Model Armour

On a rainy day in February the family and I decided to take a day trip out to the Imperial War Museum – North, situated on the banks of the Manchester ship canal it is only about 20 minutes drive from where I live yet it had taken 9 years to get round to visiting....typical modellers timeline.

The Museum itself is a rather imposing building that hangs on to the banks of the canal, it was designed as 3 ‘shards’ by architect Daniel Libeskind and occupies an industrial area that was heavily bombed during the war.

The museum, like all public museums in the UK is free to enter but of course they get you by charging for parking, whilst this is ample and not ridiculously expensive there is no on street parking nearby so unless you get the metro you are stuck. On gate guard duty is a T55 that was captured during operation Desert Storm; she’s still in good condition considering her outdoor location.

The main entrance leads into the cavernous vertical structure and in fact contains a lift that takes you up to a gantry, we didn’t take the trip so I am unsure as to what there is to see up there (this is also a chargeable trip). Incidentally striking a pose on entrance is purely optional.

One nice touch is that there are plenty of lockers available for you to put coats and all those belongings you don’t want to carry with you, as it was raining and we were all wrapped up this came in very handy in the warm and dry indoors. The museum itself is all housed on the first floor of the building and there are lifts available for those with prams or wheelchairs, on the way through many poignant reminders of what you have come to see are on display.

The entrance is dominated by a large sculpture entitled Crusader by contemporary artist Gerry Juda...

This is flanked by a less contemporary sculpture entitled Harrier AV8b by MacDonnell Douglas...

The main hall is a cavernous affair and there are regular presentations that provide recordings from the people involved whilst huge images are cast upon the bare white walls. This really is like being inside a huge 360 degree cinema but the effect really works, the voices and the sound effects coupled with the images draw the audience in and almost demands your unfaltering attention. At this point one is struck by the different approach this museum seeks to take; there is a definite feeling of condemnation against conflict rather than its glorification. I’m not suggesting that the museum goes all ‘tree huggy’ but the way the presentations are done is with a sense of poignancy about the events of war, certainly the presentation about how the war affected the Children certainly moved me close to tears (I blame being a dad, I was hormonal).

The museum, being a satellite of the IWM in London is considerably smaller and can be got round in about an hour which in truth was a little disappointing but what is there is still extremely interesting. The walls of the museum are festooned with relics and items from all major conflicts over the last 100 years and some are brought out for a more hands on look, in this case a teddy bear we had to take out as part of a school project for my eldest son.

Away from the walls the floor space is occupied with various items from field guns to fire engines these are well spaced so there is no feeling of being closed in despite the lack of any natural outside light.

 

 

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