Revisiting the AMPS National Convention: A Journey of Models, Memories, and Community

The Voice of Bob: 0:11

Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby. Let's join Mike and Kentucky Dave as they strive to be informative, entertaining and help you keep your modeling mojo alive.

Mike: 0:51

Well, Mojovia, this is not episode 114. We've got a little special episode this month because Dave and I have been on a road trip, haven't we, buddy?

Kentucky Dave: 0:59

Yes, we did. Not only have we been on a road trip, we've been on a road trip to a contest that we have not been to for quite a while.

Mike: 1:07

Yes, it's the Plastic Model, mojo. Return to Amps. Now, of course, it's not returned for the podcast. It's returned for Mike and Kentucky Dave, because we haven't been in oh, somewhere between 15 and 20 years between us we can't really decide, but it's been a long time it has.

Kentucky Dave: 1:22

We can't really decide, but it's been a long time it has.

Mike: 1:23

So we've decided to shift episode 114 into the early May and share with you guys what we got recorded at the AMPS National Convention or AMPS International Convention, and a few bits after the show, post-show, just to let you know what to expect. We've got a few segments where we're going to discuss various aspects of the show we attended, and then we're going to cut in some short segments with some other people that we've met along the way or talked to after the conclusion of the show. How's that sound, dave?

Kentucky Dave: 1:53

Hey, listen, I think it's well worth letting all the people who didn't get to go for one reason or another to get a little bit of the Amps experience, Because I got to say the Amps experience was pretty darn great.

Mike: 2:11

We'll get into some of that a little later. But to set the stage, Dave, I think I've decided it has been about 20 for me. I'm not sure I went to Auburn, Indiana. I think the show up in Ohio was the last one I ever went to.

Kentucky Dave: 2:26

Okay, yeah, that would make it close to 20.

Mike: 2:29

Where was that again?

Kentucky Dave: 2:31

It was near Youngstown.

Mike: 2:33

Yeah, it was Youngstown Ohio.

Kentucky Dave: 2:35

Right on the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Mike: 2:39

And for you, what was the last AMPS convention you attended?

Kentucky Dave: 2:43

It was one in Auburn, indiana, which they did twice, and I think I attended both of them, so mine would be the last time they held a national in Auburn.

Mike: 2:56

So it's been a while yes, to cut to the chase. It's been a while. I got expectations on the outline. Let us know what you were kind of expecting or not expecting.

Kentucky Dave: 3:07

I didn't know what to expect. To be honest with you, after the last AMPS National in Auburn that I attended, my membership lapsed and I didn't, you know. I knew that AMPS was still out there because quite a number of the people who are involved in it are good friends of ours, so I knew it still existed, but I really didn't keep up with what occurred, where it had all the different places that it was held. And it was only about what? Two years ago that I rejoined AMTS.

Kentucky Dave: 3:48

Now I'm an aircraft guy. I do mostly aircraft, although I'm not limited other than in scale. I'll do almost anything 72nd scale. But I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if it was going to be bigger than the shows that we used to attend, whether it was going to be smaller, what the facility was going to be like. Because, let's face it, you and I were used to attending AMPS when it was in Harv DeGrasse, maryland, harv DeGrasse, maryland, at a facility that was, to put it, kindly limited, yes, very limited. I mean it was a fun experience, don't get me wrong, but it could get really warm in there.

Mike: 4:39

It could, it was just big enough.

Kentucky Dave: 4:42

It was just barely big enough, or maybe just barely too small. So I really didn't know what to expect and I got to tell you I was pleasantly surprised in every aspect of the National Convention. How about you?

Mike: 5:00

Like you, I didn't go into it with any expectations. I probably went into it with trepidations instead. Yes.

Mike: 5:09

Because, primarily, I was going to enter and I know at what level I was entering in when we were going to AMSA on the regular in the late 90s and early 2000s, and I've told the story numerous times, I won't retell it but after that 2002 show, one of the last shows at Harvard grass, uh, I kind of uh became the old armchair modeler. I wasn't doing very much and was kind of uh floundering a little bit because, uh, a model that edged me out at that show kind of set the stage for this coming storm of a big style shift, I guess. And suddenly I didn't know what I was doing, I guess, to be honest. So I went in there taking my entries. There were entries that I had really not built. I used to build for contests and I used to build for amps. Both of these were kind of learning experiences for myself and built for myself and just to try some new stuff.

Mike: 6:08

And I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how many friendly faces were going to still be there. I didn't know how big, like you said, how big the show was going to be, but I really didn't have any expectations. I was just, like I said, a little bit more of trepidations, wondering if I don't know how to say it, I guess if my builds were going to be relevant at the level they're going to have to be entered because of my past entrance to the show. But we went with an open mind and we were pleasantly surprised. We were pleasantly surprised on a lot of fronts.

Kentucky Dave: 6:42

More than pleasantly surprised.

Mike: 6:45

That's true. But you know, I guess one of the biggest surprises at the show was and it's entirely through the podcast, just about. You know, we knew a lot of people there, right, mostly through the podcast, but I suspect because it was more or less a single genre of centric kind of you know all armor show. You had a smaller but tighter, more cohesive community there. Yes, so we ended up knowing a lot of people, and a lot of people we know came from a long way.

Kentucky Dave: 7:13

Yes, that's one thing that I really was. One of the many things I really was pleasantly surprised at was, I think, even more thanPS back in the day. I think AMPS today draws from a much wider geographic area.

Mike: 7:33

It does. I suspect that's because of the longevity they've had. It largely drew from the Northeast United States because at its inception, out of the demise of the Association of Military Modelers, the AMM, I believe, the story is that the Northeastern United States membership list was the only one that survived that could be located. So when a new organization was reconstituted, those are the people who were reached out to first, so it always kind of had a Northeastern bent to it and yeah, I think some of that's been diluted over the years. Yeah Well, on the topic of folks we knew there, coincidentally folks have heard us talk about our Mojovian special agents and these are just folks who've gone out of their way to help the show or help us accomplish something with the show as we've gone along, and we're up to four or five of those folks now. Coincidentally, three of them were at the amp show. Yep.

Mike: 8:28

And they're coming. They were coming from all over the place and we got to reconnect with all of them and we did. First up is special agent 003, brandon Jacob. Now he's down from a South Texas area and he was the guy that helped us out with all the restaurants and stuff there for the last IPMS national convention. And he was the guy that helped us out with all the restaurants and stuff there for the last IPMS national convention, but he came up from Texas. Yeah, let's check out what Brandon had to say about all the amps. Well, dave, we made it to amps, yep, and there's a lot of Mojovian special agents here, coincidentally. Yes there are.

Mike: 9:05

We got one of them here, brandon Jacob Good, to see you, man. We haven't seen you since the national convention in Texas.

Brandon Jacob: 9:12

That's right. It's good to see you guys, man.

Mike: 9:14

Good to see you.

Brandon Jacob: 9:15

Have you been to AMPS before? This is my first national. I've been to AMPS shows, but this is my first nationals. What do you think? Very good, they put on a good show and I think everybody's very friendly.

Mike: 9:30

Oh yeah, we were noticing that too. Yeah, In fact, one thing we noticed was it seemed to be a disproportionate number of folks here that we actually know.

Brandon Jacob: 9:40

Yeah, for the size of the show and it's interesting because everybody has the same interest, right? It boils down to armor guys.

Mike: 9:49

Right, pretty much. I mean, there's a few figures here and some other things, but not much.

Kentucky Dave: 9:54

So now, did you fly in or drive in?

Brandon Jacob: 9:56

I flew in, flew in to where, actually? South Bend.

Kentucky Dave: 10:00

Okay.

Brandon Jacob: 10:01

Yeah, on United, I flew in, but the Texas contingency Stan Spooner, rob Booth, bob Lethay and Eric Choi they drove, oh man, so I didn't have to carry models. There you go. You're going to beat them home too. I'm going to beat them home, and they're carrying my new stack of models.

Kentucky Dave: 10:18

And all your trophies with you.

Brandon Jacob: 10:22

All my trophies.

Mike: 10:24

Well, to what degree have you participated? Did you come as a participant or have you done other stuff?

Brandon Jacob: 10:28

I did judging. I judged a session yesterday and that's about it. And a buyer and a buyer.

Kentucky Dave: 10:35

So how did you find AMPS national judging? Compared to what you've experienced before, I like it.

Brandon Jacob: 10:43

Do you? It's definitely more time consumptive, right? How long was your session? Two hours, two hours, and that's about time to get up and do something else.

Kentucky Dave: 10:58

Time to get up and uncross your eyes.

Brandon Jacob: 11:01

Yeah, but as crazy as it sounds, it's nice that you're sitting and they bring the models to you right, and there's a comfort level of sitting and looking, versus standing like oh yeah right like on the show floor right. Yeah, that's probably a big advantage actually, and uh, it's interesting too, because then also there's a singular focus. Right, there's not a table full of models. This singer, you're focusing on this build right now with three other people, and I think the models get a fair yeah, a fair look that's cool.

Mike: 11:41

Did you enter anything? I did, I did. How many did you? How many did you?

