Milan Hobby Expo and Training about Europe By Stephen Tontoni

This fall, I had the opportunity to take a vacation abroad. I decided to go to Italy, then planned my trip around a model show in Milan at the Hobby Expo and ending with the Barcolana sailing regatta in Trieste. Since there are a couple of weeks between the events, I made a rough plan for sightseeing and shopping in Prague during the interim. I took a similar trip taking in the model show in Milan in 1999, but was there for only 12 days and stayed in Italy. This trip would last three weeks and I’d train through 5 countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia).

I flew into Linate Airport as the Hobby Expo is in the immediate vicinity at the Parco Esposizione Novegro, which is sort of an exposition complex. The Hobby Expo there is a trade show for all the hobbies, running the gamut from remote control, slot cars, trains, modeling, live steam trains, even Mechano. The Expo runs several days, ending on the weekend. There were police on Saturday and Sunday directing traffic as so many people attended then. As a small part of the trade show, IPMS Milano Centro hosts the Campionato Nazionale (national championship) there every year. The IPMS Nationals in the US is totally reversed from this set-up; at our shows, the contest is the center of attention while vendors are an added benefit. I was a spectator at the Campionato Nazionale in 1999 but brought two models to compete this year.

Another difference is that at most of our shows in the US, models are displayed in the open on tables; at the Campianato Nazionale, most of the models were displayed in glass cabinets with shelves. This helps with security of the models as spectators sometimes can’t resist touching models, but it makes picture-taking a real challenge. Also, it makes the show very compact, so at times there were human traffic jams in the model viewing area. It is hard for me to estimate how many models were at the contest with that format, but I’d guess there were 200- 300 models present. The quality was excellent and some of the armor, especially, left me with my mouth gaping.

On arriving at that show, I first ran into Rodolfo Mattavelli who I had met at the same show in 1999. As time passed, more and more modelers who I met before showed up and it was great to reconnect with them. They invited me out to dinner (more of a banquet) with them on the Saturday evening of the show. Dinner was delicious and capped off with gelato, grappa, and something new to me: mandarino. This would be a good time to thank everyone for their hospitality, especially Rodolfo, Luca Beato, Fabio Beato, Richard, Alex, Alfredo, and all the others.

Also, it was during dinner that I acquired my most prized possession of the entire trip; two books (Regia Aeronautica Caccia & Assalto 1940-1943 Parte 1 and Part 2, La Bancarella Aeronautica – Torino) were given me by the authors (Paulo Waldis, Marino De Bortoli, Angelo Brioschi). I had them sign the title pages for me right there at dinner. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity!

Beginning a trip abroad with a model show like this is really terrific. First of all, it’s great fun and the international community of modelers is a very friendly place. Second, you can acquire valuable information when talking to other modelers; they are likely to know the coolest museums and detours that you can take on your trip that no travel agent would possibly know about. Another benefit is that you will have a chance to use the language of the country you are visiting in a totally non-threatening place. My Italian is weak but I had ample opportunity to practice it in an environment with which I am very familiar.

The next stop on my trip was Trento. This is a beautiful town in its own right but it is also the home of the Caproni Museum. The Caproni Museum is a fairly compact museum full of various subjects. I tried to take pictures there with mixed results; it’s just not lit for photography and my camera has a weak flash. I with I had some quality photographs to put up from that visit. I think the most interesting aircraft in there: SM-79 in Lebanese markings, Ca100 on floats, and Ansaldo SVA-5 in the markings of D’Annunzio. Of course, there are many other aircraft on display, but those are the ones that struck my fancy the most. Although it’s a bit of a challenge to get there without a car, it’s worth the effort. (I took the #8 bus near there, then walked in, but I like walking!)

