Two Great Shows with a Side of ARMA Hawk 81-A: September Model Show Spotlight

Sponsor Message And Opening

The Model Show Spotlight is brought to you by the World of Armor. Communicate, share, and learn with armor modelers worldwide at the World of Armor. If armor modeling is your thing, follow the link in the show notes or at PlasticmodelMojo.com and join the team.

Post Nationals And Upcoming Shows

There's a little light there coming into the national convention, but that's behind us now. A couple of weeks at this point. And uh it's time to start looking at some other shows around the country.

Yeah. Well, Huntsville's already done their invitational show.

Yep.

Uh, and by all reports, it was a great success. Speaking of the ad at the front end, it was nice to see Bill Moore up at the Nats. He really I'll tell you what, he's just uh a really great modeler, a really great person, and a really great friend to plastic model mojo.

That is true, and I think he was at Huntsville, too, so I'm still waiting on him to tell us a little bit about it. Yeah. Well, we might have a chance to see him coming up here in September, Dave.

Yes.

Uh two of the shows we're going to be featuring. Well, one of the shows we're going to be featuring is our own Military Modelers Club of Louisville annual show.

Yeah.

And looking forward to that. And we had one of our favorite members, fellow members, Alex Restrepo, on to talk us a little bit about that show and a little bit more stuff sprinkled in, too. So uh I was glad to get Alex on. It's good to see him at Nashals helping out with the raffle there. So it was. Folks are going to hear a little bit about that up in this upcoming segment about the MMCL and uh a little extra info about the club's participation in the Nash Raffle.

Yep.

MMCL Raffle System At Nationals

Dave, it is about to be showtime in our own region here again, or our own club. MMCL is going to be hosting a show coming up in the coming month. And we have our spokesman of the year, our spokesman for the year, Alex Restrepo from our club, longtime friend, and hopefully he's a listener of the show. Alex, how are you doing? Real good, Mike, real good. You know I'm a Mo Jovian OG, right? You are, you are. I knew that, but I thought I'd throw that out there anyway. Absolutely.

Before we talk about what we're here to talk about, which is our upcoming show, we got to do a couple of minutes on the Nats and MMCL's participation at the Nats. Because y'all, and I say y'all because Mike and I don't make it to the club uh as much as we should at the regular meetings, but you all did a raffle for the for the ages at the Nats. So tell us a little bit about it.

Well, our show raffles a little bit different than uh what we traditionally are used to for the nationals. Uh, we do a couple things that are a little bit out of the ordinary. Uh, first thing we do is we have the sponsorship of a local hobby shop, which you guys know very well. And the owner of that shop is able to go out and purchase closeouts and deeply discounted items from his distributors and donate that to the raffle. And because of that, we're able to offer some really, really nice kits that haven't been touched yet, some higher level stuff, and and that really attracts people to the raffle. And it worked out super well at the nationals. I was a little worried about the scalability of our system, but it worked beautifully. Second thing that we do a little bit differently is uh we use an electronic method to post the winning tickets. People will our raffle tickets or a two-part ticket, what everybody's used to for traditional raffles, but one of the tickets has a scan code on it, uh barcode. And when we draw the winning numbers, we'll scan that ticket into a system which takes it and projects it through a digital projector and also posts that winning ticket online. So people that are anywhere in the venue, anywhere that you have internet access can check their tickets to see if they've won. A feature that I didn't know was improved upon this year is that the same system now has the ability to take your numbers. If you enter the range of the ticket numbers, it'll just check for those numbers to see if you're a winner. So uh, you know, we're we're constantly being surprised by all the upgrades that our IT guy has done for it. And that those are the two basic big things that did it. And I gotta say that thanks to Brian and Bruce and uh Rich and all the guys that helped, it went off without a hitch. The one thing that uh came out short is I underestimated how much how many tickets to buy, which is a great problem to have, by the way. Sure. We sold out of one of the category of tickets on Thursday morning, a day and a half into the raffle. So again, but but but something else that I'll talk a little bit about later is John Figueroa, which I'm sure you've had a couple conversations with, who who organized this, when he was putting together the teams, his marching orders to us were to build plans and then contingency plans and then contingency plans. And it paid off. So we were ready to go when we had that little hiccup in the system, and the the ticket buyers never skip it never skipped the beat. We continue to make sales, and I'm really proud of how well everything came down.

First of all, you you had tons of MMCL members and I assume some other people in the raffle area helping out. You never were short for people and and workers, and you know, there was no delay for people, there was no line forming for people to who are anxious to get their stuff or anything like that. What a turnout by the by the volunteers.

