Three April Model Shows Worth The Trip: April Model Show Spotlight

April is stacked with model shows, but not all scale model contests feel the same once you walk into the room. We line up three very different events and get into the details that actually matter when you’re deciding where to spend a Saturday: when doors open, when registration closes, what judging looks like, how strong the vendor room is, and what you can do while the judges are working.

First stop is the Roscoe Turner Invitational outside Indianapolis in Lebanon, Indiana. It’s a big traditional IPMS-style one-two-three show with the familiar spread of categories, a serious vendor hall, great onsite food, and special awards that fit the region. There you can enjoy a figure painting seminar hosted by Bret Avants.  We also talk about a smart operational idea that judges love: using shared plastic bases so staff can move models without touching your build.

Then we jump time zones to CoMMiesFest in Golden, Colorado, where the vibe is relaxed but the planning is sharp. They rebuilt their judging workflow into a browser-based system that runs on your phone, added fun theme and specialty awards, and packed the day with seminars, demos, seating, and a food truck to keep people engaged instead of disappearing during judging. If you care about sci-fi modeling, Gunpla, minis, and a show that’s trying to welcome adjacent hobby communities, you’ll want to hear how they’re approaching it.

We wrap in Northern California with the Wine Country Model Expo in Petaluma, which leans into open judging and an exhibition-style layout that groups each modeler’s work together so conversations happen naturally. Add seminars, raffles, a charity silent auction, and a post-show social gathering, and you’ve got a blueprint for where “model show culture” might be headed.

If you enjoy Model Show Spotlight, subscribe, share this with a modeling buddy, and leave us a review so more builders can find it.

Brought to you by... The World of Armor

Model Paint Solutions
Your source for Harder & Steenbeck Airbrushes, Mixing supplies, and great advice!

SQUADRON
Adding to the stash since 1968

Model Podcasts
Please check out the other pods in the modelsphere!

KitMasx
Custom Canopy Masks for the Scale Modeler

Bases By Bill
Your source for custom display bases, laser engraved airfield and carrier decks.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Give us your Feedback!Rate the Show!

Support the Show!
PatreonBuy Me a BeerPaypal
Bump Riffs Graciously Provided by Ed Baroth
Ad Reads Generously Provided by Bob "The Voice of Bob" Bair

Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.  

Episode Transcript

The Voice of Bob (00:00):
The Model Show Spotlight is brought to you by
the World of Armor.
Communicate, share, and learnwith armor modelers worldwide at
the World of Armor.
If armor modeling is yourthing, follow the link in the
show notes or atPlasticmodelMojo.com and join
the team.

Kentucky Dave (00:35):
And now that the snow is melting and the sun is
shining, people are gettingitched to go to model shows.

Mike (00:42):
Well, April's going to make that really possible, man.
We've got three shows we'refeaturing tonight on the model
show Spotlight.
And let's get right into it.
Our first one up this eveningis in Indianapolis, Indiana,
hosted by the Roscoe Turnerchapter right here on Region 4.

Kentucky Dave (00:58):
One of our favorite shows.

Mike (00:59):
One of our favorite shows, unfortunately, with the
HeritageCon scheduling.
This gotten a little harder toget to.

Kentucky Dave (01:04):
Yep.

Mike (01:05):
We'll see what happens going forward, but we got
special agent 001 Mike Radsky tocome on here and uh tell us all
about it.
So let's get into it.
You got it.
Dave, we're going to lead offthe model show spotlight tonight
with special agent 001 MikeRadsky from the uh Roscoe Turner

(01:28):
chapter in Indianapolis,Indiana.
Mike, how are you doingtonight?
Good.
How are you guys?
We're fantastic.
I don't know how it was in Indytoday around Indy Greater
there, but man, it was sure nicein Lexington and Louisville
today.

Mike Rajki (01:41):
Yeah, you can't complain.
The sun finally came out thisafternoon and it was gorgeous.

Mike (01:46):
Yeah, I worked outside all day, so I'm gonna be dead dog
tired.
I gotta get up at 4 30 tomorrowand take my son to the airport.
So not gonna be fun.
Well, it's that time of yearagain.
You got a show coming up hereearly April, the Roscoe Turner
Invitational.
Why don't you tell us uh whenit is and where it is and what
you got going on?

Mike Rajki (02:06):
We do.
Is April 4th, 2026.
We open the doors to the publicat 9 a.m.
We'll hope to have everybodyout by about 3, 3.30.
We may run a little late, butwe're gonna try not to with it
being Final Four weekend inIndianapolis.
Oh no.
So if you're in town for thefinal four and you need
something to do that morning andyou're a modeler, come up and

(02:27):
join us.
We're at the Boone CountyFairgrounds in Lebanon, Indiana.
It's 1300 east, 100 south, andreally is right off of I-65.
So it's about a 35-minute drivefrom downtown, right off the
off ramp.
You're there.
Check it out.
That's interesting.

Mike (02:44):
You might actually get some folks from way out of town
this time.
Possibly.
Unusually far out of town, likefrom the West Coast or
something.
I'll be real curious if thatactually happens because it
could.
Well, we did have the Quaggaonce.
That's true.

Kentucky Dave (02:57):
Well, he shows up randomly everywhere.

Mike (03:01):
Speaking of special agents.
Yeah, that's right.
Well, I know it's a prettystandard IPMS format.
Give give us a little take onthe on the judging and your
general categories and whatfolks can expect there.

Mike Rajki (03:15):
We are a one, two, three show.
We've got just generalcategories: aircraft, military
vehicles, figures, automotive,ships, space sci-fi, and fantasy
are kind of all rolled intoone.
So real space, sci-fi,everything there.
Dioramas, we've got a juniorscategory, and then a
miscellaneous.
Our biggest category isaircraft.

(03:36):
Our second biggest categoryevery year is automotive.
We typically have about a thirdof the models on the table are
automotive.
And typically we have anywhere,you know, 750, 800 models on
the tables.

Mike (03:51):
Which is pretty good, which I think that's why you
guys bill it as the largest showin Region 4 or the Midwest,
kind of.
It's a pretty good-sized show,really.

Mike Rajki (04:01):
It is.
It is, and it's a greatfacility.
We've got two buildingsbasically tied together.
One side's all vendors, whichwe have 124 vendor tables,
typically 50 to 60 differentvendors in there.
Anything from your hobby shopsto your guys selling off their
collections, wanting to get outof it.
We know last cavalry will behere this year, uh and a couple

(04:23):
other good ones.
Yeah.

Mike (04:25):
Who else we've seen there before?
I think David Doyle's beenthere before.

Mike Rajki (04:30):
I think he's been there before, not this year.
I think, you know, with Ampsbeing two weeks after that.
Well, right.

Mike (04:35):
Yeah, that's and who's the Starfighter decals?
We've seen him there before.
Yellow wings, maybe one ofthose two.
I can't remember.
Yeah.
Uh has been there before.
But we've always, the yearswe've gone, have walked out of
there with a bunch of stuff wedidn't need, but uh sure had fun
buying it.
Every year I walk out withstuff I don't need.

Kentucky Dave (04:54):
Every year.
That's hey, that's part of thishobby.
That's part of the enjoyment ofthis hobby.
Absolutely.

Mike (05:01):
Is there any special awards you guys do that are uh
aside from the normal best of?

Mike Rajki (05:06):
Yep.
We've got three specialcategories this year.
Best Indianapolis 500 themedentry.
Uh typically we do that oneevery year, kind of makes sense
for us.
This year, best World War IIGerman armor entry, and then
best traditional hot rod.
Oh, okay.

Mike (05:22):
Yeah, no surprise Indy's a big car modeler too.

Mike Rajki (05:25):
Yeah.

