May 13, 2026 • 37 mins
Something big is happening in scale modeling, and you can feel it in the way builders talk about 3D printing, new subjects, and the shows that are turning into true hobby meetups. We sit down with Brandon Lowe from Squadron to get a grounded look at what it takes to turn a cool idea into a real 3D printed model kit you can buy, build, paint, and display with pride.
We talk through two attention-grabbing releases: the 1/48 M2 Cletrac tractor built for airfield scenes, and the 1/35 M5 high-speed tractor that gives armor builders a fresh support vehicle that isn’t another “usual suspect.” Brandon shares how Squadron uses early feedback to improve everything from production choices to what future releases should look like, and why IPMS Nationals is the moment where the wider community gets to judge the results. If you care about 3D printed aftermarket accessories, naval ordnance details, or how digital design can finally fill long-ignored gaps, you’ll get plenty to chew on here.
Then we pivot to what might be the biggest news for model show travelers: Eagle Quest is coming back in Chattanooga as a joint event with the Chattanooga Scale Modelers’ ModelCon, and the demand is already intense with vendor tables selling out far in advance. We cover why Chattanooga is such a strong location, how the gold, silver, bronze judging system will be used, and why expanded contest categories like real space vehicles, trains, wargaming, and Gunpla could pull in builders who don’t always feel at home at traditional shows.
ModelCon/EagleQuest
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike (00:10):
It's gonna be a busy month, Kentucky Dave.
Yes, it is, in many ways.
Well, folks, you may have beenexpecting episode 163 by now.
We got some issues, man.
Kentucky Dave (00:24):
A day or two, it's not much.
Mike (00:26):
Not much.
Well, no, we actually haveelected to slide it out almost a
week from when it most likelywould have dropped in prior
months, primarily because seemslike all the other shows have
kind of uh drifted into the sameweek and just trying to spread
things out.
Help the listenership of allthe shows out a little bit by
putting a little putting the gapback in place, which I think
(00:47):
will benefit everybody.
Kentucky Dave (00:49):
Yep.
Mike (00:50):
But not to leave you want for something here in this
second week of May.
We had an interesting chat withBrandon Lowe, Squadron.
An extremely interesting chat.
He's been on several timesbefore.
We've been trying to get himback on here for a while now,
but just hasn't worked out.
He's been busy and we've beenbusy and we've been to shows.
(01:10):
We saw him at Amps, which wasnice.
We did get a chance to talk tohim there, but uh Yeah, we had a
nice time at Amps.
But we did not get to do thesegment at Amps, and I didn't
really want to do it at Ampsanyway.
So it's all good.
Yep.
Well, let's not waste any moreof time, Dave.
Let's just get right into ourconversation with Brandon.
All right.
Well, Dave, I think I said itbefore and he actually denied
(01:36):
it, but I think we've got one ofthe busiest men in the skill
model sphere on the line with usagain.
One of our sponsors, BrandonLowe from Squadron.
Brandon, how you doing, man?
I'm good, buddy.
Brandon Lowe (01:48):
How are you guys?
Mike (01:49):
We've been busy too, so you're not the only one.
It's it's been a crazy coupleweeks since AMPS or three weeks.
I don't even know how long it'sbeen at this point.
It was good seeing you upthere.
Brandon Lowe (01:58):
Three weeks, I guess.
Maybe four weeks.
Three weeks.
Three weeks.
It seems I don't know.
Part of me seems like it was aneternity ago, and the other
part of me feels like I just gotback yesterday.
Kentucky Dave (02:09):
So now less than three weeks to Wonderfest.
Brandon Lowe (02:13):
That is true.
And then I'm kind of crazy, andI've thrown another one in the
mix.
Actually, next week I'm goingdown to Atlanta to the uh Wonder
Festival, which is part ofMomoCon, which is gonna be
totally different than any showsI've ever done, but we'll see
how that goes too.
Mike (02:30):
I'm gonna have to have a little more info.
What what show is that?
Brandon Lowe (02:34):
The so Wonderfest that we know in Mouvil, uh and
you know, i if I understandcorrectly, they kind of looked
at Wonder Festival as a as agood idea back in the day.
Wonder Festival is a figureshow in Japan.
Mike (02:50):
Yes.
Brandon Lowe (02:51):
And they are coming to the United States for
the first time this year to dotheir show, and they are doing
it alongside MomoCon, which is,I don't know, kind of like a
Comic Con, I guess you couldsay.
It's in Atlanta.
Makes sense.
Um one of those big things.
But the Wonder Festival istaking place right in the middle
(03:11):
of it, and uh, we've got avendor booth or table or
whatever, and we're gonna godown and see what it's all
about.
Take some figures and some ofour paint and tools and things
like that and see what's goingon down there.
Kentucky Dave (03:24):
I look forward to talking to you at Wonderfest
about your experience there,man.
Brandon Lowe (03:29):
Well, we will see.
It'll be we're going down therenext week, and we will get back
and two days later we turnaround and head to Louisville.
So it's gonna be a busy coupleof weeks for sure, but we're
looking forward to it.
Mike (03:41):
Well, when we first try to get you back here, man, we've
been busy and you've been busyand it's all good.
But at that time, some of this3D stuff was still to be
released.
Some of it is released now.
Yeah.
Primarily the ones that I wascurious about was the the Clee
Track, the little 48 scale kityou guys are doing, and then the
(04:03):
other one is it an M5high-speed tractor or M4?
I can't remember.
Brandon Lowe (04:07):
M5 high-speed tractor.
Mike (04:08):
Okay, and that one's in 35th scale.
Brandon Lowe (04:11):
Yeah, and and you know, people ask, well, what
about this scale or what aboutthat scale?
And obviously the goal would beto do them in multiple scales.
That's one of the advantages of3D design and 3D printing.
But like you said, the M2 Kleetrack, which uh, if you guys are
not familiar with, was thelittle tractor that they used on
(04:31):
the airstrips to pull the youknow, bombers and fighters and
whatnot around, kind of tryingthem around the airfields.
And we're doing that in 48thscale because of that reason.
You know, you build a you know48 scale B-17 or P47 or whatever
you're building, you can have alittle clee track to pull it
around.
Kentucky Dave (04:47):
And I don't think that's ever been done before,
has it?
Brandon Lowe (04:51):
Not yes and no.
It was it was actually includedin a very old monogram kit way
back in the day.
I forget if it was a B-29 or itwas the B-24.
B-24, okay.
Yeah, it was included in that,and it was fine for the time.
But to my knowledge, like you,Dave, I don't recall it ever
being released as a standalonekit.
(05:13):
So we've we've done that and wekind of introduced it.
We had them at Amps and we hadthem a few weeks before that on
the website and whatnot.
And we kind of introduced it ata relatively low price for a
you know 3D kit, but we werekind of testing the waters with
it, and you know, we we got somevery good feedback from it,
(05:36):
mostly good, a few little, hey,if you had done this or if you
had done that.
Uh so we took that feedback andwe've gone back to the drawing
board, not necessarily uh fromthe design standpoint, but more
from the production standpointto make that kit better, but
also take these these commentsfrom customers and potentially
(05:56):
make all of our future kitsbetter, starting with the M5
high-speed tracker, which ofcourse will be the next release
after this.
And so we're just always intosomething.
Of course, the 3D part of ourbusiness is certainly just a
small, for lack of a better wayto put it, a fun portion of our
business.
We a lot of the guys that workat Squadron, we are modelers and
(06:21):
and we like being creative.
So we've got a good team ofdesigners and guys that work on
the machines and all that.
And it's fun to produce yourown concepts and to see things,
you know.
You're sitting around, hey, weshould do an M2 Klee track.
And then, you know, a littlewhile later, poof, there it is.
And customers are buying themand building them and painting
(06:42):
them, and it's really, reallyneat to see basically ideas that
started from within the shopcome to life through customers.
So that's kind of just a funthing that we're doing, and and
it will certainly grow in time.
Uh right now, we've got aprobably got more things
announced and things that we'vetalked about than are actually
(07:03):
available.
But that will that'll change astime goes here in the next few
weeks and months.
Mike (07:09):
Well, I was oogling the M5 at Amps.
Uh, what's the perspectivetimeline for that one?
Brandon Lowe (07:16):
That one was a prototype that was built up
there that we had on display.
And it is, for the most part,kind of ready to go.
Uh, there's a few tweaks leftto be made on it, uh, and then
it's just a matter of getting itset up uh to go into
production.
There were uh there wereseveral things that we announced
(07:37):
back in January in our squadrondigital catalog, those two kits
included, the M2, the M5.
There was a couple ofsubmarines and various other
things.
And uh since we did that, we'vehad prototypes out, we've let
people in the industry andfriends have these or be able to
get a hold of one, so to speak,test build them, and just kind
(08:01):
of before we throw them outthere to everybody, we want to
just make sure that what we haveto offer from a production uh
standpoint is is good.