Brandon Jacob: 11:43

bring. I brought four. Oh wow, I brought four. I haven't seen them out yet. I entered them early and I think they're in the backlog, if you will.

Mike: 11:52

Yeah, well, you know, I guess.

Brandon Jacob: 11:57

Thursday would have been early, so you brought four, brought four, yep One vignette, which is cool because they put the vignettes out immediately, right? So I had one on the table to bring people over and show, and then three other soft skin and two armor.

Mike: 12:14

I've got a little vignette and then my anti-tank gun is still back there. What I was about to say was Thursday would have been real early. So a lot of those models are still back there, I guess because they're not running a first in, first out that's exactly right.

Brandon Jacob: 12:25

If I had I known this, I would have waited. Um, you know it's a shame, can I say it? It's a shame that they don't have the non-judged models on display yeah and and it'd be tough because right the process. I'm not criticizing, but you know it would be cool. These aren't judged it and these are judged and we could, you could, because right.

Kentucky Dave: 12:48

Just more time for more people to see them absolutely absolutely no, I get not a bad suggestion yeah, maybe they'll make a change for next year so when do you leave out?

Brandon Jacob: 13:01

well, unfortunately I have to be somewhere this evening and back in houston, so I'm flying out in about an hour. Oh okay, so I'm gonna miss the the saturday fanfare, but well, that's all right.

Kentucky Dave: 13:12

You got somebody to bring your models and your and any awards you might happen to win home, home for you, yeah and uh and uh got my raffle tickets handed off to a friend. There you go.

Mike: 13:23

No, you didn't win anything. Yeah, that's right.

Brandon Jacob: 13:29

But you won a lot of stuff.

Kentucky Dave: 13:31

Well, I bought a lot of stuff. Yeah, well, listen, you can't come here and not put out a little coin, have?

Mike: 13:36

you guys bought. We bought a few things. Yes, no kits. I've actually abstained from buying any kits. I know I bought that one little motorcycle.

Brandon Jacob: 13:44

Yes, I did get it, that's all right Other than that supplies, books, accessories.

Kentucky Dave: 13:49

Yeah, there's one or two things I've got my eye on that I'm probably going to pick up, but again it's Amps Nationals. The vendors are really really good, I've got to say. The quality of the vendors here is just really really excellent.

Brandon Jacob: 14:08

It would be tough not to spend money. Yes, absolutely, even though we don't need anything.

Kentucky Dave: 14:15

So now you've got Winter Blitz coming up, you picked the date for 2025?

Brandon Jacob: 14:21

And, yes, we have. And surprisingly, we just locked it in, uh, for january 25th. Okay, which is great, because this year model fiesta, because of their flexibility, they're still locking in right a a time when they have their show locked in, but they're early. This year Model Fiesta is January 4th, so we wanted to make sure that we give enough birth as possible, so we're going with January 25th. Texas this January is going to be the place to be for model shows.

Kentucky Dave: 14:59

And it'll be warm compared to where we are.

Brandon Jacob: 15:05

January in Texas could be. That's a crapshoot that's for sure.

Mike: 15:11

Yeah, well, before we let you go, where are we going to see you again? Are you going to be in Madison?

Brandon Jacob: 15:15

Absolutely going to be in Madison.

Kentucky Dave: 15:18

And so what trail are you walking next?

Brandon Jacob: 15:21

Well, thank you for asking. She's got the bug, my wife has got the bug and, uh, we're gonna go over and do the camino, which?

Brandon Jacob: 15:31

oh okay, yeah, the camino in in spain, right, and uh, it's about a 500 mile trek, pilgrimage, if you will. Yeah, um, why, widely popular? And uh, we're going to give that a try. And, as a matter of fact, she wants to spend an extra week or two in europe and I've said there's a town in baston, there you go. Maybe a town in verdun as well, but we're gonna. We're gonna spend some time over there and really, right after nationals, just like last year, get out of texas in august that sounds cool, man, yeah yeah, well, safe travels back to texas all right, you all have a good, safe trip back to kentucky land.

Brandon Jacob: 16:13

We will all right, man, you take care.

Mike: 16:16

Thank you well, brandon's always a good guy. I hope he's at Madison.

Kentucky Dave: 16:23

Always a pleasure to see him. It's always great to hear what he's going to do next. I think traipsing across a trail in Spain sounds amazing and the guy's living an adventurous life, so it really was great to be able to see him and to hang out and to talk models as well as everything else.

Mike: 16:49

Well, hopefully it won't be too long before we see him again. Yes, and we'll be seeing him at hopefully at the IPMS National Convention in Madison, Wisconsin, which is a real nice venue and real nice accommodations. That's kind of the next bullet here I wanted to hit. What do you think about the facilities? We'd never been to South Bend.

Kentucky Dave: 17:08

No, I have not my first visit to see Touchdown Jesus. I've never been to. As a good Catholic boy, you would think I'd been to Notre Dame at some point, but no, I've never been to South Bend. It's a beautiful little town. The convention center was really really good. Other than concrete floors which get to your back and your feet by the end of the second day, the facility is fantastic. It's got a beautiful view out onto the St Joseph River. I was really impressed and AMPS only used about one quarter of that facility for their convention and you could easily hold an IPMS national convention in this facility and it would would be a good facility. It would be just the perfect size for an ipms national. It was great for the amps national.

Mike: 18:15

Um, well lit yeah, that's what I was gonna say. It's. It was. Uh, I think some people might, especially if you're taking photographs, but for me it's one of those things that, if it's not a problem, you kind of don't notice. Right, and I didn't. I was never want for more light. I didn't feel, like you know, I don't even know that I thought about it till the very end. It's like you know, this place has got pretty good lighting for how high the ceilings are and everything else going on.

Kentucky Dave: 18:40

Yep, yep, and it was great. Now, given the concentration of vendors and then the models all in the one room, the level of ambient noise was really not uncomfortable. The IPMS Nationals. The room happens to have a lower ceiling or it can get quite loud to the point where it's hard to hear yourself. Think this was just perfect because, as you can hear on the interviews, we could sit down with people and have a really pleasant conversation with no problem hearing each other, anything like that. I understand that amps is going to be in Harrisburg, pennsylvania, next year, but I will tell you I can't wait to see it return to South bend because that is a really, really good venue.

Mike: 19:40

Well, you're not leaving me much else to say. It was just a wonderful venue, yes, well, you're not leaving me much else to say.

Mike: 19:45

It was just a wonderful venue and apparently some folks there had done some old school and hardball negotiations, it sounds like, and got a really good deal on that place and again, it was just a fabulous place. I mean, yeah, some carpet would have helped out a little bit, but we had a place to sit down, yeah, and what gets me to the next good thing about this was Well there's one more thing to mention about the convention center.

Kentucky Dave: 20:12

They had a really good staff. That place was clean and man the restrooms which you know some of these public facilities can get a little iffy. Everything was spot. You would almost have thought you were at a Disney resort, given how clean they kept everything. It was very impressive.

Mike: 20:37

Well, my youngest son, jack, was traveling with us and we took a restroom break there, I guess that first day, and we were walking around the corner from the show hall where the, where the restrooms were, and he's like this place got a swimming pool and it might I don't know, but I don't think it does either, but it might, uh, and I guess they just cleaned, yeah, and it just it. Clearly they'd used a you know know, chlorine or bleach or something in the in the restrooms. But you know, for conventions that size, at these, these public type facilities, I always have the motto go big and go early, because typically the restrooms can get junkyarded and the recovery rates usually slow.

Kentucky Dave: 21:25

But not the case here. Hats off to the people who actually run the convention center, because it was totally clean everywhere. Really nice job.

Mike: 21:38

And the other good thing about it and this is the next sub-bullet on the outline here is to not have been tied specifically with the convention center or actually owning the convention center. The hotels were as bad as close as you can get, oh man.

Kentucky Dave: 21:54

I mean directly, are the hotel we stayed at? Oh yeah, Directly across the street, Since we had your son along. We had a two-room suite and, man, the hotel was fantastic. The one that was like a quarter of a block down where a lot of the other guys stayed, Also, from what I hear. Another fantastic facility the room prices were good. Another fantastic facility the room prices were good. There was another hotel just up the street that wasn't being used as a convention hotel, but if you held the Nationals clearly could be. But man, it was the hotel. Our room was really, really nice.

Mike: 22:42

I was pleased and not only was the convention center close to the hotels but just a block off behind it, continuing away from the convention center past the hotel, was a pretty good swath of downtown South Bend and the hotel had a restaurant list and showed all the ones within walking distance and it was a lot of local joints which we like to do and they're all within walking distance. I mean literally, not even a stretch, I mean a block, block and a half, maybe two, but 10, 12 minutes tops to walk there and didn't have a bad meal there, man.

Kentucky Dave: 23:19

No, did not. In fact, I will venture to say I had one of the best pub meals that I've ever had, no doubt. Last night we went to a place called Fiddler's Hearth, which is an Irish bar, and you, jack, and I went and we had dinner. And this was after the long day at the convention, followed by the awards and putting your models, getting your models and getting them back to the hotel room and all, and I've ventured to say that we had had breakfast, but we really didn't have lunch that day. So we were all pretty starving, and man was that a good meal.