Yeah, amazing. Again, a John put together a team of people who were really great at their craft. I've learned there's two immutable truths in modeling, right? The the first one being that the the ability to find a drop part is directly inverse to the your its importance to the build, right? Yep. If it's that important, you'll never see it again.

Yep.

And uh uh Mr. Figueroa knows how to put on a show. So the person he put in charge of volunteers, Brad uh, was able to every day would check in on us, see how we were doing. He was able to reallocate resources. It was an amazing thing to see, David. It was just probably one of the best executed programs I've ever been involved with. So I learned a lot. I learned a lot.

I I walked up to John Figueroa three or four times at that show to tell him how amazing. I have this was my 30th national. I have never seen a better run national in my life.

I've been to 12, and I gotta say, I I mirror your your feelings exactly. I was amazed. And and from a different perspective, I am in awe of the organizational skill that that John possesses. And and we're not done yet. You know, part of his plan was to generate the blueprint to pass down because we've struggled with that in the past, and you know, and we're talking to other uh contest chair people, we'll we relearn these things every single time. So John just got after me for finishing my after action report. I just submitted it to him. Granted, Raffles kind of unique to our show, but I'm hoping everyone starts thinking in that direction and starts applying some of that because you know it's the way to do it. It's scaled excellently, and the convenience for the ticket buyers, you know, sold the program. Sold the program.

So do you think maybe that blue book might come in handy for you at some point in the future?

We'll talk about that. But invite me back in a year and we'll talk. That's a pro that's a promise. That's a promise.

That's right.

I got a lot of people to convince, but we've already had some discussions with the major, you know, the people from the club that helped out. And they're all I don't want to speak for them, of course, but you know how our dedicated our our members are and how yeah, step up when it needs to. And and I think we could pull it off, but let's leave it at that for now.

Sure, sure. Well, like it's like talking about shows, let's talk about the one that's coming up real, real soon.

Louisville Show Date And Venue

Well, we our show is in Paraquat Springs on September 26th. It's in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. It's our it's our annual, just regular show. It's not a regional. We're trying, I believe we're bidding for I can I talk about that? Yes. I think we're trying to get a regional here in either the next year or the following year, but uh we've held it at Paraquat Springs now for a couple of years, and they really work well with us. Joe Betts, our our contest chairperson, has an excellent relationship with the people there, and and they bend over backwards to give us everything that we need, and looking forward to a great show.

I I can't wait. That that that space is ideal because it you can expand it nearly infinitely.

Yeah, I mean the vendors like it because they can drive in and drive out.

Yes, yeah, that's always fun for those guys to be able to do that.

Absolutely, absolutely. They appreciate it, and then you know, we we do the same thing that that we did in Fort Wayne, and that our members assist the vendors in setting up, bringing in everything in and helping it unload. I I think that's that's something that they really like about our show. I'm not saying it's rare, but I always get comments about it, you know, once the show is underway. Yeah. Now, did you give us a date? Yeah, it's uh September 26th. It's from 9 o'clock to 3 30 p.m. and it's in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.

When does registration? I assume it opens at 9 when the show opens. And when does it close?

Registration typically closes at noon because judging starts uh directly after the end of registration at about 12 30, 1 o'clock.

Now, you've mentioned in talking previously about Louisville has always prided itself on its raffle. And our everybody who comes to our show just raves about what a great raffle we put on. But that's not all that MMCL has. I mean, the the contest usually has a large number of entrants. We have as many vendor tables within reason as vendors who want to show up. What else is unique to Louisville's show? The cast of characters? Okay, well, that's absolutely true.

Well, you guys are members, so you know all about that. Yes. What's unique about our show?

Youth Builders And New Genres

That the last two shows that we've had, the the younger group is starting to become more and more active. We have more and more entries in the youth categories, which is really impressive. I mean some really, really amazing stuff. Our club really goes out to try to recruit new members because you look around most club meetings today, and there's a lot of gray hair or skin, if you know.

You got a little bit of both. Absolutely, absolutely.

So, probably at least in the couple of shows that I've been to in this region, youth is very well represented. And and with that, Gundams and Gumpla, which is probably one of the fastest growing aspects of the hobby, is becoming more and more popular.

And I've got to say, I am proud of our club being so welcoming to those new genres. Because, you know, I've I've heard complaints from people out there where they go to a local chapter that's a bunch of armor and airplane guys, and they're they don't feel like they're welcome. And I know that our club really has gone out of its way to make those guys feel welcome.

We even have a relationship with the local war gaming club, you know, the miniatures that they have, some of the war gaming. All are welcome because uh it's basically figure painting. We learn from them, they learn from us, and it's a really great environment. So I I think really that's one of the things that makes our show one of the standouts.