But to answer your specificquestion on that one, we are
hoping, fingers crossed, to haveour full official release of
that kit and the officialrelease of the M2 at the IPMS
(08:26):
Nationals this year.
There have been a lot of peoplethat have got their hands on
the M2.
Like I said, that was kind ofthe test of the waters prototype
version, real cheapintroduction price kind of
thing.
And overall, it's it's beenit's been good.
What it's shown us mostly isthat there is a market for these
things and people like theideas that that our team has
(08:46):
come up with.
So uh we're gonna build on thatand see what we can do with it
in the future with these tworeleases and several others that
we've got planned.
Kentucky Dave (08:54):
Well, it did seem up at Amps that the reaction to
both those kits was very, verypositive.
I talked to a number of peoplewho mentioned it, I didn't bring
it up, but mentioned it to me.
Have you seen that?
So I can't I would imagine thatyou're gonna have some built-up
demand for both of those.
Brandon Lowe (09:13):
Yeah, and and it was really neat to see the
interest in it.
I mean, there they're certainlyinteresting vehicles, but we
didn't really know what toexpect.
I mean, are we gonna sell a acouple, a couple dozen, a couple
hundred?
You you just don't know what toexpect.
So being able to have thoseprototypes built up and on
displayed amps really kind ofshowed us that people are
(09:34):
interested in this kind of I Ihate to call it an odd subject,
but it's not a Sherman, it's nota tiger.
It's it's just these littlecool vehicles that are excellent
additions to any collection.
If you're an armor modeler,you've built all the home runs,
and these will be interesting uhsubjects that fill little holes
(09:56):
in your shelf that perhapsyou've never even thought about
adding to your collection.
Kentucky Dave (10:00):
Absolutely.
And and are visually in manyways more interesting.
Mike (10:05):
Sure.
I've also noticed that a lot of3D, I think most of it's like
naval ordnance and stuff youguys have been selling to
Squadron bears.
Now, is that from your shop orhave you in a inherited that
from one of your acquisitions ora little bit of both.
Brandon Lowe (10:21):
A little bit of both.
It actually starts many, many,many years ago, about 20 years
ago, actually, when we firststarted as free time hobbies,
you know, of course, our mainthing we did, or heck back then,
all we did was ship models.
And a few years after that, wegot we acquired Yankee Model
(10:42):
Works and Blue Water Navy andand several of those other
brands, and we rolled all thatinto Blue Ridge Models, which
was at the time our shop waslocated in Blue Ridge, Georgia,
so that's why we called it that.
And that time, it was about2012 or 13, somewhere right in
there.
3D printing was really, reallynew at that time.
(11:03):
But we were able to come upwith a full range of 700-scale
accessories.
We sold those and printed andsold those for years.
And it was it was really good.
And so when we got back intothis now with Squadron and we
decided we're going to do 3Dprinting, we decided, hey, 3D
printers have come a long waysince back then.
(11:26):
There's still a customer basethat we have for these items.
Why don't we do it again?
Except this time we'll do it inall scales.
And we decided to start with350th scale.
And just like the uh the M2, wethrew some things out there,
some 20 millimeter guns, some 40quads, some just various
things.
Got a lot of good feedback, butagain, got some had some not
(11:50):
issues, but little things thatwe decided through talking to
some of our customers, hey, ifyou do this, this, or this, it'd
be awesome.
So go back to the drawingboard, and again, uh, we're
looking forward to nationalsthis year to hopefully have our
official release of this is whateverything's gonna look like
into the future.
And we've literally got dozensof designs.
(12:14):
I mean, heck, just with the 20millimeter guns, there were so
many versions of that thing.
I think we've got somewherebetween 10 and 20 different
versions of that in 350th scalewith different gun shields and
different sights and all thisstuff.
So it's it's gonna be reallyneat after we acquired iron
shipwrights.
(12:34):
Of course, that came with allsorts of other subject matters
from full ship kits all the wayon down to uh submarines and and
everything else.
And of course, all the guns andweapons and equipment and
whatnot on those ships cancertainly be stripped out to
sell as aftermarket accessories.
So, you know, we've got bigplans, we've announced some
(12:57):
things in some of our catalogsand kind of just threw some
Easter eggs out, if you will,just to kind of test the waters,
see if this is somethingcustomers are really gonna be
interested in before we reallyput forth the the time and
effort and and money to makethis happen.
But from what we've seen sofar, I I think that people are
(13:18):
really interested in what wehave planned and uh we're gonna
make a go with it uh one way orthe other.
And and like I said, hopefullyat Nationals this year in Fort
Wayne is where we'll really beable to show people what we're
capable of, and it'll be a it'llbe a make or break show for us.
People will either like it orthey won't, but at that point
they will at least seen it.
Mike (13:37):
Can't wait to see it.
Well, at least with 3D print,you've uh you've got some
capital investment there, butit's not quite like a piece of
injection mold and tooling.
Brandon Lowe (13:46):
No, it it's not, you know, and and a lot of
people have this time, a lotit's easy.
A lot of people have one ortwo, or maybe even three
printers at at your house.
But well, you know, you've seenhow we go to the shows and kind
of go big or go home.
So you can probably imaginewhat our 3D print facility looks
like.
It's uh it's uh it's a go bigor go home situation there too.
(14:10):
So at this point, we've got tomake it work.
But we're we're excited.
It's just like anything else,it it takes longer and cost
more.
Uh but at the end of the day,we're gonna make it work and
it's it's gonna be really neat.
Mike (14:22):
We mentioned a lot of shows.
You mentioned nationals morethan once here talking about the
3D stuff.
Let's pivot over to this othershow that's coming up about a
year from now.
Okay.
It's uh turning into a anotherbig hairy deal, just like your
your 3D print action there.
Brandon Lowe (14:38):
Uh okay.
Well, I guess you're talkingabout the Chattanooga ModelCon
Eagle Quest.
I am.
All right.
Mike (14:46):
Looking forward to it.
Brandon Lowe (14:47):
We we are too, you know.
So the Chattanooga ScaleModelers is a model club here in
the Chattanooga area.
And they got started actuallyback in 1988.
I be I believe Lynn Petty isthe guy that started the club.
Kentucky Dave (15:05):
It is.
I I knew Lynn at the time.
Brandon Lowe (15:08):
You know Lynn, okay.
He's he's a great guy.
He's still a part of the club.
And I guess I I don't know.
I mean, I was three at thetime, so yeah, rub it in.
I was definitely not a part ofthe club at that time, but they,
you know, they started at somepoint down the road after that,
they started having their swapmeet that turned into a model
(15:30):
show.
And they had that for for manyyears.
And in 2013, I believe, is theyear, the show moved from, I
believe they were in a church atthe time, but they decided to
move their show to the downtownconvention center in
Chattanooga.
Kentucky Dave (15:50):
Which is beautiful.
Brandon Lowe (15:52):
It is.
And when they made that move,they changed the name, or well,
I don't even know if the showhad a name, to be honest with
you.
It might have.
But in in 2013, the name of theshow became ModelCon.
And they ran that show everyyear after that, with the
exception of one year that itgot snowed out, and I forget
(16:15):
what year that was.
And then in 2019, the club hadthe opportunity to host the IPMS
National Convention inChattanooga, and that was a nice
show.
Kentucky Dave (16:25):
And put on one of the best nationals and I've
been to a lot of nationals.
Brandon Lowe (16:30):
Okay.
Kentucky Dave (16:31):
It's about 30, and Chattanooga gotta be in my
top three.
It was a fantastic show.
Brandon Lowe (16:40):
Well, yeah, I I gotta agree with you.
I'm a little partial, but youknow, right here in the
backyard.
So that that's a little, youknow, the the 30-second history
of the of the Chattanooga ModelCon.
Now, the Eagle Quest, that wasSquadron's show out in Texas.
Yeah.
And that show actuallyoriginated in St.
(17:02):
Louis.
It was VLS, Verlinden.
It was VLS's show calledMasterCon.
Kentucky Dave (17:10):
Yep.
Which Mike and I have bothattended back in the day.
Brandon Lowe (17:14):
Okay.
Okay.
Well, that show started, Ibelieve, in 1991.
Kentucky Dave (17:18):
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Lowe (17:20):
And in 2000 and give or take a year here, uh,
Dave, I should, I should havethis in front of me, but I
don't.
When Squadron purchased VLSsomewhere in the 2005 ballpark,
the the show, MasterCon, camealong with it, was a package
(17:41):
deal.
They bought the company, theygot the show.
Uh well, instead of running theshow in St.
Louis, they decided to run theshow in the Dallas area where
Squadron was located.
And then they changed the namefrom MasterCon to Eagle Quest.
So the show continued under thename Eagle Quest until 2019 was
(18:04):
the very last Eagle Quest.
