Taiwan wins 3 golds at Philippine scale-model competition

Manila, Aug. 3 (CNA) A depiction of a French tank crew during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu was among three gold-medal Taiwanese entries at the recently concluded 2026 Philippine Scale Model Show (PSMS) in Parañaque, Metro Manila.

All 12 members of Taiwan's delegation won medals at the event, which ran from July 30 to Sunday and attracted more than 800 entries from the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Weylen Tseng (曾偉人) won gold in the military vehicles category for his scale model of a French tank and its crew resting during the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, a decisive victory for Vietnamese independence forces that precipitated the end of French colonial rule in Vietnam.

Tseng told CNA he enjoys exploring lesser-known historical subjects and extended a large tree beyond the model's base to evoke the Vietnamese landscape.

He also added soldiers chatting, studying maps and answering a field telephone around their tank to create a stronger narrative.

Team leader Huang Kang-chia (黃康家), a three-time winner at the event, took bronze in military vehicles with a model of a Philippine V-300 armored vehicle in digital camouflage.

Huang said he chose the rare subject to connect with local hobbyists and promote exchanges.

Other Taiwanese medalists included Ho Shih-chieh (何世傑), who won gold and bronze in the aircraft category and silver in the fiction vehicles category; Chiu Yen-an (邱顏安), who won silver and bronze in the ships category; Chen Yi-an (陳奕安), who took bronze in the aircraft category; Lai Chun-hung (賴俊宏), who earned gold and bronze in the dioramas category and bronze in the military vehicles category; and Hsieh Lung (謝龍), who earned bronze in the fiction vehicles category.

Taiwan's representative to the Philippines, Wallace Chow (周民淦), presented awards at the ceremony and praised the team's continued success since the Philippines launched the international competition in 2024.

He said the event not only provides a platform for model enthusiasts to exchange ideas but also helps deepen people-to-people ties between Taiwan and the Philippines.

Throughout the event, the Taiwanese team wore uniforms bearing the national flag, and waved Taiwanese flags on stage during the awards ceremony.