IPMS Hamilton HeritageCon 2013

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heritagecon
The HeritageCon Model Show is an event organized by the IPMS Hamilton Model Club. The club makes its home in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, located at the Western shore of Lake Ontario. Each year the club hosts this show and it is one of the larger events in scale modeling in Canada. This event is the club’s fundraising activity for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, which is where they are fortunate enough to meet and have their regular meetings.
2013 show
This year saw the seventh HeritageCon show held on Sunday the 3rd of March in one of the museum hangars at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. Numerous vendors were on hand selling all forms of modelling related items as well as books and artistic works. Lets also not forget about the opportunity to look at some 1:1 scale aircraft.

A major part of the show program is the chance for modellers to enter, display and have their models judged in the hope that their work would be recognized and receive an award. There were 10 major competition categories available including Aircraft, Military Vehicles, Automotive, Ships, Figures, Dioramas, Paper Models, Miscellaneous, Junior and Bantam. Each of these was in turn further subdivided into 70 individual subcategories. The number of subcategories varied from category to category but for each a first, second and third prize award was available. This year there were also eight special categories where the prize was a distinctive trophy. There were no less than 16 subcategories devoted to “Aircraft” related subjects and one to aircraft dioramas.

While official statistics were not available during the preparation of this Feature, casual observations and comments by a few show officials to this writer were offered. According to one show official, approximately 450 models were entered while another was quoted as saying by his count, there were 480 entries. These two also estimated that there were between 150 and 175 entrants. Speculation as to the number of visitors that attended the show weren’t available but several knowledgeable people felt that this show had one of the highest attendance numbers of all HeritageCon shows to date. It was also suggested that perhaps this was a reflection of the relatively decent weather that day, as opposed to the messy days they’d seen in previous years.

My thanks to the various members of the show for assisting in the preparation of this feature.

It wouldn't be a model show in a museum without pictures of the real aircraft on display. Don't forget to visit page two to see some of the exhibits, including some hot uncensored pictures of an uncovered Lancaster!
dedication
This feature dedicated to the memory of H. B. Skitch, long time modeller and friend.
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About the Author

About Jan Etal (tread_geek)
FROM: ONTARIO, CANADA

I've been building models since about age 10 with the occasional hiatus due to real life events. First armour model was a 1/76 Airfix Tiger I and was followed by a 1/72 Revell F4U Corsair. I've built primarily 1/76 and 1/72 armour and aircraft but occasionally have tinkered in other larger scales....


Comments

G-Dammit I forgot about this!
MAR 22, 2013 - 12:17 PM
Oh Canada!! Great work there. I really enjoyed looking at this feature. Russell
MAR 22, 2013 - 04:01 PM
@Jessie_C - Jessie, Thanks for getting this one up in such a timely manner. It certainly was quite a show! @raypalmer - Richard, Thanks for having a look and it's too bad you missed the show. Most aircraft categories were so packed with entries, let alone people looking at them, that it was quite difficult to get pictures of the models. @Siderius - Russell, Thanks and I'm sure that you would have enjoyed the show. This being at the museum understandably has the most categories for aircraft of all scales (including 1:1). What I didn't mention in the write-up was this is one of the few shows that allows "paper models" and there were a number present. One example is: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ One interesting point to air enthusiasts is that the 1:1 Lancaster on the second page of this Feature is only one of two flying examples in the world. The museum has flown it at air shows and events for the last 24 years. Each winter the plane undergoes a thorough overhaul and you can see in the pictures how extensive this is. This year is different, the four mighty Packard Merlin 224 engines are nearing the end of their operating life and will need to be overhauled in their entirety. This costly operation ($500,000) must be done or the Lanc will be grounded by Transport Canada. You can find further information about this at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Web Site. Cheers, Jan
MAR 23, 2013 - 04:17 AM
They've piled so much time and effort into that Bolingbroke, if ever an aircraft deserved 'broke' in its name... I can't see why frankly, it's a footnote at best. The most significant contribution it made was becoming the beaufighter in a roundabout sort of way. All money that should have been saved to give Roush for the Merlin refit. It's a Lancaster for cripes sake. Restoring a bolingbroke seems rather silly when you have something so precious as a flying Lanc to care for.
MAR 25, 2013 - 03:10 PM
It was a rather significant member of the Commonwealth air training plan though. Nearly every air gunner got their start in the old Boly. Besides which, they're tolerably rare. I think there's only one other one flying, and that one's disguised as a Blenheim over in the UK.
MAR 25, 2013 - 04:17 PM
Pardon me people, but isn't the topic of this thread about the Hamilton clubs recent show! Cheers, Jan
MAR 26, 2013 - 12:48 PM
For anyone that might be interested, I have recently had a complimentary Feature on the ground subjects at the show published on Armorama. You can find it HERE. Cheers, Jan
APR 07, 2013 - 04:17 AM