Is there I've been following, you know, I've followed the our our Facebook page, the club's Facebook page, and and this year there have been several posts with uh some activity you've had with the I don't know if it's the Louisville Police Department or one of the boroughs police departments in Louisville Metro. Do those guys end up coming, some of those kids come back to the regular meetings, or maybe we'll see them at the show? Right.

Two or three became members. It it was a short-term activity where we just had a uh, you know, that we sponsored them, we bought the kits for them, we had mentors for them to build. And some of them the auto the ones that really got into automotive really excelled. First time

Vendors Logistics And Super Raffle

building some of this stuff, and they fell in love with the hobby. Two or three of them have become regulars coming back. I hope to see them at the show. I hope to see them at the show.

Good. Well, one thing I think is has been advantageous for the Parakeet Springs location and going back there for the last couple years is the the proximity of of just food and and hotels if folks want to come in on the Friday night before, which I'm actually considered now. Uh won't you let won't you let folks know about what that that little wide spot on the exit ramps turned into down there?

And uh it's a it's a great venue. Like you said, there's plenty of fast food and there's some sit-down places nearby. And again, uh kudos to the the the venue staff. They they go out of their way to make everyone feel welcome. And I have nothing but great things to say about them.

Yep. And there are what three or four hotels within a very short distance, or at least one across or two across the parking lot. Absolutely. So you know that may that makes it nice for people who can't turn it into a one-day up and back, that they can at least come in and get a a nice hotel room, be there fresh. And then our club really strives to wrap the show up by 3, 3:30, get those awards done, get people done for the day so that they can get on the road and get home.

Absolutely, absolutely. It's it's it's the whole package day. We help people move in, we get them out as quick as we can. So go get the awards out there, make sure everyone gets their recognition and back on the road.

Well, the vendors last year were pretty good. What can you tell us about that this year? Anything special there? Are you are you folded up again? Absolutely.

90 tables sold out and a table for um our next nationals. So Huntsville. Uh Huntsville. Remember the roadshow that John did? Yes. So they've got a table at our show as well.

Everybody's got to do it now. Yeah. Yeah. Figaroa set the standard, man.

He did. All right. Look at the payback of that, though. You know, what without going back to what we were discussing earlier, we started planning this the day after John made the announcement, you know, and we were accepted. And we we had talked about, you know, perhaps we'll take care of the raffle, but within two months of that announcement, we were doing planning meetings. He wanted outlines of what you know what our program was going to be like, what we planned to do that was different, and then start building the contingency plans after that. So for two years, we had monthly meetings. Yeah. Not just of the area that I was responsible for, but I was also coordinating volunteers for our club as well. So I get I after a while, it was, it was, it was starting to scare me trying to think of taking this on for perhaps a little national convention, but the way he laid everything out and the blueprint that he's putting together, I think is going to pay dividends for all clubs in the fake in the future to plan and hold one of these conventions. I really believe I am a big fan now of the project.

Yep, absolutely. Is there anything we've missed regarding our show coming up? No, come on down, spend some money, buy raffle tickets.

I'm may, I may come, I may come uh Friday evening. Absolutely, absolutely. Uh, I think you'll be impressed by the our super raffle. Oh, that was one thing that we talked about. We have two categories of raffle. We have regular raffle tickets, a dollar each, and they get discounted for more the more tickets that you buy. Up to $20, gets you 30 tickets. And then we have a super raffle, which was those high value items that we talked about. We were blessed, and uh at the nationals, we received uh red pill phantom from a vendor and uh dragon and his tail from another vendor that I'm sure you're very familiar with. Yeah. I was unprepared for what we did. I I came fully expecting that we were only going to raffle the stuff that we bought that Scale Reproductions was able to get at a discount, and we tripled the size of the raffle based on the vendor uh generosity, especially those two gentlemen that you know. I don't know if I can talk about them. I'm not sure what your rules are about. We can talk about anything. Okay, but great, great, great. But you know, nothing, nothing but praise for for that whole operation from beginning to end, smooth, no hiccups, and the little, you know, little things that we came across, we already had plans for, you know, multiple contingencies. It was the smoothest run operation I've ever been associated with it professionally and in my hobby. So kudos. Kudos to everyone. That says a lot.

Yeah.

It does. And and if anybody missed the Nationals and wants to see what this raffle is all about, come to the Louisville show. You will see a version maybe not quite as big as what it was at the Nationals, but bigger than you will ever find at any local or regional show. We will try to live up to the hype.

