Tanks, Traditions, and Transformation: Spotlighting the AMPS International Convention

all right, dave, we got a show spotlight yes, we do, and a show that we're going to yeah, I'm looking forward to this one.

It is uh. Oh, you and me both. It is springtime. April, may time frame has always been the uh time that AMPS has held their international convention. Yep, and I'm looking forward to this man. We had a blast up in South Bend last year.

Oh, we did. It was awesome. I got to say that was some of the best times I've had, so I'm really looking forward to it in Pennsylvania.

I had forgotten what I was missing. You are back, baby. Well, AMPS has a new president, and it's Mr Neil Stokes, who's been with the organization a long time, and we decided to have him come on and tell us about the upcoming convention, Dave.

Yep looking forward to it.

Well, dave spring is in the air, and you know what that means.

That means AMPS man, AMPS Nationals.

AMPS is coming up again and tonight we have the AMPS president, mr Neal Stokes, with us.

Tonight, neal, how you doing, doing just fine, gentlemen, Nice to be here and thank you for the opportunity to come talk to you.

Well, we like the show and we want to give you the opportunity to at least tell our listeners what's up about it. And let's get right into it. Man, amps is coming up next month. Won't you give us the date and location for starters? Absolutely.

So we are running Thursday May 15th through Saturday May 17th at the Penn Harris Hotel in Camp Hill, pennsylvania, which is just across the river from Harrisburg, about a half a mile, half an hour away from Hershey Park and probably less than an hour away from the Gettysburg Battlefield. So there's a lot to do in the area, you know, if people want to bring their families and, you know, not have to maroon them in a world of tanks for a couple days.

Well, I got to say Mike and I went to the Amps National in South Bend last year and man, what a great time that was. Just I've got to say AMPS really knows how to put on a show. That thing ran smooth and the quality of the work at the AMPS Nationals is just unbelievable.

Well, thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed last year's. We always have a great time. Like you said, the quality of the work is just stupendous and you know we're expecting actually an even bigger show this year oh yeah, at 30 days out than we were for last year's show. So you know that always makes our chief judge a little nervous because he's sweating about how he's going to get all those models judged. But you know it's kind of a nice problem to have.

But you all always seem to do it. I mean, it's a challenge, but you all always seem to be able to somehow tackle it.

I remember a couple of years ago in Newport News we were burning the midnight oil on the Friday night getting the models judged, because if you go back like 20 years, I think the first one I came to was like 2005. And you got like the diehard fanatics would come in on the Friday and then the regular folks would come in on the Saturday. So you got like a big rush on Friday and you you try to get them all judged so that you could you know clear space and and just judging bandwidth for the, for the, the Saturday rush. But the interesting, you know it's changed now. You know the, the, the diehard fanatics are there on the Wednesday night and you know are lined up when the show opens Thursday lunchtime and by Friday everybody's there and Saturday it's just the party's in full swing. So yeah, the dynamic has changed quite a bit, but we're expecting somewhere in the region of 700 models.

Now have you all got all your judging teams assembled and ready to go and mapped out.

No, that's you know. I wish I could say yes, we are, we are all lined up and we have all the judging slots filled. Unfortunately, that never happens. You know. What typically goes on is, you know, we'll be running around the vendor room grabbing people and dragging them physically into the judging room five minutes before the judging shift happens. But like you say, dave, it works. People pile in and we get it done. And the cool thing is, I mean, every model gets judged, every model gets feedback in writing. So if you get a particular score, you'll know what they liked about it, you'll know what they didn't like about it. And the purpose of the judging system is really to help people improve, because you know, if you don't get anything in a lot of shows you walk away and you go okay. So what was there about it? What did I do wrong? What did I do right? At least here we have a little bit of feedback that people can understand what they need to improve on.

I think you guys have been at this venue before, is that right?

Yes, sir, we were there in 2023.

Okay, Well, what's it? Like I've not been there, it seems it's a hotel attached to a convention center.

It's a hotel attached to a convention center. It's a hotel attached to a convention center. We've got the main ballroom. As you walk into the convention center entrance there's a lobby there. So we'll have the raffle and the ramrod table and all that sort of stuff is all there and then the main ballroom is right behind that. That will have the front half is going to be where the display area is and we'll also have some various other tables.