They did not know at the timethat was the last Eagle Quest,
but it got canceled in 2020 forother reasons.
And then by the time it camearound in 2021, the business had
closed down and been sold tosome guys over here in Georgia.
Um and the the interestingthing was in 2022, when we were
(18:28):
in Texas for the IPMS National,Russ, my dad, was there
representing the MMD side of thebusiness.
And the guys from Tamiya askedhim, said, Hey, when are y'all
gonna bring Eagle Quest back?
If we kind of looked at himcrazy, like, what are you
talking about?
It's it's it's like we had noteven thought of that.
Kentucky Dave (18:52):
Slow down, we just bought squad squad.
Pretty much.
Brandon Lowe (18:56):
Something like that.
But they said, well, when youdo, not if, but when you do,
we'll be there to support it.
And we'll be in attendance, andit's gonna be great.
We're like, it's kind ofinteresting.
You know, why would Tamiya wantto come support a local show?
Not that they wouldn't want to,but I mean they got bigger fish
to fry.
(19:17):
And they got back to them thatwe were talking that way, and
they said they came up to us andsaid, No, no, no, no.
Eagle Quest was not just alocal show.
It was a big deal.
So we said, okay.
Well, we kind of always hadthat in the back of our mind,
but we had a lot of other thingsto do.
Now a lot of like 3D printing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh well, anyway, this past yearat the Chattanooga Model Con,
(19:42):
we we got, I mean, we've alwaysbeen a part of that club just
because it's right here.
Kentucky Dave (19:47):
Right.
Brandon Lowe (19:47):
Yeah.
But we we really decided, let'ssee if we can do a little
marketing and and push somepeople towards the show and and
see what happens.
And we started doing that amonth or so before the show, uh,
just helping them withmarketing a little bit.
And the show's always been goodand it it always grows a little
bit each year, but this year inparticular, it's like there was
(20:10):
no space.
It was slam-packed with withpeople in there.
The general admission was offthe charts.
I mean, they had they hadsomething like over 600, if I
remember correctly, generaladmission coming.
They ran out of tickets at theat the general admission table.
Kentucky Dave (20:25):
That's the problem you want to have.
Brandon Lowe (20:27):
It is.
And so it was really, reallygood.
Lots of people.
So we said, look, let's let'stalk to them.
So we talked to the clubpresident about potentially
doing a joint show together.
Because our problem with EagleQuest was, you know, we we can
we know the vendors, you know,because dad sells to a lot of
the vendors as as MMD.
(20:48):
He we know that side of it.
We know the exhibitor side.
I mean, Tamiya already saidthey'll be there.
Kentucky Dave (20:54):
Right.
Brandon Lowe (20:54):
But we we don't have the time or the resources
to run a model contest, youknow.
Kentucky Dave (21:01):
But you've got a club with long experience.
Brandon Lowe (21:04):
Exactly.
So we and you know, and theclub meets at our shop.
So it's kind of like uh theclub's kind of like a big, a big
family, probably like a lot ofclubs are.
Kentucky Dave (21:13):
Yeah, exactly.
Brandon Lowe (21:15):
Anyway, so it worked out to where we're gonna
do this joint show.
We're bringing the name Eagle.
As soon as we attached the nameEagle Quest to it, all of a
sudden people start coming outof the woodworks all around the
country just excited that EagleQuest is back, and it's really
looking like it's gonna be apretty, a pretty cool event.
We're a year out or 11 monthsout now, and they have already
(21:38):
sold out of all 250 vendortables.
Kentucky Dave (21:42):
Nice.
Wow.
Brandon Lowe (21:43):
So it's and and it's gonna be at the convention
center, but the the the ModelCon show prior to this coming
year has always been in theballrooms.
Kentucky Dave (21:55):
Right.
Brandon Lowe (21:56):
It's not we were already out of space there.
So we're gonna move.
Move it down the hall to theexhibit halls where the 2019
Nationals were held.
Kentucky Dave (22:05):
And that's the beauty of that convention center
is that you can expand out asbecause they've got tons of
space.
So you can expand out as youneed to.
Brandon Lowe (22:15):
Oh yeah, they've got tons of space.
There are tons of hotels in thearea.
In fact, three of the hotelshave already given us uh block
room rates uh for the show.
So if you go over towww.model-conc-o-n dot com.
Model-con dot com, you can seeall the information for the
(22:38):
show.
There's even a countdown clockon the front page.
It says 324 days and 15 hoursleft for the show.
You'll scroll down, you'll seethe exhibitors showcase.
Of course, Plastic Model Mojois listed there because I
believe you guys are theofficial podcast of the show.
Wow.
Mike (22:56):
Appreciate you reminding me of that.
Brandon Lowe (22:58):
Oh, yeah.
Kentucky Dave (22:58):
Yeah.
Proud to be so.
Brandon Lowe (23:00):
There, there you go.
But it it's going to be reallyneat.
I know that the club's got athey've got the exhibitors
listed on the front page now,like Tamiya and Atlantis and
Airfix, the and and you guys.
These are the the exhibitorsare the companies or brands that
are going to be there justrepresenting their brand, not
necessarily selling things.
(23:21):
And then there'll be a completevendors list listed at some
point.
I know they're trying to workall that out now.
But it's it's going to bereally neat.
If you go into the hotelsections, if you've never been
to the downtown Chattanoogaarea, it's really, really cool
when we were back in Ellijaylooking for somewhere to move to
that would be better forbusiness.
(23:43):
I mean, there's lots of bigtowns around here, you know,
Atlanta, one of the biggest.
But Chattanooga is just such agreat town.
Every time we would take thekids and the, you know, or the
family or go do something on theweekends, a lot of choices
around.
We always ended up inChattanooga just because it's
just a really neat place.
So it's the if you went to the19 Nationals, you know what I'm
(24:05):
talking about.
Kentucky Dave (24:06):
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Brandon Lowe (24:08):
Lots of cool hotels.
Kentucky Dave (24:09):
And it is one of the most walkable downtowns
you'll find.
Brandon Lowe (24:13):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Kentucky Dave (24:15):
There's a car museum, there's restaurants out
the wazoo.
There are what, like fivehotels within a block or two
blocks of the convention center.
Brandon Lowe (24:26):
Yeah, it's amazing.
It it really is.
It's neat.
And I mean there you've got thethe Chattanooga Choo-Choo down
there, you've got the theWrecker Museum, the Lookout
Mountain, the ChickamaugaBattlefield.
Mike (24:38):
Yep, yep.
Rock City, go see Rock City.
Go see Rock City.
That's right.
Brandon Lowe (24:45):
Yeah, we've got so we've got a lot of people that
that I respect in the industryfor for what they build that are
going to be head judges, youknow, in in different places.
Well, our our ship head judgeout in California, I was talking
to him today, and he says, Hey,how far is Smokey Mountain
(25:08):
National Park from there?
I said, It's like two hours orsomething.
He says, I think I'm gonna comea couple days early so I can go
see that.
I mean, there's just if you'venever been to this part of the
country, it's just got a lot ofreally, really cool stuff to
see, uh, especially from ascenic point of view.
Kentucky Dave (25:28):
The Smoky Mountain National Park, my wife
and I and our family, we'vevacationed there a half dozen
times, and we keep going back.
It's a little slice of heaven.
Brandon Lowe (25:40):
Oh, yeah.
It's it's really neat.
I mean, so it's gonna be areally, really nice place.
It's gonna be the week or theweekend after Easter next year,
April 2, 3, and 4.
So, I mean, the weather's gonnabe perfect.
Uh, it's just gonna be a niceplace.
Now, if I may, I'll tell youthe way this show works is it is
(26:03):
a gold, silver, bronze style ofjudging.
Kentucky Dave (26:05):
Gotcha.
Brandon Lowe (26:06):
And most people kind of know what that means
now, but for those that don't,we will be posting our head
judge, Rob, is gonna be doingsome videos and some kind of
teaching you, if you will, uhhow our contest works.
Uh, and he'll probably startthat sometime in the next couple
of months.
But point is everybody that'splanning on coming to the
(26:28):
contest will be very aware ofhow our contest works before
they ever get here.
But there's going to be allsorts of cool uh categories.
On that website I told youabout, you'll be able to see up
at the contest link uh aircraft,armor, automotive, ships,
figures, science fiction, uh,factual space vehicles.
(26:49):
And I believe that's thecategory that you guys are
sponsoring, uh Mike.
You're pretty pretty into that,aren't you?
Mike (26:56):
Pretty into that.
It's kept me busy since AMPS,that's for sure.
Kentucky Dave (26:59):
He's about to shoot something up to the
International Space Station ifthe weather will cooperate.
Brandon Lowe (27:06):
Well, it it's gonna be neat to see that
because like that, and then wehave a trains category within
the figures category.
