As 2024 is limping towards it’s end as I write this, I thought it be a good time to reflect back on what we have achieved over the past year with SMS, even though it is a little cliché.

January started off with our production lines running full speed to restock after strong sales in December and to keep up with retailer orders which also skyrocketed during January as our retailers restocked after their busy holiday period as well.

Our advertisers copy of Model Car Truck Motorcycle World magazine turned up at this point, featuring an in-depth interview with myself about SMS and what we are all about.

 

You can still purchase this issue via the Guideline Publications website or digitally via PocketMags.

 

Oz Wheels is a brand new range of 1/64 Australian diecast cars produced by our friends at Diecast Distributors Australia. We received a big box of HJ Sandman bodies from them to use for promotional purposes and also to paint some cool paint schemes, not only to show off our paints, but to give some inspiration to Jesse from Oz Wheels for future releases. We also provided a wide range of samples of factory spec colours to Oz Wheels for their series 2 release and some of their special edition cars.

 

 

 

 

 

February rolled around before we knew it, and it was time for us to attend the Australian Toy Fair at the Exhibition Centre in Melbourne as an exhibitor.

 

This is a trade only show (business to business only – no public entry) and it allowed us to showcase our brand to many new retailers, many of whom either didn’t know us or knew about us but wanted to see the products in person before they committed to putting our brand in their stores.

 

As a first time exhibitor, we were quite happy with the results, with multiple new retailers coming on board, helping us expand our brand even further within Australia. 

March saw a release for a special edition Colour Set of the RAAF Mariner for our friends at Hobbies Australia to pair up with the Academy kit release. Hobbies Australia also worked to include Australian Marking decals in the kit (which is a US version out of the box), so combined with our paint set, making an Australian version was that little bit easier than before (but a conversion set from Red Roo models is also recommended to do the Australian version correctly).

 

 

In May, things started to ramp up show wise again with two shows in two weeks with our local show, the Ballarat NNL Model Show, and then the NSW Model Show in Wollongong the following weekend.

Our stand at Ballarat: 

 

Read more about the NSW Model Show here: NSW Model Show Report 

As we moved into June, it was time to celebrate our 8^th anniversary, a relatively big thing for us here at SMS. It’s sometimes hard to fathom that only a short time ago, we were operating out of a tiny space at home and now we are in a custom built factory space with semi automatic production lines and now employ staff to help keep up with demand!

But there wasn’t a lot of time to spend on celebrating as only a few days later was the biggest show for the year, the Australian Model Expo. I’ve been going to Expo since 2007 as an entrant, but have been also trading there since 2017. It’s always a great time at Model Expo and this year was no exception – 3 solid days of good trade, met lots of people, caught up with many friends and saw regular faces, plus won a few trophies too!

 

 

Model Expo also saw the release of the Limited Edition Black Grape Pearl colour which was only made available at model shows that we or our retailers were attending during 2024. This was a huge success with them all selling out in just 2 days! 

 

You can read more about my Expo experience here: Model Expo Report

Whilst at Expo, Richard from Kotare popped past to say hello and to talk about working together on providing paint recommendations for the Kotare model kits instruction manuals. I had originally reached out to Kotare just as their first release of the Spitfire Mk.1A was announced and Richard and I had been talking on and off since then about this possibility. We had a good chat at Expo and after the show, he sent through a list of colours which I then matched from the our range and then did spray outs to send over to New Zealand. Everything lined up to Kotare’s expectations of colour, and you can now find a list of recommended colours in the Kotare instruction manuals along side Tamiya and Humbrol recommendations!

 

 

In July, we found out that we were to be immortalized in diecast with a special placement of our logo on one of the series 2 Oz Wheels cars! 

 

 

One show I had not been to as yet but had always wanted to was QMHE in Ipswich, Queensland. I had been invited to attend for the past few years, but the times never aligned properly due to family commitments around that time, but this year was all clear, so I made the trek up to Brisbane, then out to Ipswich to where QMHE is held.

 

 

I had a fantastic time at the show running demonstrations on how to work with our paints, got to meet a lot of fantastic people from our online community, caught up with a ton of friends that I hadn’t seen in years, and caught up with our friends from DDA and Drake Collectibles.

I also got my hands on a prototype version of the Oz Wheels car that features our logo on it from Jesse (the guy behind Oz Wheels).

 

 

A group photo with the QMHE committee: 

 

Whilst there, I also met up with Neil from Hong Kong Models and had a lengthy chat with him about the possibility of collaborating with HKM like we do with Kotare now. Hopefully, that will come to fruition in due course as well!

Read more about my QMHE adventures here: QMHE Show Report 

September is generally a normal month with not much going on outside of the usual, but this year, the SA Model Expo was unable to book their venue at the same time in October and had to bring their show forward a couple of weeks into September.

 

I once again made the drive over to catch up with everyone, sell some paints and enter the competition. I’ve been attending this show since 2019 (well 2019, then a break due to Covid restrictions, then back again in 2022 until now), and it is always good to head over and catch up with everyone in Adelaide.

You can read more about this show and what I got up to here: SA Model Expo Report

For the final show of the year, I headed up to Canberra for ScaleACT at the start of November. This show is one of my favourites to attend, not just for the show itself and the fantastic people that are there. But also for the fact I can stop by the Australian Dinosaur Museum on the way into Canberra!

 

Have a read of this blog post to see what I got up to in Canberra: Scale ACT Show Report

And to finish off the year, we held our annual Boxing Day Sale. This sale is the one and only time that we run a sale for the year, and we only do it to give a small thank you in form of a discount to everyone for all the support over the year. Each year, we get a day or so into the 3 day event and I feel that we will run short of our targets, but every year so far that we have done this sales event, we have passed our previous record. This year was no exception with a record number of paint leaving our factory over a three-day period. 

We’ve achieved a hell of a lot in the past year, not only what I have outlined above, but also the huge jump in exports that we are now doing to New Zealand, the US and the UK (all of which have jumped significantly in numbers compared to 2023), and we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help and support. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! 

So, on that note, I look back on 2024 with a renewed vigor to grow our brand even further in 2025 and beyond.

Happy New Year everyone, and remember, keep on modelling!

- Scott