I know you guys are coming up to do the podcast from there. We've got a couple other podcasters coming. We've got a couple of veterans associations that are coming. We're also trying to form some relationships with some of the veterans charitable organizations because you know, let's face it, a lot of our guys are active or retired military and you know, we know a lot of retired military folks are doing it tough and, uh, you know, we, we, we, we try to do whatever we can to help those organizations out because they, they do great work, yeah, and then. So then the the bag half is going to be the vendor room. So we're out. We actually we've got a couple of vendors on waiting list at the moment. You've got a lot of good large organizations. Angel from MicroWorld Games is going to be there. He's probably our largest vendor. Squadron's coming. Most of you probably know Gene Bagnoli. He's going to be there. So, yeah, we're. And then there's a lot of smaller vendors there as well.

Do you know how many tables total it is we?

are somewhere north of 110 vendor tables. That doesn't include podcasters, veterans, associations, et cetera. I think we did manage to squeeze in a couple. Our original limit was 110, but we did manage to squeeze a few more in. We just got to be careful of aisle widths and fire codes. Our original limit was 110, but we did manage to squeeze a few more in. We just got to be careful of aisle widths and fire codes and how all those things work Well.

you violate those and the show gets a little bit miserable for everybody at peak hours.

How does that compare to the facility at South Bend? I would say the main difference is that this one is oval-shaped versus the the square, the one with the square. That's about the difference. Probably similar in size, I would say.

Well, I was meaning in the context of vendor tables and what that.

Oh, in terms of the overall size of it, yeah, it'll be very similar. We have about the same number of vendor tables that we had last year. I'll say the layout's slightly different. But the only thing that we do not have this year is the concession stand right outside, like we did before. You got to kind of walk around the corner to the hotel and there's various amenities there for food and drinks and so on. Right across the parking lot, by the way, is a Perkins and a McDonald's. Oh, I love Perkins. Man. Duck outside to grab some food. You know, that's five minutes. There's also the show. Watering Hole is a place that's probably walking distance, but it's probably closer to a quarter mile, and that's the place called the Grateful Goat. I think we drank them dry the last time we were there, so we have warned them ahead of time that we're coming back.

Well, I've already Googled Matt. I saw that place and there were a couple others on the river there that looked interesting as well.

Yeah, there's some real good places down towards the river. There's a place called Duke's, but there's. There's a lot of good places to uh, to eat and drink, and you know, talk about the show and swap model ideas and you know all the sorts of things that we do. Oh, but, speaking of the parking lot, got to tell you guys we also have an M3A1 Stewart one-to-one scale um, lady Lois, that is going to be there on the Friday. They're not going to be there for the Saturday because they've got another event to go to, but they're going to bring the vehicle down and it'll be parked there and you can go and walk around and take pictures and so on.

That'll be cool, all right, we couldn't let them bring it in, of course. Yeah, a few years ago we actually had some people come down with some tanks to one of the other shows and the hotel was like, oh, we got a big loading door, we can bring it in. And we're like you didn't realize, this thing weighs like 20 tons, right. And they were like, okay, forget that, probably a little too heavy for our floor load.

Yeah, yeah, let's not crack the concrete.

Yeah, it winds up in the basement the next morning. Not a good idea. Yeah, exactly.

Well, in addition to vendors and entering your model in the exhibition, what else is going to be going on at the show venue we have?

a very robust raffle this year due to some very generous donations from sponsors, so there's going to be some amazing stuff on the raffle table. We also have a bunch of seminars scheduled. I think we've got seven, of which about four are hands-on workshops. So there's things on weathering. I can't remember all of them now, but if you go to the website wwwamps-armororg, all the show details are there and you can see those hands-on webs or hands-on seminars require some sign up because the places are limited. So I think we do have a few spots left in some of them, but you'll get in early because, yeah, they will fill up.

When does registration close?

You can register your models online pre-registration right up until the Thursday night of the show and, of course, you can register your models at the show up until 12 noon on the Saturday. Oh, wow, okay, that's when registration closes completely. Now we are changing it a little bit this year, in that if you come to the show and you want to register your models there, there will be a laptop or two that you sit down with and somebody will help you, guide you through the registration. We've gone away completely from handwritten forms this year because our data entry people threatened to have a revolt because they couldn't read people's handwriting.

I think more and more shows are going that way.