We have like dinosaurs, forexample, is its own category.
Some of these, some of thesecategories that are usually
bunched up either in sci-fi orin miscellaneous, they're gonna
(27:27):
get their own categories.
And and you might say, well,with gold, silver, bronze, why
does it matter?
You could theoretically haveone category for everything.
And that is true, but whatwe're going to do is, for
example, aircraft.
You're going to haveprop-driven small scale and prop
driven large scale.
Well, there's going to be abest small scale, prop-driven
(27:50):
award given out, and thenthere's going to be a best
aircraft overall, in addition tothe best in show overall.
Uh, so there's going to be alot of different levels to shoot
for uh in your model building.
Kentucky Dave (28:04):
And I've always thought trains was a category
that should exist at a lot oflarger model shows, because what
we do and what the trainmodelers do have so much
overlap.
I mean, Mike and I have know anumber of our modeling friends
who are also train modelers.
Mike, Mike has been as well.
(28:27):
And those techniques arebleeding over into that hobby
and then therefore coming backtoward us.
And I think that's a greatidea.
Brandon Lowe (28:38):
Well, the interesting thing about it is
the NMRA, the National ModelRailroad Association, they're
actually based out of SaudiDaisy, which is just north of
Chattanooga.
Yeah.
And they're actually havingtheir national convention here
in town this year.
But besides, you know, you saytrains in our mines go to HO
(29:00):
scale or NGAGE or or Lionel orwhatever.
But in reality, even in ourIPMS and AMPS world, there are
so many railroad items.
I mean, think about the the35th scale locomotives from that
Trumpeter produces, or even myfavorite, the big Dora railgun.
(29:20):
Railgun, yeah.
You know, all those kind ofthings that and the flak cars
and and all these things thatyou see that are usually thrown
into the rest of the armor.
Giving these guys their owncategory, we're hoping that
it'll draw some modelers out.
You know, uh, Mike, we'retalking about the real space
vehicles.
(29:40):
Usually that stuff is thrown inthe mix with the sci-fi.
Often it is, you're right.
Mike (29:45):
Yeah.
Brandon Lowe (29:46):
And if and if I'm a real space modeler, I'm
building real subjects.
I don't want to go take mystuff and stick it in the sci-fi
and compete against theMillennium Falcon.
So if having these categoriesfor these guys, I think is going
to be a really cool thing.
We've got a category specificto the war gaming crowd.
(30:06):
We've got a category specificto the the gunpla, the gundam
crowd.
One of our sayings, if youwill, is if you glue it or snap
it together and paint it, it'swelcome at this show, and we're
going to try to have a class foryou.
And I hope that that's going tobe a big, a big deal for some
people.
Kentucky Dave (30:27):
Well, I'm looking forward to it.
I've got it circled on thecalendar next year already.
Yep.
Mike (30:33):
Are the room blocks open yet?
Brandon Lowe (30:35):
They they are.
They just opened in the lastday or two.
So the Marriott, uh, we've gotroom blocks there.
We've got room blocks at theStay Bridge Suites, which is at
the opposite end of the hotel ofthe uh convention center, and
then the Chattanoogan, which isjust behind the convention
center.
Uh they've opened up a block ofrooms as well.
Mike (30:57):
I'm looking at the site now, and then there's like uh
about ten others that are withinwalking distance.
Brandon Lowe (31:03):
So Oh, yeah, there's so many hotels down
there.
And and before we get off ofit, if if I may, I gotta tell
you about one of my favoriteparts of the contest, the
Masters class.
So at the original MasterCon,and then into Eagle Quest, the
whole contest was judged by themodelers.
(31:25):
It was basically a popular voteby the modelers.
If you entered the contest, yougot a ballot to vote for your
favorite model, and that's howthey picked the winners.
Well, we want to do that.
This will kind of tie old EagleQuest into new Eagle Quest.
We want to do that in themaster class.
And the to enter the masterclass, the model entered has to
(31:51):
have won the best of in acategory or the best of show at
a previous show.
It can be any show.
It can be the Amps Nationals,the IPMS Nationals, Wonderfest,
one of the old Master Cons from30 years ago.
If your model has won the bestand it's you know basically
retired now, we would like youto bring it out of retirement
(32:14):
and come and compete again.
Kentucky Dave (32:15):
That's a great idea.
I really like that idea.
Brandon Lowe (32:18):
Because what happens is these models win at
these shows.
Kentucky Dave (32:23):
And then you never see them again.
Brandon Lowe (32:25):
Exactly.
So if we can get these guys tobring these and the what they're
going to be competing for inthis master class is if you've
if you've seen pictures of oldEagle Quest and they're almost
one-to-one scale Eagle trophy,that's coming back.
Or or a variation of it.
It won't be the exact same one.
(32:46):
We've we're going to make alittle modern day squadron
version of it, if you will.
It'll be cool.
Kentucky Dave (32:52):
Mike and I have both seen that original award in
person at one time or another.
I know exactly what you'retalking about.
Brandon Lowe (33:00):
So the the big one is going to go to the winner
overall in the master class, butwe're going to have miniature
versions of it that are going togo to the best aircraft armor,
automotive ships, figures,sci-fi, and diorama and
miscellaneous of the masterclass too.
So we're really, really hopingthat the master class is a big
(33:22):
turnout because these guys, someof these guys, they don't
compete anymore because, like,for example, in amps, once you
become a master in amps, youcan't compete anymore because
you're a master.
Right.
And they do the same kind ofthing at Wonder Fed.
They they do a lot of that at alot of shows.
And some guys simply just don'tcompete anymore because they've
(33:44):
won the best of the best overand over again.
And they just, you know, I'vegot a lot of friends that say, I
just I don't want to competeanymore because I've I've been
there, I've done that, I've woneverything there is to won, and
it's somebody else's turn now.
Well, this class, this is foryou.
I want the best of the best ofthe best to come and compete,
(34:06):
whether it's a model that's wonit all, or whether you're a
master that has won it all, andyou've got a new model to
compete with.
It's we're really hoping thatit turns into something.
It'll just be so cool to see,you know, the cream of the crop,
if you will, all together andon one table on a display.
Mike (34:25):
Well, we're really looking forward to this and we're happy
with our involvement with it.
And uh sure this is gonna comeup in the months ahead on
Plastic Model Mojo.
Yes, well, we'll we'll keeppromoting the show and uh really
look forward to it, man.
I'm gonna get some hotel, get ahotel room book.
Kentucky Dave (34:43):
Yeah, get get that done, Mike.
Mike (34:45):
I'll get that done.
There you go.
Well, Brandon, thanks forjoining us again.
I know it's taking a littletime to get this together, but
uh, we've talked about somethings I wanted to talk about
and look look forward tosupporting you and the show and
look forward to the next time wesee you, man, which is gonna be
at Wonderfest.
Brandon Lowe (35:00):
Absolutely.
Yeah, two weeks away.
So looking forward to seeingyou guys.
We'll hopefully have a littlebit more time to say hello than
we did at Amps.
Mike (35:08):
We did pretty good at Amps at the hotel that night.
But uh Yeah, we did.
Brandon Lowe (35:12):
Oh yeah, that's right.
We had dinner.
That's you are hey, but wetalked about things a little bit
outside of models.
Oh, yeah.
It was nice.
It was just a couple of guyshanging out together.
That was a nice topic.
Kentucky Dave (35:25):
That's something that Mike and I emphasize all
the time about trying to getpeople to go to shows because
you find yourself starting totalk about models, and then you
find out you've got all sorts ofother common interests.
Yep.
And you do spend a lot of yourtime talking about stuff other
than modeling.
Brandon Lowe (35:45):
So that is true.
Kentucky Dave (35:47):
I encourage everybody go to shows and
particularly start planning togo to Eagle Quest.
Brandon Lowe (35:53):
Well, we're looking forward to it for sure.
But well, we will see you guysin a couple of weeks.
I look forward to seeing youagain.
Mike (35:59):
All right, you got it.
You take care.
Brandon Lowe (36:01):
All right, buddy.
Mike (36:06):
Oh man, there's a lot there.
I'm I'm there is wanting to seeuh what the 3D print has in
store here at the NationalConvention.
Hope all his gears mesh and uhhe can pull that off and uh have
some new stuff to show peoplebecause I know the stuff we saw
at Amps was really cool.
Kentucky Dave (36:20):
Well, I'll tell you what, every time we talk to
Brandon, it it he's got anenthusiasm that is just
infectious.
I mean, he he really has anenthusiasm for the hobby.
And you know, you can't helpwhen you're talking to him but
get excited yourself.
And I'll tell you, I'm reallyexcited for Eagle Quest.
Mike (36:42):
The co-hosting there with the Chattanooga Club was a great
idea.
It's a great town for a show.
I can't wait either.
And I'm really looking forwardto our our little piece of that
puzzle and promoting it and befront and center in the
exhibition area when the thingfinally comes around.
