4M Model Mayhem and more: PMM Model Show Spotlight

well, dave, it's time for our january installment of the model show shout out, which is going to feature some shows in february. We are not one for shows in february. If you want to go to one yeah, I know it's amazing.

I remember when the when the model season didn't start till the end of february, with with blizzard con and stuff like that now. Now you're getting shows in january, you're getting shows in very early February. It's amazing.

Well, most of them aren't in our geography, but one of them is Yep. It is Surprisingly the folks we kind of unfortunately dissed last year.

Yes, I made the terrible mistake of saying that Columbus was the first contest in Region 4, and that's not the case, because there's a contest in Region 4 that occurs about three weeks before Columbus that I was unaware of.

And that show is the 4M Mayhem put on by the Mid-Michigan Modelers up in Saginaw.

Yep.

And we had a representative from that club come on the show and give us a spiel about their upcoming show February 1st. And let's hear what he had to say, dave.

You got it.

Kentucky, dave, february seems to be loaded with shows. Yes, it is, and it seems a lot of them are coming up early. And one of those, dave, is the 4M Model Mayhem from the Mid-Michigan Modelers Club. And tonight we've got Mr Dave Mason from Mid-Michigan on to talk to us about this show. And Dave Mason, how are you doing tonight?

I'm doing good.

Well, good. Well, we hear you got a little model show coming up. Won't you tell us when and where and we'll get started with that.

All right, it's going to be February 1st. Doors open at 8 am. It's going to be at the Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road University Center, Michigan, which is Saginaw. Okay, We'll have plenty of vendors, concession 35 categories. We keep growing.

Now, aren't you all taking quite a risk running a model show in northern Michigan in barely February?

Yeah, actually, since we moved it from the beginning of April, end of March, whenever we could get a free date, we had more weather cancellations, power outages, ice storms than having it the first Saturday in February. We haven't had any major issues since and it's been over 10, 12 years now.

That's amazing. I would have thought that the first week of February in north central Michigan would have been a high propensity for, you know, heavy snow, ice, that type of weather. But it's pretty amazing that it's less difficult in early February than it is in April.

Well, the Saginaw Bay kind of tempers us Everything. Our weather is shifted a month or so later than everybody else's oh, okay and we're far enough east to where the lake effect that comes off from lake michigan usually doesn't get to us, or very little when it does even better.

Yeah, this show. Is it a standard IPMS formatted type invitational?

Actually it's an open system, ah okay. We use the IPMS standards as far as quality of build. I think our first show was a 1-2-3, and then we went to the modified Chicago open system.

Ah, gotcha. Well, we're familiar with that, so you've been doing that for how long now?

40, 40 years or so. This is our 40th show. We had a few years in there that COVID and 9-11 and a few others. We used to have our show at a Armory Inn after 9-11 and a few others. We used to have our show at Armory Inn Ended after 9-11.

Yeah, that's when they built a fence around it, right?

Yeah.

Well, that's interesting. I know we've talked to quite a number of clubs since we started these spotlights and gosh. I want to think maybe we're approaching. Maybe half of the ones we've talked to at this point are running some kind of something other than the IPMS 1, 2, 3.

Yeah, I do think that you have more shows than people are aware of that are some sort of gold, silver, bronze, open type system.

If it's been going on for 40 years almost, I assume it's received pretty well and folks like it up there.

Yes, the challenge of judging has gotten, because the quality of models has increased tenfold.

Yeah.

That's the only challenge is the volume of high quality models is so high. It's which is good to see on all fronts, and your show you. You hold it at a university yeah, we used to hold it at the vfws any hall that afford. Well, now those are pretty much gone, and plus we kept outgrowing them. We ended up with barely a three foot aisle, with the tables crammed at a couple of spots, and now we've got more room than we can fill at the moment, which is a good problem to have.

Yes, it is.

We got plenty of room to continue expanding. We're using all the tables that they have and if we run out of those, we can run them and keep expanding.

Typically in a typical year. How many models do you usually end up with on the table for a show so early in the year?

The last few years we've been either over 500 or 460s. It's in the 400s to 500 since COVID ended.

That's pretty good.

Yeah, that is particularly that time of year and 15 years ago we were 250. And who says this hobby is dying? Right yeah.

Yeah, we keep getting more and more models. Plus, we've opened it up to Gundams have their own category and the minis from the gaming world are welcome. If it's a miniature, it's welcome.

Now, I assume you have vendor tables at this show.

Yes, we're getting close to 60 sold so far. Nice, if we run out of tables, like I say, we can always rent more. We've got room.

Any notable vendors in attendance?

Dean's Hobby Stop.

Yeah.

We don't have Tamiya or anybody that wants to come to Michigan in the wintertime yet.