Next stop was Vienna. I had only planned on transiting Vienna before getting to Prague, but ended up staying there for several days. Sightseeing and people-watching is a great deal of fun in Vienna and there are TONS of museums. It was here that I met a wonderful Irish woman drinking Sturm near Stefansplatz. She and I went to one art museum and then the military history museum in the Arsenal near the Sudbahnhof. In the military history museum, they have a lot of WWI artillery and a couple of small armor subjects (I had never seen a Goliath tank-bomb before except for the DML kit!). For airplane guys like me, the hot find there was the Albatros B.II they have there. It’s beautifully restored but you can only see it from the front. I wish it were not tucked away like that. They also have a Fieseler Storch hanging from a ceiling in a separate gallery.

On to Prague! When you cross from Austria to the Czech Republic, you are leaving the EU, so you will have your passport checked a couple of times. They use Kc there; these are Czech Crowns (Koruna Ceska – pardon me for not using the correct accent marks but my keyboard doesn’t have them). I think there are currently about 27 Kc to the US dollar; it’s a good idea to have a calculator handy and just divide to get the equivalent.

On my first day in Prague, after settling in a pension near the river in the Nova Mesto (the new city), I went shopping using a map sent me by Lubos Vinar of Hobbyshop.cz (see their ad at the top of this page). There were four models shops in easy walking distance from my pension. Of those stores, MGD was the most interesting to me. It carried a number of kits for resale, so they sometimes came with extra PE and extra resin included. My big finds, however, were the resin kits there; I’m a big fan of Czech resin! I got some excellent deals there. MPM is a bigger store with a much wider selection (about a 5 minute walk from MGD) but most of their kits were ones that I could get fairly easily here in the US. Still the prices were excellent, so I picked up several items.

The other store that I really enjoyed wasn’t in that area; it was in the south of the city not too far from the Haje (pronounced HAH yah) metro stop. This was the Legato store, so it carried the most resin kits of any place that I visited, mostly the Legato line (include link here). The Legato store opened in the late afternoon, around 4:00PM and it was a bustling little place. Apparently, it is the store where modelers like to hang out and talk about the hobby and so forth. Also the phone was constantly ringing during the hour or so that I was there. Like the old saying of going to the restaurants on the highway where the truck drivers seem to all be going, you won’t go far wrong by visiting the model shop where modelers hang out.

I was in email contact with Lubos; we rendezvoused at the MGD store and then walked around a bit. He took me to what looked like a fantasy bookstore from the outside; it had a wall of modeling and aircraft magazines then another whole area of technical books on various military subjects. I got a great book on Polish WWI aircraft; thanks Lubos!!

I picked up a few words of Slovak while in the Czech Republic, but cannot form a real sentence with it. Still, I learned enough to order a coffee or a beer and to say please and thank you. One of the most important things that I learned while there was ZAPLATIM (ZAH plah teem), which means “I’d like to pay”. Add “PROSIM” (pronounced PRO seem) and you are saying “I’d like to pay please”. This is an important sentence to have in Prague because unlike American restaurants that hurry you out the door when you are finished with your meal, you can stay for <b>hours</b> in a Prague restaurant if you feel like it. That much ability with a language will get you a surprisingly long way when abroad. I never felt frustrated for lack of communication while in Prague. I tried to use Slovak, and the people who I talked to met me more than halfway with very basic communication or with English. Many people I met had at least some English while many had excellent English. Still, do not be afraid to try the language!

Again, I strongly recommend participating in model shows on the front end of trips to other countries for the reasons that I listed above. The problem of getting the model there is generally simpler than getting it home after the show is over unless you are prepared to carry the model for the remainder of the trip. For myself, I weighed the risk of damage to the models against having to carry them for two more weeks and decided the risk was acceptable. I recognized that damage would probably result, but figured that if I built the model in the first place, I could probably repair any damage. In fact, my Albatros D.III, which took a second place in Milan, lost most of its rigging when mailed home while the rest was totally intact. The Ju87-G1 that I showed also lost one of its wing cannon, which will be a two-minute repair. The damage to the D.III will take more time to repair, but I make take this as an opportunity to correct some inaccuracies in the conversion that I did. I have no regrets about mailing them.