Mike: 24:05

Yeah, that place was good. God would it have like 2,400 reviews or something.

Kentucky Dave: 24:10

They were still like four and a half stars 4.2, 4.5.

Mike: 24:14

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Kentucky Dave: 24:16

And I did a review on Yelp for them too, because they deserve that four plus stars.

Mike: 24:23

Well dining kind of gets us to our next, uh, mojovian special agent dave, okay, uh, double, oh one, mike radsky from down the indianapolis area, part of the roscoe turner chapter, earned his title by picking us up jamaican meat patties from patties of jamaica ahead of the indianapolis shows for a couple years. Yeah, that's how we got to know him.

Kentucky Dave: 24:43

And keep in mind that the Indy show is the first show that Plastic Model Mojo ever set up and recorded at. So Indy has a special place in our heart. We were sorry we weren't able to go this year, just because of the number of the contests all being very close together, just because of the number of the contests all being very close together. Mike has done us a solid by getting us those Jamaican meat patties.

Mike: 25:11

And seems perfectly willing to do it again.

Kentucky Dave: 25:13

Yes.

Mike: 25:16

Let's see what Mike had to say while it amps. Dave, we lucked out. Three of our Mojovian special agents were at one show at one time. How about that? I know it's a gathering. Well, we already talked to Brandon Jacob 003, but we have the original 001 here. Mike Radjke from Indianapolis area. How's it going, man?

Mike Radjki: 25:37

Good, good, good we're good you been to AMPS before. No, this is my first AMPS show. I knew you did a lot of armor, yep, yep, definitely Entered five kits. So kind of excited to see how the judging process is different. Actually get some feedback.

Kentucky Dave: 25:51

so yeah, well, I understand Indy was a really nice show. I mean, mike and I were gutted that we couldn't make it this year, just simply from the standpoint there was so much going on, but sounds like you all had a very successful show.

Mike Radjki: 26:07

Yeah, you know, it keeps growing year by year. We're selling out vendor tables a month in advance now.

Mike: 26:14

We'll have to get on it next year.

Mike Radjki: 26:15

I think we had about 661, I think, was the final tally for this year.

Kentucky Dave: 26:19

Good, that's a good count.

Mike Radjki: 26:20

Yeah, it was a good show, really good show.

Mike: 26:22

Well, I don't think that the three shows will line up like this next year. I think the odds of that are slim. Hopefully, because Indy's one of our favorite shows.

Kentucky Dave: 26:34

It's the first show we recorded at. It's got a special place in our heart, that and Paddy's Paddy's of Jamaica.

Mike Radjki: 26:40

Yeah, I didn't get those this year. That's fine, I'll give you a little break from that. I'll have to bring some down to the.

Mike: 26:45

MMCL show there you go.

Mike Radjki: 26:47

That would work too. That would work. What did you enter? I've got a .48 scale M1A1. I've got a .35 scale EZ-8 Sherman, a .35 scale KV-1, a Sergeant York and then a Russian T-10.

Mike: 27:07

You've been busy. It's a couple years worth, okay.

Mike Radjki: 27:08

So okay, well, being a first timer here, what do you think? Uh, you know, I'm impressed. The work on the tables is amazing. Yeah, it is. Um, I can definitely see why ipms can't do this at a nets right it, just it takes so long to get these models judged.

Kentucky Dave: 27:22

Did you do do any of the judging I?

Mike Radjki: 27:24

didn't Not for this show. I'll definitely do that at some point.

Kentucky Dave: 27:28

I was going to say you definitely need to, because, seeing it from that side, I think really will. It's an eye-opening experience.

Mike Radjki: 27:36

Oh, for sure, for sure.

Mike: 27:37

Did you find what you're shopping for?

Mike Radjki: 27:39

Yeah, yeah, I got to blame you for about $250 worth of books.

Mike: 27:43

Oh, thank you. Oh, you got books. Where'd you get them?

Mike Radjki: 27:45

I got them from Dave. Oh yeah, I got Son of Sherman.

Mike: 27:48

Well, yeah, that's a good one. You can't go wrong with it. No, that's quite the tome.

Kentucky Dave: 27:55

Yeah, now you got to go out there and pick up a bunch of Sherman kids.

Mike Radjki: 28:07

I've got a couple in the stash already, so so we're good, okay, oh, you see anything out there. You really really impressed you. Um, yeah, there's definitely, uh, the israeli diorama where he's dropping down into the canal.

Mike: 28:12

Oh, the suez crossing, that's pretty cool that's.

Mike Radjki: 28:14

That's pretty good. Um, you know, just the diorama work is oh, incredible.

Mike: 28:19

There's a lot of nice ones. I I can't paint a figure to save my life, that's what keeps me from doing it?

Mike Radjki: 28:21

yeah, I just I can. I can paint a pilot figure to save my life.

Mike: 28:23

That's what keeps me from doing it, yeah.

Mike Radjki: 28:26

I can paint a pilot in a plane. As long as he's got a helmet and a face mask on, we're good.

Mike: 28:30

Yeah, you know a lot of it's practice. If I really wanted to be good, I could probably get good enough to satisfy myself, but I don't model fast enough or build enough to get good at figure painting.

Mike Radjki: 28:43

Even with a wet palette, my paint would dry up constantly.

Mike: 28:48

Oh, you know, one of our Canadian friends just told us he he'd like takes a Hornet head and paints the same one, paints it, strips it, paints it, strips it paints it and just practices that way, and I think that's, I think that is absolutely the way to go.

Mike Radjki: 28:59

Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I just I can't blend, I don't know why.

Kentucky Dave: 29:04

I am a little curious to try what Martin Kovach Night Shift has done with the using not painting opaquely but doing filters.

Mike: 29:19

Right the glazes and the washes Sounds a little more manageable?

Kentucky Dave: 29:21

Yes, it does, and that's why I'm thinking my problem is still faces. I'm not sure I'll be able to conquer that.

Mike Radjki: 29:29

Yeah, I sat in the figure painting seminar yesterday and the seminars have been great too.

Kentucky Dave: 29:32

Oh, yeah, so pick up some tips.

Mike Radjki: 29:35

We'll see what we can put to work.

Mike: 29:36

Yeah, yeah, unfortunately we didn't make any.

Kentucky Dave: 29:39

No, we did not this year.

Mike: 29:40

A little late to get some of the early ones today and we've just been busy today. Yeah. Yeah, they're usually pretty good, for sure.

Mike Radjki: 29:49

Well, where are we going to see you next? I'm probably going to be at Wonderfest.

Mike: 29:53

Okay, yeah, well, that's in our backyard. Yeah, literally, literally.

Kentucky Dave: 29:56

And literally this year, if I can pull it off, might be in my backyard, my backyard. I may have some folks over to the pool and sit around having some adult beverages.

Mike Radjki: 30:10

There you go. Yeah, I built, I finished one of the 32nd AMT TIE Fighters, the new toolkit.

Mike: 30:14

How is that kit?

Mike Radjki: 30:16

As long as you pay attention, it goes together beautifully.

Mike: 30:19

It looks nice that one's on my buy list. I've yet to see one for sale anywhere. The decals are horrid, okay.

Mike Radjki: 30:25

Are there already aftermarket or masks?

Mike: 30:27

I haven't found any yeah, that I think there probably will be that gets it's gonna be wildly popular yeah, for sure.

Mike Radjki: 30:33

But yeah, it goes together like a dream gonna make the ipms national convention.

Mike: 30:36

I'm planning on it. Okay, we'll hope you do. We'll see you there for sure.

Mike Radjki: 30:39

Well, thanks, for stopping by mike, absolutely, absolutely. Thank you guys Take care.

Mike: 30:42

Good to see you.

Mike Radjki: 30:43

Good to see you.

Mike: 30:49

Indy always has pretty good vendors.

Kentucky Dave: 30:51

It does, it does.

Mike: 30:53

I was pretty impressed with the amps vendors. Yes.

Mike: 30:56

Another one. I did another place, another aspect of the show. I did not know what to expect and I'll tell you why. When we were doing amps again on the show, I did not know what to expect and I'll tell you why. When we were doing amps again on the regular, as you say, in maryland and even the one in ohio, there was still a lot of pretty prolific polyurethane resin cast aftermarket companies, yeah, and folks like, uh, arch, refined transfers, what's another one that was used to be at amps all the time Thatchweave, thatchweave Just folks who had not only aftermarket type products but had a pretty diverse product line, lots to choose from that kind of thing.

Mike: 31:34

It's changed a little bit. A lot of aftermarket companies now are a lot more mainstream. Yes, especially like Photoetch, things like that, 3d printing 3d printing is also taken, uh, taking the forefront from a lot of these uh, more organic, mastered things that are that are hand cast. So, that said, I wasn't sure what to expect. I saw the vendor list ahead of time and I was like, okay, I recognize a few of these, but but not sure what to expect. So they said they had a few last minute cancellations and they were a little down from what they'd hoped to be. But I tell you what. It didn't matter for my wallet.

