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Euro Militaire 2006

Saturday and Sunday the 23rd & 24th September, 2006 at the Lees Cliff Hall, Folkestone, England, saw the 21st Euromilitaire event, which is billed as the Premier Military Modelling Show. Recently under new management, the show promised to be one of the best yet... from the point of view of the modeller at least!

Despite major traffic problems around London on the M25 Motorway, I arrived on the Friday evening before the event and managed to talk to many of the traders and vendors, many of whom had themselves been delayed in reaching the venue due to bad weather and traffic.

The Lees Cliff Hall is deceptive, being set into the cliff itself, overlooking the English Channel, with only a small portion being visible above ground, but the real size of the place hits you as you enter the venue at the top of the grand staircase. You descend the staircase into the foyer, where several traders are set up, amongst whom were Great North Roads and In Wood who own the Yosci range of resin figures. Leaving the foyer, you can turn either right or left and descend another staircase into the theatre hall. This is the area where most of the traders are, and immediately facing you is the stage where acts perform at more 'normal' events. Centre stage this year were Dragon, but there were many more traders inbetween, including Acurate Armour, Historex Agents, Lou Stener, Osprey Publishing, Pegaso Models, Hornet, and many others.

On the first day of the show, the Dragon stand was besieged. Special queuing arrangements had to be implemented so that everybody could file up onto the stage and get their Firefly Special signed by Douglas Kay, who was the actual gunner of the Firefly depicted by the show special Dragon had released. Alongside the 1/35th scale Firefly was a 1/72nd scale one, and also a die-cast version. There was also a 1/6th action figure which actually looked like him... or rather as he was 60 years ago!

Dragon also had their brand new M2 US Halftrack on show. Two completed models and their as yet un-numbered sprues. I was told we can expect it to hit the shops in around 3 weeks. The next Generation 2 figure set was there in spirit, in the form of two sprues, and there was also the 28th Infantry Division (Poland) figure set.

Several of the manufacturers present announced new figures, vehicles or conversions at the show, which will all be appearing in the News pages on Armorama.

Making your way down another staircase to the left of the hall, you arrive in the club room, where various clubs had set up displays of the member's models for people to browse. Next to this room, in the large conference facility at the venue, is the Contest room.

All through Friday evening and Saturday, entries were being brought in and arranged on the two-tiered shelves for the judging later that day. It is difficult to remember seeing so much great work in one place. The sheer amount of work represented by all the figures, vehicles and dioramas is staggering! Many of Europe's best known modeller's had entered pieces in the hope of gaining the Kudos that the winning entry achieves. You can see some of the finest on the preceding two pages, along with which medals they were awarded.

Armorama offer their congratulations to Phil Stutcinskas for his well-deserved 'Best in Show' featuring the Panzer IV Wiking Division, and to everybody who entered for displaying their skills to the wider modelling community. Thankyou. Thankyou also to Ken Jones for his help in faciltating our photography, and organizational skills!

All photographs by Vinnie Branigan & Keith Forsyth