Chattanooga ModelCon & WinterBlitz 2025: PMM Model Show Spotlight

Merry Christmas listeners and Merry Christmas to you, dave.

Merry Christmas listeners. Merry Christmas to you, mike.

Well, dave, we got a couple of shout outs for some shows coming up, because, no matter how good your family is when it's all said and done, come day after Christmas you may wish you were somewhere else.

That's always a possibility. I'll tell you what struck. We are already spotlighting shows in 2025. Do you realize how close 2025 is?

Maybe a week and a couple days, something like that.

I mean, doesn't it seem like we just sat down to plan out 2024?

We did, and it seemed to fill itself up pretty quickly.

It did, it did and it seemed to fill itself up pretty quickly. It did, it did and I got no complaints. But yeah, I'm starting to look forward to the shows coming up in 2025.

Well, folks, at least a couple of geographies, at least on the eastern side of the country, are going to get some opportunities in January. Yes, pretty quickly out of the chute are two shows that we're going to spotlight with our show promoters. The first one is Chattanooga Model Con, which is going to be real soon here in January, and we had their show chairman on for a little chat about the Chattanooga Model Con and let's let folks get educated on that one, dave.

That sounds good.

Well, dave, the model show season is going to get off to a rousing start. We've got two to cover in this episode and the first up one is the Chattanooga Scale Modelers, and we've got Mr Ben Gibby with us tonight from the Chattanooga Club. Ben, how are you doing tonight?

I'm doing well, how are you doing?

We're good, good. We hear you've got a show coming up. Yes, we do.

It's coming up in January. On the 10th we're about half a day on the 10th and the 11th we've got all day, basically for the bug part.

Well, that's interesting. Is that normal for your show? As an IPMS Invitational? You do a day and a half.

Yeah, we've done two days for as long as I can remember.

I've been with the club since 2014, and they were doing it before I started Now. Has the show always been this early in the season?

Yes, that was the decision made way before I got there. I really can't give any logic or reason for it, but it's kind of the first one of the year.

Oh, that's great. Hey, listen, nothing wrong with being first.

Yeah.

People have all that Christmas money. They got to come down and spend it at your vendors.

There you go, and they probably have a malaise from all the holiday activities. Yep, it's a good way to get out for the day. That's right, day and a half actually. Well, where is the show actually held within Chattanooga? It was at the.

Chattanooga Convention Center, downtown.

Oh, okay, oh, where the Nationals was held.

Yes, the same building.

That is a wonderful facility, I've got to say. I've been to a lot of Nationals and Chattanooga for many reasons, reasons is one of my favorites and that facility is just top notch yes, it is.

We get a lot of very complimentary things said about our show and trying to talk them into doing another one what another national?

yeah oh, that'd be awesome you.

You would get nothing but cheers from me. I would love to see you all do another national.

It's going to be a hard sell, though we got a lot of people who are.

Oh, come on, I'm sure Mike is just chomping at the bit to be the show chairman at another national.

Well, actually that would fall to me. Mike moved away from us.

Oh, when did he move?

He moved like three years ago. He's up in North Carolina right now.

Oh is he.

Yeah.

Okay, Well, you could draft him back in. Bring him back in.

We could probably talk him into it.

There you go, there you go. So your show's a day and a half. Yes, it opens at noon on the 10th, or what?

time on the 10th Roughly noon. Don't let anybody in. If they want to help us with the setup, you can come in early.

There you go, there you go. Is it a classic IPMS-style show with first, second, third and all of the categories?

We actually do gold, silver, bronze. Okay, is it an?

open.

Open system gold, silver, bronze, okay yes, we've gotten some negative comments and very positive comments on it, but we're sticking with it because we like it okay, well, that's that.

That's you do. Do what the club likes.

That's the important thing you gotta run to run it.

Yeah, really, you got to run it. So run it the way you like it. What's your vendor setup? Look like Lord knows. You've got to have plenty of room at that center.

At the moment we're at, 110 tables have been sold for the vendors. That's getting close to the record. I think the record was like 123 a couple years ago.

Wow.

But yeah, we do really well on the vendors. People like coming to us just for that yeah, I can see why yeah now squadron's one of our sponsors are they.

