Kassel 2011
The 15th biannual "Sammlertreffen" was held at Kassel's Philipp-Scheidemann-Haus on May 28, 2011:
General view of the main hall
Bernd Schwarz of Galerie Maritim (R) Matti & Norbert Broecher (Rhenania & Jr The Roschwigs' table in one of the 3
with Harald Scheel second-hand model rooms
Hilda & Peter Krtina with a Hai customer Bob Wiringa discusses Seavee with Dave Love at the Mountford table, one
Sean & Julia Pritchard a large UK contingent
Chris Daley discusses the new Argos Michael Reiss (Mike's Modelle) and Rick Richmond pretends to be the
George Washington with Carin Schwarz Carlo Marquardt (CM) discuss the show master modeler as he tends shop for
(Charles Jones photo) (Charles Jones photo) Chris Daley (Charles Jones photo)
Many SMSC members were in attendance, including a group of seven led by Harald Scheel, who made an extensive tour of various maritime sites in Germany and the Netherlands. Other collectors and their family members joined the group from time to time as travel plans allowed. The following account by Harald is compiled from his posts on the 1250scale site:
|
Wednesday, May 25 was the
first day of our tour. We had a great start. First stop: Navis / Neptun.
Our
hosts Rudi and Egbert Kraus showed us the entire production, which is being
accomplished in a relative small space. The showroom with the model display is
very nice and spacious.
From there, we went to Lilo & Peter Wiedling.
Grünwald, Munich is a beautiful area with nice houses. The Wiedling villa fits
right in. But the basement is the important area for us: model storage, packing,
shipping and a spectacular model display. My pictures cannot reproduce this
beautiful environment:
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011May25NeptunWiedling#
Lilo, Ludia and Peter Wiedling treated us like we were royalty: Weisswurst-a
Bavarian specialty.
Dr. Hjalmar Heinen was instrumental in planning our
schedule for Munich. After our lunch at Wiedling's, he took us for a tour of 3
churches and cloisters in the area-you will see from the pictures, how
impressive all 3 are.
In the evening, a few people of the Munich Club
came to our hotel for a casual get together and dinner.
What a great day,
what a great start for our tour. I would like to thank everyone for their
hospitality, time and help. To summarize a discussion I had with Peter Wiedling:
our hobby has so many nice people. It's not only the beautiful models, it's the
camaraderie of an exceptional group of collectors.
* * * |
We started our Thursday (May 26) in
Schwab München: the studio of Rodkling--Roland Klinger. In addition to the very
elaborate ship dioramas, Roland is also an artist that paints beautiful ship
pictures, as well as portraits and flowers. you can see it all in these
pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011May26RodklingWurzburg#
Roland Klinger is also involved with the history of Augsburg, especially the
Fuggers and the Welser families. We visited a Mercateum in the shape of a
globe--see pictures.
Our last stop of the day was totally unrelated to ship
models: Würzburg, a Franken Wein tour: 10 people, 14 bottles of wine.
* * * |
Friday/Saturday (May 27/28) Here are my
Kassel pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011May28Kassel#
Since this was my first visit to Kassel, I cannot make any comparisons. But
Kassel and 1250 is huge. One big room for the manufacturers, and 3 rooms for the
second hand dealers.
A few manufacturing friends commented that overall
attendance was down, but business was even to slightly up. They also noticed
more younger buyers. I hope that this is not only wishful thinking.
* * * |
After a leisurely breakfast,
we left Kassel on Sunday (May 29) morning and drove to Hamburg. Sunday afternoon, we
visited the Schulauer Fährhaus, where all the passing ships entering or leaving
Hamburg are greeted by the National Anthem of the registry of the ship. The
greeting captain also announces technical details about the ship. My friend
since 2. grade, Eckart Bolte, had arranged to be the greeting captain that
Sunday. Therefore, we all got a special tour of the greeting station, and for
the first time ever, some of his announcements were made in English for our
group.
Eckart used to manufacture cruise ships and ferries under the
Holsatia name. Unfortunately, he has discontinued this production.
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011May29Schulau#
* * *
On Monday (May 30) morning, we went to the Miniature Wunderland--it's truly a
wonderland of very realistic and detailed railroad displays. The newest addition
is a fully functional airport.
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011May30Hamburg#
After a 2 hour city bus tour in an open double decker bus, we proceeded
to Galerie Maritime, Fuchs and Wede. Fuchs is discontinuing the sale of 1250
models--some of us got a few great bargains.
