Fort Wayne Nationals: Special Thanks Shout Outs

Back From IPMS Nationals

Well, folks, we're coming at you fresh back from the IPMS National Convention. And we thought we'd just throw a little quick segment together to uh thank all the fine folks who we uh saw there and interacted with and save some of the juicy bits from the show for our next feature episode. But Kentucky Dave, how you hanging in there after a few days at the National Convention?

Man, I am drained. I am exhausted. What an experience. Every time you think it can't get better, it gets better. What a great time. I wish it would go on for another week.

Get expensive, man.

Oh, you don't have to tell me that.

We'll talk about that in the next uh what broke your wallet.

Oh I got news for you. Our next episode, the What Broke Your Wallet segment can be the whole show.

What broke your wallet and came back and gave it the faux show.

The faux show. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, well, you know, I guess we'll just start at the top and then we'll we'll get into the nitty-gritty about

Credit To The Hosts And Clubs

it. He got to hand it to Mr. Figaro and his staff and all the other clubs who helped pull this one off.

Including our local club.

Including our local club, the Military Maulers Club of Louisville. I think there are some folks there from Roscoe Turner, and I'm sure a lot of the other Region 4 shows were there, which I'm not a I don't know who was involved, but a lot of them were for sure.

I think they had 10 clubs in total participating. And man, John Figueroa and his crew deserve all the praise that they will be getting over the next few months. This is convention 31, 32, something like that. I have never seen a convention more well run than Fort Wayne. Everything worked so smoothly. Everything within the control of the show people ran as well as it could possibly

The Venue Details That Mattered

run.

Well, you know, contest format and politics aside, when you just look at the social aspect of the thing, which is kind of what we're going on here about with this little short, it just was phenomenal. That facility was incredible.

It was. It wasn't when facilities have the vendors broken up in multiple places, it it's irritating. But it was not at all because even though they were broken up, they were still relatively compact.

And the other aspect another aspect that I really enjoyed was uh, you know, it had that eighth-inch industrial carpet pretty much everywhere. And I tell you, that doesn't sound like much, but that is way better than raw concrete. I don't care what anybody says. That that that's enough to take the edge off for me. Yep. And uh I I was stayed pretty strong all day, as opposed to some other venues in recent history that were uh just smooth concrete floors. Wow, I that was just a much more enjoyable experience. It helped with the sound. Yes. The size of the place kept the crowd in in your immediate vicinity reasonable. I mean, we weren't bumping butts with people walking down the aisles. They could spray had wide aisles for all the vendor rooms. Yep.

The mile room had ample space. Yeah.

The contest room had ample space. I mean, there was a it was kind of high, but there was some acoustic mitigation in the ceilings of the vendor rooms and maybe the sh contest room as well. Yep. That just kept all that noise, and between that and the carpet, it was just a really, really great thing. I mean, you can always say, Oh, the lighting was bad or whatever, but you know, it wasn't terrible. And it was just a really comfortable environment, I'll put it that way.

It was, and it's as we get older and getting older, heck, I got older at the convention, the those those little things make a difference. I mean, the the sound baffling with as many people that as they had attending this show, that vendor room could have been deafeningly noisy. But it you could hold conversations and and we could record audio. It was it was really nice. Again, it this this facility was tailor-made for an IPMS USA national.

So our hats go off, and a huge thank you and debt of gratitude to the 2026 convention team. You guys did a bang up job, and the facility was great. And I think all the roadshow tours that we talked about with them when they were on on Plastic Model Mojo for the model show Spotlight, which we let them feature the national convention. They were, you know, they talked about going to all these local shows, and it made a difference. Putting the word out, I think it made a difference. So hopefully uh the fine folks down in Huntsville are gonna start doing the same this year. We'll see.

Fort Wayne As A Convention Town

And and we have to acknowledge that Fort Wayne is a great town. It was compact, but it had plenty of restaurants, plenty of places to go get some food or a drink. We went to the minor league baseball game one night, it was as enjoyable a baseball game, even though the local enjoyable the local team got shelled, but in the process of that shelling, it was as enjoyable as an experience as you could have wanted. And it depending on which hotel you were staying at, they both had rooftop bars overlooking the the stadium. So you could sit there and watch the game from afar, even if you didn't buy a ticket and go to the game. You could. It was fantastic.

So that was all

The Airbnb Crew Behind The Scenes

great. And say the next person we need to thank is the director of educational travel at the museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, Mr. Mark Copeland.

We owe Mark Copeland a massive debt of gratitude.

