WWI stuff at World Model Expo 2025

[NigelR]

I've been at the recent World Model Expo in Versailles. Here's photos of all the WWI stuff I could find, starting with aircraft and followed by armour and figures. Some of you may have seen some negative comments about the show online and sadly I can confirm they are true. The whole thing was a complete shambles from start to finish, the organisers should be ashamed of themselves. But the models were fantastic and it was inspiring to see so much great work up close.

[DaddyO]

Some lovely stuff there mate; thanks for posting the pics
Hope you stocked up on inspiration and other goodies as well 

P

[Dirigible-Al]

The Junkers in the factory is my favourite.
Alan.

[NigelR]

Some lovely stuff there mate; thanks for posting the pics
Hope you stocked up on inspiration and other goodies as well 

I did, but sadly not as many as I hoped because I got food poisoning and thus my time spent in the vendor area was a bit curtailed....... Probably good for the wallet though. I did preorder the 1/35 versions of the wonderful Peaks Model 21cm Karl Morser and RR Armoured car and git some Napoleonic figures.

I have come back inspired though, the quality of work on show was amazing.

The Junkers in the factory is my favourite.

That was really good, a lovely piece of work.

[KiwiZac]

The standard of work on display here is terrific, and some of those dioramas are spectacular. Thanks so much for sharing these, Nigel.

[gedmundson]

Thanks for posting your photos Nigel - from what I see here (and from a few other posts elsewhere) it must have been amazing to see some of this masterful work in person. I find some of these pieces of work very inspiring, but also intimidating in a way. Very sorry to hear about the food poisoning - you certainly did not need that!
Cheers,
Gary

[lcarroll]

    Wonderful contribution on your part Nigel, and the quality of the models on display is, as you say, fantastic. Thanks for your considerable efforts here as always!
Cheers,
Lance

[macsporran]

Inspiring stuff, Nigel, thanks for posting.

So good to see lots of WWI at a major show, in such high quality too. I was most disappointed that our recent show in the East Neuk of Fife, brought so little - four from me, two from one of the Edinburgh guys and a superb Holts Tractor and Gun diorama. I fear the demise of Wingnuts has worked its way through to the display end. I believe many competition modellers want to show the latest thing and, although CSM, Lukgraph and Roden etc are putting out great new releases they haven't grabbed the general model builder the way WNW did.
Sandy

[NigelR]

I can only agree with everyone, the quality of the work was both intimidating and inspiring, especially the figures. The quality of some of the pieces is almost beyond belief. However, being able to see these pieces up close allowed me to learn a lot and I definitely came back more inspired than intimidated!

So good to see lots of WWI at a major show, in such high quality too. I was most disappointed that our recent show in the East Neuk of Fife, brought so little - four from me, two from one of the Edinburgh guys and a superb Holts Tractor and Gun diorama. I fear the demise of Wingnuts has worked its way through to the display end. I believe many competition modellers want to show the latest thing and, although CSM, Lukgraph and Roden etc are putting out great new releases they haven't grabbed the general model builder the way WNW did.

Sadly the WWI stuff was a tiny minority. There were apparently 4,600 pieces on display and I think I've captured most of the WWI pieces! I definitely missed a few WWI figures and there were some inter-war AFVs but WWI was very poorly represented. I've seen this at many UK shows I attend. There seems to be much less WWI stuff on the general club stands these days compared to even a few years ago.

Having said that, I spoke with Edgar on the CSM stand and he said they had an excellent trading weekend and I know that Wars and Peaces (who do WWI figures) also had an excellent weekend. So not all hope is lost........