Mike (05:25):
It is.
I bet I bet Daytona is too,right?
Yeah.

Mike Rajki (05:30):
We do have a little added bonus this year.
We do close the model roomduring judging.
So this year we are gonna haveBrent Avance, who's done some
books for Sabo publications.
Yeah, he's gonna do a figurepainting seminar for us while
we're in the judging room.
So we've got that extra space.
We're gonna tear down thecurtains after the judges'
meeting and have him do apresentation on figure painting.

Mike (05:53):
Nice.
That is nice.
Yeah, he's he's with Sabo andhe was with the VLS for a long
time too.
I've got one of his books thathe did during when he was with
the with Bob Letterman's outfit.
But that's it's a pretty gooddraw.
I think he doesn't he live overin the in the St.
Louis area still, or is hestill?

Mike Rajki (06:09):
Yeah, he lives in St.
Louis pretty close.
He he regularly attends theshow, so we came up with this
this year, and we're hoping it,you know, gives some people
something to do during thatbreak while we're in there.

Mike (06:20):
Well, and for you guys, it's easy to manage because you
have those co-joined buildingsthat you can kind of shut some
doors and pretty much makeeverybody stay on the other
side.

Mike Rajki (06:28):
Yeah, exactly.
And you know, the vendors arestill busy at that time.
Yeah.
Uh you can jump out, grablunch.
We do have food there, so thatis provided by the Indiana pork
producers.
So you got some pulled pork,some burgers, whatever you want
to grab there.

Mike (06:42):
Yeah, that's right.
You guys are at the fairgroundsthere.
It's an interestingarrangement.
Now I was, you know, we weregonna ask you that, but you beat
us to it.
So the Kentucky pork producersare a big show at the Kentucky
Fairgrounds, too.
So uh that's kind ofinteresting.

Kentucky Dave (06:56):
Uh yeah, works out pretty good.
Having been to your showbefore, I've actually eaten the
food, and it is it's a cut abovewhat you would expect at at the
at a concession stand at alocal show.
It's actually it's actuallypretty darn good food.

Mike Rajki (07:13):
They do breakfast sandwiches in the morning,
coffee drinks, the whole nineyards, and then they roll into
their barbecue in the afternoon.
Well, that's sure to be a bighit.
Um, general admissions.
So if you just want to get inthe shop, $5.
If you've got entries and youwant to get in the contest, an
adult entry is 10, and that'sunlimited.
We don't limit entries at all.

(07:34):
Juniors and youths, 17 andunder are free for both of
those.
Oh, I'm sorry, generaladmission, kids 12 and under are
free.
If they're over 12, they got topay that five.
But juniors for the contest arefree up to 17.

Kentucky Dave (07:47):
Is your registration online?

Mike Rajki (07:50):
Yep.
We will do online registrationand at the door.
Uh, if you go to our website,which is
www.ipmsroscoturner.org, you cango there and pre-buy your
administration or yourregistration as well as pre-fill
out your entry forms.
We've got fillable PDFs, so youcan print those out.

(08:11):
And we prefer that because itmakes the judges' lives easier
when you have to read.

Kentucky Dave (08:16):
But you still can register day of show.
Yep, you can still register dayof the show.
Classic in-person, fill out theforms there, etc.
Exactly.

Mike (08:27):
Okay.
Now we normally ask, is thereanything unique about the show
that sets it up off or apartfrom the other IPMS shows either
in the nation or in our regionhere in Region 4?
I'm going to mention one thingthat I know of.
Maybe you can elaborate on thatjust a little bit because I
don't think it's a long topic,but Roscoe Tunner has a unique
way to get the models movedaround the model room.

Mike Rajki (08:47):
We do.
So fortunately, we have a clubmember who gets, we'll just call
them, you know, plastic bases,really.
We've got a couple of milkcrates full of all of them.
So if you've got a model eitheron or not on a base, we ask
that you use those.
That way we can just grab thebase to move the model, never
having to touch your model.

(09:08):
Variant size, you know, we'vegot some like as small as four
by four, up to, you know, we'vegot some 10x10s.
Just a simple gray little pieceof thicker plastic.

Kentucky Dave (09:19):
That's a great idea.
I wish more clubs would go todoing something like that,
because I know Mike also, butboth both Mike and I have been
in the past head judge at ourlocal show in Louisville, and
there is nothing that thatjudges hate more than having to

(09:41):
touch someone's model,particularly having to pick it
up and move it.
So the ability to move the thethat base and not touch the
model is just is just so nice.

Mike Rajki (09:57):
Yeah, it really does.
It makes our lives a loteasier.
You don't even just to spin itto look at it, you don't have to
touch any.
Yeah, it's great.
And I do believe we are gonnabe sharing those uh with
nationals as well.
Oh, good.
Okay.

Mike (10:13):
Good.
Yeah.
Well, uh, that's a little bitof an aside, but is does does
Roscoe Turner have anyco-involvement with the
nationals this year?
Because I know our club does.

Mike Rajki (10:22):
Uh, we've got some club members that are as a as a
club itself, we are not.
We are gonna sponsor a specialaward, hopefully.
So we discussed that last nightat our club meeting.
We're gonna do obviously a bestof 80500, hopefully.

Mike (10:35):
Is there anything else at Roscoe Turner folks might want
to know about that's uh a littledifferent than anything else?

Mike Rajki (10:41):
I know you guys like to tout the Louisville show as
the biggest raffle in regionfour.
I'd like to think we're we'renipping at your heels and
catching up.
We've got an excellent raffle,four different categories, and
then the big drawing at the endthat typically has airbrushes
and wing nut wings kits and someof the newer, harder to find
stuff.

Mike (10:59):
Can't go wrong there.
And if you if you pass us, youpass us, we'll just have more
work to do.

Kentucky Dave (11:03):
Yeah, that's true.
Nothing like a little friendlycompetition to make both of both
clubs better.

Mike (11:09):
Absolutely.
And our show's book in theseason, so it's not like yeah,
we're fighting each other.

Mike Rajki (11:15):
So yeah, yeah, we're not competing.

Mike (11:18):
Well, all right, Dave, you got anything else?

Kentucky Dave (11:21):
Um, no, just one more time.
Give give us who, what, when,where, etc.
The show.

Mike Rajki (11:28):
Yep.
So it's April 4th, 2026, whichis the Saturday before Easter.
Unfortunately, that was theonly date we could get.
We do have it booked for thenext four years, and it will not
conflict with Easter the nextfour years.

Kentucky Dave (11:40):
Good.

Mike Rajki (11:40):
Uh, it's at the Centennial Hall at the Boone
County 4-H Fairgrounds, 1300East, 1,000 South, Lebanon,
Indiana, 46052.
And the doors open when?
Doors open at 9 a.m.
We say 9 to 4.
We're gonna try our best to getyou out of there by 3, 3:30.
It'll all depend on how manymodels are on the table and how

(12:02):
many people sign up to judgethem.

Kentucky Dave (12:04):
And when does registration close?

Mike Rajki (12:07):
Registration closes at about noon.
Uh we have our judges' meetingstarting at noon.
As soon as we're done withthat, we roll into judging.

Mike (12:15):
Well, all right, Mike.
Thank you for being such afriend to Plastic Model Mojo
since the very, very beginningof this stinking podcast.
And we always want you guys tohave a super show because we
always have had a great time atIndy.
It's just the last few yearshas conflicted with another trip
we're taking.
Hopefully, soon though, we canget back to come to that show on
the regular because it's uhit's a fun time.

(12:36):
And I really recommend folkscheck you guys out because it's
it's a well-run show and a greatatmosphere.

Kentucky Dave (12:41):
Lots of lots of friendly modelers.