He's uh three for three on picking venues for us.

He is a he he makes travel and lodging arrangements for a living, and it shows uh the man has gotten us three Airbnbs in a row that have been really fantastic. Couldn't have couldn't have asked for anything. Very comfortable, very accommodating, because we, you know, we have a lot of people come by and visit, and you know, the porch, you combine the porch on our Airbnb with that weather, and it doesn't get much more pleasant than that.

It's pretty nice, it was. Who else, man?

Aussie And Canadian Friends Reunion

We gotta thank all our uh Aussie friends who came around.

Yes, we need to thank our Aussie friends, guys who got on an airplane and traveled halfway around the world to come to an IPMS nationals. Paul Gloster and David Goldfinch were absolutely top-notch. If you wanted to pick two guys to represent your country to the world, two two nicer, more polite, more uh fun people, you could not pick.

That's right. So hats off to those guys for making the big trip.

And uh well, and speaking of foreigners coming in, we had a couple of Canadian friends who came in.

We can go beyond that because uh I how to couch that. I appreciate our Canadian friends who chose camaraderie over the current political climate to still come down to the United States and join us at the convention and hang out with us. Yes. Um Chris Wallace of uh Model Airplane Maker and then Evan McCallum. That was such a joy seeing him come in the door about 40 minutes after I got there.

Yes, it was.

And you gladly gave up your bunk for him.

Yes, and we saw Alan Murel at the show.

Yes, we did. So him too. That's why I said uh beyond our our normal social circle. So it was great to see him. Now he came down to to uh dole out the Moose Roo Cup entries, and I I respect that, but uh he didn't have to do it that way.

No, he didn't. You know, they when we went to Texas, they supplied him in the mail because he wasn't going making the big trip to Texas.

Uh but it was great to see those guys, and we talked to two of them on the regular anyway, and yeah, just had a lot of lot of fun, a lot of great laughs with those guys. And uh, you know, our little team there is kind of like 24-7 comedy troupe. It's just yeah, you sometimes your belly just hurts.

Yes. There were there were some one-liners that I don't think we're ever gonna forget from that.

So or we're not gonna repeat them here for sure.

No, none of none of which will we repeat here.

Evan, we need a deadpan of the convention award. I mean, we'll make that up. So Evan wins the deadpan of the convention award.

I'll get a small lodge lodgeware skillet.

And we'll paint a face on it with X dot i's. That might work.

There you go. I like that

Squadron Table Conversations And Guests

idea.

Who else, man? We need to thank all the folks who stopped by the table. We had a lot of guests come by the table. We've got some great segments, uh, some interesting things, uh I think runs the gamut between kind of tier one manufacturers to cottage industry manufacturers to a couple of modelers.

Yep.

Doing their thing.

And we were because of where we were located in the squadron area, we got to interact with a lot of the rank and file attendees because they were standing there in line in front of our table, and the conversations were great. Anything as as from as simple as, hey, I listened to you, or what's this about? I've never heard of this, or the guys who listeners who brought us copious amounts of adult beverage.

We did some we did pretty good, man.

Some very interesting, yes, some packed in ways that amazed us. We are the luckiest. We're the luckiest modelers alive, and it is in large part due to all the listeners who came by to say hi and hold brief conversations. I love the number of people who we met who this was their first national convention. Oh, yeah. Man, what a way to start. Hopefully it's not downhill from Yeah, I was gonna say uh Huntsville has their j their work cut out for them. They do. I know that John being the John Figueroa being the generous guy he he is was really helping them out and will continue to be a resource for them.

But man, they got some big boots to fill. They do. So we'll be talking to those guys a little later in the year. Yep. And look forward to that. Who else, man? Who else do we want to thank?

MMCL Raffle And Local Show Tease

Um, I think that uh our our local club, the MMCL, certainly, certainly ran the raffle. And from all the I we you and I got to stop by briefly just to say hi. We don't get to as many club meetings as as I think either of us would like or should, but we got to stop by and say hi to all the all the members we recognize from the club. And apparently they ran as as I had no doubt they would. If there's one thing that the Military Modelers Club of Louisville have dialed in for their show, it's the raffle. And they took it big time at the nationals, and again, that's another group of people who set a standard, and it's gonna be it's gonna be a tough fact to follow.

Well, folks can learn a little bit more about the MMCL and an upcoming installment of the model show Spotlight because our local show is in September and it's August, which means they're gonna be one of the shows we're gonna feature. So we look forward to hearing from uh one of our club representatives to tell us all about that, and folks in the locale can hopefully come and enjoy themselves because we do a good show.