Mostly regional folks and the private table holders Most of the-. People moving their stashes and things.

yeah, Most of them that hit the Region 4, plus all the guys cleaning their garages out.

Sometimes those are best.

Now do you all draw much from Canada.

We've had I wouldn't say a large contingent, but we've had representatives from Canada quite often.

Gotcha.

We're only two hours two and a half hours from London and less than two hours from Windsor and Sarnia, so we do get a few guys in London.

Yeah, those Canadians are hard, hardy modelers, so it wouldn't surprise me if some show up to your show.

Oh, they're more than welcome.

Well, what's the theme this year if you've got one?

We actually have two themes this year, since it's our 40th show. We have fabulous 40s. It's anything that has a 40 on it, like a race car with the number 40, to a GT40 Ford, from the 60s to a P40 aircraft, anything that has to do with the 40s. Gotcha and the other theme is anything from 1985. So anything, any subject or model that's 40 years old, good.

That's a good thing. I like that.

And both of those should be pretty broad and draw up some interest.

Yeah, we kind of left them wide open to interpretation and that'll be the head judge's job to yes or no on whatever it is.

Do you have on-site concessions or do people go to food nearby?

We have both. We have just outside the entrance to the room with the models in. It is a concession stand that college will be providing. I believe they said they're going to have barbecue sandwiches and plus your normal concession stand food, and there's quite a few restaurants within two miles. There's some right around the corner from the college and into town. Just south of the college there's the whole strip that has every fast food you could and sit-down restaurants. All the major chain type are there.

When does the show open, when does registration close and when do you all give out the awards?

We open our doors at eight. Registration starts right away. Noon. We shut down registration and start judging right away, and we usually try to get done. I think on our flyer it says awards are at four. If we can get them going earlier, we do, because usually we have most of the venues we've ever been in. We had to be out by five so we got our system down to tear down and get out quick. So as soon as judging is done we give out the awards.

Well, normally I would think it would be the judging system. Is there any other thing that's unique to your show that might differentiate you from other typical shows in the region?

Well, we do the like. I say, we do the open judging. We don't close the room down, but everybody can continue to look at the models while we're judging. We just asked that when you see the group of guys judging or gals, we've got everybody judging. Just to give them a little bit of space, let them do their job, to get in and out of there quicker, and we have a pretty decent raffle.

Well, that's nice that you keep the room open during judging people an opportunity to see the models that they might otherwise lose out on if they get there right toward the end of registration. It's nice that your crowds are cooperative enough to give the judging teams the space they need.

Yeah, usually we don't have any issues. If someone gets too close, you just say, hey, could you give us a second? Most of them back off with no issues.

Well, that's good. Is there anything else you think you might need to mention about the show?

The weather's going to be fine, come on out to it. We covered pretty much everything. We got plenty of parking. With the college there, I would say well, I just remembered. If you are coming, it's parking lot E is what we would like you to use. That'd give you the shortest walk.

All right. So what's the date and time again?

February 1st, 8 am to 4 pm At the Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road University Center, michigan.

Is there a web source for the flyers and contest categories?

Yes, you can fill out your registration forms. Have everything pre-filled out. It's midmichiganmodelmakerscom slash contests.

Now, when you say pre-filled out, you mean they can print them out and bring hard copy, or you have an electronic system.

We haven't got our electronic system finished yet, but we're. We got the PDF forms, fillable PDFs. You can fill everything out. Print it, that way we can read them. All right, I know I can't fill out a form with it. I can't read it myself when I'm done.

I'm right there with you, yeah.

Plus, I never remember what I did to the model.

Yeah, exactly.

All right. Well, dave, thanks for joining us for this spotlight, and we wish you success on your show and hope the weather trend holds and hope you get those 500 plus models holds and hope you get those 500 plus models and when you do, please take photographs at your show and post them on the dojo.

Let people who are maybe a little far away or maybe snowed in here down in the south get a chance to experience what's going on in mid-Michigan.

I will do that. One more thing I forgot to mention is we do have trophy sponsorships available. You can get all the info on the website if you're interested in sponsoring a trophy.

Well, dave, we'll let you go. Have a good evening and thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

You're welcome. Stay warm we will, we're trying well, it's surprising that they they haven't been snowed out, but maybe their snowed out is different than our snow yeah, well, a, I suspect that is the case.

They are hearty people up there, but but yeah, no color. Me shocked that they haven't had weather problems in early February and they did have weather problems when it was in April. That's just, that's amazing to me.

I remember one time when I was at the University of Tennessee in April, right after spring break. It snowed enough to cover the grass to the tops of the grass blades one April afternoon during school, but by the end of the day it was all gone. I imagine that's not the case in mid-Michigan.