In Hamburg, our group of 7 had
grown to 22. Manuela & Carlo Marquardt were extremely helpful in planning
and executing our Hamburg visit. I would like to thank them again for all their
valuable help and advice.
Dinner on Monday was at the Johann Albrecht
Brauhaus, truly enjoyed by everyone.
* * * |
Tuesday (May 31) Our Hamburg hosts, Manuela
& Carlo Marquart (CM) had recommended to get to the Maritime Museum as early
as possible: it opens at 10:00AM. In Hamburg, our group had grown to 20, so we
needed several cars in addition to our 9 seat transporter. Parking was OK,
despite construction going on in the area.
In 2004, I visited the Tamm
display as part of a group in the former "hotel" on the Elbchaussee. There, the
magnificent display was cramped, and you were only allowed to move around with a
tour guide, no photography.
The 9 deck facility in the Speicherstadt is
spacious, beautiful wooden floors, large rooms with high ceilings--and no flash
photography is allowed. As always, I took way too many pictures, and some of my
photos are not quite sharp, because of the low light. I decided to leave them in
the Picasa album to show as complete an overall picture as possible:
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011May31HamburgTammMuseum#
For us 1250 fans, the 9th deck is the most important. More than 30000
1250 models are displayed. At times, it is overwhelming.
Our host and
tour guide, Carlo Marquart, has created an excellent display of how a 1250 model
is produced, from the first idea, photos, plans to the creation of a detailed
master. This master is transformed into a rubber/silicone mould, into which the
liquid, hot metal is poured. Carlo's display shows in exact detail all the steps
necessary to clean the casted model, add more details and finally prime and
paint.
This display alone is worth a visit to the Maritime Museum. But, of
course, there is much more. This is the most comprehensive collection of 1250
models anywhere in the world. We had scheduled approx 5 hours for the museum,
with a 1/2 hour break in between. Quite a few members of our group spent most of
this time on the 9th deck.
From my pictures, you can see that with the
expert guidance from Carlo, I tried to cover as much of the other floors as
possible. If you want to see most of it, you will need several days. Therefore,
a return visit will be important.
The museum store on the ground floor
has a very nice selection of merchandize. There are several Revell kits in 1200
that also include glue, paint and a small paint brush-a great start for a
novice. I had never seen these complete kits before.
CM has a nice selection
of "colored" ships for sale, several of them priced very low, to attract new
collectors: for example, Titanic for Euro 37.00. There is some opposition to
selling models of warships here. But a few Neptun models are available-hopefully
more will be added.
This museum is a "must see" for anyone interested in
ships, navies and the sea.
We had hoped to meet Mr. Peter Tamm, but
unfortunately a scheduled vacation prevented this meeting. I would like to thank
Mr. Tamm this way for his great contribution to our hobby.
I would also like
to thank Manuela, Jessica & Carlo Marquart for helping with the planning and
execution of the Hamburg portion of our group tour. Their expertize and
willingness to spend all 3 days together with us in Hamburg, right after the
long days of Kassel, made our Hamburg visit nothing short of perfect.
After the museum visit, we did the Hamburg Harbor Tour. Because of some
rain, we selected a larger, covered tour boat. During the boat ride, the rain
disappeared, and we were able to see a lot, as my pictures will prove.
Dinner at the Copper House in St. Pauli was also excellent: a sumptuous
variety of Asian foods in a modern environment, very reasonably priced.
* * * |
|
After our 3 fantastic days in Hamburg, we got an early start on Wednesday, June 1, for a fully scheduled day.
About 9:00AM, we pulled into the yard of the Möwen Verlag (Wilhelmshavener Modellbaubogen). In the early 60's, our group of navy friends had gotten it's start by building these paper ships in 1:250, and developed a navy game using these big ships, later to be replaced by the 1250's from Wiking, Eagle, Hansa & Delphin.
The owner of the Möwen Verlag, Siegfried Wolter, greeted us with welcome coffee (German & American), tea and those good German wafer cookies.
2 years ago, Peter Chudziak & I had helped, to place a 1:700 USS ARIZONA paper model into the Arizona Memorial book store: http://www.pacifichistoricparksbookstore.org/browse.cfm/4,564.html
If you check my pictures, you will see a large display of paper ships in Siegfried's place.
After our coffee break, and selecting a few projects for the future, we drove to the Wilhelmshaven ship museum, displaying the Mölders, Weilheim and U10. Unfortunately, our tight schedule did not allow for much time to explore these museum ships.
