AMPS 2002 which is being held on April 19-20 in Harve de Grace, Maryland. The event is being held fairly close by The Aberdeen Proving Grounds (APG) but there have been increased security changes on the base and they will not be allowing civilians on for tours of the facility. Those carrying valid US Government ID's can gain access however.

In 1932, Section 6, German Army Weapons Bureau was assigned the responsibility to supervise development for a series of half-track towing vehicles. Based on the towing capacity ranging from 1 to 18 tons, this series was divided into 3 levels: light, medium and heavy; to be developed and produced by various automotive factories, all vehicles in this series were given the type classification of sd.kfz.

Some of you may have read about the plan to have available some Armorama Apparel items for the coming Nationals (AMPS and IPMS). I have found a company that does embroidery work and will sell shirts via an online store they will actually set up for us. The logo will be available to put on a variety of shirts, hats, jackets, or what not.