Mike (12:44):
That it is.
And I'll ask you one quickquestion in closing.
Are you going to be at Ampsthis year?

Mike Rajki (12:50):
I haven't decided.
If I am, it's only going to bemaybe for the Saturday.
Uh too much going on thatThursday, Friday.
But I may, you know, it's anhour and a half drive from the
house, hope to hop up there justfor the Saturday.

Mike (13:02):
Okay.
Well, all right.
We'll we'll be there Saturdayfor part of the day anyway.
We got a little problem I do onmy side on the kind of on the
tail end of that show.
But uh, we will be there.
So if we see it, we'll say hey.

Kentucky Dave (13:14):
Yeah.

Mike Rajki (13:15):
Yep.
And if not, definitely be atAmps.
Or I'm sorry, Nats.

Mike (13:18):
All right.
Well, we'll let's go, man.
Thanks a lot.
All right.

Mike Rajki (13:22):
Thank you.

Mike (13:28):
Well, I wish I could be two places at once because uh me
both, man.
I'd I'd like to do Brett Avanceuh figure seminar.

Kentucky Dave (13:36):
Have having sat having sat in on one before, I
can tell you it is fantastic.
I mean, he's a real talent andhe's a really good teacher.
So if you're going to if you'reeven close to going to Roscoe
Turner, go to the the show andand sit in on that seminar.

(13:58):
You will not regret it.

Mike (13:59):
And we'll double down on the folks coming into
Indianapolis for the NCAAchampion or tournament games.
If you're gonna if if you'vegot an evening game you got to
go to and you got some time tokill and you're a modeler and
you're in from out of town, Daveand I highly recommend you head
out a little west of town thereto Lebanon, Indiana, and check
out the show because it's a goodshow.

(14:20):
It's one of our favorite.

Kentucky Dave (14:22):
If you're in the area, you don't want to miss it.

Mike (14:26):
Well, Dave, we got another show on the same date, April
4th, but it is miles and milesand time zones away in the
Denver, Colorado area.
It's Commie's Fest.
Uh, a really interesting show.
We know some of our podcastfriends out there with the posse
have taken in this show quite abit, and they've they've done

(14:48):
some after show reports on it.
But uh, we got them on to tellus about it for the model show
Spotlight.
So folks are going to hear thisone too.
Dave, we've got another show wehave never featured before, but
we've heard a lot about througheither the other podcasts or uh
just uh in the model sphere ingeneral.

(15:09):
Commies Fest is coming up, andwe've got a couple of
representatives from that clubon the line.
We got Brad Guy and Dan Holmesfrom Commies.
Gentlemen, how are you doingtonight?
Good.
How are you doing?

Dan Holmes (15:20):
Doing very well.

Mike (15:21):
Well, it's spring is happening in Kentucky.
I hope you guys are doing goodin Colorado.
It is.
Just looking up for the betterweather.
I'm sure we all are.
Yeah, quite warm.
But with that, show season isupon us and things are really
getting thick out there, andwe've taken on three shows for
the show Spotlight, includingincluding your show, which is uh
sometimes a stretch for us, butuh it seems appropriate given

(15:45):
the number of shows in in uhApril to uh go ahead and feature
as many as we can squeeze intothis thing.
So I don't know if Brad wantsto do it or Dan wants to do it,
but uh, let's start out with thewho, where, and what for your
show.
I'll take care of this.

Brad Guy (15:56):
Uh our show is called Commies Fest, Colorado Modeling
Militia enjoying sci-fi.
And we're holding our 15thannual show on Saturday, April
4th, at the Jefferson CountyFairgrounds in Golden, Colorado.
It is a regular IPMS show,local show, Region 10.

Mike (16:16):
All right.
Dave, you always ask, but I'mgonna I'm gonna beat you the
punch this time, man.
You know where I'm just gonnaask.
Can you give us the ins andouts on start time and the
registration protocols and thosethings?
Sure thing.

Brad Guy (16:28):
The start time, you can bring your models in
starting at 9 a.m.
until noon, and judging willstart then at noon.
The address of the place, bythe way, is the fairgrounds is
uh 15200 West Sixth Avenue inGolden, Colorado.

Dan Holmes (16:43):
Easy to get to off the main road.

Brad Guy (16:46):
So and entry fees are uh five dollars a model for the
first four models.
After we've got that, then youcan enter as many as you want
after that for free.
There is no registration fee assuch, just the if you want to
enter a model at five bucks amodel.
Unless you're an IPMS member.

Dan Holmes (17:03):
Yep.
If you're an IPMS member, youget a dollar off.

Brad Guy (17:06):
Good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Trying to bring IPMS membersinto the show, and it seems to
have worked well for us.
We've had that set up more orless since the very beginning.

Kentucky Dave (17:14):
Uh now, when does the show usually wrap up?

Brad Guy (17:18):
We usually wrap up.
Judging begins immediatelyafter the last uh models are
entered at just after noon.
Our head judge is PhilPeterson, you may know him.

Kentucky Dave (17:28):
I know Phil.

Brad Guy (17:29):
Uh he'll have a judges meeting shortly after noon.
Put together teams of threejudges, and then we start
judging.
That will take it's taken aslittle as an hour and a half,
and sometimes it's taken liketwo or three hours, depending.
But I think it's gonna take alittle bit less time now.
And then we'll have an awardceremony after that, and then

(17:49):
everybody gets to go home.
Sometimes that has everybody'sgotten to go home at about four
or four thirty, other times it'sbeen around five thirty.
I think again, I think it'sgonna be a little bit shorter
than that for reasons that we'veupdated our judging software,
and it's a lot smoother thisyear.

Mike (18:08):
Well, given we've got a one, two, three judging system,
typical IPMS affair, what's itlike for you guys running that?

Dan Holmes (18:15):
Well, in the years past, we've had a fairly fragile
electronic judging system showup, have us input your various
vitals, you know, your name, allof your models, what category
they belong to, into our system,and then try to pull the data
out of that and use that for ourjudging.
And it's kind of worked, butit's it's been kind of rickety.

(18:36):
And this year, I've spent anawful lot of time and energy on
rebuilding that completely.
And so now it's it's all doneon your phone.
So we need judges.
This is my pitch right now.
Everybody hearing this, we needjudges.
More judges we get, the fasterthis thing's gonna go.
So our judging system is teamsof three people under Phil, as

(18:58):
we talked about earlier.
Phil's gonna go over ourrubric, what our criteria are,
etc.
And then all you got to do islog into our software, pick a
category you want to judge, andthen it'll present all of those
models in that category.
And then you just select one,two, three, hit save.

(19:18):
That's that's your category.
After all the categories aredone, it pulls all of the first
place winners into a divisionselection.
So now we've got our ourdivision groups.
Just need to go in there andsay who's the the winner out of
all of these categories for thedivision, champ.
Away we go.

(19:38):
And then our special awards.
So we envision this beat avery, very easy and very quick
and simple and lightweight.
There's no app to install, it'sall browser-based.
You can do it and readable onyour phone or your tablet.
We'll have extra devices if youdon't want to even use your own
device.
So please come with us.
We've we've spent a lot of timeand a lot of energy on this.

Kentucky Dave (20:01):
So show up with a charged phone, and I take it
works for both Apple, iOS, andAndroid-based systems.
Everything.
Okay.

Dan Holmes (20:10):
Everything.
I even have a little handheldPC that I play games on to work
on that.

Kentucky Dave (20:15):
Gotcha.

Mike (20:16):
All right.
Well, folks, for for thoselistening, help them out if
you're gonna attend that show.

Brad Guy (20:21):
And then we have division awards and special
awards, best of show, the themeaward, which this year is called
Sparkles.
Anything that sparkles isavailable for the we try to we
try to keep the theme awardsentertaining.

