The Fen Model Show
26th and 27th July 2025
Regarding the pictures here, I'm choosing to start off with a few of the Juniors entries. It's always good to see youngsters attending and entering the competition, and for me it gives me hope that our hobby will continue long into the future.
I’d visited the Fen show in it’s initial year – was that 2022 ? and although I’d enjoyed it, it did seem a long way to drive ( four hours each way ) for a one day show.
The organisers made it into a two day show for 2023 although work prevented me from going to that and the 2024 event.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really think of going to the 2025 show either, but I’d got some spare holidays from work, and had booked one day off which would allow me to do several things that weekend – the options were several.
Weather predictions knocked one idea on the head, and family doing other things meant that I was going to be on my own for some part of the weekend too.
Ruth suggested that I make use of the time off and go to the show, and finding a room vacant at the Ely Guest House at a reasonable price for the Saturday stop-over, well, it seemed like a good idea.
Getting to Ely from my end of the country isn’t too difficult, and it took just over three hours with traffic being very light at silly-o’clock in the morning.
Ely is a lovely little town, and the venue for the show is very reminiscent of the one we used for FigureWorld in years gone by – an older building with a bit of history to it, but clean and well kept with plenty of space.
The entry foyer is taken up by a desk for entry tickets - £15 for the two days, and a couple of trade stands around the edges.
Breaking into the description of the venue, these and the following pictures are from the "Display Only" class which include a lot of pieces by the ladies and gents that were judging the competition.
But I digress....
The main hall is divided in to two areas, one for the elevated stands with their overhead lighting that will host the competition, and the other half having eight or nine trade stands, with a further two up on the stage and another three traders in the wide hallway behind the main hall that leads to the refreshments area.
It was nice to see Name-it nameplates, Hawk Miniatures, Elan 13, Element Games, Mitches Military Models to nme but a few of the traders with stands and especially good to see the return of Robot Rocket Miniatures and El Greco Miniatures to the show circuit.
At the first show back in 2022 the upstairs hall was used for the competition, but with it’s move downstairs ( increasing it’s prominence ) the upper hall is used for demonstrations and talks which are spread out over the weekend and cover a wide array of interests – Margot Crombeeke discussing the use of oil paints, Lester Plaskitt showing how he weathers armoured vehicles being amongst the demonstrations / talks that were on offer.
The competition, like the talks in the upper hall is free to enter, the show running a display format for the entrants to put as many, or as few models on as they like.
There are six “classes” one for Juniors, one for display only, two Standard classes ( Vehicles and Figures ) which is mirrored by the two classes for Masters, again Figures and Vehicles.
I took as many photo’s as I could, and due to space here can only really show off a fraction of what I took.
The organisers reckoned that there were eight hundred models on show, entered by just over two hundred people between the six classes, that’s quite and impressive count for a show that is held in a comparatively small venue.
I will admit to two disappointments regarding the competition.
One would be that there were very few historical figure entries in comparison to the numbers of fantasy and sci-fi pieces, and this could be something for the organisers to try and encourage the return of historical painters to the show in the future.
The second thing I noted was that there wasn’t much focus on if a model entry had been sculpted or converted.
There was a small “tick box” on the entry card to note that something had been treated to extra work, but no way of specifying which model ( if there were a few in the entrant’s display ) that might be.
One thing I did find odd was that with a very efficient computerised entry system, that show staff did for you, there was a space to put the entrant’s name on the entry card that would be with the models.
Whilst I would not accuse the judges of being biased, I see no reason or necessity for the addition of a modellers name to the card until after the judging has taken place, and the more cynical modeller may be lead to suspect that judges could be swayed into giving awards, because of the name on the card.
Apart from the above, I really enjoyed the show, the awards from the competition along with sponsors seemed to span a broad spectrum of the entrants, and the trade stands seemed to do plenty of business, and yes, I bought one or two things – it’d be rude not to !
The rest of the shots are taken from the Standard Classes and I'll feature photos of the Master's Classes next week in a separate article.
Finally, I would genuinely encourage you to support this show, whether you make historical, fantasy or sci-fi models, vehicles or figures, and consider going to the 2026 show.
Thanks to Fet, Martin and their team for organising the show.
Now for the Standard Figures Class
Please note, this is only a small selection of the entries on show
And now just a few from Standard Vehicle, then the Masters Classes will be featured next week in a separate article