So uh folks, mark that date offon your calendar and start
planning to be there becausehe's putting he's putting it all
(37:04):
behind this.
So we want to help make it abig success so it'll keep going.
Kentucky Dave (37:07):
Go make a hotel reservation now before they sell
out.
Mike (37:11):
Like the vendor tables already have, apparently.
Kentucky Dave (37:14):
Exactly.
Mike (37:15):
Well, Dave, we'll be back in a few days and the folks can
hear episode 163.
But until then, man, uh, weboth need to get to the vent
bench so we can populate thatbench top halftime report
segment.
Kentucky Dave (37:27):
You got it.
Go model.
It's gonna be a busy month, Kentucky Dave.
Yes, it is, in many ways.
Well, folks, you may have beenexpecting episode 163 by now.
We got some issues, man.
Kentucky Dave (00:24):
A day or two, it's not much.
Mike (00:26):
Not much.
Well, no, we actually haveelected to slide it out almost a
week from when it most likelywould have dropped in prior
months, primarily because seemslike all the other shows have
kind of uh drifted into the sameweek and just trying to spread
things out.
Help the listenership of allthe shows out a little bit by
putting a little putting the gapback in place, which I think
(00:47):
will benefit everybody.
Kentucky Dave (00:49):
Yep.
Mike (00:50):
But not to leave you want for something here in this
second week of May.
We had an interesting chat withBrandon Lowe, Squadron.
An extremely interesting chat.
He's been on several timesbefore.
We've been trying to get himback on here for a while now,
but just hasn't worked out.
He's been busy and we've beenbusy and we've been to shows.
(01:10):
We saw him at Amps, which wasnice.
We did get a chance to talk tohim there, but uh Yeah, we had a
nice time at Amps.
But we did not get to do thesegment at Amps, and I didn't
really want to do it at Ampsanyway.
So it's all good.
Yep.
Well, let's not waste any moreof time, Dave.
Let's just get right into ourconversation with Brandon.
All right.
Well, Dave, I think I said itbefore and he actually denied
(01:36):
it, but I think we've got one ofthe busiest men in the skill
model sphere on the line with usagain.
One of our sponsors, BrandonLowe from Squadron.
Brandon, how you doing, man?
I'm good, buddy.
Brandon Lowe (01:48):
How are you guys?
Mike (01:49):
We've been busy too, so you're not the only one.
It's it's been a crazy coupleweeks since AMPS or three weeks.
I don't even know how long it'sbeen at this point.
It was good seeing you upthere.
Brandon Lowe (01:58):
Three weeks, I guess.
Maybe four weeks.
Three weeks.
Three weeks.
It seems I don't know.
Part of me seems like it was aneternity ago, and the other
part of me feels like I just gotback yesterday.
Kentucky Dave (02:09):
So now less than three weeks to Wonderfest.
Brandon Lowe (02:13):
That is true.
And then I'm kind of crazy, andI've thrown another one in the
mix.
Actually, next week I'm goingdown to Atlanta to the uh Wonder
Festival, which is part ofMomoCon, which is gonna be
totally different than any showsI've ever done, but we'll see
how that goes too.
Mike (02:30):
I'm gonna have to have a little more info.
What what show is that?
Brandon Lowe (02:34):
The so Wonderfest that we know in Mouvil, uh and
you know, i if I understandcorrectly, they kind of looked
at Wonder Festival as a as agood idea back in the day.
Wonder Festival is a figureshow in Japan.
Mike (02:50):
Yes.
Brandon Lowe (02:51):
And they are coming to the United States for
the first time this year to dotheir show, and they are doing
it alongside MomoCon, which is,I don't know, kind of like a
Comic Con, I guess you couldsay.
It's in Atlanta.
Makes sense.
Um one of those big things.
But the Wonder Festival istaking place right in the middle
(03:11):
of it, and uh, we've got avendor booth or table or
whatever, and we're gonna godown and see what it's all
about.
Take some figures and some ofour paint and tools and things
like that and see what's goingon down there.
Kentucky Dave (03:24):
I look forward to talking to you at Wonderfest
about your experience there,man.
Brandon Lowe (03:29):
Well, we will see.
It'll be we're going down therenext week, and we will get back
and two days later we turnaround and head to Louisville.
So it's gonna be a busy coupleof weeks for sure, but we're
looking forward to it.
Mike (03:41):
Well, when we first try to get you back here, man, we've
been busy and you've been busyand it's all good.
But at that time, some of this3D stuff was still to be
released.
Some of it is released now.
Yeah.
Primarily the ones that I wascurious about was the the Clee
Track, the little 48 scale kityou guys are doing, and then the
(04:03):
other one is it an M5high-speed tractor or M4?
I can't remember.
Brandon Lowe (04:07):
M5 high-speed tractor.
Mike (04:08):
Okay, and that one's in 35th scale.
Brandon Lowe (04:11):
Yeah, and and you know, people ask, well, what
about this scale or what aboutthat scale?
And obviously the goal would beto do them in multiple scales.
That's one of the advantages of3D design and 3D printing.
But like you said, the M2 Kleetrack, which uh, if you guys are
not familiar with, was thelittle tractor that they used on
(04:31):
the airstrips to pull the youknow, bombers and fighters and
whatnot around, kind of tryingthem around the airfields.
And we're doing that in 48thscale because of that reason.
You know, you build a you know48 scale B-17 or P47 or whatever
you're building, you can have alittle clee track to pull it
around.
Kentucky Dave (04:47):
And I don't think that's ever been done before,
has it?
Brandon Lowe (04:51):
Not yes and no.
It was it was actually includedin a very old monogram kit way
back in the day.
I forget if it was a B-29 or itwas the B-24.
B-24, okay.
Yeah, it was included in that,and it was fine for the time.
But to my knowledge, like you,Dave, I don't recall it ever
being released as a standalonekit.
(05:13):
So we've we've done that and wekind of introduced it.
We had them at Amps and we hadthem a few weeks before that on
the website and whatnot.
And we kind of introduced it ata relatively low price for a
you know 3D kit, but we werekind of testing the waters with
it, and you know, we we got somevery good feedback from it,
(05:36):
mostly good, a few little, hey,if you had done this or if you
had done that.
Uh so we took that feedback andwe've gone back to the drawing
board, not necessarily uh fromthe design standpoint, but more
from the production standpointto make that kit better, but
also take these these commentsfrom customers and potentially
(05:56):
make all of our future kitsbetter, starting with the M5
high-speed tracker, which ofcourse will be the next release
after this.
And so we're just always intosomething.
Of course, the 3D part of ourbusiness is certainly just a
small, for lack of a better wayto put it, a fun portion of our
business.
We a lot of the guys that workat Squadron, we are modelers and
(06:21):
and we like being creative.
So we've got a good team ofdesigners and guys that work on
the machines and all that.
And it's fun to produce yourown concepts and to see things,
you know.
You're sitting around, hey, weshould do an M2 Klee track.
And then, you know, a littlewhile later, poof, there it is.
And customers are buying themand building them and painting
(06:42):
them, and it's really, reallyneat to see basically ideas that
started from within the shopcome to life through customers.
So that's kind of just a funthing that we're doing, and and
it will certainly grow in time.
Uh right now, we've got aprobably got more things
announced and things that we'vetalked about than are actually
(07:03):
available.
But that will that'll change astime goes here in the next few
weeks and months.
Mike (07:09):
Well, I was oogling the M5 at Amps.
Uh, what's the perspectivetimeline for that one?
Brandon Lowe (07:16):
That one was a prototype that was built up
there that we had on display.
And it is, for the most part,kind of ready to go.
Uh, there's a few tweaks leftto be made on it, uh, and then
it's just a matter of getting itset up uh to go into
production.
There were uh there wereseveral things that we announced
(07:37):
back in January in our squadrondigital catalog, those two kits
included, the M2, the M5.
There was a couple ofsubmarines and various other
things.
And uh since we did that, we'vehad prototypes out, we've let
people in the industry andfriends have these or be able to
get a hold of one, so to speak,test build them, and just kind
(08:01):
of before we throw them outthere to everybody, we want to
just make sure that what we haveto offer from a production uh
standpoint is is good.
But to answer your specificquestion on that one, we are
hoping, fingers crossed, to haveour full official release of
that kit and the officialrelease of the M2 at the IPMS
(08:26):
Nationals this year.
There have been a lot of peoplethat have got their hands on
the M2.
Like I said, that was kind ofthe test of the waters prototype
version, real cheapintroduction price kind of
thing.
And overall, it's it's beenit's been good.
What it's shown us mostly isthat there is a market for these
things and people like theideas that that our team has
(08:46):
come up with.
So uh we're gonna build on thatand see what we can do with it
in the future with these tworeleases and several others that
we've got planned.