You always do. Why don't you give us the vitals one more time before we say goodbye tonight? All right.

So it is the memo MMCL show on September 26th from 9 to 3. Registration ends at about noon, noon 30, depending on how many entries we get. Judging is promptly thereafter,

Oregon Modelers Jamboree Vitals

and we try to get everybody out by the 3:30 time.

And I know something we missed. Which is? Is it pen and paper registration only, Dave? Or is there any pre-registration or are there downloadable flyers folks can bring ahead of time already filled out?

The forms are downloadable. We're talking about an electronic registration system, but it won't be ready for this show. It's the next phase.

And then where can folks find those? What's the what's the website?

The military modeler's website has all that information on it and links to the appropriate forms.

We'll we'll put a link. That's mmcl.org. O-R-G, and we'll put a link in the show notes. Looking forward to seeing you guys there. Dave Wheelsner. I can assure you I'll be there now with Mike.

I'm a hit or miss, but uh the man is putting stuff into space.

He's busy. I completely need to do it.

It's rarely work, unfortunately, that keeps me away from these things. It's rarely work.

Well, it was a uh it was a pleasure talking with you guys. Uh, I understand there's a fabulous parting gift involved as well.

Yes.

That's right. I need a sticker, Dave. I need a sticker. Yeah, I'm you will get more than a sticker. I will promise you that.

Absolutely, absolutely. It was great talking to you guys. Take care. All right, Alex. We'll see you next to you soon, hopefully in September. Absolutely.

Come to a meeting or weekend.

Yes, we will. What do you think, man? You gonna make it?

Oh, gosh, yeah. I'm gonna well, it's never a question if I'm gonna make it. The question is, is are you gonna make it? I mean, let's see, a couple of years ago you had historic rains that nearly flooded you out.

Well, luckily I'm on a hill, it didn't flood us out, but we had no power for a bit. And uh I don't like not being at the house when the power comes back. On. Sure. Sure. Depending on where the problem is. I remember an ice storm in town a few years ago. The power came back on, and the people weren't there. And not only did not have power when they got home, they didn't have a house.

Yep.

So you might want to be there to throw the breakers.

And not and not only that, but family comes first. When there's no power at the house, it's kind of hard to turn to the family and go, good luck, y'all. I'm going to a model show.

Yeah, that's right. Y'all sit around in the dark and eat cold ravioli or whatever.

Exactly.

Hopefully not this year. We've had plenty of rain already. Uh looking forward to it. Man, if all goes like I want it to, I may come in and grab a room Friday night and come in after work and just kind of hang out and be with the club guys. And if Bill Moore's there, we hang out with him and whoever else shows up early. Looking forward to it. So I hope it works out for me. Because I had a good time last year.

Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. It's always a great contest. It always attracts a great group of guys. And and not to be prejudiced, but our own club has a whole lot of really great people in it. And it's always good to hang out with them.

Well, the other show is going to be familiar to uh longtime listeners as well. It's the Oregon Model Jamboree. And we spotlighted this show last year because it was kind of a novel format, and they were doing some really cool stuff. And Doug Reed came back to us via email and asked if these things were just for new shows. And no, not necessarily. You know, we did Huntsville last year. We did it again. We've done MMCL twice. We've done the Model Jamboree twice. We've did we've done the Wine Country one twice.

Right. And and particularly these shows that are doing different things. I like to check back in with them to see not only how they how they've been doing, but what, if anything, they're going to change, what improvements they see. It's nice to check back in with those guys to learn what they've learned from doing something different.

Well, that's what we ought to do, man. Let's listen to Doug. Okay. Well, Dave, our first segment for this model show spotlight was our own club who's who's been on Model Show Spotlight a several several times, a couple, maybe three. I don't remember. It looks like it's going to be the month of repeats because we have another show here we want to spotlight once again because we thought so highly of it last time. We thought it offered some some novelty to what folks are normally used to. And then after the fact, we heard about what a success it was. So from the Oregon Mid Valley Modelers, we want to welcome uh Doug Reed back. Doug, how you doing?

Great. Hi guys, doing well. Appreciate you having us on again.

So thanks for that. No, no problem. The the show last time was a success because you're doing it again. It was. And you told us it was. We always start with a who, what, and where and when and all that. So won't you go ahead and give us the vitals, then we'll get into more about the details of the show.

