28th annual Australian model expo:
Over the Queen's Birthday long weekend over here in Australia (11th to 13th of June), the 28th Annual Australian Model Expo (and competition) was held at the Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne.
Once again, this year managed to attract over 600 entries and an increased number of traders in attendance, with many new vendors setting up to fill the gaps where older ones were no more to provide us modelling fans with a ton of new items to purchase.
This year also marked the introduction of the Gundam and Mech Category. In recent years, the number of mech builds has increased exponentially and the Expo Committee decided to expand the categories and remove Gundam and Mechs from the Sci Fi Equipment category and gave it its own. Surely a sign that Gunpla is exploding in this country!
Mecha Workshop was also in attendance with 2 tables this year chock full of all types of Gunpla goodness from snapped to fully painted. There was a distinct increase of traffic around the Workshop table this year as well as many modellers were tempted to the dark side! Congrats to Alan and the crew from the Workshop for an excellent display and a big thanks for the effort the guys all put into the club.
I took 9 of my builds with me to Expo this year, which I drove down to the Racecourse on the Friday night as per previous years. Here is what I entered this year :
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Out of those entries, I came away with 2 Commended Awards for both the GP01 Hillside Hangar and the Zaku II vs GM Kneel Before Your God builds.
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First place in the Gundam and Mech Category was taken out by Alan Chung and his amazing Tieren build (another spin on the same type of kit that Alan built last year to take out 1st in the Sci Fi and Equipment Category). Second was an amazing Green Frame Astray and Third was a stunning Ma.K build. Congratulations to all of those who deservedly won!
Here are a few videos I have made covering the event :
I also took 436 pictures of the event and all can be found in the Gallery which can be accessed by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.
For more information on this and forthcoming events, feel free to visit the IPMS Australia site and the Model Expo site.
If anyone sees their model in the Gallery and would like the original photo, please drop me a line via the Contact page and I'll be more than happy to email them to you.
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