Kentucky Dave (08:54):
Well, it did seem up at Amps that the reaction to
both those kits was very, verypositive.
I talked to a number of peoplewho mentioned it, I didn't bring
it up, but mentioned it to me.
Have you seen that?
So I can't I would imagine thatyou're gonna have some built-up
demand for both of those.
Brandon Lowe (09:13):
Yeah, and and it was really neat to see the
interest in it.
I mean, there they're certainlyinteresting vehicles, but we
didn't really know what toexpect.
I mean, are we gonna sell a acouple, a couple dozen, a couple
hundred?
You you just don't know what toexpect.
So being able to have thoseprototypes built up and on
displayed amps really kind ofshowed us that people are
(09:34):
interested in this kind of I Ihate to call it an odd subject,
but it's not a Sherman, it's nota tiger.
It's it's just these littlecool vehicles that are excellent
additions to any collection.
If you're an armor modeler,you've built all the home runs,
and these will be interesting uhsubjects that fill little holes
(09:56):
in your shelf that perhapsyou've never even thought about
adding to your collection.
Kentucky Dave (10:00):
Absolutely.
And and are visually in manyways more interesting.
Mike (10:05):
Sure.
I've also noticed that a lot of3D, I think most of it's like
naval ordnance and stuff youguys have been selling to
Squadron bears.
Now, is that from your shop orhave you in a inherited that
from one of your acquisitions ora little bit of both.
Brandon Lowe (10:21):
A little bit of both.
It actually starts many, many,many years ago, about 20 years
ago, actually, when we firststarted as free time hobbies,
you know, of course, our mainthing we did, or heck back then,
all we did was ship models.
And a few years after that, wegot we acquired Yankee Model
(10:42):
Works and Blue Water Navy andand several of those other
brands, and we rolled all thatinto Blue Ridge Models, which
was at the time our shop waslocated in Blue Ridge, Georgia,
so that's why we called it that.
And that time, it was about2012 or 13, somewhere right in
there.
3D printing was really, reallynew at that time.
(11:03):
But we were able to come upwith a full range of 700-scale
accessories.
We sold those and printed andsold those for years.
And it was it was really good.
And so when we got back intothis now with Squadron and we
decided we're going to do 3Dprinting, we decided, hey, 3D
printers have come a long waysince back then.
(11:26):
There's still a customer basethat we have for these items.
Why don't we do it again?
Except this time we'll do it inall scales.
And we decided to start with350th scale.
And just like the uh the M2, wethrew some things out there,
some 20 millimeter guns, some 40quads, some just various
things.
Got a lot of good feedback, butagain, got some had some not
(11:50):
issues, but little things thatwe decided through talking to
some of our customers, hey, ifyou do this, this, or this, it'd
be awesome.
So go back to the drawingboard, and again, uh, we're
looking forward to nationalsthis year to hopefully have our
official release of this is whateverything's gonna look like
into the future.
And we've literally got dozensof designs.
(12:14):
I mean, heck, just with the 20millimeter guns, there were so
many versions of that thing.
I think we've got somewherebetween 10 and 20 different
versions of that in 350th scalewith different gun shields and
different sights and all thisstuff.
So it's it's gonna be reallyneat after we acquired iron
shipwrights.
(12:34):
Of course, that came with allsorts of other subject matters
from full ship kits all the wayon down to uh submarines and and
everything else.
And of course, all the guns andweapons and equipment and
whatnot on those ships cancertainly be stripped out to
sell as aftermarket accessories.
So, you know, we've got bigplans, we've announced some
(12:57):
things in some of our catalogsand kind of just threw some
Easter eggs out, if you will,just to kind of test the waters,
see if this is somethingcustomers are really gonna be
interested in before we reallyput forth the the time and
effort and and money to makethis happen.
But from what we've seen sofar, I I think that people are
(13:18):
really interested in what wehave planned and uh we're gonna
make a go with it uh one way orthe other.
And and like I said, hopefullyat Nationals this year in Fort
Wayne is where we'll really beable to show people what we're
capable of, and it'll be a it'llbe a make or break show for us.
People will either like it orthey won't, but at that point
they will at least seen it.
Mike (13:37):
Can't wait to see it.
Well, at least with 3D print,you've uh you've got some
capital investment there, butit's not quite like a piece of
injection mold and tooling.
Brandon Lowe (13:46):
No, it it's not, you know, and and a lot of
people have this time, a lotit's easy.
A lot of people have one ortwo, or maybe even three
printers at at your house.
But well, you know, you've seenhow we go to the shows and kind
of go big or go home.
So you can probably imaginewhat our 3D print facility looks
like.
It's uh it's uh it's a go bigor go home situation there too.
(14:10):
So at this point, we've got tomake it work.
But we're we're excited.
It's just like anything else,it it takes longer and cost
more.
Uh but at the end of the day,we're gonna make it work and
it's it's gonna be really neat.
Mike (14:22):
We mentioned a lot of shows.
You mentioned nationals morethan once here talking about the
3D stuff.
Let's pivot over to this othershow that's coming up about a
year from now.
Okay.
It's uh turning into a anotherbig hairy deal, just like your
your 3D print action there.
Brandon Lowe (14:38):
Uh okay.
Well, I guess you're talkingabout the Chattanooga ModelCon
Eagle Quest.
I am.
All right.
Mike (14:46):
Looking forward to it.
Brandon Lowe (14:47):
We we are too, you know.
So the Chattanooga ScaleModelers is a model club here in
the Chattanooga area.
And they got started actuallyback in 1988.
I be I believe Lynn Petty isthe guy that started the club.
Kentucky Dave (15:05):
It is.
I I knew Lynn at the time.
Brandon Lowe (15:08):
You know Lynn, okay.
He's he's a great guy.
He's still a part of the club.
And I guess I I don't know.
I mean, I was three at thetime, so yeah, rub it in.
I was definitely not a part ofthe club at that time, but they,
you know, they started at somepoint down the road after that,
they started having their swapmeet that turned into a model
(15:30):
show.
And they had that for for manyyears.
And in 2013, I believe, is theyear, the show moved from, I
believe they were in a church atthe time, but they decided to
move their show to the downtownconvention center in
Chattanooga.
Kentucky Dave (15:50):
Which is beautiful.
Brandon Lowe (15:52):
It is.
And when they made that move,they changed the name, or well,
I don't even know if the showhad a name, to be honest with
you.
It might have.
But in in 2013, the name of theshow became ModelCon.
And they ran that show everyyear after that, with the
exception of one year that itgot snowed out, and I forget
(16:15):
what year that was.
And then in 2019, the club hadthe opportunity to host the IPMS
National Convention inChattanooga, and that was a nice
show.
Kentucky Dave (16:25):
And put on one of the best nationals and I've
been to a lot of nationals.
Brandon Lowe (16:30):
Okay.
Kentucky Dave (16:31):
It's about 30, and Chattanooga gotta be in my
top three.
It was a fantastic show.
Brandon Lowe (16:40):
Well, yeah, I I gotta agree with you.
I'm a little partial, but youknow, right here in the
backyard.
So that that's a little, youknow, the the 30-second history
of the of the Chattanooga ModelCon.
Now, the Eagle Quest, that wasSquadron's show out in Texas.
Yeah.
And that show actuallyoriginated in St.
(17:02):
Louis.
It was VLS, Verlinden.
It was VLS's show calledMasterCon.
Kentucky Dave (17:10):
Yep.
Which Mike and I have bothattended back in the day.
Brandon Lowe (17:14):
Okay.
Okay.
Well, that show started, Ibelieve, in 1991.
Kentucky Dave (17:18):
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Lowe (17:20):
And in 2000 and give or take a year here, uh,
Dave, I should, I should havethis in front of me, but I
don't.
When Squadron purchased VLSsomewhere in the 2005 ballpark,
the the show, MasterCon, camealong with it, was a package
(17:41):
deal.
They bought the company, theygot the show.
Uh well, instead of running theshow in St.
Louis, they decided to run theshow in the Dallas area where
Squadron was located.
And then they changed the namefrom MasterCon to Eagle Quest.
So the show continued under thename Eagle Quest until 2019 was
(18:04):
the very last Eagle Quest.
They did not know at the timethat was the last Eagle Quest,
but it got canceled in 2020 forother reasons.
And then by the time it camearound in 2021, the business had
closed down and been sold tosome guys over here in Georgia.
Um and the the interestingthing was in 2022, when we were
(18:28):
in Texas for the IPMS National,Russ, my dad, was there
representing the MMD side of thebusiness.
And the guys from Tamiya askedhim, said, Hey, when are y'all
gonna bring Eagle Quest back?
If we kind of looked at himcrazy, like, what are you
talking about?
It's it's it's like we had noteven thought of that.
Kentucky Dave (18:52):
Slow down, we just bought squad squad.
Pretty much.