Kentucky Dave: 32:14

I was going to say I didn't have a problem spending money and, frankly, could have spent twice what I did I had to forcefully exercise restraint. I was really pleasantly surprised. You remember back in the original Amps days, the Harv DeGrasse, because the place was so small, the vendors were very cramped. You had a lot of resellers and people getting rid of collections and stuff like that, along with the cottage industry folks, whereas here I don't want to say more mainstream because that doesn't really convey it but First of all you had a ton more room. It's one of the most pleasant and comfortable shopping experiences I've had. You never were shoulder to shoulder with anybody, you weren't squeezing down the middle of an aisle.

Kentucky Dave: 33:13

Pleasant setup, pleasant experience, high quality, a lot of vendors who are professional vendors UMM, usa, last Cavalry, david Doyle Books. David Doyle Books, speaking of which? Nice grab, we'll talk about that in a minute. Just the quality. Now there were some vendors who had kit collections. In fact we ran into one vendor who had a kit that I'm pretty sure you could have grabbed at the first Amps National we ever went to, and that kit may have been that actual box, may have actually been at the first Ampson in Harv DeGrasse. So there were those and you know you could find diamonds by looking through all that stuff if that's what you like. But the level of quality professional vendor bringing quality items for sale was really, really good and that's the thing, I think, that impressed me the most.

Mike: 34:27

Well, I was pleased I didn't spend an exorbitant amount of money and I had some ideas of some things I wanted to pick up and I did so. My wallet came back a little bit broken, but I tell you what I did avoid. I avoided new kits for the most part. You and me both. I took a solid broken. But I tell you, what I did avoid.

Kentucky Dave: 34:41

I avoided new kits for the most part, you and me both. I took a solid pledge, although I was tempted. There were a couple that I almost bought.

Mike: 34:49

Well, I really wish there had been a 72nd scale zero there. Yes.

Kentucky Dave: 34:54

That'd be funny there were a few aircraft kits there.

John Charvat: 34:56

Yeah there were.

Mike: 34:57

There were.

Kentucky Dave: 34:57

There were. I mean, if I pushed myself I could have bought a 72nd scale aircraft at amps, which would have been funny. But yeah, it would have been neat to find it to me as zero at the automatic buy price.

Mike: 35:12

Well, what did break your wallet?

Kentucky Dave: 35:14

Well, again I exercise discipline. I can think of four or five kits that I would have loved to have bought. I did not buy any. Given the fact that I bought a number of kits at Hamilton at Heritage Con, I was like, okay, your finish rate doesn't justify more kit purchases. So I steeled myself to buy more kit purchases. So I steeled myself, I did not buy any kits. I bought a book from CRM it was good to see Chris Murseel there, yeah and back in the vending game I bought a paint set, I bought some display items, some sanding sticks and I bought Micro Chisel from UMM USA. Let's see, is there anything else I bought you brought me? You bought a book, yeah, the one from CRM, the wood book, oh, okay, yeah, that was from Chris at CRM, oh, that's right, that's right, and I got to read.

Kentucky Dave: 36:19

Since you drove your own car both ways we didn't have to hassle with rental or anything, but you generously drove the whole way, both up and back, so I actually got to read a lot of that book on my way back from the convention.

Mike: 36:35

Take out the hour to get to your house. It wasn't much further than Columbus.

Kentucky Dave: 36:40

Yeah, no, it really wasn't so you'd driven that one.

Mike: 36:43

So yeah, we're square now, man okay so what broke your wallet? Well, I'll fess up to the one small kit. I did buy another amps perennial. Was there? Uh, marty and mary from from chicagoland, emin models, um, and we haven't seen them in forever. I don't know. I've seen them since the last AMPS I went to. Exactly, they don't make it down to many of the Region 4 shows. Yeah, I suspect there are some of them already stashed. There was a stack of kits on their table that were half price. Yeah.

Mike: 37:17

And another one of those brown box kits from the Japanese magazines was there when I'd not seen before. Uh, you know, I've got the, the Japanese tank, in the three, the three installments of it. I've got the, uh, the KF 43 from fine molds and this was a Japanese motorcycle and sidecar from pit road. Now that that kit is still available. But it was kind of cool to pick it up in that boxing for 10 bucks. I can't you know what that would make a great bill.

Kentucky Dave: 37:45

It probably would. You could really do that upright.

Mike: 37:49

You don't see the japanese stuff nearly as much as, frankly, I think you should uh, some other stuff I got was uh, we mentioned david do Books before and his product line keeps growing. He's got his own stuff and the stuff he helps publish and then he's started picking up. He's got all the Nuts and Bolts books which I like I didn't buy any of those at AMS but he's also got the Tankograd books. Yeah, out of germany there were two titles from the uh, their, their red covers, their their soviet and russian subject books and I picked up one on, uh, the world war ii era, soviet aerosons.

Mike: 38:31

you know the the right aircraft engine powered snowmobiles. I got that one and I got the t-35 heavy tank, the big multi-turreted tank. I've got a lot of Russian source reference on that tank but in the Tankograd style they lean very heavily on new line drawings generated just for the publications and German soldier snapshots. So almost all the photographs in that book, or really both books, have never been published outside of Tankango Grab Publications. So if you're into the Red Army, world War II, those books are I don't know, I think they're a must-have. Yeah.

Mike: 39:08

And I'm chipping away at it. I just about have them all at this point, I think.

Kentucky Dave: 39:12

That isn't what I would have led with on your purchases from David Doyle.

Mike: 39:17

The one you're hinting at did not come from David Doyle.

Kentucky Dave: 39:21

Didn't it.

Mike: 39:22

No.

Kentucky Dave: 39:23

Oh, I thought that came from him.

Mike: 39:25

Folks. What Dave is alluding to is the gentleman who acquired all the original artwork from Squadron Signal back during the dissolution of Squadron Hobbies, and MMD Brandon talked about that in our interview with him talking about the reconstitution of Squadron Mail Order Squadron Hobbies. I think he's got the rights to the books again, but these guys are still selling off the original artwork and I don't know how I missed this at any of the other shows. Maybe I just didn't think it was worth buying at the time.

Kentucky Dave: 39:59

This was another golden item. Man, You're hot.

Mike: 40:03

I bought the original cover art. It's a pencil drawing with watercolor over it, painted by Uwe Feist. That was the cover art for one of the early Squadron Signal inaction books. I think it's number six, soviet Panzers in Action. It's an early T-34 with yellow turret numbers it's. I've got the book. I've had the book for ages. It's kind of the book that got me started down interested in that, that side of armor modeling. So for me it meant a lot to even see it, much less buy it. I was able to buy it. Uh, the price was real favorable and man, I'm so glad I picked that up. I just got to get to the frame shop and that'll probably cost three times what I paid for it it probably, but you need to a make sure it is.

Kentucky Dave: 40:48

I put it in in a giant tupperware container until you take it to the frame shop. I don't want anything to happen to that, because it's gorgeous it is.

Mike: 40:58

It's really nice. So I was glad to get that and I've shown that on the dojo. Folks have seen that. Uh, what else did I get, man, I I got. Uh, I told you if anybody was selling mr hobby leveling thinner not to let me leave that show without a bottle right mlt the unicorn tears yeah, so micro world games was there in force. Uh, they had about a dozen bottles on the table, so I didn't just get one, I got two.

Kentucky Dave: 41:22

That's my strategy. I have two at all times, and as soon as one of them runs dry, I open up the other one and then go on and order it. Either go to Brian's, if he happens to have it, or, if he doesn't have it, I'll go online and order a bottle in In addition to that from Wanamaker Hobbies out of Indianapolis.

Mike: 41:42

they were there. Now they're kind of an old-school aftermarket resin vendor. I bought from A-Resin, which is a Russian company. It's gotten hard to get now A BT-7A turret which is an artillery version of the BT-7. The turret's the vertical side style but it's a little bit taller Right version of the bt7 and the turrets. You know the vertical side style but it's a little bit taller right because it's got a 76 millimeter howitzer in it instead of a 45 millimeter anti-tank gun. That was from who made that?

Mike: 42:12

no, that wasn't a resin, that was the mr model out of, out of germany right the the a model thing I got was a uh an2 hull, the front section from the engine firewall to the nose. For the hull version. That's not the full wedge, it's got the step down in the driver's area. Right. The Russians call it the broken nose version, but I've been after that one, because that one's a couple of photographs of one of those. I would be interested in doing it sometime. And finally, from those guys, I got from Quinta Studios the three-dimensional decal set for the ZIS-5 family.

Kentucky Dave: 42:48

Oh yes, I've forgotten, you'd gotten that.

Mike: 42:50

Yeah, so it's going to let me enhance the dashboard on my ZIS-6 because it's all the same. As luck would have it, that decal set also has the rocket control box for the Cachucha as part of the set, so I was glad to get that. I think that's all I got. I didn't do too bad, dave. Oh good, the Mojovian special agents kept piling up, but we missed this one at the show, so we've had to go back and round him up. After the fact, mr Spruppi with Fret, stephen Lee is Mojovian special agent 002, because he's uh kind of helped us out behind the scenes over the years we've been doing this and, uh, we finally got to catch up with steve after after the show.