Dan Holmes (20:38):
All you need to do is justify it being called a
sparkle award.
It could be something thatsparkles, it could be painted
with sparkles.
You could have Captain Sparklesdriving the thing.
We really don't care.

Mike (20:49):
Gotcha.
So the the 24th scale of assboats.
Yep.
That would be just fine.
Yep.
Absolutely.

Brad Guy (20:56):
Ordinarily we would have an award ceremony in which
we hand out each award, but thisyear we're those protracted
awards ceremonies.

Dan Holmes (21:04):
Before you get into that, Brad, I wanted to talk a
little bit about the specialawards.
You know, we were talking aboutthe the the Sparkle theme
award, but we've also got acouple others that uh are kind
of our own flavor here.
We we have a what's called aMr.
Peabody Award, and we like togive that out for the best use
of technology in a model,whether that be lighting,
whether that be motorization,what you know, something, but it

(21:27):
has to do with technology ofsome sort.

Mike (21:29):
Gotcha.
Like the Waybag Machine.

Dan Holmes (21:32):
Exactly.
Exactly.
It's made named named after Mr.
Peabody and Sherman, exactly.
And then we also have thePeople's Choice Award, which you
know everybody there votes on.
And then we have one that thatuh we call the Bees Wall, which
is the best example of somethingwe like.
And we hand that out to themodel.
You know, you you go to a modelshow and you look around, and

(21:56):
there's always at least onemodel that you Look at it and
you're like, I got no idea whatit is that's speaking to me
about that model, but it issomething that is telling me
that is cool.

Kentucky Dave (22:08):
Yeah.

Dan Holmes (22:09):
And we get together as a group and we vote on it,
and that's the best example ofsomething we like.

Brad Guy (22:15):
I like it.
It's whim whim whimsical.
Well, speaking of which, wealso have a whimsy award called
the Squee Award.
And that's the one that SueAnn, she picks that and gives an
award for the something thatjust seems whimsical to her.

Kentucky Dave (22:30):
So you got plenty of specialty awards in addition
to the class.
That's right.

Mike (22:36):
Yep.
Well, you got that covered,sounds like.
Well, you know, we're notreally that familiar with your
show.
We we've not attended it.
But what's the the vendorlandscaping looking at at
commies?

Brad Guy (22:46):
Well, we've got 47 vendor tables that we've sold.
Typically, they're like mostsmaller shows, there are people
who are selling old stash.
Although we do have a couple ofbusinesses that come in.
We've had Culpar Hobbies comein once or twice.
No.
Um there's a name I know.
Yeah, the big local show.

Kentucky Dave (23:03):
One of my favorite hobby shops I've ever
visited in my life.
It's wonderful.
It's a really good place.

Brad Guy (23:08):
That's where we meet once a month.

Dan Holmes (23:09):
So this year we've got a game store that wanted to
show up.
They've got minis and paintsand brushes and stuff like that,
along with some board games.
But our vendor tables aregenerally quite inexpensive.
So we're trying to branch out alittle bit.

Kentucky Dave (23:24):
What does the contest look like typical
numbers-wise, as far as numberof entrants?

Brad Guy (23:29):
Typically, we'll have anywhere between three and four
hundred entries and maybe about50 to 75 entrants, people
entering models.
Last few years we've beenaveraging about 75.

Mike (23:40):
Okay.

Kentucky Dave (23:41):
Do you all charge for just general admission?

Dan Holmes (23:44):
We do not.
No.
And we also have a food truckvendor out in the parking lot.
So we've I was gonna ask.
Yep, we've got grilled cheeses,gourmet grilled cheeses, and
cookies.
Cookie dough.
The truck is what would cheesus do?
And the truck is the rebelcookie dough trip.

Mike (24:04):
Nice.
Always nice to keep everybodyfed at the show, that's for
sure.

Dan Holmes (24:07):
And uh yeah, well, and the the fairgrounds are a
little bit away from some of theeasy food options.
So we wanted to bring somethingin to keep people.

Mike (24:15):
That's a good idea.
And the food truck guys willlove that.

Dan Holmes (24:19):
Right.
Yeah.
And we have a nice seating areafor everybody to hang out in
and things like that.
I mean, the idea is to keepthem there.
We've got demo tables and stufflike that.
We don't we really don't wantanyone just dropping their
models off and then leaving.

Mike (24:31):
Well, you said demo was gonna segue us pretty well, but
before that, I think one thingthat a lot of shows overlook,
especially given the demographicof the modeling community, is
that there's not enough restfulseating around for folks.

Brad Guy (24:45):
I was gonna bring that up too.
Yeah, we models are coming allshapes and sizes and colors and
such, but we're almost all oldmen.
And we need a place to sitdown.
So over the years we'veexpanded that.
So about 25% of the venue wereserved just with tables for
seating.
We put different coloredtablecloths over them so people

(25:06):
will know that that's where yougo sit down.
And it helps, you know, to havea place to fill out your
paperwork if you haven't filledit out already.
And just take a load off, yeah.
Or just sit down and talk witheach other, take a load off, or
get something to eat and sitdown and do that.

Dan Holmes (25:20):
What thrills me to no end is when I see somebody
bust out a toolbox or somepaints or something and sit
there and work on a model at theshow.

Kentucky Dave (25:28):
You said seminars or demonstrations.
What do you have going on atthe show and what in the way of
seminars and demonstrations?

Brad Guy (25:38):
Well, we have two tracks of seminars this year.
We had two tracks last year aswell, and each track is about an
hour long, or each seminar isabout an hour long, so we have
eight of those going on.
Wow.
Uh two of them are a judgesmeeting, but the others are
going to be a lot of paintingdemonstrations.
Uh, we got a guy who teacheshow to paint men's, got another

(26:02):
guy who is really good withairbrushes, and he teaches that
this year.
One of the guys that's supposedto be coming in is a former U 2
pilot.
He's going to be doing a littleslideshow on what it was like
to fly the U2.
Cool.

Dan Holmes (26:15):
We've got a dry rushing demo, we've got a photo
etch demo, etc.
So we we actually have quite afew really, really good demos.
We're we're trying to move awayfrom everything being an intro
to and more advanced stuff.
You know, we we've had foryears the intro stuff.
Let's let's let's step it up anotch, you know.

Kentucky Dave (26:36):
Well, and I do think that that's you know,
there's that hole where thejudging is going on.
And if you can keep with a foodtruck and demos, you can keep
people there and give themsomething to do.
I think that really does helpthe social aspect of the show.

Brad Guy (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, agreed.
We don't close off the uh theshow during judging, so you can
still wander around to look, butit does kind of give you, you
know, something to do betweenbetween when we start judging
and and after everybody's had alook at everything, they can go,
you know, look look at a demoor look at a uh you know, get

(27:15):
themselves a cheese sandwich orsomething like that, and then
just stay put.
Uh just people seem to likethat quite a bit.

Mike (27:21):
Well, I think the the your your approach to pushing the
skill levels on the demos is areally interesting thing because
and pro probably you yourealize this on your own, but
for for the for the basics, iffolks are coming to a model
show, they probably are alreadydown that road already, wouldn't
you think?

Brad Guy (27:39):
Yes.
Yeah, they pretty much are.
They all know more about modelbuilding than I do.

Mike (27:43):
So um you've got the the demonstration.
In our region, it's reallyuncommon right now in this day
and age to to have a have ademonstration at an invitational
level, local level show.
So it's nice to hear that youguys are still kind of fostering
that and and you have so manyto to to offer, actually.

Brad Guy (28:04):
We've done that since I think our second show in 2011
was our second one.
I think our first one was 2010,and we've had demos the whole
time, and it just seemed to bepopular.
People seem to like them.
Sometimes there'll be like twoor three people sitting there
watching it, but sometimes it'ssitting it's standing room only.

