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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 Rules
The clubs general rules are being reviewed by the committee and will be available here soon
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.
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