About Bedford and District Scale Model Club

Just bought your first kit? Coming back to model building after a long time away?

Want to get more out of your hobby?

Then join us now!

We're a very friendly bunch of active scale modellers of all ages, skills and interests. We meet on alternate Tuesdays at Southfields Community Centre in Kempston (just by the Fire Station) from 7-10pm .

It doesn't matter if you are a complete novice or an experienced enthusiast of years standing. We want to hear from you, young or old, male or female, whether you build planes, tanks, ships, cars, figures or even fantasy subjects such as Warhammer.

What you will get is a positive friendly atmosphere with plenty of experience, support and advice if you are new or coming back to modelling. Equally you'll get plenty of willing listening ears if you have skills and experience to impart.

In addition to our fortnightly meetings we run trips to museums and model retailers, and club social restaurant and cinema nights.

Interested? Then fill in an application form online, drop us an email to info@bedfordmodelclub.co.uk or call Mark on 01234 273434 any time.

Club History

What is now Bedford and District Scale Model Club started in early 2002.  The idea came from a meeting between Steve Addison and Steve Rickwood.  Steve Addison had worked at Longhurst and Skinners, the toy shop at the bottom of Greyfriars in Bedford (Long since closed).  Steve Rickwood had been going to IPMS Milton Keynes at Husborne Crawley and latterly at the Cranfield University Social Club.  Owing to unreliable public transport, for them a club in Bedford was seen as desirable. 

When Longhurst and Skinners closed down Steve Addison moved to MR & ME in Kempston, who had just opened their shop in Bedford Road. The idea of a local club was discussed amongst the owner, Tony Issott, staff and customers and eventually a decision was made to source potential active members. There was sufficient interest, some from as far away as Coventry, so a venue at Southfields Community Centre was located and the first meeting arranged for 7 th May 2002.  This turned out to be a success, with about twenty attendees, a significant proportion of who still attend regularly. MR & ME became the focus for many members for many a weekend or lunch hour.

An AGM was held in the August and the Club was formally constituted with a five-member committee.  The next month we attended our first model show as guests of Coventry and Warwickshire IPMS at the Midland Air Museum, Coventry Airport. We were also invited to attend IPMS Milton Keynes Modelkraft 2003 show at Bletchley in the following February.

In 2007 with the closure of MR & ME the obvious local retail focus was lost, but club activity remained as lively as ever, with club social nights and museum and store trips on the agenda.

We have had a small number of female members, all of whom are still with us, and a number of juniors, but the latter have school commitments that have curtailed their attendances somewhat.  They have, despite this, been able to demonstrate that they are at least as good modellers as some of their elders!

We don't have sufficient IPMS ( International Plastic Modellers Society) members to be constituted as an IPMS branch but this may change in the future as we grow. 

Over time we have developed a small network of contacts at other clubs and have regularly attended shows at Peterborough , Cosford ( RAF Museum ), St Neots ( Brampton ) and Biggleswade (Chiltern).  Some of our members have achieved sufficiently high standards of modelling and painting, not to mention diorama construction that they have come away from these shows with trophies. Membership comes from very broad base of work and income groups. What makes us different from many model clubs is a desire to inspire and encourage others.

A number of new initiatives aimed at increasing membership are currently being instigated, including leaflets in local retail stores and schools, plus further development of our website and newsletter. We also encourage local retailers to let us hold modelling demos instore. As a club we also work closely with Airfix doing demo builds at some of their roadshow events and we are also involved with encouraging youngsters to enjoy the hobby by way of involvement with local youth clubs.

We remain an all inclusive club, irrespective of skill, subject interest, age or gender.