They make your show they have 10 tables. I was about to say how many of those are brandon's yep, always looking forward to brandons. When I was in college I used to come through Chattanooga quite a bit. Yeah, because I had friends that lived in South Middle Tennessee down past that and in the 80s. I don't know how long you've lived there.

I've been here off and on all my life.

Okay, I would say in the 80s, mid-80s, late 80s Chattanooga was kind of in decline, oh yeah, and I guess a lot of their heavy industries had moved out and just a lot of stuff was gone and I don't know when the revitalization started. But it's been a huge success and we go down there to the Tennessee Aquarium about every other year. In fact we were down there just in the spring because I had a niece getting married down that area and we took a day and went to the aquarium again. But what can you tell folks about downtown Chattanooga now, down around the convention center?

You got the aquarium. You got all kinds of restaurants. It's a great place to be. Everything's within walking distance of the convention center. We've got the free shuttle that runs. You just find your spot and they'll stop at it and take you pretty much anywhere in town.

Well, isn't there also an auto museum close by?

Yes, there is, and the name fails me at the moment.

I can't remember it either, but it's.

Coker Tire I think it's Coker Tires. Yes, has a museum.

Yeah, and it's Coker's Tires has a museum. Yeah, and it's an amazing museum.

Yes, I've never been, but I've heard great things and seen lots of pictures.

Oh, it's unbelievable. So I know that I walked by it when I was down there at the 2019 convention. One of the things that impressed me about downtown Chattanooga in 2019 was the number of really nice restaurants that were around. Boy, you've got a really great selection of food and a great variety. Almost no matter what type of food you like, there's a restaurant in downtown Chattanooga that serves that cuisine.

If you go hungry in Chattanooga, you're not trying hard enough.

Well, and they've got some really good microbreweries.

Yes.

Are you all tied to a particular hotel? Do you have a deal with a particular hotel?

Not this year. The prices haven't really been real good, so it's just kind of a fin for yourself, gotcha. The only thing I'm going to say bad about the whole thing.

Well, that's pretty much the industry these days.

Well, I think January in Chattanooga finding a room is not going to be a problem.

Yeah.

Not like June or July, right? Well, back to the vendors you got. You know, about 10% of your tables are squattering. Any other notables or is it? As you know, typically we we see a mix of cottage industries, hobby shops, that that sort of thing, and then folks just getting rid of stuff.

yeah, we've got john's models, firehouse hobbies, a lot of local stuff and regional stuff and quite a few actual, just small vendors, one and two man that's a lot of tables, even with a squadron taking 10 of them.

Yeah.

That's one thing I've always been impressed by. Even when I wasn't involved in the club, I went to a couple shows and it's just like, wow, this is the model heaven for me right now.

So when does registration close? I assume at some point on Saturday.

Model registration stops at noon on Saturday.

Noon on Saturday? Yes, and then when do you all obviously you judge after that, when do you get the awards done and get the show wrapped up by we?

try to get the awards out by about four o'clock by. We try to get the awards out by about 4 o'clock.

Okay.

But we're not. We don't always get it because we do have a different judging system. Sure, every model gets looked at, so that can take us a while, but we aim for 4 o'clock, okay, and we start judging Friday night when we get the first registration and we'll go look at those before we close down for the night.

Yeah, that's Chicago. When Mike and I went to the MMSI show in October they did the same thing. They judged the stuff that had come in Friday on Friday, and then stuff that comes in on Saturday on Saturday.

We'd never make it if we didn't have Friday to start judging on.

Gotcha.

Yeah, I have to wonder if that played into the two-day or day-and-a-half decision there. Your judging format.

Honestly, that makes a lot of sense. Mike Moore was just kind of a rebel in the whole thing and wanted to do it a little bit different, so I think it was really his decision. But I like it. A lot of people are very complimentary on it, so we're keeping it.

I think the tide's moving that direction. There were quite a few well, I won't say quite a few, but there was a surprising number of shows that were either new shows who started with that format or have moved to that format. We had a spotlight for a show out in California. I think that's right, dave. That was going to be an open format show and, yeah, I'd be real curious. Dave and I are trying to do some more shows down in your region this year and I don't know this is tempting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes it's very tempting because chad nuga is especially for mike is not not a long drive at all, right, no, no, it's not too bad from lexington. It's about four hours from us, but you guys are going to pull from.