Mike: 43:28

So let's get into that, dave okay dave, it was great to see all our mojovian special agents as we kid around with all the time. And when we met we never got to put a face with until the AMP show. It was Steve Lee from Sprout Pie with Fred. Steve, we're having to do this after the fact because you got away from us at AMPS, but thanks for coming back giving us a little insight on what you saw at the show. And, man, it was great to meet you face-to-face after all these years.

Steve Lee: 44:00

It was great to meet you face to face after all these years it it was great to meet you and thanks for having me on the show again. I really appreciate it. I always enjoy these visits that I have with with you guys.

Mike: 44:08

Well cool, Um, had you been to amps before.

Steve Lee: 44:12

Maybe 15, 20 years ago I went to a couple of amps at uh, a couple of amps nationals at when it was in Harvard, a grass maryland.

Mike: 44:23

Um, we were probably there and just didn't know we were going to know you in 20 years?

Steve Lee: 44:26

that's yes, it was, it was. It was a different time. There was certainly nothing like a podcast happening and and holy smokes. The, the vendor area, was a microscopic version of what we have at the at the 2024 amps what were your general impressions of the show overall?

Steve Lee: 44:42

I really love that. I would characterize the show as small but mighty compared to, I think, other big national events. It was all concentrated on armor, of course, but certainly had a fair bit of what I would just characterize as land-based science fiction, and I felt like everybody who was there brought something. It wasn't just a lot of spectators. So it was high energy, high density, generally a high quality experience for me, and I really met a lot of great people, saw a lot of great models, had a lot of great conversations, so that was really my big takeaway. My other big takeaway was something I guess I've learned over the years is just what the the kind of the level of good cheer there.

Kentucky Dave: 45:31

Oh yes.

Steve Lee: 45:32

People are there for their models and with the models and other people's models and it was, you know, the, the jealousy or the nastiness you know, or the, the snarkiness factor was absolutely not there and I think that you know that's baked into AMSA's culture. You know, with their tiers of skill, you know, beginning, intermediate, advanced and master. I think that whole thing is geared towards growing people and bringing them along, and the effect of that is is to welcome people like come on, come on in with your model, and if it's not, you know, if you're just beginning, we're going to help you get better and we're going to point out the things about it that are that are good anyways, and and I really you could feel that like that was, that was a palpable thing that you you around the show floor, the vendor area, the conversations that inevitably break out there, and then all the after hours stuff. So that was a thing that just really kind of struck me as really great about that event.

Kentucky Dave: 46:36

I would completely agree, For want of a better word social cohesion. Everybody was everybody's friend from the moment you met, Mike and I were very much surprised at how many people you know not having been to an AMPS contest in 15 or 20 years, how many people we knew immediately on site, and it was as if no time had passed. In some cases no time had passed because we had just seen them three weeks earlier at Heritage Con, but there were a lot of folks that we hadn't seen in quite a while, and it was a really really fun time.

Steve Lee: 47:22

Indeed, it was One thing that really kind of, you know, I live in my little modeling bubble, of you know, and I really I really like what some people call post-war armor or what some people call modern armor, and I like 172nd, and I was kind of brought back down to earth in a way, um at one, at the very small number of non-135th entries and then the, the, you know this, still the uh, the dominance of world war ii and in particular, uh, world war ii german subjects. So in a way that was like yep, that is what the normies like. I'm kind of a weirdo. I love my Abrams Squad magazine and now I realize why that's 20 bucks an issue and quarterly, just because there's just not going to be enough armor modeling to go around. If you really did cut back what people really do love, which is World War II and particularly World War II German stuff.

Kentucky Dave: 48:29

Funny you mentioned that because I noted the exact same thing. The 72nd scale stuff that was there was a very high quality, no question. But there doesn't seem to be quite the uptake in 72nd scale armor models inside of AMPS, as opposed to in IPMS where, if you go to the IPMS nationals, there's an entire table of multiple categories of 72nd scale armor models and I don't know if that's being armor centric or armor only. 35th scale is so much more ingrained in armor that it's taking longer for there to be acceptance of it. I don't know, but I did note that.

Steve Lee: 49:23

Well, I also noticed the other non-1 35th scales. As popular and as much Ballyhoo as 1 16th is getting, I was expecting to see tables full of 1 16th stuff.

Mike: 49:38

Oh yeah, there was hardly any.

Steve Lee: 49:40

And that's not the case. I did. There were some outstanding things, that some absolutely stunning uh one 16th, uh items that were built and I, you know, and I do think there's this, uh, you know, weird uh I don't even want I know what to call it, but this weird gap in uh in in technique and finishing that that needs to be done to really be successful with a 1 16th model. In other words, you just don't do more of what you do in 1 16th or in 1 35th to accomplish something in 1 16th. Oh, I completely agree.

Steve Lee: 50:16

And some people get that, some people don't. I mean, the same thing happens, by the way, in 172nd. I think good, finish in 172nd. This is going to scare some people when I say this. It's much more art leaning and artistic leaning of I do things in this exact order and I add this, and I add this, and I add this and it's like, well, in one 72nd things actually start to become obscured, you know, and you can't, you can't do these distinct or discrete things, and the best examples I can give of that is I think I'll see a one 72nd model with, with a, with a mud product. You know one of MIG, ammos, or, or, or or AKs, mud products that was intended for 135th and it looks, it just looks. Uh, it doesn't look good on on 172nd and it's almost cursed to be too heavy and and and be not finely grained enough. I can't think of a better word than that but it's, it's not finely grained enough. That's probably it.

Mike: 51:18

Yeah it the chunks are just too big.

Steve Lee: 51:21

I think it works the other direction in one 16th. But I think that the one diorama in one 16th that I saw, that that that gave me a wow moment. It also had a masterful use of figures, which I think is the secret superpower of 1 16th. It's not just the vehicle all on its own, but when you can have figures that size and they're well executed, there's something pretty magical about that, and I've seen it a few times not every time, but when I see it it's actually inspirational. And yes, there might be a couple of 1 16th things in my stash that have me pondering that.

Kentucky Dave: 52:02

Well, that's a huge move for you from 72nd scale to 16th.

Steve Lee: 52:07

Well, yes, somebody finally offered a post-war or is going to offer a post-war kit in 116th an M113, a vehicle I know extremely well. In 1.16, an M113, a vehicle I know extremely well. I'm very much looking forward to kind of going to town on that with a little bit of a Magnum Opus build.

Kentucky Dave: 52:24

Oh, and I imagine there's going to be so much 3D print photo etch aftermarket, because there were so many versions of that and so many variations that one's just going to get all sorts of love from the cottage industry and small industry manufacturers.

Steve Lee: 52:48

Absolutely.

Mike: 52:49

Well, steve, you mentioned the after hours a little bit. You and Tim Holland, el Presidente from the Mologuies podcast, were were traveling together and you guys came by our room there on Friday night. We had an interesting conversation. It wasn't really modeling related, but a pretty nice casual conversation and some good drinks and we appreciate you guys coming by and hanging out with us.

Steve Lee: 53:12

Well, we really enjoyed it. It was great I could have stayed there another. I could have stayed there another 12 hours talking to you guys, but I realized, um, you know, you know, middle-aged man reality that sleep, sleep must, sleep, must eventually be acquired or and experienced. And um, the uh, the buckets of brown liquor that I used to be able to put away.

Kentucky Dave: 53:34

Yeah, no it just.

Steve Lee: 53:36

It just ain't happening anymore. But it was it, it was great and I really, really we both were kind of regretting on the way on our drive back. I mean, we had to get back for different obligations back here, you know, on the east coast. But we were both thinking, wow, you know, we should have. We should have plotted to stay, you know, the whole day and maybe leave on Sunday instead of.

Kentucky Dave: 53:58

Uh, how, long was the drive for you.

Steve Lee: 54:01

Total for me was like 11 hours. Um, so I I met him at my office, you know, cause it was just a nice neutral location which is near the beltway in Washington. I met him there, Um, I think he'd been on the road for like an hour and 15 minutes, hour and a half, and I'd already, you know that's a two and a half hour turn for me, and then it was nine hours past that. But it was great. We solved all the world's problems. It was the longest time he and I had ever really spent together. So we really got to know each other and found out we had very many things in common.

Kentucky Dave: 54:35

Well, that's funny because Mike and I solved all the world's problems on the way to HeritageCon. So hey, All right. Who figured it? Just takes a couple of guys sitting in a car for nine hours, all the world's problems are solved.

Steve Lee: 54:51

That's right, that is exactly right.

Mike: 54:54

Well, Steve, where are we going to see you next? Are you going to make Madison? Is that on your list?

Steve Lee: 55:02

That is the intention at this point. I'm I'm going to find my way there. I'm not sure if I'm going to drive, fly, take the Badger ferry across Lake Michigan, which is something I've kind of got in mind. Probably we'll carpool, probably have some passengers with me if I don't bum a ride with with somebody. But yes, I'm definitely looking forward to uh, to coming out to the big nationals in in Madison, which is a delightful town. I've I've been there once or twice in the past. It's a great place to go, even if there's not a big model show there.