Brandon Lowe (18:56):
Something like that.
But they said, well, when youdo, not if, but when you do,
we'll be there to support it.
And we'll be in attendance, andit's gonna be great.
We're like, it's kind ofinteresting.
You know, why would Tamiya wantto come support a local show?
Not that they wouldn't want to,but I mean they got bigger fish
to fry.
(19:17):
And they got back to them thatwe were talking that way, and
they said they came up to us andsaid, No, no, no, no.
Eagle Quest was not just alocal show.
It was a big deal.
So we said, okay.
Well, we kind of always hadthat in the back of our mind,
but we had a lot of other thingsto do.
Now a lot of like 3D printing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh well, anyway, this past yearat the Chattanooga Model Con,
(19:42):
we we got, I mean, we've alwaysbeen a part of that club just
because it's right here.
Kentucky Dave (19:47):
Right.
Brandon Lowe (19:47):
Yeah.
But we we really decided, let'ssee if we can do a little
marketing and and push somepeople towards the show and and
see what happens.
And we started doing that amonth or so before the show, uh,
just helping them withmarketing a little bit.
And the show's always been goodand it it always grows a little
bit each year, but this year inparticular, it's like there was
(20:10):
no space.
It was slam-packed with withpeople in there.
The general admission was offthe charts.
I mean, they had they hadsomething like over 600, if I
remember correctly, generaladmission coming.
They ran out of tickets at theat the general admission table.
Kentucky Dave (20:25):
That's the problem you want to have.
Brandon Lowe (20:27):
It is.
And so it was really, reallygood.
Lots of people.
So we said, look, let's let'stalk to them.
So we talked to the clubpresident about potentially
doing a joint show together.
Because our problem with EagleQuest was, you know, we we can
we know the vendors, you know,because dad sells to a lot of
the vendors as as MMD.
(20:48):
He we know that side of it.
We know the exhibitor side.
I mean, Tamiya already saidthey'll be there.
Kentucky Dave (20:54):
Right.
Brandon Lowe (20:54):
But we we don't have the time or the resources
to run a model contest, youknow.
Kentucky Dave (21:01):
But you've got a club with long experience.
Brandon Lowe (21:04):
Exactly.
So we and you know, and theclub meets at our shop.
So it's kind of like uh theclub's kind of like a big, a big
family, probably like a lot ofclubs are.
Kentucky Dave (21:13):
Yeah, exactly.
Brandon Lowe (21:15):
Anyway, so it worked out to where we're gonna
do this joint show.
We're bringing the name Eagle.
As soon as we attached the nameEagle Quest to it, all of a
sudden people start coming outof the woodworks all around the
country just excited that EagleQuest is back, and it's really
looking like it's gonna be apretty, a pretty cool event.
We're a year out or 11 monthsout now, and they have already
(21:38):
sold out of all 250 vendortables.
Kentucky Dave (21:42):
Nice.
Wow.
Brandon Lowe (21:43):
So it's and and it's gonna be at the convention
center, but the the the ModelCon show prior to this coming
year has always been in theballrooms.
Kentucky Dave (21:55):
Right.
Brandon Lowe (21:56):
It's not we were already out of space there.
So we're gonna move.
Move it down the hall to theexhibit halls where the 2019
Nationals were held.
Kentucky Dave (22:05):
And that's the beauty of that convention center
is that you can expand out asbecause they've got tons of
space.
So you can expand out as youneed to.
Brandon Lowe (22:15):
Oh yeah, they've got tons of space.
There are tons of hotels in thearea.
In fact, three of the hotelshave already given us uh block
room rates uh for the show.
So if you go over towww.model-conc-o-n dot com.
Model-con dot com, you can seeall the information for the
(22:38):
show.
There's even a countdown clockon the front page.
It says 324 days and 15 hoursleft for the show.
You'll scroll down, you'll seethe exhibitors showcase.
Of course, Plastic Model Mojois listed there because I
believe you guys are theofficial podcast of the show.
Wow.
Mike (22:56):
Appreciate you reminding me of that.
Brandon Lowe (22:58):
Oh, yeah.
Kentucky Dave (22:58):
Yeah.
Proud to be so.
Brandon Lowe (23:00):
There, there you go.
But it it's going to be reallyneat.
I know that the club's got athey've got the exhibitors
listed on the front page now,like Tamiya and Atlantis and
Airfix, the and and you guys.
These are the the exhibitorsare the companies or brands that
are going to be there justrepresenting their brand, not
necessarily selling things.
(23:21):
And then there'll be a completevendors list listed at some
point.
I know they're trying to workall that out now.
But it's it's going to bereally neat.
If you go into the hotelsections, if you've never been
to the downtown Chattanoogaarea, it's really, really cool
when we were back in Ellijaylooking for somewhere to move to
that would be better forbusiness.
(23:43):
I mean, there's lots of bigtowns around here, you know,
Atlanta, one of the biggest.
But Chattanooga is just such agreat town.
Every time we would take thekids and the, you know, or the
family or go do something on theweekends, a lot of choices
around.
We always ended up inChattanooga just because it's
just a really neat place.
So it's the if you went to the19 Nationals, you know what I'm
(24:05):
talking about.
Kentucky Dave (24:06):
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Brandon Lowe (24:08):
Lots of cool hotels.
Kentucky Dave (24:09):
And it is one of the most walkable downtowns
you'll find.
Brandon Lowe (24:13):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Kentucky Dave (24:15):
There's a car museum, there's restaurants out
the wazoo.
There are what, like fivehotels within a block or two
blocks of the convention center.
Brandon Lowe (24:26):
Yeah, it's amazing.
It it really is.
It's neat.
And I mean there you've got thethe Chattanooga Choo-Choo down
there, you've got the theWrecker Museum, the Lookout
Mountain, the ChickamaugaBattlefield.
Mike (24:38):
Yep, yep.
Rock City, go see Rock City.
Go see Rock City.
That's right.
Brandon Lowe (24:45):
Yeah, we've got so we've got a lot of people that
that I respect in the industryfor for what they build that are
going to be head judges, youknow, in in different places.
Well, our our ship head judgeout in California, I was talking
to him today, and he says, Hey,how far is Smokey Mountain
(25:08):
National Park from there?
I said, It's like two hours orsomething.
He says, I think I'm gonna comea couple days early so I can go
see that.
I mean, there's just if you'venever been to this part of the
country, it's just got a lot ofreally, really cool stuff to
see, uh, especially from ascenic point of view.
Kentucky Dave (25:28):
The Smoky Mountain National Park, my wife
and I and our family, we'vevacationed there a half dozen
times, and we keep going back.
It's a little slice of heaven.
Brandon Lowe (25:40):
Oh, yeah.
It's it's really neat.
I mean, so it's gonna be areally, really nice place.
It's gonna be the week or theweekend after Easter next year,
April 2, 3, and 4.
So, I mean, the weather's gonnabe perfect.
Uh, it's just gonna be a niceplace.
Now, if I may, I'll tell youthe way this show works is it is
(26:03):
a gold, silver, bronze style ofjudging.
Kentucky Dave (26:05):
Gotcha.
Brandon Lowe (26:06):
And most people kind of know what that means
now, but for those that don't,we will be posting our head
judge, Rob, is gonna be doingsome videos and some kind of
teaching you, if you will, uhhow our contest works.
Uh, and he'll probably startthat sometime in the next couple
of months.
But point is everybody that'splanning on coming to the
(26:28):
contest will be very aware ofhow our contest works before
they ever get here.
But there's going to be allsorts of cool uh categories.
On that website I told youabout, you'll be able to see up
at the contest link uh aircraft,armor, automotive, ships,
figures, science fiction, uh,factual space vehicles.
(26:49):
And I believe that's thecategory that you guys are
sponsoring, uh Mike.
You're pretty pretty into that,aren't you?
Mike (26:56):
Pretty into that.
It's kept me busy since AMPS,that's for sure.
Kentucky Dave (26:59):
He's about to shoot something up to the
International Space Station ifthe weather will cooperate.
Brandon Lowe (27:06):
Well, it it's gonna be neat to see that
because like that, and then wehave a trains category within
the figures category.
We have like dinosaurs, forexample, is its own category.
Some of these, some of thesecategories that are usually
bunched up either in sci-fi orin miscellaneous, they're gonna
(27:27):
get their own categories.
And and you might say, well,with gold, silver, bronze, why
does it matter?
You could theoretically haveone category for everything.
And that is true, but whatwe're going to do is, for
example, aircraft.
You're going to haveprop-driven small scale and prop
driven large scale.
Well, there's going to be abest small scale, prop-driven
(27:50):
award given out, and thenthere's going to be a best
aircraft overall, in addition tothe best in show overall.
Uh, so there's going to be alot of different levels to shoot
for uh in your model building.