Uh, oh gosh, I imagine the atlanta guys come up marietta area down there and then probably from north alabama and yep, we get a lot of help from the Marietta Club, a little bit of help from some of the Alabama clubs, knoxville helps a little bit. We draw from everybody. We got a little bit of everything going on.

Was there anything other than the judging format that makes the Chattanooga show unique? Well, you got the half day on Friday, but it just sounds like it's a stellar location. Is there anything else that you might want to mention that's noteworthy for your show?

I think we've pretty much hit the two main things the extra day and the judging style.

And the very crowded vendor's room.

Yes, the very crowded vendor's room, that's the high point.

I was going to say that's always an attraction for a bunch of modelers, especially a bunch of modelers who may have just gotten christmas money yep well, uh, where can folks online find information about the show?

we are at chattanooga modelerscom okay, and what do you have there? You have the show information. We have a show flyer.

Our homepage. We've got the Chattanooga Model Con. It'll give you the flyer, the registration forms you can download and fill out. Kind of shows you the whole overview of what's going on Model entry forms, scoring sheets, the show rules, judging guidelines, kind of our philosophy on the way things are judged. A small gallery of some previous shows.

Okay, so you got quite a bit there actually. Yeah, that's a pretty nice build out. Well, tell us again the date and location so folks can come to your show.

It is January 10th and 11th of 2025 at the Chattanooga Convention Center. It's Friday from 1 to 6 and Saturdayurday from nine to four.

Ish 4 30 sometime around there and if you show up early on friday, they'll put you to work helping do setup you will be put to work helping do setup. Yes, sir well, that sounds great, and mike and I may have to talk. If we could, if we could steal a day, that would be awesome.

Yeah, probably couldn't do the day and a half, but we could get up, crack it on on. Saturday and meet you down there, yeah, maybe.

Yeah, let me know and we'll roll out the red carpet for you. Thank you.

Well, we appreciate you coming on and promoting the show and we hope some folks out there hear this and make the decision to come Sounds good.

Thanks for having me.

You're very welcome, dave. You always rave on and on about kind of like Buddy Holly, but like the National Convention held in Chattanooga, so you're familiar with the facility for sure.

The facility is fantastic. Chattanooga's a great town, a really, really great town. You and I got to see if we can steal a day and make a cannonball run down there, because I'm itching to get down there.

Well, I'll grow a mustache and you get the wrestling mask. You got it, dave DeLuise.

That's right.

Well, I'll tell you, the half day on the Friday gives a little incentive to folks coming from out of town to get a little bonus there if they happen to come in early.

Yep, yep, and there's tons to do and see in Chattanooga. I mean it really is. It's a great town for tourism to do and see in Chattanooga. I mean it really is. It's a great town for tourism. It's a great town for food and drink. I'm itching to try and get down there.

We got to see if we can steal a day. Well, up next is one our listeners should be quite familiar with. It's Winter Blitz, put on at the Museum of the American GI, and our Special Agent 003, brandon Jacob, joined us again. Familiar with it's Winter Blitz, put on at the Museum of the American GI, and our special agent 003, brandon Jacob, joined us again. Gosh, it's like the fifth time, I guess, we've had him on to promote this show and it continues to get better. And we had a great conversation with Brandon.

Yes, we did.

Dave. Moving on to our second feature, tonight we've got Winter Blitz 2025. And with us to talk about that is our old friend Brandon. Jacob Brandon, how the heck are you? How down in Texas.

I am doing very good. How are?

you guys doing. I'm good man. We saw a lot of you in 2024. Yeah, we did.

I got around. Yeah well, it's always good to hear from agent 003 man 003 what I bumped into you, mike in knoxville yeah, I know that was a big surprise.

I didn't know that was a random, random, bizarre stop. And man, I went to amps nationals and I saw you guys, which was what a great show that was, and oh my gosh.

