We have done many Airfix competitions since 2006 with the Air Force Museum and ITE (Institute of Technical Education). But this year, the management of the Air Force Museum changed from RSAF (Republic of Singapore Air Force) to an new management under Defence Collective Singapore Pte Ltd (DCS) which manages all the military museums formerly under the RSAF, RSN (Republic Of Singapore Navy) and Singapore Discovery Centre (army musuem).
DCS only took over the Air Force Museum on 1st June 2024, and we then negotiated with them for our annual National Airfix Aeronautical Model Engineering Competition 2024. The theme this year was 80th Anniversary of D-Day.
Preparation and promotion of the event went with the distribution of flyers, posters, internet marketing and word of mouth.
Mick Stephen flew in from Indonesia on Monday 25th November 2024 to assist with the preparation of the event.
On Thursday 28th November 2024, NG Keng Leong picked me up from the home and then met Mick at Hobby Bounties to move most of the stuff required for setting up at the Innovation Lab of the Air Force Museum.
The DCS staff were ready and had opened the Innovation Lab for our setting up. Lester Poh came and assisted us with moving the large tables for displaying entries.
Our first entries arrived when we opened for registration at 12 noon. The registration was handled by Adele and her friend Zoe, while the software was written by Adele’s elder sister Jasmine. There were Airfix 72nd E-boat and Airfix 54mm WWII Multipose, and an Airfix 35th Cromwell tank.
At 2pm, Bryan Ng came for his ‘make & take’ and was soon joined by Zoe. This was with the Airfix 72nd Supermarine Spitfire Mk1a and Humbrolwork stations, Humbrol cutting mats, Humbrol glue and paints.
The next wave of Airfix entries came after 5pm, when people finished their day of work or school. That day’s total was about 17. There was interest from another 2 - 3 students wanting to join the ‘make & take’ on Friday.
On Friday, we arrived at 10am to receive any entries. Then Bryan, Zoe and Isaac came to continue ‘make & take’, to be joined by Romain and Victor later in the afternoon. By this time, we had Mick Stephen, Henry Low Lester Poh, and Lee Stringer teaching the youngsters how to build an Airfix 72nd Supermarine Spitfire Mk1a.
We also had Denise Tan, an influencer, come in at 3pm to do live streaming of the entries and models, and to encourage people to visit on Saturday. She also filmed the ‘make & take’ so that those watching understood what is involved.
The judging by Leslie Choy, Mick Stephen and Suresh Nathan started about 6pm and continued to 10pm. By this time, we had 40 entries with about half coming from the schools. There was much discussion before awarding the InterSchool aircraft awards.
On Saturday, we opened to the public from 10am while we sorted the awards and prizes with Meng and his wife Estelle. Denise came and did the live streaming of our event.
Our guest of honour, Joseph Tan, the CEO of DCS, arrived at 1:30pm. We showed him around where we conducted our ‘make & take’, the entries, the judges, participants and public.
Peter Chiang came his speech at 2pm around modelling teaching youngster 3D thinking, problem solving and motor skills development. And the need to be able to defend oneself and vigilant in this uncertain times.
We then gave award the prizes, the winners are:
Aircraft Master Class
First place - Ng Keng Leong
Second place - Kevin Luo Shijun
Aircraft Senior
First place- Md Asrudin
Second place-Thin Yanze
Third place-Tan Check Seng Isaac
Aircraft Senior Class - Commendation
Jeremy Neo
Aircraft Interschool
First place - Bryan Ng (Airfix 72nd Spitfire Mk1a)
Second place - Roman Jegarajah (Airfix 72nd Avro Lancaster)
Third place - Nathaliya Binti Abdul Rahman (Airfix 48th Hawker Hunter FGA.9)
Certificate of commendation for aircraft interschool
Isaac Koh (Airfix 72nd Spitfire Mk1a)
Ho Jia Le (Airfix 48th Hawker Hunter FGa.9)
Alayna Aleesha D/O Rashik Ahmed (Airfix 48th Hawker Hunter FGA.9)
Ong Wen Xuan Nicole (Airfix 48th Hawker Hunter FGA9)
Open Inter School Open - Deryck Scully award
Orion Wee
Most Creative - Wong Ju Lih (Airfix 35th M10 Jackson diorama)
Best Airfix - Cho Jia Yang (Airfix 72nd E-Boat)
Open Masterclass
First place: YEE Soon Tuck (Airfix 76th LCM & Sherman)
We then took the group photos, and thanked Joseph Tan with a presentation of a model of the last operational RAF Spitfire which was from RAF Seletar.
We are thanking for all the volunteers and participants for making this year’s event a success, and look forward to seeing you next year.
Our next National Airfix Aeronautical Model Engineering Competition 2025 will be from 4th - 6th December 2025, and the theme is 80th anniversary of the end of WWII - man and machines.