Remco’s legion has now grown to 850 painted figures, and he has received around 200 Romans from a very nice Asterix collector, so he will now probably have to paint 1,500 Romans instead of 1,000 for the planned large diorama featuring the Gaulish village.
The Asterix figures have been without a doubt the magnet of our stand
Hans gave an update on his WWI projects.
This picture from Remco is always mandatory!
Andrea finally found the time to continue working on the La Haye Sainte model she’d started a long time ago.
Benno was there for the first time, running a small stall selling 3D-printed miniatures. We can look forward to seeing what else is on offer here.
And Andrea and I played DBA together: New Kingdom Egypt versus the Hittites.
This time we had a lovely visitor from Italy. Massimo Costa, with his http://www.42ndblackwatchminiatures.com miniatures, had a stand there.
And Francesco Messori, the owner of https://www.franznapminiatures.com, also dropped by. This naturally delighted ‘our’ Italian, and Remco suddenly found himself right in the heart of Italy.
The theme of this year’s EME was “Model Making Meets Art”.
A quick aside:
Our contribution to the art exhibition was in the field of AI:
This time, Andrea had just returned from a business trip abroad and his flight had been delayed. To get him in the mood for dinner, Remco sent him this picture of the selected menu. For an Italian, that’s absolutely out of the question. But as Andrea knows our sense of humour, he thought the joke was about the Hawaiian pizza we’d ordered for him and not the picture, which he took completely seriously. Perhaps it was also down to the long journey...
Back to art!
The grand master and my go-to dealer for 1/72 scale models, Kai Fuhrmann http://www.fuhrmann-figuren-shop.de, presented a painting of the Highlanders at Waterloo, created by his brother Rolf.
Matchbox was represented with these AI motifs and then with what I consider to be a truly magnificent painted and presented aircraft kit, which I already showed in my last report. I think it’s a brilliant idea.
As a figurine collector, something else caught my eye – something that may not have been labelled as art, but which, to me, showed an enormous amount of care and effort. This scene featuring the Roman legionaries. They were eye-catching in their own right, but I’d particularly ask you to take a look at the custom-designed frame. I don’t think I need to say much more.
As far as art was concerned, however, the presence of Harry Arling http://www.kosmotroniks.com
was undoubtedly the biggest draw. He told Remco and me that he used to build models as a young man, so he feels a connection to them all and still paints his art objects with enamel paints. They are completely unique pieces with endless details, made from things he recycles for this purpose. Whoever finds the electric toothbrush head wins.
Have a browse on his website – it’s well worth it.
When it comes to art, I can’t help but – just like last year – pick my favourite stand. It’s a group of model-makers who exhibit together and have a truly captivating attention to detail in their models, which in this case also extends to the presentation.
And last but not least, I should mention that a photographer from Austria took these photos of me whilst I was painting Perry Miniatures’ 95th Rifles for the Battle of Waterloo.
Albert Moser was accompanying an exhibitor and took the opportunity to take some photos. Here is a link to the album.https://moser.zenfolio.com/lingen-euro-model-expo-2026
Apart from these lovely pictures, I feel there is little else to add, so I’m keeping my collection of impressions much smaller than usual. There are probably a few overlaps...
For us, this EME was finally an opportunity for us all to see each other again. As always, it was lovely to chat with other exhibitors, just as it was to talk to the visitors. Incidentally, there could have been more visitors this year. Perhaps it was down to the rapidly rising fuel prices this time. It might be quite good if a few more people spent their time on model-making rather than on other things that only cause harm. Let’s hope for an even bigger turnout next year; we definitely want to be there again.
And I finally managed to finish the four 95th Rifles from Perry shortly after the EME. It was a great deal for me since I couldn't paint anything since August 2025:
http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=28405
Fantastic report Jan, well done!
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