Yeah, All right. Well, we got another great show to talk about. Tell us about it, Brandon. When is Winter Blitz 2025 and where?

and all that. All right, let me give it to you. Winter Blitz 2025 is going to be held this year January 25th, once again at the Museum of the American GI and college station. For those who are not familiar where college station is, it's a home of Texas A&M and it's kind of located in the middle between Houston, austin, san Antonio, and then maybe it's just a little bit further out for our friends in the Metroplex to get down there, but it's in close proximity to all the big cities in Texas.

Well being in January in Texas. I'm assuming that you're not really worried about getting snowed out.

You know that's funny. I wish you didn't say that it's been such a mild winter here. I mean it was like 80 something degrees today. Oh yeah, I mean I'd kill for that Beautiful, beautiful day, and we always get our winter in late January and February. Yeah, so far, winter blitz has been very lucky. It's been cool. Right, it's going to be cool, but we just been lucky with like ice and you always got a knock on wood because it could happen even even in texas well, this is, this is your number four number four oh man, I I remember talking with you when you all were just starting to do this, when, when it was just an idea in your head.

It's a wild, crazy idea.

Yeah, this is amazing.

It's crazy, isn't it? Yes, I mean, it's the people that are helping, the people who show up. It's the museum, it's the great backdrop for a great armor model show. Yeah, we've been very fortunate.

Well, the museum has to be thrilled with what you built from scratch, because I'm sure it's good for them and for their attendance and for publicity for the museum.

You know it's funny you say that I'm not sure. Looking back, I'm not sure they really understood what a model contest could mean at the beginning. Like was this going to be? Like you know, a bunch of guys showing up with snapped together kits.

Right.

And they definitely get it now. They definitely are happy with the show.

Well, good, so it's on the 25th. What time does registration open? Open to the public at 9, 9 am.

Okay.

And when does registration close?

Registration. We close it at 1130.

Okay.

But we always say hey look, since it's not a home turf show and someone might be coming from who knows where, if you could get in before your category is judged, we'll take late comers, but 1130 is the real cutoff.

Gotcha and you all use an open style system of judging, correct?

We do, and we're going gonna stick with that, okay, um, and, and I think it works for our show in that a it is a shorter window, right, like, like our, we try to start the award ceremony earlier and remember it's just armor we're able to, I think, judge quickly and it has to be that system and it just works. It just works that way.

Well, you say, armor, only Aren't you making a change this year.

Yes, we are making one little change.

Does it have to do with your theme?

Has to do with our theme. Our theme for Winter Blitz 2025 is the Vietnam War, and people may or may not know this, but it's the 50th anniversary of the United States and of involvement with the Vietnam War, and the museum just so happens to be heavy. There's a lot of good stuff, artifacts from Vietnam, an Antos, an M113, a mechanical mule, a PBR boat and even a Cobra. One of the very few flying things they have in a museum is a Cobra, and we thought that the vietnam war theme not only worked for winter blitz, but it certainly works for the museum as well, sure, and you can't really commemorate the vietnam war without helicopters right right.

There's just no way you could do that right. I mean, you've got to have helicopters.

They're flying tanks Right.

So what we did this year is add a category. We wanted to keep it narrow, and it's United States helicopters flown in the Vietnam War.

Chinooks, hueys, cobras Sky cranes. Right Sky cranes.

Loaches, yep, and then some of the early ones from the early involvement, and then some of the early ones, the Flying Banana?

Well, CH-46, if you're talking about Marines.

Yeah.

We think we're going to see one or two Hueys Probably marines yeah we think we're gonna see one or two hueys probably, but yeah, it's an exciting. It's an exciting because we heard some feedback already from some of the airplane guys and they were very thankful. It's like, wow, man, you have a good thing going on up there and even some of them would come and they couldn't enter, but finally an airplane guy gets to bring a helicopter.

And there are a lot of good helicopter kits out there.

Yeah, so it's going to be exciting to see how that goes. Just to make sure we don't burst at the seams for that category and that category only, we're saying one per entry.

One entry per person.

Yeah, that category.

They can bring a whole bunch of armor stuff, but if they bring a helicopter, only one you got it.

Exactly, gotcha Exactly.