Dan Holmes (28:23):
Yeah.
We've had some pretty prettyinteresting demos over the
years.
We've uh one of the guys thatis uh a staff painter for a
Reaper lives not too far from usand eventually comes down and
will do do paintingdemonstrations.
And we've had Colin Cantwellbefore he passed away in our
show several times.
You know, so it's been it'sbeen a lot of fun.

Kentucky Dave (28:45):
Well, this is a question Mike and I always ask.
Usually Mike asks it, but I'mgonna uh get ahead of him and
ask it this time.
Do you have something otherthan what we've discussed
already?
Is there something particularabout Commise Fest that you
that's kind of unique to it orthat you don't see at many other

(29:07):
shows?
You know, a lot of these localshows have some sort of local
flavor or twist, be it silentauction, be it demos or
whatever.
Is there anything you haven'talready mentioned that you want
to highlight about your show?

Brad Guy (29:24):
Yeah.
We're largely the club itselfis a science fiction modeling
club, mostly, not exclusively.
And so even though our show isa general IPMS Region 10 show,
it tends to be fairly sciencefiction heavy.
And so we wind up splitting upthe uh science fiction awards.
We seem to have a lot of splitsin that.

(29:45):
People, I don't know if it'sbecause the subject of science
fiction has just grown morepopular or because we're pushing
it or or what the deal is, butwe do tend to have a lot more
science fiction models in ourshow than average.
Nonetheless, the majority ofthe models you see are still
going to be the same thingsyou'll see at any other show.
There's a lot of aircraft and alot of armor, a lot of cars,

(30:05):
but we tend to be known for youknow a lot of science fiction
stuff too.

Dan Holmes (30:09):
We're trying to expand a lot of our offerings
into the uh the Gundam and theMinis groups as well.
We're trying something new thisyear with our Gundam builders.
We've got a we've got a sizableGundam group in the Denver
area.
And so we're instead of judgingthem necessarily by IPMS rules,
we're we're working out wherethere's basic Gundams and then

(30:30):
more advanced Gundams.
So you're not having like ahigh grade being judged against
a perfect grade, for example.

Kentucky Dave (30:36):
Yeah, and that's an area of growth.

Mike (30:38):
Have you gotten to that realization through input from
from that community?

Dan Holmes (30:45):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Again, with such a large group,we've got a lot of spillover
between between the differentgroups.
We we work at another animeconvention in Denver area called
NDK NonbezuCon.
And that has a lot of Gundampeople at it for obvious
reasons.
And in talking to them, that'swhen we started realizing that

(31:07):
we weren't servicing thatcommunity appropriately and
trying to expand our offeringsin that and not realizing that
like the Gundam Builders WorldCup and such is judged by an
entirely different set of rulesthan what IPMS judging is.
And I'm not saying IPMS isperfect or anything like that.
It's just that's what we'vestuck with because that's what

(31:29):
we've known.

Kentucky Dave (31:30):
Right.
Well, I commend you for doingthat because you are correct
that Gundam World is differentand just like we had the same
thing with auto modelers 25, 30years ago, and trying IPMS
trying to adjust to the factthat auto models are jud yeah,

(31:53):
yeah, auto model contests arejudged differently than IPMS was
doing classically, notnecessarily judging, but how to
break up the categories becauseauto modelers had their own
categories.
And Gundam, I think, is thesame way.
You know, you mentioned highgrade and perfect grade, et

(32:15):
cetera.

Dan Holmes (32:16):
Exactly.
And and since we started out asa science fiction club, we're
kind of used to some of theniche within a niche aspects of
our modeling.
And so we we're really tryingto be sensitive and and
understand what their needs areand try to and and literally try
to service those needs.
I mean, we we love putting onthis show, and we want as many

(32:37):
people as we we can to actuallycome to this and and give
everyone a venue to display whatthey're what they're into.
We generally have a very largeminis contingent, and our Gundam
categories are generally thefirst to get split from so many
entries.

Kentucky Dave (32:53):
Well, that's great news.

Mike (32:54):
Well, I think it's commendable that you've taken
that approach because it wouldbe really easy.
And I think I don't know, but Iwas I suspect that a lot of
clubs who are trying to embracethat community are really
through no fault of their ownbecause of the way they've done
things in the past, are tryingto shoehorn this new stuff into

(33:15):
their current methodology ofdoing things.
But these organ these thesecommunities have their own set
of standards and their own setof expectations.

Brad Guy (33:25):
Right.
We've kind of flailed aroundtrying to learn that in the past
ourselves, and we're stillflailing around trying to learn,
you know, how how to improveour show every year and you know
how to invite more groups in.
We're trying to invite a lot ofa lot of wargaming mini groups
in because it's not justadjacent to modeling, all the
techniques apply to, you know,from them to regular plastic

(33:49):
modeling.
So we're trying to be as asopen and inclusive with everyone
as we can.

Mike (33:54):
I would go on to say that you are not the first show we've
featured in Model ShowSpotlight who has actually
accommodated that communitythrough their input instead of
trying to just open upcategories and make them fit
your show categories like theywere any other.
So I th I really think thatthat's a really good approach,
and I know that community isgoing to be appreciative of

(34:15):
that.
If that's the first categoryyou've probably split every
show, that that's working outpretty well for you.
So that's that's really good tohear.

Brad Guy (34:23):
Well, I'd like to say it's because we know what we're
doing, but we really don't.
We've done it the wrong waybefore in the past, too.
So we're just trying to get alittle bit better.

Dan Holmes (34:30):
Well, that's the thing we try every year is we
try to do things just a littlebit better than we did the
previous year.
You know, we we really try toimprove every every year.
Sometimes we do and sometimeswe don't, but we really do
genuinely try.

Mike (34:43):
Well, if that's a goal, that it is a goal.
That's a silly statement.
If if if you're gonna make thatyour goal, it's it's really is
very commendable, but again,because it's it's so easy to
have a a recipe for a show andput it on every year and do it
this exact same way and comewhat may, oh, this year we had

(35:04):
300, this year we had 500, nextyear we got 250, next year we
got 600 entries, whatever.
But you're really not trying toto do anything but run your
recipe.
And I think if you're if you'regonna continue to be
successful, you're doing it theright way.
So that's that's reallyencouraging that to know clubs
like you are out there who wantthe incremental improvement

(35:24):
because that's that's how youget there.
It's how you that's how youstay relevant, I think.

Dan Holmes (35:29):
Well, and it is, I mean, it's a lot of work, but
it's also an awful lot of fun,too.
I mean, we've been together asa group, and it's been me, Brad,
Rob, Suwann, you know, and acouple others since since the
group started.
And we're all friends, andwe're not friends outside of
modeling as well.
And with a name like thecommies, we obviously don't take

(35:49):
ourselves very seriously.
And so we we try to inject alot of that in there and just
try to try to bring the joyback, you know, bring bring that
fun back.
We all had.

Brad Guy (36:01):
We also have a make and take program at the show.
We're building dinosaur kitsfor kids.
Anybody under 18 can join in.
It's completely free.

Kentucky Dave (36:11):
All right.
And just your classic make andtake.
Yeah.
Show up, put a model together,the glue and uh nippers and
stuff are all available.

Brad Guy (36:21):
We've got all that stuff.
Most of these are simpleenough, they don't even require
glue.
And then if you are soinclined, enter your model on
the show.

Dan Holmes (36:29):
They're a relatively simple dinosaur kit, but you
actually have to build theskeleton first before you can
put the skin over it, as itwere.

Mike (36:37):
I'm sure the kids will love that.
I hope so.