Mike: 55:32

Well, we hope you make it Cause we look forward to that and uh, our uh hospitality suite will all be always be open for you. Yep, awesome, I appreciate that you're welcome and uh, we'll take in some nice restaurants, uh, while we're there as well yeah, there might be some cheese curds and some beer there there you go and what, and while I can say that we might not have bucket loads of brown liquor, we certainly will have a fine selection for you to peruse in the dojo.

Steve Lee: 56:02

And let me see what I can do to liven things up myself.

Mike: 56:07

All are welcome. All right, steve, thanks for catching up with us after the fact here, after we missed you at the AMF show floor, and we look forward to when we see you again.

Steve Lee: 56:16

Awesome. Thanks, gentlemen. I really appreciate you inviting me on once again.

Mike: 56:21

You're welcome. Well, it was really great to finally meet Stephen Lee face-to-face.

Kentucky Dave: 56:31

Yes, it was, and the man is stylish, the Popeye Doyle pork pie hat. I mean he is, he is styling.

Mike: 56:40

He is and he hung out with us a little after the fact there on Friday evening he was traveling with El Presidente yes, tim Holland from the Model Geeks, and that was the second time we've seen Tim in not so long three, four weeks yeah, inside a month. So those guys were traveling together and good to see them both, but it was nice to finally meet Steve face to face.

Kentucky Dave: 57:03

It really was, because we've talked to him any number of times, we've interviewed him a few times, we've talked and exchanged DMs and emails, and that's one of the nice things at Amps we got to put a lot of faces to a lot of names of people we've interacted with.

Mike: 57:23

Well, we also got to see a lot of great models. You ain't kidding brother. What were your general impressions of the entries?

Kentucky Dave: 57:33

Top quality. I will venture to say and this is not any diss or slam or, you know, not a negative comparison or anything I would say that the quality, top to bottom of the models at Amps is really really good and as far as the qualitative level, I would say it's as good as, if not a little better, than an IPMS National, just simply because instead of 3,000 models you've got 681. And the number of people coming and competing, the vast majority compete in the advanced level and the result of that is you don't see too many builds that are not of significant quality. I mean, you see some entries where you can tell that the person's just starting out, they're entering in basic level and all of that stuff. But man, the number of models that you just stopped and looked at and went, wow, you could move five feet on a table without doing that.

Mike: 58:57

Well, the vignettes and dioramas were pretty impressive too. A lot of really good work there.

Kentucky Dave: 59:02

Yes, unbelievably good work and a lot of World War. I stuff a lot of the what-if hypothetical category. Hypothetical category which is, you know, kind of trending sci-fi-ish these days, uh, is growing which, to be honest with you, is a real surprise to me, because back in the old days you used to never see any of that no other than maybe a paper panzer or two.

Kentucky Dave: 59:34

Now there are Warhammer items and Some complete fantasies, complete fantasy stuff. I was really pleasantly surprised by that. I did notice that 72nd scale does not seem to be as popular at AMPS National than it is at IPMS Nationals or even IPMS Regionals. At the IPMS Nationals you'll have tables full of 72nd scale armor models, whereas at the AMP show there were a number of them and boy, the number of them that were there were really really good. The number of them that were there were really really good, but you just didn't have nearly the volume of 72nd scale armor entries that you might see at an IPMS National.

Mike: 1:00:30

Well, we only have a data point of one. So yes, that's right. Let's see where that goes.

Kentucky Dave: 1:00:35

Well, at Harrisburg next year, the tables may be full of 72nd scale armor. What?

Mike: 1:00:41

were your impressions. I agree that the general level was really good. There were some really exceptional things there. I really liked quite a number of the dioramas. Clearly there's no 48th scale bias at amps. Yeah. There's quite a bit of that and, if I'm not mistaken, spooner's Soviet self-propelled gun was a 48th scale model I believe it is which won best of show, so that was kind of cool. Again, it's not my scale, but considering it's often dismissed as airplane scale, that was good to see.

Kentucky Dave: 1:01:17

It was, it was airplane scale. That was good to see. It was it was. And again, no matter what the scale, the quality was off the charts.

Mike: 1:01:26

I had my entries there. I took two. I took my little Airfix. Nostalgia, build the Morris tractor and Bofors done in the British Eighth Army markings in North Africa and I took the ZIS-2, the 57 millimeter anti-tank gun and emplacement and the little one went into vignettes, the other one I got into ordnance mainly because, it didn't have any figures on it, which I think that's probably where it belonged. And you know, to my surprise, I did okay.

Kentucky Dave: 1:01:59

Yep no, you listen for having been away 20 years, you put your models on the table and they definitely fit in with the quality that was there.

Mike: 1:02:12

Which was very encouraging.

Kentucky Dave: 1:02:14

Yes.

Mike: 1:02:15

Now I'm not sure I'll go back to building for a show and getting back into that rat race again yeah but, uh, I I did well, especially considering, uh, the the focus that those two builds had or was a lot more inward than it prior. Yeah, well, another show, dave. We saw some amazing things. That was heritage con yes, it was only three weeks ago and, as luck would have it, duncan Young was at AMPS. Yes, he was, and it was good to see him. Well, let's catch up with him, dave. Sometimes I think this is like we're playing travel baseball or something. We keep seeing all these people.

Mike: 1:02:56

We know from all of our other stops. Two weeks ago we were up in Hamilton, ontario, and sitting here right in front of us in South Bend, indiana, is Duncan Young from the Hamilton Club. How are you doing, man?

Duncan Young: 1:03:07

I'm a bit tired after a couple days and some long traveling, but you know what, as an armor builder, coming to AMPS is the thing to do. So it's been a good couple days so far is the thing to do. So it's been a good couple days so far.

Mike: 1:03:17

Well, we haven't been to Amsterdam in 20 years, 15. 15, 20 between us, the national. We didn't quite know what to expect based on the prior shows, but, man, we're having a good time, good to see you again and we want to thank you again. We got you in person about the hospitality at HeritageCon because we had an absolute banger of a time up there.

Duncan Young: 1:03:38

That's good to hear. Heritagecon was another good show this year. Just from statistics, we had more than 2,800 people come through the doors, so the museum is quite happy just in terms of overall fundraising and just attention to the venue. We had just under 700 models that hit the table, so we had a little over 700 registered in advance. So it's like a 95% completion rate on actual models registered versus what hit the table Very low cancellation rate, yeah.

Duncan Young: 1:04:10

And I would say, even talking to some of our members who registered four but brought two. So you consider that and that's just how it works out.

Duncan Young: 1:04:24

It was a very good show, so we're very happy. How long did it take you to drive here getting to? So? I live in guelph, just not far from hamilton. I was six and a half hours with you know a few stops across the border in sarnia, very, very achievable to. To get to south bend I actually have never driven through. I've flown over michigan but actually have never driven through. I've flown over Michigan but I've never driven through Michigan. That was a very easy drive.

Kentucky Dave: 1:04:43

As long as you don't stop in Detroit, you'll be okay.

Duncan Young: 1:04:45

Yeah, and I purposely chose. I was going to go through that border crossing and then, on a whim, say you know what, 402, sarnia, port Huron, and I think that was the right decision. That's how I'll go home tomorrow too, okay. So, yeah, easy drive. Did you bring models? I did, but I actually didn't enter them. Heritagecon took up a lot more time this year just from changing of roles and just sort of helping people keep busy, and I found myself rushing to finish something. I brought it actually with things left to do, saying I'm going to spend Thursday night and I'm going to, even if I have to, I'll work on it on Friday. And I'm like you know what, I want to finish it the way I want to finish it. I have a base at home that's been started, but not finish it, so I'm like it doesn't matter. Yeah.

Duncan Young: 1:05:29

I've helped judge the vendor table. I've gone to two seminars.

Kentucky Dave: 1:05:34

You know it's okay which seminars did you go to?

Duncan Young: 1:05:37

I went to a figure painting seminar yesterday. It is blow my mind in terms of like, using a wet palette, how to approach shading of it was all really. All we got through was, you know, painting of skin, faces and things, and that like has really changed, going to be changed how my approach is going to be to figure painting and just using a wet palette, which I don't do now, right, and just painting in general. And then this morning I went to cookie sewell's t-72 overview, right, and he said he had just recently updated it to sort of take into more account, uh, um, you know what's going on in ukraine and the new variants that are coming out, but to get that history, that really the the evolution of the t-72 started with the T-54. Right, and so that was, you know, very informative and that sort of opens my eyes up to a few different things that way. Yeah Well, where might we see you next Nationals?

Mike: 1:06:28

All right.

Duncan Young: 1:06:28

IPMS Nash. There's a fair contingent. There's a bus trip being organized by one of our members. He's done this in the past. I'm not traveling that way, but I have a friend from the club, bernie our treasurer, who's on with us on your show a couple you know a month or so ago. We're going to leave Wednesday. We've got our hotel booked. That's just going to stay. We're not playing with that. But yeah, I think we're really looking forward to that because we'll be there, like Wednesday, thursday, all the way to the Saturday. Leave home, come home Sunday.