I imagine that's not the case in mid-Michigan and it hasn't been the case here in Louisville or Lexington. I'm telling you, I want this stuff to go away. It looks like tomorrow we're actually going to get some weather above freezing, so hopefully that'll do some good.

Well, if we don't and you can get out of town on February 1st, there's a couple of warmer options, Dave Yep. Mr Mike Mikowski from the Craig Hewitt chapter IPMS Phoenix reached out to me and wanted us to promote a show and I apologize. I had every intention to reach out to their show chairman, as he suggested, to get them on to talk about this show, but Mr Kidneystone got in the way of my forward planning so I didn't get that done. But he sent a show flyer.

Yep.

So we appreciate that Model Zona 2025.

Having attended three nationals in Phoenix, I can tell you Phoenix is great. And now when I went it was July and August. I can imagine in February it's very pleasant?

It probably is. Well, they've got a new location because they had to move because of venue availability. They are now at the el zariba shrine auditorium at 552 north 40th street in phoenix, arizona, and we'll put all this in the show notes, but we're going to read it here. Yeah, we'll put all the show notes to keep everybody current. Saturday, february 1st, just like the show in MidMichigan, 9 am to 5 pm. They got some special awards Dave Best Moving and Transport. Subject Best F4U Corsair Hell model airplane maker might need to go down there.

Yeah, I was going to say. I can hear Chris Wallace running for the airport as we speak.

That'd probably be a welcome change from Ottawa.

Yeah, I'll bet you it is.

February and the Raleigh Williams Craftsmanship Award, which I assume is a commemorative from one of their past members. Check it out, folks. Model Zone I know from our friend Ed Barrett that they draw as far as Southern California, so hopefully Model Zone 2025 at the new venue will be a rousing success.

Yes, go get some sun.

Well, if you can't make that one and you're still up for a model show on February 1st, Dave, there is one more, at least one more that we know of.

Right.

Spru Bowl 2. Spru Bowl 2. Hosted by IPMS Fresno Scale Modelers, so they're in Central California, there Central Valley.

Yes, that's Mr Budzig's stomping ground. It is.

Theme of this show is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, so that's kind of just like Bran and Jacob and their show there in Texas.

Yep.

Saturday February 1st, again 9 am to 4 pm. Yep. Saturday February 1st, again 9 am to 4 pm at the CPDES Portuguese Hall of Fresno, 172 West Jefferson Avenue, Fresno, california, straight, ipms type show, plenty of vendors, all that stuff. So again, we'll get this show also in the show notes so folks can check it out.

So February 1st, Dave, seems to be a popular date. Yep, yep, if, if you've been hibernating, if you've been trapped trapped at home modeling and you've gotten, you've gotten some things done over the the winter. Now is the time to bring them out, go to a show and socialize with your fellow modeler.

Well, Dave, we'd be remiss to skip our own region of IPMS.

Well, we did, we got mid-Michigan. That's our region too.

We're kind of crazy situated. We've talked about this before. I mean, those guys are a lot farther from us than some of our friends down in region three. Yes, so we're kind of on the fence? Yes, we are, but there is another contest. We got another show, dave, in our region. Won't you let us know what it is?

Well, blizzcon, the IPMS Columbus show, is February 22, 2025, from 9 am to 4 pm at the McCoy Center. That's M-A-K-O-Y Center, 5462 Center Street in Hilliard, ohio. Is that where it was last year? Yes, that's exactly the same place it was last year. Hilliard, by the way, is just a suburb of Columbus, greater Columbus. Blizzcon has a long as they say in Animal House, a long history of existence. It's a great show and I go to it. We get to connect up with a lot of people in our region that we haven't seen for a while and it's a great place to reconnect with fellow modelers and you've got something that you could take and enter.

Almost. It'll probably be done by the end of February, but I'm not quite there yet, Dave.

You're close.

I'm very close. Well, I'm trying to think how many times I've been to Columbus and I think, well, last year I got a little dodgy driving up.

Yeah.

Yeah, almost lived up to its namesake.

Yes, yes, we drove through significant snowfall, but we survived.

We survived. It wasn't so bad on the way home and I remember one time an old MMCL trip I went up there and there was like tons of snow on the ground. It didn't snow on the way up or back, but it had already happened and you had to deal with it once you got there.

Of course, that's no different than Louisville or Lexington right now. That's true, no different than Louisville or Lexington right now.

That's true. Well, folks, that is at least a brief look at the show scene for February. We hope you get out and make an effort to attend one of those. It's great fun and we totally recommend it and know you'll enjoy it.

Yeah, whether you enter or not, if you're not going to shows, you're depriving yourself of a really great part of modeling, and that is socializing with fellow modelers.

All right, let's let folks get to their show travel planning. You got it. Bye.