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Looking Back at : ScaleWorld 2003

On Sunday September 14 2003, the "ScaleWorld" event took place for the third time. The event was organized by the "Kempense Modelbouw Klub" and took place, like in previous years, in the Belgian town called Geel.

The event is organized each year to offer a nice day to all modelers and their families by having a contest, the invitation of (inter-) national guests and the invitation of (inter-) national shopkeepers. Off course with the opportunity to enjoy snacks and drinks.

This year Armorama officially joined for the first time. We had our own space with two large tables. The Armorama members who where present, where easily to be recognized by there white shirts and their badges With a bunch of businesscards in our pockets and in a very good mood we started the day.

When Jim opened the doors of Armorama a year and a half ago, he couldn't imagine that on this sunny day in Belgium a large number of Dutch speaking members would get together and would have a awesome day.

Wearing their badges"BEP", "GENERALFAILURE", "ROADKILL","ZEROCOOL", "FAUST", "GOLIKELL", "WEZZ" and "EAGLE" populated the Armorama tables.

But there where more members present. I'd like to mention people like "PATMAN68" (as a member of the KMK) and "DEMODELBOUWER" (as a member of Twenot). It was fun to be there with such a large group of people....people who only new eachother as bits and bites on a computer on the other side of the ocean until that day.

Jim supplied us with a big banner to give our presence an official look and we therefore proudly put the banner in the middle of our tables.

The models and dioramas, that the members brought with them, got their own spots on the tables and Ronny created, with great ambition, some space for those who wanted to do some "live" modeling. Because of the fun we had, the beer and all of the things we wanted to see there was no time left to do any modeling at all.... :-)

Ronny also brought his computer with him to give the visitors an impression of Armorama. With an ongoing presentation on the computer the people could find out what our site is all about.

A couple of times I heard people say that they didn't know us until that moment. My feeling therefore says that this event will draw more and new members to Armorama.......so....... let's welcome them when they come in.

The KMK made a good move when they decided to invite people like Gino Poppe, Rob Henden en Phil Stutcinskas to the event. Specially Rob Henden with his airbrush demonstrations left us without words ......awesome work !

Unfortunately we couldn't see Gino and Phil at work, but the models they brought with them eased the pain. Next to that I can inform you (whisper....whisper...) that Gino Poppe is going to send me some articles on painting figures. I must admit that I'm very proud that Gino is willing to write us some articles.

(For those who don't know Gino... Gino is one of the leading European figure painters, if not, the best European figure painter)

The contest room was filled with a large number of separate models as well as a large number of dioramas. When entering the room I was struck by the extreme high quality of the models and dioramas and I noticed that Eric "DeModelbouwer" Sikkema's big bridge diorama was an absolute eyecatcher. I think it's fair to say that we enjoyed the models and dioramas big time and that we left the room with renewed inspiration.

When you have a contest, you also got to have prizes. Two of those prizes came from Armorama and where offered to the event by our own Jim. Jim gave away one Etch-Mate as a prize for the lottery and he also donated a Trophy for the best Out Of the Box model.

I'm happy to say that our own Ronny RoadKill en Eric DeModelbouwer won medals in the contest. I felt mighty proud when I saw a hughe picture of Ronny's diorama "HIGH" on the presentation screen........ This only could mean one thing..... GOLD for Ronny. Call me sentimental, but I feel that he deserved every inch of that golden medal.

The Etch-Mate Jim offered for the Lottery was won by Kobbe Stubbe.

There also was a trophy, given by Jim, for the best Out Of the Box model. It took 8 Armorama members over 15 minutes to debate the pros and cons of the models and after that we came to a decision...... The Armorama Trophy for the best OOB model had to go to Kristof Turlings for his T-55 model.

When I look back at the event, I see a sunny day in Belgium, a great atmosphere, a lot of great models and dioramas and.....the best team of modelers in the world..... The Armorama Team !

I think it's only fair to say that this was an awesome day for us and I therefore like to thank the guys who made this possible : Ronny, the KMK organization , Jim and off course our members who where there !!!

Thanks guys for a wonderful event and...... we'll be there next year !!

Danny "EAGLE" Wennekes