4th Annual Static Model Contest – Leganes, Spain

Last weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday March 14th, 15th, and 16th, modelers, vendors and their friends and families gathered from all over Europe to attend the 4th annual Concurso de Modelismo Estatico in Leganes, Spain.

Hosted by IPMS Madrid – Asociacion de Modelismo Estatico Leganes – chapter of the International Plastic Modelers Society, the show brought visitors and locals alike to the Pabellon de Europa to see some of the worlds best modelers displaying their latest projects, pick up the latest figure or accessory, catch up with old friends, see a demo by a well known modeller, eat, drink, and generally celebrate life and the hobby.

A suburb of Madrid, Leganes lies about a 20 minute train ride from the city of Madrid proper. With easy travel access, affordable accommodations, and an excellent venue, the show is quickly becoming on of Europe’s must-attend shows. I don’t know the total number of entrants, but the quantity and quality of the displays was phenomenal!

The Venue
(photo from Panoramio.com)

A quick tour of the vendors. Not all of them are pictured here, as I couldn’t get a good picture of every one.

Robotines –



http://www.robotines.com/en/

Alexander Glass of Uschi Van der Rosten giving a demo on Saturday at the Robotines booth. You should definitely stop by his website to check it out! There is a lot of useful info there as well as inspiring images and articles. The section on Mr Hobby primers and thinners alone is worth the clicks.

http://www.uschivdr.com/

The good people of Accion Press / Euromodelismo / Panzer Aces were there with their high-quality publications.

http://www.euromodelismo.com/shop1/en/

Alabardero figures was there with a very interesting “behind the scenes” display. It was great to see molds, original patterns, and castings that modelers don’t usually get to see.

Andrea Miniatures had a well stocked booth. Their representatives were eager to talk about their new products and were extremely helpful! They even offered to return the next day with English editions of whatever I might be interested in.


http://www.andreadepotusa.com/en/1/andrea-miniatures.html

Carmina Hobbies with a VERY well-stocked booth. I may or may not have procured a sizable quantity of items there…

http://www.carminahobbys.com/

Dejuguetes was there too with a great display. It was too bad that they were placed on a floor above the main level where they didn’t get a lot of foot traffic. Dejuguetes produces, among other things, some really nice building facades and diorama accesories.



http://dejuguete.es/en/

Dolman Miniatures had an interesting booth with some very nice graphic design on display. Similar to Alabardero, they showcased some of the actual design process.


http://www.dolmanminiatures.com/index.php/en/

Mac One Models had a very nice booth presenting various diorama and vignette items, as well as something I was very interested in: their Spanish Civil War T-26 conversion kit. All were very reasonably priced and demonstrated an understanding of the value that the modeller places on time.




http://www.maconemodels.com/venta/index.php

I picked up this figure from Art Girona. They patiently allowed me to lurk around their booth for quite a while…


http://www.art-girona.com/

Nocturna Models was there with their always stunning display of incredible figures. These guys and gals have definitely raised the bar on presentation and design of every aspect of figure modeling. From the dynamic sculpts to the top-notch presentation in packaging, these figures are awesome! Unfortunately I came away from their booth empty-handed due to a pesky credit card chip / PIN issue. Next year!





http://nocturnamodels.com/

Scale 75 was giving another demo this year. this is another company that has really elevated the art of modelling presentation. I don’t know if it’s Spain’s “artistic DNA” or the popularity of figure painting in Europe that is the reason for the high level of craft from these Spanish figure companies. Whatever it is, it’s great to see the art being elevated to such a high standard.

http://www.scale75.com/

Nimix

Raul Perez Muñoz of Make Hobby – with a full lineup of BlackDog miniatures, got a little bit of my hobby budget. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of their booth. I guess I’ll just have to go back next year.

Fundacion Infante de Orleans had a neat aviation themed display.

http://www.fio.es/

Various reenactment and cosplay groups were in attendance too, roaming the crowds providing photo-ops.

Part 2 will focus on models and people of this fantastic show.

Stay Tuned and thanks for looking!