Yes, we do.

Septemberists Collection Win Celebration

Well, Dave, it's not a thank you, but it is a congratulations. I'm a part of this group, but kind of on the peripheral. I'll I'm kind of the what would he call me of the Septemberists.

You you're you're an auxiliary member who this who has qualified for full membership. So now we're gonna be expecting even more from you.

Sometimes I serve as reality check. That's right. But Dave, you guys have been you won a couple of third places in the collections. Is that right? Absolutely, two in a row, two in a row, and you skipped right over second place this year, won the big prize for the collections. You won first place in collections of Septemberists. So congratulations, you guys.

And you know, and we had great attendance. We had a lot of the Septemberists who were there in person. Dr. Gelmacher, our fearless leader, Mr. Green, Mr. Vitkiss, Mr. Robinson, myself. It was wonderful to see those guys. They're a really nice group of human beings, and to see them have that success was gratifying as all get out.

It was, and I'll toast Dr. Gelmarker with the last three-finger pour of the Buffalo Trace he gave us. Yeah. Because the folks, fine folks of Edward and Mark Copeland pretty much damaged it. Took care of a lot of the rest of it. But that's fine. Good on them.

At what convention do you show back up to your Airbnb after a ball game and find the traveling staff of Edwards sitting on your front porch talking? I mean, it was just kind of wild.

Bill Moore Spreads The Word

Dave, we gotta thank Bill Moore at World of Armor.

Yes, we do. He was a constant presence.

Constant presence, and we could hand him a stack of cards and he'd come back empty-handed every time. Info cards for either plastic model mojo or winter blitz, yeah, or what or whatever. I think those are the two we sent him out with. And uh, you know, he likes to talk to people, and uh he's not bashful, that's for sure.

I was gonna say he's one of those people who's never met a stranger. Bill walks up to people, starts talking to him, and he's got such a great personality that it's larger than life. And he really did a lot of glad handing for us while we were at the table or doing interviews or maybe spending a little money. And we thank him for it. We we value our friendship with Mr. Moore.

Congrats To Medal And Gold Winners

Well, back on the congratulatory front, I want to congratulate past guest Brad Belsheim and his traveling companion, Dr. David Morris. Both those guys got a little bling at the IPMS National Convention with their entries. And I remember when we had Brad on back a while ago because he had finished that little a heavy Russian light tank. I don't know what to call it. A little uh like a two-man tank, you know, it's uh a a little heavy, what it what look little look like a little KV1. Yeah, and uh at that time I told him I thought that was his his best, and I'd been watching him stead steadily improve over social media and the shows we'd see him at. And I told him before the show that it was a couple of in the entries, I could I told him it was like, man, you just you're getting better, you're getting better. And he won a gold in his category. Dr. Dave won uh won one as well, at least one, maybe maybe more than one. I I don't recall, but I I know the one I remember from the awards presentation. It was a very good model, and I congratulated him on the spot via text message, but I want to extend those guys the congratulations again because you know those are those are two guys I've I've watched their entries over the years we've known them, and people are getting better, man. And it uh they they both did well at the show. Well, Dave, we probably ought to wrap this up because we have a feature episode to get out, and I got a lot of national segments to edit to make that happen.

I got a lot of stuff that I got at the convention that I got to put away,

Brandon Lowe Thanks And Sign Off

man.

I want to thank finally and foremost Brandon Lowe and the whole squadron team. Yes, they really took care of us this national convention.

And and to say Brandon went above and beyond does not begin to touch it. Our our show experience was down to his generosity, and we had a great time in in the squadron area and had a had a great convention, and a large part of that is due to due to what he has done.

And it was a pleasure to meet his staff, the rest of the folks there, his brother and and his dad. And it was just great. So, Brandon, thank you for for all you did for Plastic Model Mojo, and we're gonna we're gonna go at it hard again and make sure we can return that favor as best we can. And we look forward to the next opportunity. And uh just thank you for all you did for Plastic Model Mojo at the National Convention. We couldn't ask for anything better, and uh we appreciate you making that happen. So thank you very much.

Yes, absolutely. And and man, if that's what you turned out for the national convention, I cannot imagine what Eagle Quest is gonna look like, but I am looking forward to it.

We probably ought to wrap this up because again, we've got our feature content to get out.

Yeah, yeah, we got that, and we got a lot of other things to do too.

All right, man. I'm gonna finish this Buffalo Trace and get to bed here a little bit.

Sounds good. See you later.