Okay, sounds good. We are hosting now the second year for the Oregon Modelers Jamboree model contest and uh exhibition. It's gonna be held at the Lynn County Expo Center in Albany, Oregon. The date is September 12th of this year. And the startup time for it is going to be 9 a.m. for the doors to open. We'll have vendors arriving at 7.30 to set up and the contest deadlines at noon. And then we're planning for awards to be handed out starting about 3.30. So that's kind of the wear and time. Model entry starts at $10, which includes your first five models, and a dollar per model after. Spectator entry is just a $5 entry for that. And we're offering vendor tables, $30. And we have club tables, which we can talk about later, where if your club wants a table for displaying anything, you can get those at $20, and you can get a couple of them if you want. Let's see the theme this year. We are using 1976, the bicentennial 50th anniversary of the original American Bicentennial. Nice. That'll be the theme. Anything related to that year, to the bicentennial, to the revolution, all that'll count. And there'll be a special award for that. And then we have another special award for our kind of our club motto, which is the shark mouth. So we'll have a best shark mouth subject award as well. Contests will have 63 categories available. And we'll go with that. So that's kind of who we are and what we're doing. Oh, and one last thing, I'm sorry. We are also going to be hosting the uh IPMS Region 7 contest this year. Oh, nice. So that's a step for us, and we're we're very glad to take that on.

Now, to be clear about that, is the model jamboree the Region 7 show and contest, or is this gonna be in addition to what you're hosting in September?

No, this we will host the contest within the Jamboree. It's gonna be the Region 7 contest. All right.

Now you mentioned vendor tables. Do you actually have any left to sell?

We still have a few. I don't have the most current count. We did sell out last year. We had 43 that we sold out. We're up over 27 now, so we're approaching 30 in my last talk with Colin, who's our friend Colin who's managing that.

Okay.

So we still have some available.

So it's possible you if there's any vendors out there who are listening who are looking for a show to go to, if you all have a you know, still have a table or two, it's a great opportunity.

Yep, very much. We would we would love that. And we have a flyer that I sent to you guys. I posted it on various places. Colin Harmsworth is the person on Facebook that is coordinating that, so you're free to contact or myself.

Now, do you all have online registration or do you have downloadable forms that you can fill out ahead of time?

Yeah, we haven't gone to the full online yet. It's been talked about, and and we'd be interested when we can find a system. But no, we have downloadable forms from our website, which is one word Oregon Midvalue Modelers.com. So they can be downloaded. We'll have them, of course, available at the uh at the show as well.

Doug, remind me to email you after the after we talk. Our local club is looking at going to online registration, not this year, but for future years. So I may be able to hook you up with the officers and our club, and you all can kind of kind of work together.

Oh, that'd be great. I think we'd be really open to that. And find the right guy on our side for the software side of it or the online part of it, that'd be great. Yeah, that'd be up for that.

Jamboree Format And Club Tables

Well, given we've talked about the vitals of the show, let's go ahead and dive into what makes your show kind of unique and and why you're calling it a jamboree and have the expo kind of moniker on it as well.

Yeah, no, that's good. Thanks. We we we want to hold a great contest, you know, and and that's always been part of it. And just it's a it's obviously a main central part of it. But we also want to take it beyond that and really showcase the hobby as a whole, as a community in itself. And so the idea of getting clubs involved that can have tables to display who they are, what they do, maybe even put on demos, you know, the like, things like that. We're really encouraging that. We're encouraging a wide variety of a wide, we're trying to push the boundaries on the genres. I mean, we've talked in the past about Dunpla Automotive, you know, a lot of things kind of center on the military part of it. So we've got good partners. We've got the West Coast Dunpla Alliance. They're they're gonna be a big part of our show this year. They're gonna provide judges, they're bringing their own display table. They've got a large entry stuff, uh, entries coming. We've got a local scale auto builders group out of Portland who's a big, big friend of ours. They're gonna do the same. They got their group. We've got a group two from a Northwest figure group, figure painters. So they're gonna join us with some club stuff this year, and we're hoping to expand that. Were they there last year? No, not as a group, they weren't. So uh we have a guy from the Salem Club who's big involved with them, and he's pulling them in a little bit for us.

So nice.

Well, that's all really interesting. Uh and this having you back gives us a unique opportunity to talk about what was and what's gonna be. We we know from from feedback from you after the last show that you know generally it was a success. We didn't get into much of a conversation about it, but we were glad to hear it. How many of these folks are repeats, and how many are like you think might kind of double down on what they did last year because they were kind of feeling it out last year, and now now they know this is a a viable thing and uh they may amp it up a little bit. Got any kind of feedback like that?