Kentucky Dave: 1:07:01

That's great. This is the chance for canadians to get to. It's never going to be closer to canada than it is right.

Duncan Young: 1:07:04

well, an interesting drive I'm pretty much, if like chicago, I think, is. So this is I gotta figure out metric and conversion so like maybe 175 kilometers from where we are here in south bend, so it's like an hour and a half, and madison's just around the lake from there. I'm pretty much going to drive through South Bend to get to Madison, but we are going to drive it. I think it's about a 10-hour drive. That's an achievable day trip. It'll be a long day but it's achievable Good.

Mike: 1:07:30

Well, cool. Well, thanks for stopping by the room last night. Always good to see you, yeah, you too.

Duncan Young: 1:07:34

Always good to see you. Yeah, you too, and thanks for the invite and thanks for having me on. All right, cheers.

Mike: 1:07:44

Cheers. It's great to see Duncan. It sounds like a literal busload of Canadians is coming to Madison. There should be. He said he wouldn't be traveling with them, but he's going to be there. So you know we're going to get to see him three times in a calendar year. Not going to complain about that. Duncan's a good guy. Dave, we're getting close to the end of this thing. Uh, overall, or what are your, your high points, your takeaways and your, your final impressions from amps 2024?

Kentucky Dave: 1:08:15

uh, great quality models, really good social life or social interactions or camaraderie, however you want to put it. The facility venue great. I like South Bend. It's a nice place close by Going here convinced me that when they hold it in Harrisburg next year, even though it's going to be like nine hours, I'm still thinking it would be worth the trip to go. The high points were getting to see our Mojovian special agents, as well as getting to see a lot of other friends, fellow podcasters, some really, really fantastic armor builders. The one thing I regret is we didn't get to any of the seminars, and I tell people at IPMS Nationals go to the seminars, because there's some of the best stuff at the show. I have no doubt the same is true in amps and when we go to Harrisburg next year I will definitely make it a point to get to a couple of seminars. How about?

Mike: 1:09:32

you. Well, I think the high points for me were again, like you said, the camaraderie and our segment there with Stephen Lee kind of touched on it as well. It's just the acceptance and the culture of promotion and improvement and the fact that everybody there is modeling, kind of the same genre. Yeah.

Mike: 1:09:54

It kind of lends itself to just a different vibe. And that vibe was there before, you know, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, when we were there and it it's certainly surviving yeah, even been even more entrenched at this point I'd say probably it was. I would agree Facility was fabulous, the hotels were great, the restaurants were great. They did a great job putting it all together and I think I look forward to getting back into the fold and making as many of these AMS shows as I can get to.

Kentucky Dave: 1:10:26

Speaking of which, we need to reserve a table up for next year so that we'll have some place to sit and put our mics.

Mike: 1:10:34

Well, a lot of that would not have been possible without our old friend John Charvat. He was assistant show chairman for AMPS 2024 and past AMPS president. We had him on oh was it December? Maybe, yes, to kind of pitch this show, and I'm glad we did that. But we had him back for a little recap. Let's see what the assistant show chairman had to say about his own show. Well, dave, our trip to AMPS was fra and for the 2024 convention. Co-show chairman. I believe that's correct. John Charvat, how you doing, man?

John Charvat: 1:11:26

Doing well. How are the?

Mike: 1:11:30

boys from Kentucky doing we're pretty good. I'm Mr Mominant all week so I've been kind of busy.

Kentucky Dave: 1:11:37

Well, I'm pumped man, I'll tell you what. So I've been kind of busy. Well, I'm pumped man, I'll tell you what. Coming back, amps gave me the same kind of modeling high that I got after HeritageCon and that I get from every Nationals. It was a party, it was a contest, well executed, so great job, well thanks. So now you get to pass the hat on right?

John Charvat: 1:12:00

No, I don't pass the hat on, that's my hat.

Kentucky Dave: 1:12:04

Okay, but somebody else gets a new hat.

John Charvat: 1:12:07

Well, yeah, exactly Someone else will. Basically Peter Spada from Central Pennsylvania Amps will be running the next show, which will be in Camp Hill, outside of Harrisburg, pennsylvania, the site of our 23 show. And, yeah, he gets to do it all over again.

Kentucky Dave: 1:12:30

So now, have you sworn it off, or are you willing to take on the job again some point in the future?

John Charvat: 1:12:36

Well, dave, after doing this, this will have been my fifth show, so I'm just going to become Mr Amps member at large and enjoy myself kind of like you guys did during the show.

Kentucky Dave: 1:12:51

You were a hardworking man at the show, I got to say.

John Charvat: 1:12:54

That was kind of the you know, basically react to the problems. Uh, most of the hard work was actually done, you know, here last fall and into the uh over the winter well, it was a super successful show the second largest number of entries ever uh, yeah, it was uh, 681 models. The Grand Record was another Midwest show, basically back in 2018 at Dayton, where we had 713 models.

Kentucky Dave: 1:13:24

Nice, nice, so you were within spitting distance.

John Charvat: 1:13:28

Yes, we were, and most of those models came in on Thursday night, so the judging teams were working extra hard through, basically through Saturday afternoon.

Kentucky Dave: 1:13:40

Yep, yep, listen, all credit to you guys. You got a ton of models judged and out on the table and that was an impressive feat. You really must have had a lot of help.

John Charvat: 1:13:56

Yeah, I'm not sure what the count was of people that judged, but yeah, we I saw a lot of people in there doing two and three tours, uh, two hour tours, uh during the go. So yeah, we had a lot of great members, a lot of uh new folks uh made the, uh made the trip and were able to go in there and judge and hopefully they'll come out of that as a better modeler.

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:21

Well, and I got to say I was impressed by the distances traveled by some of the entrants. I mean you had guys from Canada, guys from Seattle, denver, I mean. Las Vegas. South Texas. It truly is a national show.

John Charvat: 1:14:39

Yeah, and then we had a couple from across the pond, so we like to call it an international show.

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:44

Where were the folks from across the pond? Are they England?

John Charvat: 1:14:48

Yeah, I know we had two gentlemen from England, chris Lloyd-Staples and Mr Philip Smith. Chris is our international second VP, so we're supposed to have a couple more, but one had health problems and couldn't make it across, so hopefully we'll see him next year. But Chris is a basically doesn't matter where the show is held, he shows up. I was about to say he's an old Amps haunt. Yeah, absolutely. He's been coming over since 2007, 2008, something like that.

Mike: 1:15:19

And probably been in the society since its inception, I think, if I'm not mistaken.

John Charvat: 1:15:23

Yeah, maybe so, but he's also a big, big MAPA guy over in England, so, okay, kind of like our sister organization over there.

Mike: 1:15:31

Well, we sure had fun shopping the vendors. Did you get any feedback from those guys?

John Charvat: 1:15:41

Yeah, basically, you know, one of the things I tend to do to show that I'm part of the leadership with is basically just walk around and just ask them how they're doing, and I did not get a single complaint. Everybody seemed to be making money and having a good time, so I count that as a victory.

Kentucky Dave: 1:15:58

Well, I'll tell you what. A they should be happy they got plenty of my money and B. I do the same thing. I always ask vendors at shows I am, how's it going? And everybody was. All of the vendors were effusive in their praise for the facility. They were all happy with the way the business was going. So yeah, you all scored 10 out of 10 all across the board.

John Charvat: 1:16:26

Well, thanks. And again, we couldn't have done it without Mr David Doyle being involved because him, after doing the MVPA show in the same venue, basically helped us get our foot in the door and then basically was doing some behind the scenes working with trying to get things lined up, reached out to MiniArt, icm and I believe, another a third entity overseas to try to get raffle prizes and stuff. So we gave him an AMPS coin as well as a certificate of appreciation for his assistance in putting on the show.

Kentucky Dave: 1:17:02

Speaking of the raffle very, very good raffle, enjoyed it. I spent a little money, I got something out of it, no complaints, and you all ran a very efficient raffle. Your raffle team was really really good raffle your raffle team was really really good.

John Charvat: 1:17:18

Yeah, it was second year for the raffle chief but he also had some good part-time help with them who had done it before. So yeah, it's kind of they basically have it down to where it's a you know, pull the tickets, get the numbers on the board and then they go to work handing stuff back out and then on you know, also on the raffle, I'd be remiss if I didn't say we had a lot of great big package donations which enabled us to do kind of a $5 raffle and unfortunately, after putting in a little bit of money, I didn't seem to do anything on that one. But it was fun watching everybody get excited and stuff with that.

Mike: 1:17:53

That was pretty nice. There's some nice things there for a $5 shot. Oh yeah, absolutely Back to the facility, john, we hope you guys make it back to that place at some point, because that just seemed just about as ideal as you could get Now. You could have had some carpet on the floor. That would have made it a little nicer. As far as walking down, coming down the elevator of the hotel and walking out the front door and hanging a right and crossing the street and walking right in the front door, you know I we've stayed at hotels where the thing was actually part of the convention center and it was not as close as that was exactly I think we had.