Yeah. So you know it works out. We got ourselves a couple of cheap but decent laptops for the organization and, yeah, we're going digital. The other thing that we're trying to do this year, too, is to reach out to some of the you know I'll call them armor adjacent modeling genres that are emerging.

I mean it's interesting, how you know, we see a lot of folks coming through the sci-fi, the gaming community, the Gundam people community, the Gundam people, and a lot of their stuff fits really nicely into our category 14, you know, sci-fi and fantasy and futuristic vehicles, and I mean these folks are great, they're really enthusiastic, they're very talented. Like I said, their stuff fits nicely into our categories Like, hey, come along, bring your Warhammer, bring your Gunpla, bring your Star Wars things. I mean, don't bring a Millennium Falcon, but bring your Snowspeeder, always above the ground, good enough for us. So let's branch out because it's interesting.

I've been talking to a lot of those people at various shows and they love what we do. It's just that they never grew up with it the way we did. Sure, love what we do, it's just that they never grew up with it the way we did. And I was talking to a young guy. You know, a couple of weeks ago at a IPMS show in Long Island and he was like this is great, I want to try all these things. And so cool. I mean. I must admit I've got a couple of Gundam kits sitting in the stash. Now I'm going to give it a shot.

Sure. Well, what's the theme of the show this year? There's always a theme, so the theme is African armor.

Okay, anything that is Africa-related, you know from, you know World War armor trains and stuff, you know, all the way through to a lot of the modern bush wars that are happening there. So you know, I expect to see a lot of T-55s, a lot of World War II North Africa campaign. But yeah, you know it's obviously. Some people have said to me like oh, you have to be Africa related to enter the show. No, not at all. You have to have an Africa related subject to be in the running for the show theme award. But you can bring any ground warfare related subjectrelated subject, no matter what it is.

Well, I got to tell you. One of my favorite things about the Amps Nationals is you all always seem to come up with really good themes. I mean water tanks one year, recon vehicles one year. The theme is always really good and really tight, but large enough to get a lot of entries.

It's an interesting process in the sense that it's really crowdsourced. The last thing at the annual general meeting on the Friday night is always what is the show theme, and we will usually spend five or 10 minutes with people just calling out ideas and then we vote on those ideas to get to the last two, and then we have a second vote that picks between those last two. So we always seem like you said, dave, we always seem to come out with something interesting, but large enough so that it doesn't exclude a lot of people, exactly.

All right. Well, on the topic of the show, won't you let folks know where they can register again?

and then the date again, If you go to our website wwwamps-armororg and on the front page there you'll see the show registration link. You do have to be a member of AMPS to enter the competition, although you don't have to be a member just to come into the show. But if you you know, you can register. If you're not an AMPS member and you want to join, you can do that. At the same time you bundle it all together and it's all online. You can print your forms out, bring them along with your model and have fun and enjoy the show.

So May 15th through 17th.

May 15th through 17th. Yeah, we officially open the show at 1 pm on the 15th. If somebody comes up to you before that and wants to give you money and you want to take their money, then go right ahead. So there's kind of a we're somewhat flexible about the opening time. Yeah, and we'll run probably till about 7 o'clock on the Thursday night, I think about the same time on the Friday night, and then we wrap up by 5, 530 on the Saturday.

All right. Well, we're certainly looking forward to it, but we're not done with you yet. Tonight, Since you're going to be the sole spotlight this month for the May show that's going to be amps. You just secured reelection to presidents of the organization, I believe.

Well, I have been the first vice president of the organization for the last four years, but I've only been president for about two weeks now.

All right, Well, what's AMPS got going forward in the coming year?

As I said, we're trying to embrace some of the additional kind of adjacent communities. No, we're not going to be an airplane modeling club but at the same time there's a lot of really cool talented younger people who are coming in through the sci-fi and the gaming communities and we want those folks to be part of apps. So we're going to make a big push to bring those folks into our community and, you know and and kind of cross pollinate a little bit, cause it's interesting how many of the talks we've had over the last you know couple of years where those folks are really interested in the stuff we do and we're really interested in a lot of stuff that they do. I mean, I've been bringing, you know, machine and Krieger and Warhammer stuff to amp shows for a decade or more. So you know, that's something that we're things that we've had is. You know I hesitate to call it a criticism, but certainly an observation is that most of our members are within North America. You know 90% within the United States, you know a bunch in Canada, but the rest of the world it's a bit scattered. There's some valid reasons for that in the sense that if you're in South America or Europe or APAC. The only thing that AMPS has historically been able to offer you is a magazine six times a year, and you know what? It's a bit of an ask for people to be a member just for that.