Yeah, so so far the uh Northwest Painters Association, figure painters, they're the new group that's gonna be hopefully coming in and they'll take part with the with the tables. Oh, that's great. They have two tables reserved. We do have repeats from everybody else at this point. We don't know about the Seattle group. When they were here last year, they had two tables. We're uh hoping to get them down again, but they're the the you know, the travel and stuff. We'll see how that works out. We we could twist a couple arms there, probably. That'd be great. Yeah, I know some of those guys are out of town, but we're in touch with them and they're good friends of ours. So yeah, we can do you can twist anything that way. So yeah, so so a lot of repeats, obviously. I think if we can get repeats and then add in one or two, that's gonna be growth, right? So and get established kind of in our second year.

Well, I know I know from talking to Jim after your all show last year, he really liked that club table idea.

Yeah, he did, and he was there, they were working on stuff. Eric was down from the IPMS group up there, and yeah, they were building stuff. We had some people that were just kind of kind of exhibiting, you know, they had models they built and stuff like that. So it was a variety of things that way. And it'll take time to grow, but we're we're okay to go with it.

And different clubs may may find different, you know, different things they want to do or want to develop over time.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And uh it'll take it'll like I say, it'll take some traction and and that's okay. So sure.

Yeah, you're repeating uh this year, so you've gotten a little traction, and we hope you we hope you get some more. And uh again, we'll we'll talk to the Seattle guys that we know. Yeah, at least at least encourage them to come down and uh Oh yeah.

I've had several good we we talk quite a bit at Nats and and they're great. They're gonna be down to support the show. I I'm I'm not worried about that. So they're they're good friends of ours and support as well.

Well good based on last year's formula, is there anything you're expanding on? I mean, you're trying to get more more participants in the in the kind of the expo side of it, the jambree side of it, but uh is there anything else you're doing that's gonna be new from from last year, or are you just trying to grow this thing a little bit?

Well, one new thing we're doing is we're taking the display. We we we've we've been struggling with naming it. We've called it the display only meet currently, and we're gonna set it aside. We had it integrated in with the uh contest tables before. And so we're gonna set it aside as its own group tables, and we're gonna encourage people to have their names by what they're displaying. And we're gonna even we're gonna set it up. We really like what Seattle does with the Museum of Flight show. And so we're gonna get black tablecloths, make it look, you know, pretty classy, and then people can put their stuff out on that and have it be a clear part of it when you first come into the room. So that's one thing we're doing. We really want to encourage that side of the of the uh exhibition part, I'd say, for people that aren't contest, you know, that aren't don't feel like the contest is for them. And or continue to promote, I mean, we're doing stuff like t-shirts, right? We really want this to be celebrated, so we're making t-shirts again with a new logo. We are planning on having some of the poker chip things available and things like that, so a little bit more paraphernalia to hand out and and help it to grow as an experience for people. Yeah, and then otherwise, you're right, just grow. Let's see if we can get more models in. We want to see if we can break the 500 model barrier this year. And but people, you know, they bring what they bring. So yeah.

Well, I I hope when when all is said and done, you will report back to us. And I hope you'll be able to report back to us that you that you sold every vendor table, that you broke the 500

Expanding Displays Merch And Growth

model barrier.

That would be great.

And Jim Bates showed up, and that Jim Bates showed up and you put him to work.

You bet.

Of course, we'll always take volunteers and judges, right? There you go. You always need it.

Well, uh the this the set the all our jokes around the Seattle guys and and our friends there makes me think there's you know, opportunity there for some overnight travel for folks. What's it like in your area there where you're having the show as far as people who want to overnight there, maybe the night before the show or the night after, after driving, driving a commute a lengthy distance to get there and support you guys?

Yeah, no, we have there are plenty of hotels. There's there's a comfort in and a Holiday Express adjacent to the Expo Center, so they're there. There's several hotels within literally one or two miles of it for people to stay, best westerns and and so on. So so there's plenty of hotels right exactly there. We we often do a post-show dinner, so we're planning for that. That's very informal. People that want to join us, we're gonna go out. We have a Mexican place we go to. That's right.

You you mentioned that last year.

For those hanging out, and you know, if there's enough people after we finish setup Friday night, we'll grab pizza with them anytime. So we want to make it that type of event where it's really a sense of, like I said earlier, uh kind of a sense of community around it.

Mike and I are big fans of the social aspect of model shows. And that sounds like that's what you're what you're pointing at.

I I think that's exactly right. And and and probably like I think I said earlier at the start, you know, we want the jamboree to take on an aura of of a great contest, great enjoyment of that. But beyond that, let's let's showcase what we just enjoy about the hobby and what we do.