Well, that makes sense since you do have limited space, since you're held in a museum. But I'm telling you what. Mike and I have gone to several contests held in museums Heritage Con, of course, and then Cincinnati and there's something special and different about having a model contest in a museum and being around all of the full size items that you know that are, that are relatable to what we do as a hobby.

Again, I think people, people pay Winterblitz a lot of compliments, but let's be honest. It starts with that great backdrop.

Yeah, we've added helicopters or anything else you've, you've added.

Yeah, we did. You know, we really, we really haven't significantly changed other categories, but what we, what we did, and again, because we're just just armor, we have 25 categories, one being helicopters and 24 different armor categories. So what that does is enable us to be more specific, right, like, like you bring a model and it's going to be probably judged against something that's a little more specific than just a general. You know, world war two tanks as an example, you know we break it down as as much as we have a separate artillery category and then right next to that, we artillery category, and then right next to that, we have a category called all things towed, which was you have to have the tractor and a trailer and that could be an artillery piece or a trailer, you know, just a water trailer, it doesn't matter.

But so we were able to be a little more specific, to go a little more specific this year we added an airplane busters category, meaning any self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle right could be a tank, half-track armored car, it even could be a figure right, as long as it's self-propelled and its original or main purpose is to shoot down an airplane. That's a new category for this year and what that's going to do is, I think, kind of take a little pressure off, like the half-track category, because that's where they typically end up. Winding up is in that half-track category.

Well, another thing you've always done at this show is you have a Tank of the Year award and assume you've got a new, a new tank of the year.

We do this year we kind of excited about this. One it tank of the year for 2025 is the t-34 and its variants, and that's an important that's an important one. It's got to be. Yeah, it could be a variant.

Well, there's going to. There are a lot of good T-34 family of tanks that that that you can do out there. So that's, I'm sure that's going to be hugely popular.

It's. It's exciting because we also came up a little. It's going to be a little surprise, but we have a little, a small little token, if you will, for anybody who brings a qualifying T-34, they're going to leave with a little token, and then obviously, someone's going to win the grand Tank of the Year award.

Why'd you pick the?

T-34?. You know, what's funny is, last year was the first year we did a Tank of the Year and it was obviously Sherman and the boys down at the Houston Armor Club voted on that. That was a good one to start with, and last year Rick Cotton and I, during Winter Blitz, we went around and, out of 375 models last year we had two T-34s and we decided we needed to see a few more T-34s. So that's really how we. It was that simple of a pick.

It's good to be in charge of the show, isn't it?

It is. But you know that only meant if there's two T-34s and I think there was like four the year before that that only means there was a hell of a lot of T-34 models in people's closets.

That's right. Get them out and get them built. Get them out, exactly.

Well, I think we might have misspoke a little bit earlier about the judging format. It's not really an open system, it's a modified kind of IPMS system.

Once you elaborate a little bit on what you guys are doing a little different, it's what we call it is a loose interpretation of IPMS rules, but in general it is the IPMS rules, with the exception of we ask our judges to not just focus on the negative attributes, and by that I mean sometimes people. The first thing I want to do is you know is it tracks out a line or and of course that's important at our show. But, like, look at the positive attributes as well. Does that make sense?

yeah, oh yes absolutely the total presentation kind of approach, meaning.

Meaning if, if there's, you know, a work of art on the table and there's a speck of something that might or might not be a proper thing, you know, step back and say is this, is this still a winning model?

right sometimes you see it shows things get disqualified and you go uh, I don't know, ma'am, the rest of the model was stellar, except for that one problem. And again, keep this in mind because of the way the categories are, we already start specific and we've always split a lot. In fact, last year all but five categories were split at least one time. So it breaks down to most models are going to be judged. You know 10 to 12 models and when you do that it makes judging so much easier versus a sea of 25 models. You could focus on the model a little bit more.

It looks like you've got a lot of support for the show this year as far as people sponsoring the show.

Yeah, we're pretty excited and we're thankful for every group that stepped up and you know, shame on me if I don't mention first of all, we've got Tamiya. Once again they're stepping up and sponsoring.

Well, it's an armor show. Darn well they should.