So we're going to do a number of things. We're going to, you know, we have made significant moves to take the, the magazine Borsight, digital. We are now doing, you know, four, four issues digital, two issues printed, uh, each year. But we're also going to start doing things like podcasts, online reviews. We've had a YouTube channel for a number of years that we haven't done a whole lot with. So let's kind of start to embrace that and provide more value to people who can't necessarily come to North America and come to a show.

So, at the same time, we got to think carefully about how we do that, because we don't want to crowd the digital community either. There's a lot of really good folks out there doing really great stuff. You know I don't want to be the guy who forces people to. You know, decide between the 20 possible podcasts I could listen to tonight. So it's, yeah, we got to be careful we don't overcrowd that, that that market, and you know, and I don't want to be a me too. So, uh, we've got some, some new blood in the the executive board, some folks there who've got some great ideas, but what we're looking at is how. How can we add value, not only to make amps, you know, more of a compelling proposition for people worldwide, but also to the community in general, so that, like I said, we're not crowding stuff out and just eating everybody's lunch?

Well, and I can tell you because of my involvement with IPMS USA, they're doing the exact same thing. They have the same ideas and they are implementing some of the same things, that we had a YouTube channel that we've had but didn't use, and now it's getting utilized, and I think that's the way that a lot of modeling societies are going to go in order to continue to stay relevant.

Exactly right, you know, and stay relevant, embrace broader populations and embrace the new modelers who are coming into the community. Because you know we hear the lament a lot, you know, usually over beers at shows, you know people, oh well, the hobby's dying. Nobody, nobody's coming in.

Yeah, they are, oh, yes they are, they're not coming in the way we did and they're not entering in the places that we did. They're coming in through. You know their cultural influences are different so they're coming in in different ways, but once they see the kind of stuff we do, they jump in. They, you know they're. They're really into the craft of it. They I've been sitting there with with gundam people you know, sharing ideas about your paint modulation and things like that, and they're like oh, that's how that works and they're all into you know the electronics and the lighting aspects of things. They're doing some really cool stuff and sharing with us and it's great. It all works together. You know we and we, we make the hobby stronger by doing that.

Yep, I completely agree, dave. You got anything else? Nope. Well, the only thing I've got is to say I cannot wait for May 15th, go to the show man.

It's going to be a good time. I hope you guys have a great show. Obviously, we'll be chatting during the show. Travel safe. Look forward to seeing you guys in Camp Hill We'll share a beer. Oh, probably more than one.

Well, Neil, thanks for joining us tonight. We appreciate it and we promote the organization every episode and we thank you so much for doing that.

It's great to be part of such a great modeling community. Thank you.

And we had such a good time last year. What the heck are we doing, taking a hiatus from this for so long?

Yes.

The community is just so tight and it's just a really really fun time.

It is.

All right, Neil, we'll see you in May.

Thank you, gentlemen, have a good one. Thank you Bye-bye.

Well, that got me extra excited.

Yes, it did. It's always fun talking with the Amps guys. They are all such down-to-earth people. It's just such a great time.

Well, and I kind of wonder, if you know he talked a little bit there about being ahead of the curve a little bit on their preregistrants. Yeah, I wonder if moving back toward the East Coast is going to help them out a bit coast is going to help them out a bit.

You know AMPS has always had kind of a Northeast centrism. So it would not surprise me, especially since, given the location, you're going to get a fair number of Canadian modelers. And I'll tell you what there is a strong contingent of Canadian armor modelers. So it would not surprise me to see Canadians other than young Evan McCallum at the, at the shop.

Well see if he brings anybody with him. Yep, All right. Folks, if you can make it to the AMPS international convention in early May, you should make every effort to get there, because if you're in armor at all, even peripherally, like youave yep, I love to look at even I know I build it very rarely.

You cannot help but be impressed by the quality, the consistent quality of the entries well, folks, we hope to see you there and look forward to seeing all our friends who are going to be there, because a lot of them are already asking Yep, all right, dave, until our next feature episode. So many kits, so little time. Bye.