At 2:45PM, we had to be in Papenburg for an English guided tour of the Meyer Werft (Ship Yard). In approaching Papenburg, we could see from a distance the almost finished Celebrity SILHOUETTE, one of the largest cruise ships ever built in this ship yard, which is 60 miles inland, along the river Ems. From here, the newly built ships have to "ride through the meadows" to reach the North Sea.
On our tour, we learned that the ship yard has enough orders through the end of 2015.
Our journey went on to Peter's (Chudziak) and my home town: Lingen, just 45 minutes south of Papenburg.
Peter had organized a 40 minute boat ride to a restaurant at the waterfalls--yes, there is a waterfall in Lingen. We enjoyed a German Spargel (white asparagus) dinner.
It was a long day, fully scheduled, but not hectic. It would have been nice to spend more time everywhere, but...(next time)
The next morning, Ulla & Peter Chudziak served a sumptuous breakfast at their beautiful home. With our full stomachs, we took a 45 minute walking tour of downtown Lingen.
* * * |
Thursday, June 2: On our way to Bislich, we stopped in Münster to see, where Matti Bröcher produces all the wonderful Rhenania Jr models, and many, many more. Our first impression: how can he be producing all this in such a small room. But the output is perfect:
http://picasaweb.google.com/haraldchen96/2011June2RhenaniaJrRhenania
In Bislich, Norbert Bröcher (Rhenania) was waiting for us with coffee, tea and homemade cake. After a 1 1/2 hour discussion of the state of the 1250 hobby (quite interesting, when switching back and forth between German and English), Norbert had prepared a special presentation about the local area: In March of 1945, this area was the battle field for Operation Varsity, where the 9th US Army and the 17th US Airborne crossed the river Rhine successfully. Among all other resources, they used 1300 gliders for this mission.
Norbert showed us on maps and in books the local areas and buildings from this time, and then we took a 1 hour car tour of the actual area today. If I would have been driving through, without Norbert's guidance, I would have never imagined all that took place here.
As a surprise, Norbert had rushed a limited production of the Waco gliders in 1250, and we all got 2 models as a visitor present.
For dinner, we went to the Fährhaus, overlooking the Rhine, with great food (and deserts), thus concluding another very interesting and informative day.
* * * |
|
Friday, June 3: Bislich to Amsterdam is only a 90 minute trip. So we got to Amsterdam early and checked into another beautiful, but reasonably priced hotel at the outskirts: Hotel Casa 400.
After an unplanned tour of downtown Amsterdam (too much construction sent our GPS into a circle)), we visited the Rijksmuseum with its beautiful display of historical paintings.
For dinner we met Peter and Mariana van Staalduinen at Pasta & Basta. Great Italian dishes, and the wait staff doubles as singing entertainment. From there, we took a candlelight grachten tour with wine & cheese.
* * *
Saturday, June 4: Every 1. Saturday of the month, the Dutch Ship Collector Club (DSCC) meets in a restaurant at the site, where the DELFT is being rebuilt, in Rotterdam. The DSCC Chairman, Peter van Stalduinen, had invited us to join them for the June meeting, and that led eventually to him and Rob Tas joining our SMSC European Tour.
The DSCC has an interesting core group of members, and we enjoyed being part of the proceedings.
The DELFT is being built, just like 200 years ago. The oak wood has to be cut out of trees that have grown "bent". Construction started in 2003, and will probably take another 10+ years to complete.
After a typical Dutch lunch courtesy of the DSCC, we went to AllOnScale - Exact Exceptional Model Building. Here they produce beautiful ship models in large scale, down to 1:1000. I think discussions are on the way for a 1250 model.
For the finish of our trip, Peter van Staalduinen had promised us an Indonesian buffet, prepared by himself in his nice house in Purmerend, near Amsterdam. He surprised us all with an exceptional selection of traditional foods-I have been to Indonesia many times, so I know. Thank you, Mariana & Peter, for making the conclusion of our trip another highlight.
Peter also has a very interesting collection of 1250 models. He got started with Triang, and now he has an almost complete set of Nordzee's.
Our tour was perfect in every aspect: a great group of collectors experiencing new highlights every day for 12 days. Our local hosts everywhere were fantastic. They helped with the planning of the trip--1 year in the making. They were gracious hosts that helped along every step of the way. They took the time to be with us all day.
Our trip was centered around Kassel, and for some of us, this was the first Kassel experience. And what a great experience that is. I definitely want to do that again.
* * *
|
Ulrich Rudofsky, who accompanied the group, has compiled his own photo supplements to the Tour:
|
