Intermodellbau 2025 Part 1

Last week, from Thursday to Sunday, the Intermodellbau in Dortmund was held. The World's largest trade fair for model building & model sports.

The Intermodellbau is a show, that covers various aspects of the model building hobby, from RC cars to model trains, model kits build from paper, plastic or metal, in all different scales from z-scale to full-scale replicas. It is not a wargaming event but due to the proximity with building models and painting them, we want to give it a try and show you our event coverage on here.

The venue, the trade halls and Westfalenhalle (often used for concerts and other cultural events), are located next to the football stadium Westfalenstadion (home of Borussia Dortmund) and the ice sport centre, and sport a large area for parking as well a good connection towards the highway. The show itself spreads out across six of the eight halls of the venue.

Regular tickets started at 17 EUR, children up to 6 for free, older children pay 9 EUR. Various packages for families (32 EUR for a family of 4, two adults and two children). Parking is another 10 EUR and close to the halls.

Hall 3 - Ship model building & Model aircraft demonstrations

We started in hall 3, which covered mostly ships and naval themes, along with an enclosed area for model aircrafts. The highlight was the large water basin, which is more than 500 m² in size (approx. 5,400 sq ft), in which various RC boats and ships were shown. This was hosted by a commentator, introducing the various models and their history. The kids loved that part, especially seeing some of the special boats, like a fire boat with a functioning fountain and various torpedo and speed boats, that showed how fast they could go.

While there were a few traders, most of the exhibitors were various clubs, for example the Berufskolleg Neandertal showing a model of the Titanic, or the SMC Wuelfrath with various entertaining exhibits.

This diorama was build by the SMC Gelsenkirchen, and combined various elements of model building, showing a harbour city during world war two.

The MBV Hofstade exhibited this impressive setup of Operation PLUTO. There was a huge watertank and moving ships on it. Another great display, that really caught my eye.

But it was not all about the 20th century, as the Arbeitskreis Historischer Schiffbau (historical shipbuilding research group) with these pieces, the Bonhomme Richard in 1:35 by Johnny Modellbau.

Various more clubs showed a lot more ships, but this incredibly large model of the Admiral Graf Spee by Mini Marine International was an incredible sight, along with the illuminated aircraft carrier next to it.

Hall 4 - Railway model building

From there we went into the next hall, which was focused on model trains and mostly manufacturers of the various train sets and terrain.

A lot of famous german names, like Fleischmann and Märklin. Interesting displays, I really liked the one by Fleischmann showing the Mosel-Valley, as that is a familiar sight for me and I recognised it without reading the label. Märklin had a play area for kids and all kinds of trains, in various scales, from outdoor sets to cooperations with other brands, like the Haribo Train.

Noch, a company from southern Germany, had a large booth and used to have a daughter company for tabletop wargaming scenery Ziterdes. They supported us on our RPC shows with large displays, and they surely know how to put scenes into action.

A large snowed in citywas shown by Kufenau Miniaturmodellbau, including interacting elements, where you could push a button and active certain segments.

Among the various displays , I stumbled upon the booth by Bachmann / Liliput (distributor for Woodland Scenics). Woodland Scenics is an american company and often used for wargaming displays. I am honest, I was very tempted to go drop some serious cash on model trees.

A real highlight was shown by Faller, the „Meidericher Hüttenwerk“ in 1:87 scale.

Hall 5 - RC-model building, Cardboard model building, Plastic model building

Once we headed into hall 5, we saw the cooperating booth by Carrera / Revell, with lots of racing tracks, that the visitors (or mostly the kids) could have a go with. Have to say, was impressed how well the track was still doing after four days and countless crashes. The cars even still had their side-view mirrors.

Various RC-trucks, going offroad were display, a small building site exhibited by the IG Modellbauer Dortmund, having trucks, excavators and such interact with eachother, and a large booth with cardboard model building by the Modellbauclub Mainz.

The PMC Dortmund had a large booth, and aside the various model kits, there were some displays of miniatures and busts, very similar to what we do in our hobby. With some stunning exhibits by Karsten "Elaphus" Pöpping.

We continue in part 2 of our coverage.