Sunday 17th of February saw me crossing the fens to Spalding for this show at the Springfields Events Centre. At £3.50 this was a lot cheaper than Brighton and I stayed about the same time, not bad considering Spalding is held in only two halls of comparable size to the halls used for Model-Ex 2007.

Firstly a couple of minor criticisms, Trade stands in the large hall, Models in the small. I thought this should have been the other way round, if not combined, and the model hall was poorly lit - not ideal for photography.

The show was dominated by diecast models of trucks and construction vehicles, however there were some exceptional scratch built models of the same. It was a revelation to me as to what was available in diecast from towercranes, piledrivers, bulldozers and classic American commercials ranging in price from £20 to £500. Models that caused me to have a second look were the following:

• A fully operational dragline in about 1/43rd scale. This was operated by a human driver sitting in a chair with similar controls to a real dragline inc foot pedals.
• A diorama in around 1/8th scale of a fully fitted commercial vehicle restoration workshop with vehicles built with timber framing as real ones were of the day. This same modeller also builds vehicles that have been involved in accidents from photos and newspaper cuttings.
• There were also a number of real vehicles on show including AEC Matadors, Commer, F86 Volvo, Showmans Scammel, a fairly modern Scammel ballast truck belonging to Abnormal Load Engineering and about another half a dozen or so.

This show was well worth the trip and it is an ideal place to take the wife as part of the complex is a retail outlet centre and formal gardens with plenty for the kids to do.