Kentucky Dave (28:04):
And I've always thought trains was a category
that should exist at a lot oflarger model shows, because what
we do and what the trainmodelers do have so much
overlap.
I mean, Mike and I have know anumber of our modeling friends
who are also train modelers.
Mike, Mike has been as well.
(28:27):
And those techniques arebleeding over into that hobby
and then therefore coming backtoward us.
And I think that's a greatidea.
Brandon Lowe (28:38):
Well, the interesting thing about it is
the NMRA, the National ModelRailroad Association, they're
actually based out of SaudiDaisy, which is just north of
Chattanooga.
Yeah.
And they're actually havingtheir national convention here
in town this year.
But besides, you know, you saytrains in our mines go to HO
(29:00):
scale or NGAGE or or Lionel orwhatever.
But in reality, even in ourIPMS and AMPS world, there are
so many railroad items.
I mean, think about the the35th scale locomotives from that
Trumpeter produces, or even myfavorite, the big Dora railgun.
(29:20):
Railgun, yeah.
You know, all those kind ofthings that and the flak cars
and and all these things thatyou see that are usually thrown
into the rest of the armor.
Giving these guys their owncategory, we're hoping that
it'll draw some modelers out.
You know, uh, Mike, we'retalking about the real space
vehicles.
(29:40):
Usually that stuff is thrown inthe mix with the sci-fi.
Often it is, you're right.
Mike (29:45):
Yeah.
Brandon Lowe (29:46):
And if and if I'm a real space modeler, I'm
building real subjects.
I don't want to go take mystuff and stick it in the sci-fi
and compete against theMillennium Falcon.
So if having these categoriesfor these guys, I think is going
to be a really cool thing.
We've got a category specificto the war gaming crowd.
(30:06):
We've got a category specificto the the gunpla, the gundam
crowd.
One of our sayings, if youwill, is if you glue it or snap
it together and paint it, it'swelcome at this show, and we're
going to try to have a class foryou.
And I hope that that's going tobe a big, a big deal for some
people.
Kentucky Dave (30:27):
Well, I'm looking forward to it.
I've got it circled on thecalendar next year already.
Yep.
Mike (30:33):
Are the room blocks open yet?
Brandon Lowe (30:35):
They they are.
They just opened in the lastday or two.
So the Marriott, uh, we've gotroom blocks there.
We've got room blocks at theStay Bridge Suites, which is at
the opposite end of the hotel ofthe uh convention center, and
then the Chattanoogan, which isjust behind the convention
center.
Uh they've opened up a block ofrooms as well.
Mike (30:57):
I'm looking at the site now, and then there's like uh
about ten others that are withinwalking distance.
Brandon Lowe (31:03):
So Oh, yeah, there's so many hotels down
there.
And and before we get off ofit, if if I may, I gotta tell
you about one of my favoriteparts of the contest, the
Masters class.
So at the original MasterCon,and then into Eagle Quest, the
whole contest was judged by themodelers.
(31:25):
It was basically a popular voteby the modelers.
If you entered the contest, yougot a ballot to vote for your
favorite model, and that's howthey picked the winners.
Well, we want to do that.
This will kind of tie old EagleQuest into new Eagle Quest.
We want to do that in themaster class.
And the to enter the masterclass, the model entered has to
(31:51):
have won the best of in acategory or the best of show at
a previous show.
It can be any show.
It can be the Amps Nationals,the IPMS Nationals, Wonderfest,
one of the old Master Cons from30 years ago.
If your model has won the bestand it's you know basically
retired now, we would like youto bring it out of retirement
(32:14):
and come and compete again.
Kentucky Dave (32:15):
That's a great idea.
I really like that idea.
Brandon Lowe (32:18):
Because what happens is these models win at
these shows.
Kentucky Dave (32:23):
And then you never see them again.
Brandon Lowe (32:25):
Exactly.
So if we can get these guys tobring these and the what they're
going to be competing for inthis master class is if you've
if you've seen pictures of oldEagle Quest and they're almost
one-to-one scale Eagle trophy,that's coming back.
Or or a variation of it.
It won't be the exact same one.
(32:46):
We've we're going to make alittle modern day squadron
version of it, if you will.
It'll be cool.
Kentucky Dave (32:52):
Mike and I have both seen that original award in
person at one time or another.
I know exactly what you'retalking about.
Brandon Lowe (33:00):
So the the big one is going to go to the winner
overall in the master class, butwe're going to have miniature
versions of it that are going togo to the best aircraft armor,
automotive ships, figures,sci-fi, and diorama and
miscellaneous of the masterclass too.
So we're really, really hopingthat the master class is a big
(33:22):
turnout because these guys, someof these guys, they don't
compete anymore because, like,for example, in amps, once you
become a master in amps, youcan't compete anymore because
you're a master.
Right.
And they do the same kind ofthing at Wonder Fed.
They they do a lot of that at alot of shows.
And some guys simply just don'tcompete anymore because they've
(33:44):
won the best of the best overand over again.
And they just, you know, I'vegot a lot of friends that say, I
just I don't want to competeanymore because I've I've been
there, I've done that, I've woneverything there is to won, and
it's somebody else's turn now.
Well, this class, this is foryou.
I want the best of the best ofthe best to come and compete,
(34:06):
whether it's a model that's wonit all, or whether you're a
master that has won it all, andyou've got a new model to
compete with.
It's we're really hoping thatit turns into something.
It'll just be so cool to see,you know, the cream of the crop,
if you will, all together andon one table on a display.
Mike (34:25):
Well, we're really looking forward to this and we're happy
with our involvement with it.
And uh sure this is gonna comeup in the months ahead on
Plastic Model Mojo.
Yes, well, we'll we'll keeppromoting the show and uh really
look forward to it, man.
I'm gonna get some hotel, get ahotel room book.
Kentucky Dave (34:43):
Yeah, get get that done, Mike.
Mike (34:45):
I'll get that done.
There you go.
Well, Brandon, thanks forjoining us again.
I know it's taking a littletime to get this together, but
uh, we've talked about somethings I wanted to talk about
and look look forward tosupporting you and the show and
look forward to the next time wesee you, man, which is gonna be
at Wonderfest.
Brandon Lowe (35:00):
Absolutely.
Yeah, two weeks away.
So looking forward to seeingyou guys.
We'll hopefully have a littlebit more time to say hello than
we did at Amps.
Mike (35:08):
We did pretty good at Amps at the hotel that night.
But uh Yeah, we did.
Brandon Lowe (35:12):
Oh yeah, that's right.
We had dinner.
That's you are hey, but wetalked about things a little bit
outside of models.
Oh, yeah.
It was nice.
It was just a couple of guyshanging out together.
That was a nice topic.
Kentucky Dave (35:25):
That's something that Mike and I emphasize all
the time about trying to getpeople to go to shows because
you find yourself starting totalk about models, and then you
find out you've got all sorts ofother common interests.
Yep.
And you do spend a lot of yourtime talking about stuff other
than modeling.
Brandon Lowe (35:45):
So that is true.
Kentucky Dave (35:47):
I encourage everybody go to shows and
particularly start planning togo to Eagle Quest.
Brandon Lowe (35:53):
Well, we're looking forward to it for sure.
But well, we will see you guysin a couple of weeks.
I look forward to seeing youagain.
Mike (35:59):
All right, you got it.
You take care.
Brandon Lowe (36:01):
All right, buddy.
Mike (36:06):
Oh man, there's a lot there.
I'm I'm there is wanting to seeuh what the 3D print has in
store here at the NationalConvention.
Hope all his gears mesh and uhhe can pull that off and uh have
some new stuff to show peoplebecause I know the stuff we saw
at Amps was really cool.
Kentucky Dave (36:20):
Well, I'll tell you what, every time we talk to
Brandon, it it he's got anenthusiasm that is just
infectious.
I mean, he he really has anenthusiasm for the hobby.
And you know, you can't helpwhen you're talking to him but
get excited yourself.
And I'll tell you, I'm reallyexcited for Eagle Quest.
Mike (36:42):
The co-hosting there with the Chattanooga Club was a great
idea.
It's a great town for a show.
I can't wait either.
And I'm really looking forwardto our our little piece of that
puzzle and promoting it and befront and center in the
exhibition area when the thingfinally comes around.
So uh folks, mark that date offon your calendar and start
planning to be there becausehe's putting he's putting it all
(37:04):
behind this.
So we want to help make it abig success so it'll keep going.
Kentucky Dave (37:07):
Go make a hotel reservation now before they sell
out.
Mike (37:11):
Like the vendor tables already have, apparently.
Kentucky Dave (37:14):
Exactly.
Mike (37:15):
Well, Dave, we'll be back in a few days and the folks can
hear episode 163.
But until then, man, uh, weboth need to get to the vent
bench so we can populate thatbench top halftime report
segment.
Kentucky Dave (37:27):
You got it.
Go model.
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