Kentucky Dave (36:39):
Yes, kids love dinosaurs.

Mike (36:41):
Well, guys, it's it's been great having you on on for the
model show spotlight.
So once again, let's run downthe uh the vitals so folks can
can be encouraged to come toyour show.

Brad Guy (36:51):
All right.
Comm's Fest 2026 is going to beon April 4th, which is a
Saturday, 9 a.m.
to about 5 p.m.
at the Jefferson CountyFairgrounds, 15200 West Sixth
Avenue in Golden, Colorado.
The home of Coorsbeer.
Oh, yeah, let's let's not dothat.
Which is well owned by aCanadian company.

(37:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Mike (37:17):
All right, gentlemen.
Thank you for uh reaching outto Plastic Model Mojo, and we're
glad to feature Commies Fest,and uh we wish you all the
success.
And please give us an update onthe Plastic Model Dojo on
Facebook.
Uh I will certainly do that.

Dan Holmes (37:30):
Thanks, Mike.
Thanks, Dave.
Absolutely.
Yep, thanks a lot.
This was fun.

Mike (37:34):
You're absolutely welcome.
Uh we really like doing these.
I appreciate your time,gentlemen.
And again, I wish you all thesuccess for your show.

Brad Guy (37:41):
Well, thanks to you too.
I really have always enjoyedyour podcast.
I listen to every episode, andI hope you're able to do it for
another 100 years.

Mike (37:51):
So do I.
You and me both.
All right, guys.
Take it easy.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Well, that one sounds likeanother fun and interesting
show.

Kentucky Dave (38:04):
Well, Jim's been to it before, and he really
likes it.

Mike (38:08):
Yeah, it just seems like those guys have got a got the
the casual vibe down.
Yeah.
And they said it themselves,you know, they're not taking
themselves too seriously, whichI think shows up in their uh
their special awards.

Kentucky Dave (38:21):
You you you gotta love the laid-back vibe.
I think that really thatpre-stages a really good
environment for a show.

Mike (38:33):
Well, Dave, today I got an email email from Daniel Holmes,
who we talked to there with thecommies interview, wanted us to
mention that their maincommunication method with the
club is through their Facebookgroups and look for Commies Fest
there.
And Sue Ann, who was supposedto have been the third guest,
who had a little troubleconnecting last night, which we
hope to get addressed for allour future Apple users, does

(38:57):
most of the communication there.
So had she been able toconnect, she would have probably
mentioned that.
So Dan wanted to make sure wegot that in before we uh wrapped
up the uh Commies Fest segmentof the model show Spotlight.

Kentucky Dave (39:09):
All right.

Mike (39:13):
Well, finally, folks, we're gonna go out to the West
Coast, the Pacific Northwest, toNorthern California wine
country.
We've got the Wine CountryModel Expo.
And we covered this show in2024.
It was under a different namebecause they've renamed their
club.
But uh listen up to this one,folks.
They've got some really coolthings going on.

Kentucky Dave (39:33):
Yes, they do.

Mike (39:38):
Well, Dave, it's not often we get to do a repeat, but
we're gonna do one tonightcoming to us from the wine
country, Northern California,James Mirando uh from the Wine
Country Uh Scale Modelers.
Is that right, James?
Yes, it is.
All right.
Well, we talked to you guysback in 2024, and you were kind
of at the front end of a more ofan exhibition style show,

(40:01):
something a little differentthan the normal show, but we'll
get into that a little bitlater.
But let's get the basics ofwhen your show is, where it is,
and the name of it and all that.
Okay.

James Morando (40:12):
It's called this time the Wine Country Model
Expo.
It's on uh Saturday, April 11thfrom 9 to 4 in Petaluma,
California, which is right inthe middle of the Sonoma County
Wine Country.

Kentucky Dave (40:27):
What is the actual physical location and
when does the show open andclose?

James Morando (40:35):
So, venue-wise, we uh we we're lucky we have
both timing and and andlocation.
We're in the early April, andand the wine country is
beautiful then.
And we're in Petaluma at thePetaluma Community Center, which
is it feels more like acommunity gathering space than a

(40:57):
convention center, it and whichkind of fits into what we're
trying to do culturally.
We got a very spacious andwell-lit main assembly hall.
We've got a stage area wherewe're putting a silent auction
and plenty of space along thewall for our raffle displays,
and we have a separate seminarroom for some presentations

(41:17):
we're gonna do.
Nice.
So we're very happy about thevenue.
We open the doors at nine.
The show will close aroundfour, slightly later than four,
but things won't be over then.
We have another part of whatwe're trying to do that we'll
move into then.
We're having a post-eventsocial gathering where we're

(41:39):
inviting all the attendees to gowith some food and appetizers
hosted by our local club.
Great.
Well, that's a new take.

Kentucky Dave (41:47):
Yeah, Mike and I are both big, big fans of the
social aspect of shows andcontests.
So I think a post-show happyhour or post-show appetizer get
together is a is a fantasticidea.

James Morando (42:07):
Well, you know, our expo really grew out of the
wanting to create an event thatemphasizes more the connection
between modelers.
You know, we've been inspiredby some of the experimentation
going on with exhibition styledisplays, open judging, and
we're trying to build it aroundthose ideas.
So, in particular, when wetalked last time, we had we're

(42:31):
doing our first open judging,and now we're experimenting with
the exhibition style format,where each modeler's works are
all put together on the table inone spot, regardless of genre.
And if you see something on thetable that catches your eye,
you're going to be able toeasily find and talk to the

(42:51):
modeler, which is consistentwith our focus on conversation,
learning, and trying to buildcommunity.

Kentucky Dave (42:58):
If you go to too many figure shows, you'll see
that thing, that style wherethey group individual modelers
or painters' work all togetherin one location, regardless of
whether it's a bunch of busts orsingle figures or vignettes or
dioramas.

(43:19):
They're all together so you cansee the one modeler's entire
body of work.

James Morando (43:26):
Yeah, this is very intentional on our part,
drawing from that type of model.
The in the display area foreach modeler, there'll be a name
plaque in front identifyingthem, and then the people who
are attending will all wear namebadges, making it really easy
to find and connect with oneanother.
You know, it sounds the idea ofname identification sort of

(43:49):
sounds simple, but I I think wereally believe it changes how
people interact at a show.

Kentucky Dave (43:54):
I could not agree more.
I really think that being ableto Find the modeler whose work
intrigues you, where you want togo to them and say, I saw this,
I want to ask how you did that,or I want to ask what you use
to create that.

(44:15):
And once you get modelerstalking with each other about
modeling, everything just getsbetter.

James Morando (44:23):
I couldn't agree more.
I mean, I it you know, itreally comes from what I when I
look at my own experience ofgoing to a show, what I actually
enjoy most is talking to othermodelers, asking them how they
did something, sharingtechniques.
That's very engaging to me.
And while that can happenincidentally at a traditional
show, we're trying to design itso that that is more central to

(44:47):
the experience.

Kentucky Dave (44:48):
That I think is a fantastic idea.
Um I'm happy to see your showand others go to that type of
focus.
Now, does your show you talkedabout the silent auction?
I assume your show has vendorsas well.

James Morando (45:06):
Yes, we have a uh a separate vendor room that
connects to the main assemblyhall with some double doors that
make it easy to go in and out.
And we also have are gonna havesome terrific, very
well-stocked raffles, includinghaving four grand prizes that uh
people I think will get excitedabout.

(45:27):
So there'll be plenty ofopportunities for people to pick
up new things if that's whatthey want.

Kentucky Dave (45:32):
Well, that that never hurts, right?
Uh you talked about the thepost-show mix mixer or or happy
hour or or whatever.
During the day, is there foodat the event space, or do you
all have food trucks?