John Charvat: 1:18:28

We had a longer walk in san marcos and we were in the convention hotel yeah, I remember my one or so days there at San Marcos but yeah, the venue was outstanding, the people there were great. We had our event coordinator kind of got thrown into the event halfway through our planning as our boss got moved. Basically our original event planner got moved to become the general manager of the facility. So our event coordinator was, you know, it was kind of a learning experience on both sides. She was learning how to do her job and I was, you know, kind of learning okay, what are we really signing up for? But again, they were very receptive. Once we got there, kyler, our event coordinator was checking with us all the time, jumped really quick on problems and that.

John Charvat: 1:19:23

So, you know, from a administration slash facility point of view, the Century Center was outstanding and I think there we're going to try to work plans doing to or trying to get a show going on there. We'll see what happens with that. Uh, what we really need is I'm going to need a chapter to step up and, you know, take the reins for the uh, for the show well, you do.

John Charvat: 1:19:48

You have uh chapters in in chicago yes, yeah, the chicagoland chapter was the hosting chapter this year.

Kentucky Dave: 1:19:56

Okay, I was. I was going to say I mean, given the distance to Chicago, that facility is great and probably a bunch cheaper than anything you'd find in suburban Chicago.

John Charvat: 1:20:10

Yeah, it's about a bunch cheaper. But what we were able to do was get a couple of grants from the city of South Bend, which really took the price down to the sweet spot that you know we look at in Amps for Heroes. We have some. You know, we have a little room in our pockets but we're not don't have quite as deep as pockets as some of the other organizations out there that you know will jump into those types of venues.

Kentucky Dave: 1:20:35

You'll get there. You'll get there. You just keep building up that war chest. It won't take you nearly as long as you think it might.

John Charvat: 1:20:43

Yeah, maybe so, but I will tell you COVID put the smack dab on us for not really taking in any dues, or really we were taking in dues but we weren't doing any shows. So that kind of.

Kentucky Dave: 1:20:56

Yeah, oh listen. Ipms, USA had to cancel a convention, and boy, you don't want to go through that. That was no fun at all.

John Charvat: 1:21:05

Yeah, we actually canceled two, which kind of led to doing the Super Regional in South Bend back in 2021. So it was just more hey, we need to get some money coming in some way and again, the price was right to do that one.

Kentucky Dave: 1:21:20

So well, not not to talk filthy lucre, but I assume that you all came off financially Okay. From the show it would seem like it was very successful.

John Charvat: 1:21:32

Yeah, I honestly I don't know. I haven't. I haven't heard the you know the end results yet. So I believe we did do okay, but, um, you know, again, I'm not sure what the you know, the actual number in the black was Sure. Well, john, before we wrap up, is there anything to mention him? In previous times I was in front of a crowd or something like that. So thanks, Pat. My co-coach here, chuck Ailshire, chris Grater, our vendor coordinator, brian Eberle, our register and AMP secretary. Let's see Dave Vickers, chief judge. Who else am I forgetting? Frank Frummet, who handled sponsorship, george Ironman, our raffle chief, and all the other volunteers that assisted us and helped us get through the weather of the storm there.

Kentucky Dave: 1:22:33

It was great and I can't wait for next year, mike and I even though it's going to be an eight or nine-hour drive for us to Harrisburg, I'm planning on it.

John Charvat: 1:22:44

Okay, well, I guess I'll see you there in my disguise of not having a real job.

Kentucky Dave: 1:22:50

There you go. We'll look for the guy with the glasses and the Groucho glasses and mustache.

John Charvat: 1:22:58

Yeah, that might be me, it might not be, it might be somebody else, all right.

Mike: 1:23:02

Well, John, thanks for a great time, man. We really had a blast.

John Charvat: 1:23:06

Hey, not a problem. Like I said, I'm glad you guys came and, again, very, very thankful that you guys supported it. And you know, let me get on here a couple of times and talk about it as well as the other. Uh, your podcasting, uh, cohorts.

Kentucky Dave: 1:23:25

Be sure to send the the, the chair of the Harrisburg show our way, Cause we definitely will want to promote that show.

John Charvat: 1:23:29

I will definitely mention that to Pete and you know, get on, let them know that. You know I know probably you guys and um Rob Riv and the modeling and sanity boys will probably, you know, probably want to go.

Kentucky Dave: 1:23:39

Well, you might get. Who knows, you're that close, you might get the geek showing up.

John Charvat: 1:23:43

Yeah, and one thing I will throw out there you know, kind of as a parting thing, met a couple of real nice individuals that you guys you know talk about. Stephen Lee had a great time talking to him. We had a common background of both serving in the military and stuff and just really like chatting with him and seeing his models and trying to get him talked into competing next year when we go to Camp Hill. Thumbs up with that Great guy. Yeah.

Mike: 1:24:15

All right, John. Well, thanks for coming back on after our little technical gaffe on the show floor. But always good to talk to you. Okay, Sounds great.

John Charvat: 1:24:24

All right, man, thank you. We'll see you all later. See you. Bye-bye.

Mike: 1:24:31

Well, john's a great guy, Put on a great show. Great old friend. We've had a lot of fun with John over the years. He is one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.

Kentucky Dave: 1:24:41

He really is just nice, genuine, friendly to everybody. I don't want to give him the big head, but he really is a great guy.

Mike: 1:24:50

We got any closing thoughts or shout outs before we wrap this up, Dave.

Kentucky Dave: 1:24:53

Yeah, I've got two shout outs, one of which I'm sure you concur in. I've got two shout outs, one of which I'm sure you concur in. Shout out to all the folks in the AMPS National Organization who made the show happen. Shout out to Mr Sharvod. Shout out to all the other people involved. It was a great, seamless process from beginning to end. Shout out to all the guys who put in a turn at judging, because you couldn't get 681 models judged without a lot of people doing a lot of work. So shout out to all of the guys who were involved in putting on the show.

Mike: 1:25:38

Had a great time. Man Glad we went.

Kentucky Dave: 1:25:40

Yeah, Now I've got one more. Shout out. Go for it. Shout out to fellow podcaster John Bonanni. John was there at the show along with TJ from the PPP. Got to spend some time with him, had a great time. Got to spend some time with him, had a great time. John brought a number of models to enter, one of which was a 3D-printed 72nd-scale British World War I Whippet tank on a base with a slope and part of a trench line. That was just beautifully done and I had mentioned to John several times throughout the days we were there how much I really liked that piece and that I thought he had done a really great job on it. And he walked up to me Saturday afternoon and said, do you want it? And I was like, are you serious? And he was deadly serious and just gave it to me and it's now proudly sitting in my case. It's an inspiration and I want to shout John out for doing that. That was very kind and I really appreciate it.

Mike: 1:26:52

Well, I'm going to shout out Matt Schaefer for putting together the meet and greet dinner at the brew pub there. Yeah, that was a lot of work and it got a little dodgy there for a minute because I think maybe more people showed up than anybody was anticipating.

Kentucky Dave: 1:27:07

Yes, I think we kind of overwhelmed the brew pub a little bit, but the beer was great.

Mike: 1:27:13

The food was good. My 17-year-old managed to get filled up.

Kentucky Dave: 1:27:16

Yes, which, if you can fill up a 17 year old boy?

Mike: 1:27:21

you're doing something. Thanks for that, and I hope everybody was there who's actually has actually paid for that, because it was a prepaid event. We were wondering about that, given another folks, given the number of folks who had showed up showed up and uh, you know, you shout out john and tj and the posse guys. Uh, I want to shout out Rob Riv and the modeling insanity crew.

Kentucky Dave: 1:27:41

Yeah, we got to sit with them at the brew pub and that was really fun. We had a lot of fun poking at each other.

Mike: 1:27:49

We never met those guys before and we're from different corners of the earth, and it all worked out Great guys. We had a lot of fun and uh made. We went out to dinner on saturday as quickly as we could get there, so we saw you guys poking through the windows at the irish place and finally found you guys out on the patio and I hope you liked it as much as we did, because that place was phenomenal. It was and I'll shout out, the fiddler's hearth, because they had three floyds gumball head on tap.

Kentucky Dave: 1:28:17

On tap, which is a near religious experience. As good as Gumball Head is in the can or the bottle, having it out of the tap was especially combined with really, really good Irish food. It was a near religious experience, loved it. If we ever get back, there.

Mike: 1:28:39

I'm definitely eating there again. Oh gosh, yes, really really good Irish food. It was a near religious experience. Loved it. If we ever get back there.

Kentucky Dave: 1:28:42

I'm definitely eating there again.

Mike: 1:28:42

Oh gosh, yes. Well, folks, that's AMPS 2024 from the Plastic Model Mojo point of view. Well, if you didn't make it to South Bend, you're really going to try to make it to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, especially those folks in the eastern United States. You know, I was surprised. We had folks from all corners of the United States there at the show and, yes, I think everybody's having a good time, Dave. I think they are Well, as we always say. So many kids, so little time. Dave, you got it.