Well, I'm remembering why I liked this idea so much last year. Me too. And and the uh the the casual post-dinner thing is uh, you know, the the Sonoma, the wine country guys uh do that as well. Yeah, good. Yeah. Apparently that was a a big success success for them as well. So good on you. I think that's uh a great idea. And just uh I don't know, this whole jamboree and then letting the clubs come in and do kind of whatever they want at these tables. And you know, like you said, some of them are doing demos, some of them have just are displaying their work, some of them are are uh promoting their club or their upcoming show or or whatever. Um I just think it's a a a great idea, and I'm I'm glad it was successful enough last year that you're you're you're back at it and real curious how how it goes down again. I think it'll be another success, but you know, I'm I I hope this grows and uh I hope other show chairmen out there listening for their clubs, regardless of what region or city or they're in, are thinking, hey, maybe we should try something like that, because there's some things that have been changing with a lot of these clubs that are kind of mixing it up and doing things different. And I think it's just all for the betterment of the experience. You've used that word several times, and I think that's a good way to say it. It's not just come to the contest, enter your model, shop the vendors, wait till the judges are done, wait till the awards are done and go home. I mean, that's kind of been what a lot of shows are, right or wrong. Maybe that's fine for some of them, enjoyable or whatever, but that's kind of the rinse and repeat kind of formula a lot of the shows we've attended, Dave. Um that's just kind of the way they've always been. They were kind of always the same, but we're we're starting to see a swell of folks doing something different and trying to encourage more interaction between the participants and show attendees and things like that. And yours is just another shining example, I think, of a club club succeeding at doing this. So it's all really good. I appreciate that.

There are a lot of great ideas coming out of the West Coast shows, uh, I've got to say.

You know, I've been I followed the the wine country group, right, with what they were doing, and I noticed they were using language very similar to what we've been using as well.

Yep.

And I thought it was great, and I'm glad to hear it went well that way. And and I think if uh I think that kind of approach could could yield a lot of a lot of benefit.

So hey Doug, before you give us the who, what, when, where, why one more time, let me give you a tip that I I learned at the Nationals. If you get together after the show for like a dinner group dinner, be careful who you give the photographs that you take of. Okay. Because don't give them to Dave Knights. Don't get don't give them to my wife.

She didn't put them on the dojo.

No, that was that was yes, that's true. Yeah. I probably started that.

We'll uh we'll we'll be we'll steer very clear of wherever we change.

There you go. So so tell us one more time the who, what, when, where, etc.

Sure. It's the Oregon Modelers Jamboree contests and exhibition. The theme for the contest is 1976, the 50th anniversary of the bicentennial, and it is also the Regents IPMS Region 7 contest that we're hosting. It's at the Lynn County Expo Center in Albany, Oregon. Doors open at 9. Vendors will be there earlier at 7:30. Contest deadline is noon, and we'll start handing out awards about 3:30. So tables still available. Contact myself if you want to talk about any of that and be glad to follow up with you.

All right. Well, Doug, we thank you for reaching out again, and we're glad to host you again and look forward to seeing the results this time. This all this kind of thing is just really interesting to Dave and myself, and it's just uh a joy to have you back and to see this thing continuing on and this this great idea you've got.

Great. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate all you guys are doing for the hobby, of course, and and enabling us to come on for things like this. We really thank you. Oh, you're very welcome. Our pleasure.

You know, I hope more of this kind of stuff catches on.

Uh I really do.

Seems to be a lot of it on the wrong coast for us.

Yeah, yeah, it does. It does. They seem to be they seem to be innovating. You know what? They seem to be innovating out there on the West Coast. And I wonder if that has something to do with nationals not being out there for a couple of years.

It could be.

And maybe giving them the space to innovate. Whereas if you're close to the nationals, you tend to feel more akin to what they've always been doing.

That's a good observation. I don't know.

I don't know either.

And I don't know what I hope's true or not, because there's if that's true, there's an argument to be made to never have the nationals out there and let these guys keep pushing the envelope. They are.

They are really innovating out there, and you and I are you and I are gonna have to make a West Coast tour sometime.

Or figure out how to inject some of this free-spiritedness into the folks here in our part of the country.

Yep. Or both.

Or both. We could always do both.

We could always do both.

Arma P-40B Pre Release Kit Talk

Well, Dave, we and probably all the other pods who were present have beat uh beat Nats to death at this point. Yeah. But that said, a little bit of Nats did follow us home. It's gonna have some carryover on the dojo, and then in the in the bench top halftime reports going forward in some of our upcoming feature episodes, and that is the soon-to-be-released kit from Arma, the Curtis Hawk 81-A2. Mm-hmm. Is that right?

Yep. Also known as the P40B, if it was a not export aircraft with different armament.