(45:53):
Is there uh restaurants nearby?

James Morando (45:57):
Yeah, food at this location is really easy.
There's a very large shoppingcenter right across the street,
which has multiple coffee shops,specialty shops, little
restaurants, quick lunchoptions, ATMs, and there's
another one two blocks down,easy walk.
We've actually prepared a listof the all the spots that are

(46:18):
nearby, and we're including itin people's registration
packets, so you don't have toguess at that.
And uh the place has got realnice parking was another reason
that drove us to this location.
So load-in is easy and not anasshole.

Kentucky Dave (46:33):
Now, speaking of registration, do you all have
online pre-registration or is itall day of show?
How do you all do that?

James Morando (46:42):
Online registration, pre-registration
is open now.
You can go to our website,onecountrymodel expo.com, and
you'll find uh the registrationpage which has the link to
pre-registration.
And we're having, you know,it's already having some early
activity, which is really niceto see.
The real advantage is thatwe'll have a separate line with

(47:05):
pre-prepared pre-registrationpackets with people's names on
them.
So they basically just show up,give us your name, you hand you
hand the person their packet,and boom, they're in the model
room.
So no hassle, no line.
Very much like a national's.
Well, not on that scale, butyeah, we we wanted to make it
easy.
They'll still we'll still take,of course, walk-up

(47:25):
registrations.
And it's interesting, one ofthe benefits that we didn't
anticipate from going to theexhibition style format was the
registration process is muchsimpler.
We're just identifying reallythe modeler and the name of the
modeler rather than individualmodels, right?
They put all their models inone spot and we go and look at

(47:48):
here's Dave's stuff, and thenit's evaluated there.
So when does registration closeat the show?
At the show is noon.
The pre-registration is closethe Monday before, so we have
time to prepare all the packets.
That closes on April 6th.
But pre-regist the registrationon the day of will go till
noon.

Mike (48:08):
We've covered a lot of the things that folks normally
expect, regardless of the showformat, you know, the food
options, the raffle, the vendorsituation, and all that.
When we had you folks on in2024, you were moving to this
open judging.
I can't remember if it was thefirst time you'd done it or not.

James Morando (48:26):
It was.
It was the first time.

Mike (48:28):
It was.
Okay.
So I'm I'm real curious herebecause I've mentioned it under
model show spotlights before.
I think we can discuss how hardit's blowing, but the winds of
change are starting to blowwithin the greater model sphere
as to what model shows looklike.
It's certainly not a wholesalechange yet, but you guys started
with an open judging, whichwe've covered a lot of other

(48:50):
shows in the spotlight uh overthe months that are also doing
this.
I'd be curious how that wentand was received your first
time, and then take us backthrough again how it's changing
from what you did in 2024 tonow.
And I think I know the answer,it's the exhibition style, but
what else might be involvedthere?

James Morando (49:08):
Well, yes, we had a very solid success with the
open judging.
We were the first local clubwithin the Northern California
region to do that.
And people came, had a goodexperience.
So we were pleased with that.
It was there was no debateabout whether to do that again.
And then we wanted to take it astep further to implement this

(49:33):
exhibition style.
You know, some of that is, youknow, it's like the experience
when you walk in a room andconversations happening
everywhere where modelers areconnecting with other modelers,
and you can go find the personthat has done the work on the
table that interests you.
And in my experience, that'swhere the hobby really comes

(49:55):
alive.
People start sharing theirtechniques and ideas.
But the first time Iexperienced that was when I went
to the Rocky Mountain HobbyExpo a couple of years ago.
And, you know, I realized afterthe first couple hours I had
more meaningful conversationswith modelers in the beginning
of that show than I didtypically in the whole day of a

(50:16):
traditional show.
You could just sort of feel thedifference in the room.
And uh, you know, it wasn'tthat the models were necessarily
better, it's just the structureencouraged this interaction.
So it's it's kind of hard todescribe the feel of it until
you're in the room.
So we're we're hoping peoplewill experience that at our show
this time.

Mike (50:35):
That's that's Scott Gentry's show from the Plastic
Posse Podcast.
And I know he's he's in thethroes of planning this year's
show for this summer coming up.
You know, Dave and I havegotten a taste of that.
What is it last year beforelast, and then in our history of
of attending model shows is asimilar situation.
MMSI show in Chicago.
They they tend to do anexhibition style format for

(50:59):
their you know, their tablepresentations and just the way
the shows run.
So I'm certainly interested tosee how this gets goes for you.
I have my prediction that itwas going to be a success.
It just is.
I've been to the figure show,but you know, I'm not a figure
person, so I'm not I don't havean exhibition to put out there
at this at MMSI, right?

James Morando (51:18):
I do think it's something you need to
experience.
I think it's something thatit's just a different energy in
the room, you know, when thewhole event's built around the
interaction.
So we we hope people will comeand see what it feels like for
themselves.
And then for you guys, youknow, if you're gonna travel for
a show, Northern Californiawine country is a pretty great

(51:38):
place to come for.

Kentucky Dave (51:40):
That might be one I could convince my wife to
actually go to.
Yeah, mine too.

Mike (51:45):
They could sure have something to do while we were at
the show.

Kentucky Dave (51:47):
Exactly.

Mike (51:48):
We have to go pick them up, though.

Kentucky Dave (51:50):
That's all right.
Um you, James, you mentionedthat you you all were having
seminars, and that's anotherthing that I am a huge fan of.
It's one of the things at theNationals that I don't think
gets enough attention.
So, what generally just give mea description of some of the

(52:10):
seminars that are gonna be goingon while your show's going on.

James Morando (52:14):
Absolutely.
Yeah, we wanted to add a moresort of formal educational
learning experience to it andsome more value add to it.
So we're gonna be presentingfour really top-notch people
who, including Martin Drayton,who's gonna talk on dioramas,
uh, Grant Mayberry of theClassic FC, who's going to be

(52:37):
speaking on figure painting, andthen Brett Prusso, who's goes
by Hammerhead Model Making.
He's gonna talk about scratchbuilding techniques.
And then we're also doing ahistorical presentation by uh an
accomplished author andhistorian uh named Carl
Molesworth, who's actually amember of our club on P40s.
He's written about 16 or 17books, most of which on P40s.

(53:00):
So we hope that's gonna addanother component that people
are gonna enjoy.

Kentucky Dave (53:05):
Well, I'd I really love to see that.
I'm I'm thrilled that you'redoing that, and I can't wait to
hear how how well it's received.

James Morando (53:16):
Well, you know, I'm curious uh about you guys.
You go to a lot of shows.
I mean, what do you think makesa model show really memorable?

Mike (53:23):
Well, oh well, Mike, do you want to I'll let you go for
it?
I'll speak for you, Dave.
It is the social interactionswe have with other modelers, be
it through conversations aboutthe podcast, which is usually
what we get into just by natureof what we do right now.
But it's not uncommon that wetalk, you know, another modeler
about something we have incommon or a particular project

(53:44):
they're working on.
You know what?
A lot of the shows we do, Ithink you're you're right, it's
it's a lot harder to do thatbecause it's hard to find the
people.

Kentucky Dave (53:52):
Right.

Mike (53:53):
Um for for a technical discussion about a particular
subject.
And and then uh to pile ontothat, we have our core group of
friends that we kind of we havea travel entourage.
There's just that's the bestway to describe it, wouldn't you
say, Dave?
Okay.
And I don't mean they're likesubservient to us, I mean that

(54:13):
that they are they are our ourour core group of of friends who
we meet on this.
And you know, now we're sharingaccommodations and and doing
all our meals together, so thatjust really doubles down on the
uh social aspect, but maybe justfor a a smaller core group of
people who we who we know alittle bit better.
But fundamentally, you know, weall like the models, we we all

(54:34):
like the vendors, we all likethe raffles, we all like the
seminars, but I thinkfundamentally, if you can't
share that experience with otherpeople and have a mutual
enjoyment, it just doesn't meanas much.
So I think you guys are on tothe to to the to the right
formula here.