Absolutely right, and you know, we just we're grateful. We're grateful for their sponsorship. Yeah, and we won't miss a moment to say something good about Tamiya, lionheart, hobby, rudy and Danielle. They've been with Winter Boots since day one and they continue to support the show. New for this year we've got Mr Steve Munsell with Value Gear and he is threatening to come down to the show.

Oh, that would be nice.

Yeah, so we're kind of excited about that.

I think a bunch of armor modelers would be really thrilled to see value gear actually there.

I shared with them. I said you're literally going to be in front of every serious armor modeler in Texas, so it's certainly worth this trip. And then G&G Hobbies, our favorite model shop here in Houston. And then we actually got Mr Jim Ruda, black Widows, coming and going to set up shop in the vendor room and see if he could sell a few models as well. So we've got a good group of people coming.

Well, that's fantastic.

I am thrilled to see something that four years ago was simply an idea in your head blossom into what we're talking about now again, I couldn't do it without the museum support and, obviously, the rick cotton and eric choy people who are stepping up to put this thing on and and helping. Helping me is is is what makes it successful. And I'll tell you before I forget, my good friend Austin Fields of the YouTube channel Sprues and Spoons, and as a matter of fact I love to give him a shout out. He does that interviewing of modelers at conventions, yep, and he's going to come down.

Well, that's great, that's great.

So hopefully we'll have one or two YouTube premieres after this year's Winter Blitz up for people to see Now do you have a website? We do, and we keep it current.

That's good yeah right, not everybody does that.

No, and I'm certainly no expert at coding, but you know, I just go in there and try to try to update. We just did some updates on the rooms and in fact, let me just say this anybody who's coming and if you're gonna get a room and call a station man, the rates are like like our main hotel sold out. There's something else going on, but there's like cheap hotels, hotels 10 minutes further away. There's no hotel right at the museum, so nobody's staying there, right, right, but it's important to keep the website updated for things like that.

What's the address?

Winter-Blitzcom www.

Winter dash blitzcom.

you got it gotcha well, brandon, is there anything else folks need to know?

if you're listening to, this and you're in Texas and you've never been to a show or you've never entered a show, come on out and enter, or come on out and just see it. It's going to have a great raffle, great door prizes, great people, friendly people and, again, because of the time of the year, you know, we start at nine, we get judging at noon and we promise an award ceremony that starts at three and is over by four, so people could get out of there and get on the road before it gets dark. And it's a quick day, but a lot in one day.

It's good to have you back on and we look forward to the next time we see you. I don't know when that's going to be, but we probably not going to make winter blitz. It's a pretty good haul for us.

I'll let you know, but hopefully I'm definitely eyeing amps.

Do me a favor, take a whole lot of photos at the show and post them on the dojo, so that we get to virtually experience the show.

I will definitely do that and and we'll put a link up there for austin stuff when he when he gets it out as well thank you all.

Right, well, we'll let you get back to your show plan and your own modeling, sir. Thank you, sir you take care. All right, y'all be good well, it's been fun watching that thing grow from an idea into something that I don't know. I sky's really the limit. It could probably be whatever they want it to be at this point yep, yep, and I've got to say I'm very happy that we were.

we were kind of there from the beginning to watch this blossom and turn into what it's turned into, which is way more than the little model contest that I think they had the idea for the first one, and it's just become an amazing, amazing show.

Well, I hope Brandon and if he doesn't, somebody else will make good on posting a lot of those photos to the dojo, because I'm really interested to see what's at that show again, because there's really a lot of good stuff there last year.

Yes, yes, absolutely. I would love to see photos from both Chattanooga and Winter Blitz and Winter Blitz.

Well, folks, if you're in a commutable distance to either Chattanooga during their show dates or Winter Blitz there in the heart of Texas for their show date, make the effort, go the extra mile, try to get there. I'm sure you'll have a blast at either one of them.

Yes, hey, start off 2025. Right Go to a model show.

Well, Dave, we better get on to our New Year's activities.

Yes, we better, Dave. We better get on to our New Year's activities. Yes, we better Start planning the 2025 campaign.

That's right. So, folks, Merry Christmas again and have a happy New Year. You may hear it from us one more time before January 1st. We sure hope so. You got it Bye.