Sandown Model Symposium this weekend?

[ChrisB]

Anyone going to this at the weekend, or been to it in previous years?

I'm thinking of heading down as there are supposed to be RC cars there and a fair few stalls, plus some interesting boats and planes by the sounds of it. Not expecting any Tamiya stuff, but you never know!

10 GBP entry fee seems a bit steep.... but, well might give it a go as it seems a fairly professionally organised event.

Cheers,

Chris

[spikey]

excellent show[] i have been many times, usually there are r/c cars both electric & nitro.

Planes and helicopters are flying all day[8D]

Keep an eye out for two guys who run trial trucks.

I expect Mark1 tanks will be there with his 1/6 scale models[8D]

Dont know if i will make it this year[]

http://www.modelflying.co.uk/sandown/

[The Slayer]

would be this weekend - i am skint and almost homeless [] i live not far from there as well...

[ChrisB]

Well, just got back and I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment as far as RC cars were concerned [V]. Hardly any Tamiya stuff there either.

Having said that it was a great place for discounts on more general RC stuff (radio gear, servos, motors, IC engines etc.). Most of the stands were offering 10-20% discount on their stuff.

Very good for tools and materials though - if you had been looking for any airbrushing equipment or specialist modelling tools there were some good offers to be had.

I just ended up getting one of those nifty mini butane gas torches for soldering / heatshrink - way less hassle than my crappy electric iron and no trailing cables. Also a few servos.

Lots of companies there selling the new LiPo battery packs and also brushless motors and ESC's - I think these will become more common in car kits as prices drop.

The show was really about aircraft - planes and heli's and the outdoor flying displays were pretty good. Some of the large scale models were pretty jaw dropping, especially a demo of a nitro Jet Ranger heli - the thing was about 6 feet long [xx(].

I think in the future I could be tempted by the electric heli's..... still pretty expensive though, even for the small ones and I couldn't re-use my existing radio gear as its all the wrong freq.

So in summary - good show for tools & general RC stuff, but mainly geared towards RC flyers.

Cheers,

Chris

[Dazmeister]

Pretty poor this year IMHO and I doubt I will go again, good for getting the essentials though but no vintage Tamiya[]

Daz

[jozza]

Sounds similar to the Eastnor show, very geared towards aircraft and not a lot for the Tamiya fan. Whilst these are enjoyable, they don't seem to cater for cars much at all, even though the flyers/ads for them suggest that they will. There is another expo at South Weald in Essex at the end of June which I will be going to, but I think that's going to be mainly planes too..

I think that the big hope for this year is going to be the Model Expo at NEC.

[ChrisB]

Have to agree with the other comments here. Are there any shows that cater more for RC cars and Tamiyas in particular?

I am also going to the NEC on the Sunday July 11th. If anyone is interested there will also be several RC hovercrafts on display with a demo scheduled also - these really are great fun if you have never seen them in action [8D].

Cheers,

Chris