Kentucky Dave (54:51):
Well, and let me build on that because Mike was
talking about, and you weretalking about the way you're
building your exhibition thatyou know you can easily locate
the modeler whose stuff you'reinterested in and want to talk
to them about.
Mike and I have at theNationals found models that

(55:13):
we're really interested in andended up finding the modelers.
And Ed Bareth, Jake McKee, awhole bunch of guys that we've
talked to on the podcast, whereour relationship started because
we were at a show and we foundtheir models interesting and we

(55:33):
went and found them.
But it was really hard to dosometimes, and sometimes it just
happened by accident because itwasn't built the way you all
are doing it, where you'remaking it much more easy to
identify the modeler with themodel so you can seek that

(55:55):
person out, especially at apost-show gathering.

James Morando (56:00):
Yeah, that's and that's really interesting to
hear that from you both.
Yeah, I think part of this isdriving is because the hobby is
changing and and social media'schanged things.
Uh you know, every day you canlook on the dojo and see, you
know, incredible models bypeople.
So model shows aren't anylonger the sole point of
exposure where you can seehigh-level work.

(56:22):
And now I think when people aregoing to a show, they're
becoming more interested in theinteraction and having
conversations and learning fromothers there.

Mike (56:32):
That's a really interesting point.

Kentucky Dave (56:33):
Yes, that is.
That is a very good, and notjust because I agree with it.

Mike (56:41):
James, what else are you trying to accomplish here?
What not that it's not enough.
I'm just curious.
You you've you've gone from anopen system to a full-blown
exhibition style.
Is there anything else?
Let me rephrase that.
Is there anything else that'schanging that might be notable
to folks attending the show?

James Morando (56:59):
Well, I don't know if it's changing, but I do
want to just mention our oursilent auction efforts.
I mean, at our last show, we,you know, part of our cult club
culture is to find waysthroughout our hobby to gift
back.
And we did something for theHelp Heal Veterans Organization
at the last show.
This time we chose a localcharity, the local foster

(57:21):
parents association, who doterrific work for kids who are
in tough circumstances.
And so we've got donations toput on the silent auction.
We hope people will supportthat.
That's an important part of ourshow as far as we're concerned.
So I wanted to mention that.

Kentucky Dave (57:38):
Well, you know what?
That's I love I love to seethat.
And a lot of times, uh if thelocal club is doing something
for charity, it's eitherveteran-related or military
related.
And it's kind of nice to see aclub reach beyond that and just
choose a charity or anorganization that is doing

(58:01):
social good in the communitythat is not necessarily related
to veterans or modeling oranything like that, but just
something that that's going toimprove the overall community.

James Morando (58:16):
Yes, totally agree with that.
That's a really good point.
You know, I don't mean to alsounderemphasize the evaluation
part of the show.
We're actually calling it ajuried evaluation, taking Chef
Payne's uh term, really.
Yeah.
Um we take the the evaluationpart of the process very
seriously, too.

(58:37):
And we're we've been achievedour goal this year, which we set
out at the outset of having apre-selected and invited uh team
of jurors, as we're callingthem, including many from
outside our local area.
So we've already got that setup and we've sent them all uh
written evaluation standards andjudging a guide so they can

(59:01):
study them ahead of time.
Now, on the day of, they'll beorganized in teams by genre as
they go through each modeler'swork.
So the armor team will look atthe armor work and so on.
And then our head judge, RandyBaumgartner, who was on the call
when we talked a year and ahalf ago, he'll be our head
judge again this year.

Kentucky Dave (59:20):
I like the the term jurors and juried rather
than judged because I I do thinkthat communicates that the that
what we're doing is at least insome ways an art form and most
art displays or or I don't wantto say contest, but most art

(59:45):
exhibitions are juried andthat's as opposed to judged.

James Morando (59:51):
Yeah.
You know, back to the point wetouched on about sort of the the
changing aspects of the hobbyand our intentionality in terms
of how we've designed this.
Your most recent guest, who Iwas just before we started, I
was commenting on howfascinating the discussion with
Jake McKea was about AI and soforth.

(01:00:14):
But Jake just published anarticle that a really thoughtful
piece on designing eventsaround philosophy rather than
just running contests.
And a lot of what he talkedabout are, you know, connection,
mentorship, and so forth,they're very aligned with what
we're trying to do.

Mike (01:00:31):
Yep.
Let's get the the W's againbefore we break off here and let
us know where when the show isand where this show is and what
this show is.

James Morando (01:00:40):
Okay.
So it's on Saturday, April 11thin Petaluma, California, at the
Petaluma Community Center fromnine to four.
And I'd just say if you'recurious about a different kind
of show experience, we'd welcomeyou there so you can come and
see for see it for yourself.
And we we think what we'retrying to build about connection

(01:01:03):
and learning and community issomething that when you're in
the room, you're really going tofeel the difference.

Mike (01:01:08):
Well, James, it's been a real pleasure to have you guys
back for a second time.
I know it's it's been well betwo years since your last show
by by the time this is allwrapped up on your end.
Thanks for joining us again.
And it's just I'm reallycurious, and I hope you guys
will let us know either throughthe dojo or emails back to Dave
and I about how this went down,how it was received, and

(01:01:29):
hopefully get some kind of hobbypress about it in some fashion
that this is kind of a a seachange for the way shows could
be conducted going forward.

Kentucky Dave (01:01:39):
And please have somebody take pictures and post
in the dojo.

James Morando (01:01:43):
Well, thank you very much for having us and for
helping us get the word outabout what we're trying to do
and this expo.
And absolutely, we'll beposting on the dojo and
reporting on how this all goes.
It's you know, it's a bit of anexperiment, in fact.
So we'll be we'll be lookingforward to seeing how it goes
and then reporting.

Mike (01:02:03):
Thanks.
All right, James.
We'll let you get back to yourshow planning.
Thank you.
I would really like to see whatthey're doing catch on a few
more places.

Kentucky Dave (01:02:15):
Yep, you and me both.
I would really like to see thatshow, having heard about it.
Yeah, I think that's just agreat concept.
I would love to see thatconcept spread.

Mike (01:02:26):
So we see it a little bit at Chicago?

Kentucky Dave (01:02:28):
Yes.
That's probably the closestanalog you and I experience.

Mike (01:02:33):
And then Scott Gentry's uh Rocky Mountain Model Expo is
kind of a similar vein.
I think they the wine countryones kind of modeled after that,
after they went to that show.
And they were doing somethingsimilar before that, but I think
they really honed in on theexhibition style uh presentation
of the entries.
So it's gonna be a cool thing.

Kentucky Dave (01:02:52):
Yeah, they cranked it up to 11.

Mike (01:02:54):
They did.
Now we need somebody down ourneck of the woods to try this.

Kentucky Dave (01:02:58):
Yep.

Mike (01:03:00):
Well, Dave, that is all we got for Model Show Spotlight.
What do you think about showseason so far?

Kentucky Dave (01:03:05):
I I can't wait, man.
I'm itching the first one youand I are going to is
HeritageCon, and man, I cannotwait to get to a show.

Mike (01:03:13):
Well, folks, that's where we're headed at the end of this
week.
This is gonna drop early theweek we're leaving.
So hopefully I have some greatstuff to tell you about
HeritageCon this year, and we'llcatch you next time, Dave.

Kentucky Dave (01:03:24):
Maybe we'll do a little recording on the road.