Model Forum / General / Models / May 2006

Hi all,

Shizuoka was a blast, a bit more quiet than last time I went, and for
repeat offenders the presence of so many exhibits that I have seen
before made the photo session sparser than it would have been had I
been a newcomer - so check out my previous Shizuoka pics if you want
to see more large-scale ships, for instance.

Overall impression: club exhibits were good, lively cross-talk and
interaction (helps that my Japanese is better, too); sadly no
organized events like interviews or model-related presentations; flea
market was as always a great success, pity about the
collector-intended stall section, since I am not a
collector. Money-making being the primary concern for the companies,
it was clear that the auction was a complete gouging and it failed
miserably. Cross-contracts between companies resulted in Tamiya
resorting to pure bullying, so Pitroad and Gunze Sangyo were not
represented this year, so much for new small-scale ships and ALL the
paints (Tamiya paints don't count for much). The Tamicon winners were,
um, pretty insubstantial and dwarfed by the club exhibits, so I hope
they will be displayed more prominently next time around (it looked as
though they were placed in a box for storage, rather than being on
display). Weather was rainy and very humid (hehe) Saturday, and
wonderfully warm and sunny on Sunday.

Shanghai Dragon brought some of the internet-sales brand over to show
off, including die-cast partly pre-assembled kits. Tamiya showed off
their news 1/32 A6M2, 1/35 Char 1 bis, and a few variations on 1/700 O
and H class DDs, Fletcher DDs and Z-39 class DDs. Hasegawa showed off
their new 1/723 Ju88A-4, 1/48 Fw190A-3 with new ailerons, 1/48 (?)
JASDF two-seater F-104, P-39, and a few more I will have to check via
the photos (why you ask, I shall explain!). Aoshima showed very rough
castings of the 1/700 I-400 IJN subs, and only some plans of their
intended retooled Ise and Hyuga. Fujimi, I forget if they had anything
new (I hasten to add that I don't bother with cars, figures,
non-military aircraft, and not with armoured vehicles either
mostly). I would REALLY REALLY have liked to see Skywave/Pitroad
(<Sigh> Mr. Tamiya, if you are listening, tell the companies you
disagree with to not bring any product lines you don't like, that way
we can avoid spilling the cut-throat business atmosphere over into the
public part of the hobby show, and take a good look at the history of
the Japanese model industry before embarking on a trail of
hypocrisy. </Sigh>).

Now, I did have a link, but I notice that my Apache server is set up
to not give access to that subdirectory, so everybody, please wait
until 12 hours have passed before trying to access the following site:

http://www.aikishugyo.dnsdojo.org/mamba/shiz2006/

It should be okay by 00:00 JST on May 23rd.

Cheers,
       Gernot