Well, the fine folks at Arma gifted us a couple of these pre-release kits, along with a figure set to go with it, should we get that far. Yep. I hope so. And we've both started ripping into this thing.

Yeah, you know, I kind of felt compelled that, you know, these guys gave these to us and wanted our opinion. And I'm like, I don't want this thing to sit on the shelf. I want to rip into it. Well, I love that aircraft.

I do too. I mean, this was like, whoa man, I remember building the Big Revell 30 Seconds going back in the day.

Yep. And so, you know, I kind of felt compelled to. And while I'm I've still got other projects in various stages, and they will get done, I promise. I've started to build this, and man, so far, I'm loving it.

You're a little ahead of me, but not much.

Not much.

And after this, we'll maybe start posting some in progress based on the dojo. And then we'll get into a little bit more of uh that. But leading up to that, you know, the the kit is is is pretty stinking nice, is one would come to expect from Arma. Yep. Um, being of engineering mind and background and training and all that, there are a couple things I saw that I communicated back to Voicek about some things, and not only did he acknowledge that I was right about those things, but uh he He saw that I understood the limitations of being able to fix some of them and said, Yeah, some of those are a little too risky to try to fix. There's more risk than reward there. So um won't get into those tonight, but they're not showstoppers by any means. They're just technicalities. But I told him I'd look at the kit, and I sure did.

Well, not only looked at it, you you fondled it, you did other things with it. I'll tell you, you know, and we'll get into all this in upcoming episodes and on the dojo. The one thing I noticed, if you'll remember a couple of years ago for the Musaru, I built the Arma P51B.

Yeah, the early Mustang.

Fine kit, great kit. One of the things that would have been for me, and I think I mentioned it at the time, the instructions were very dense. Each step was densely packed with a lot of things to do, and and it really, you really had to pay attention as you were going along to avoid a misstep. And one thing I've noticed right away about the the instructions on this Hawk 81A is that the instructions, the the steps are much more broken out, and each step is much less dense in the number of things you have to do in each step, and makes following the instructions a whole lot easier.

Yeah, I think so. Yep. I've I've got uh what other armor kit do I have in the stash? I've got the the Ericobra. Yep. The one they lend least to the Soviets. I can't remember which which kit it is, but that's the kit I've got. Yep. Uh, because that's a that's a scheme I want to do. Just this is a neat little kit, man. Um and just I think the parts breakdown is pretty good. Uh I'm not divine scale aficionado, you are, but uh I said this is certainly better than any 72nd scale P40 I built as a kid, I tell you that.

Oh yeah. Well, I was gonna say, I have built both the trumpeter and the air fix kit of this aircraft, and this is clearly superior to both of those, and part of that is just the uh the step change advantages or advances, the step change advances in technology. Arma has just done a beautiful job. The parts parts breakdown is not dissimilar to either of the uh the other two kits. Of course, there's only so many ways you can scramble an egg, but so far I am really loving it. And I can't wait to post photos on the dojo. I've been bugging you about that for a couple of days, and I can't I can't wait to to build this one up because I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm not too far behind, and we'll talk about that in the next bench top halftime report. But all impressions thus far are favorable. Yeah. And I've enjoyed it too. So we'll close with that,

Closing Plans And Show Encouragement

folks. So you got that to look forward to. If you've got a chance at all to get to the MMCL show, we'd love to see you there. Come see us. We got a table. I'll know what we'll do. It might be social hour, it might be segment recording. I don't know.

We'll do, and who knows, maybe we'll do all of it. We went we went up to this nationals with a very open mind, and it worked out beautifully for us. So I can't I think that's the proper approach for us going to the MMCL show.

And then if you're out in Oregon or in the communal distance to uh that show, by all means go to that show. Yes. Um it just sounds like a just a great thing. It's it's uh like I said, we had spotlighted the wine country model expo. It's it's not quite that, but it's it's still got a lot of innovation in what they're doing, and and they're really mixing things up versus the traditional energy models, shop the vendors, wait for the judging and go home. So really hope those guys have another successful show. And you know, I I will say that it's nice to get the revisit, like you said, because usually clubs who are doing that sort of thing, when it's all said and done, the next time they do it, if if they do it the next time, it's because it was a success. Yeah, but but then you get to learn, you know, what what the goods are they're doubling down on, what what wasn't so great that maybe they're they're de-emphasizing and what new things they're gonna try because they're already innovating. So the odds of them doing something innovative as they keep going year to year is kind of high. So look forward to hearing how that one goes. Yep, very much so. All right, Dave. We probably get back to our um hawks. Yep.

That sounds good to me, but