About

 How to find us

We meet at:Ampfield Village Hall Morleys Lane Romsey Hampshire SO51 9BJBetween 8 and 10 pm

Club History
Romsey Modellers was set up in 2001 by Les Cooper who moved to Romsey in 1999/2000 after living in Waterlooville for several years , he previously moved from London. He was a regular member of IPMS Portsmouth before moving to Romsey. The travelling to and from Cowplain where the club met was just too much for his small car. He had no idea there was an IPMS Southampton branch that he could have attended! If Les had known about Southampton he would not have made the first move to try and start a model club in Romsey.

Les placed an ad in the monthly Romsey Gazette that is delivered free to your door. It went along the lines of “Are you a model maker and would you like to meet like minded modellers”. The ad went out in late 2000 and a few days later the phone rang and it was Dougy Wotton followed a day or so later by a call from John Cox. They both told Les about IPMS Southampton. At this point Les would have happily discontinued trying to form a new model club, but both Dougy and John insisted that there was a need to start a new club in the Romsey area. The first few meetings were held in the old Royal British Legion branch in Latimer St, Romsey where John was in the committee. They were not well attended and Les was downhearted at the lack of response and ready to throw in the towel.

The room we met in at the Legion was not conducive to a new model club. John organised a new meeting hall: the Red Cross hall in Great Well Drive. Up until now we had been able to obtain the meeting rooms at no cost but that had to change. By now we had a few regular members which I am sorry to say we poached from IPMS Southampton and we were just about able to afford the cost of the hire.

Our first ‘outing’ to put on a display came courtesy of an invite from the model railway exhibition that is on every year at the Cornfield Hall in Romsey. Gary Bezant, Pat Camp and Les put on a display for the two days of the show. Gary’s large scale R/C Tamiya Tiger Tank created a lot of interest and some raised eyebrows when it thundered around the hall making lots of tank type noises and the children thought it was great fun.

Over the next few years we attended many shows as well as The Mountbatten School model show: our local event. This has been a great advertisement for Romsey Modellers in the last six years, our displays showing the variety of different subjects the members build. It has not just been the display models that have created the attention, with Pat, Vic, Paul and Ben building models to show how its done and talking to members of the public who may be future Romsey Modellers. The enthusiasm of the club comes over at these events, which is very important for the future of Romsey Modellers.

Sadly John Cox died in March 2005 while Les left the club in June 2007 to move to pastures new with his new wife.

Pat Camp had already taken over most of the administrative tasks really pushed the club on in 2006-07, his enthusiasm and great modelling skills influenced many members. Pat took over the production of Update the clubs magazine bringing a very polished look to the publication.

Pat left the club in March 2008 to take up a wonderful job in Aix-en-Provence, France where he continues to stay in touch and contribute to Update. It is a testimony to the massive contribution that Pat made in the club that four members now perform the roles that Pat used to undertake alone.

Romsey Modellers has grown to its present size through the support of its members and the hard work of it’s founders. See our Club Night page for information on how you can experience our club nights.

Club Orgainisation

Paul Adams	Club President and Treasurer
Sean Summers	Competition Secretary
Tony Adams	Club Secretary and Magazine Editor and Webmaster
Mark Husband	Show Co-ordinator

 

Send us an email