Our Town Model Show 2014

My town, Newcastle, is sometimes (confusingly) referred to as 'Our Town'. Hence, the Our Town Model Show (organised by the Our Town Scale Modellers' Association and the Our Town HO Model Railway Club), an annual event for scale modellers, model railway-ers, and us hanger-on gamers. I stuck my head in this year and took some pics.

The highlights are the model railway displays. I really like the ones which showcase country Australia, but there are so many other good ones as well.

Newcastle Railway Station

The real deal, c.1956

Can you spot the 'roo? Vegetation as, well, vegetation.

Hot Fuzz!

I like a bit of whimsy, but 'Traintasia' goes a bit OTT...

I would love to do an American horror game on this setup...

There were lots of ship models, including radio control ships in a huge paddling pool.

There were scale planes, vehicles, and some sci-fi stuff. There were also lots of diecast vehicles.

1:6 scale radio control tanks

Battlestar Galactica

Lots of floor space is given over to retailers, principally for model railway bitz. Model railway hobbyists may have a larger community than us gamers, but by gum their stuff is expensive.

This about a third of the floor space

There was also a bit of Lego, including a Wayne Manor with Batcave that was too blurry to show- sorry!

The Novocastrian Battlegames club had static displays.

B-movie shenanigans using A Fistful of Kung-Fu

28mm Feudal Japan

20mm WW2

There was also a Helm's Deep display.

Here's a short video (via Facebook) from Frontline Hobbies of the event:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=684799081603072
and some more of their photos:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.684867061596274.1073741841.111783125571340&type=3

Galactic A-holes

Something bad, something good- a little bit of both.

These are the Galactic A-holes, from Highlander Studios. I had a lot of fun painting them, adding a few extra splashes of colour.

So here we are: a thief,

...two thugs,

...an assassin,

...and a maniac.

15mm Zombie Hunters

A lady in red... this is 'Suzie, Zombie Hunter', from Rebel Minis, sculpted by Rod Campbell. Just the thing to knock over quickly and get me out of a painting rut!

Here are some more Zombie Hunters I painted a while ago. These are also from Rebel Minis, with their Civilian Zombie Hunters pack.

And here are some Zombie Hunters from The Scene.

Bring on the Zombpocalypse!

On Lego

Earlier this year my long-dormant Lego interest was rekindled by the thoroughly enjoyable Lego Movie. I pulled things out of storage, found long-lost instructions on the internet, and indulged myself in building a few old sets. Ah, the nostalgia!

Today I got my geek on at Newcastle Brickfest. It was packed, and I had to fight off the kiddies to have a good look around.

Town Lego

Thieves on the bank roof about to get a mech surprise!

Can't make it to Blood Bowl tourney today...

Old West

Mediaeval

Fairy tales

Yarr!

Haunted house

Star Wars was very popular

So many colours compared to when I was young...

Lego Simpson and his donkey

Not-quite-kosher Lego Anzac

Now, older, wiser, looking back- damn, Lego is a great toy. After thirty years it still works and still charms, with no rust and minimal breakage despite years of hard play. There's no scale creep. I can build what I want, how I want, without needing to upgrade a game console or a ruleset or software or replace complex moving parts or batteries. I don't need to paint it or glue it, it's ready to go out of the box, and can make changes as I go. Something today works with something thirty-five years old- how often can you say that?

It gave me true childlike joy to reassemble some of my old sets. They haven't been kept unopened in their original packaging, or built and displayed on a dust-free shelf, but have rather been assembled and played with and reassembled countless times.

Thanks, Lego!