Plastic Model Mojo
Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby
Plastic Model Mojo
HeritageCon17: PMM Model Show Spotlight
Join us for a captivating look into the fabulous show HeritageCon , as we welcome Duncan Young, Robyn Germann, and Bernie Hack from the Hamilton Club to share insights about this year's exciting event.
Discover the magic behind HeritageCon, held at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, where the atmosphere is as electric as the passion of its participants. Bernie spills the beans on the revamped registration process, allowing model lovers to exhibit their entire collection for a single fee, a nod to the IPMS USA Nationals. With streamlined support from Mark Stevens and Jim Coatney, participants can look forward to a hassle-free experience.
Our conversation shifts to the buzzing vendor area, teeming with over 130 tables, an increase over last year, and collectible HeritageCon pin which is also new for 2025. 3 great seminars will be offered, featuring topics like 3D printing, insights from a former Canadian Armed Forces member, and a primer on Gundam/Mecha from a local club. The newly renovated auditorium is set to host a knowledge-packed experience.
As we reminisce about the show's evolution since our podcast's inception in 2020, we can't help but express our enthusiasm for this extraordinary one-day event. Whether you're a seasoned model builder or a curious newcomer, this episode is your VIP pass to the fabulous event that is HeritageCon.
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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.
well, kentucky dave, it's time for the february model show spotlight and we've got one of our favorites for this spotlight man, we do man, we've got a of our favorites for this spotlight man.
Mike:We do man. We've got a doozy, heritagecon is coming up and these guys just keep getting better and better and better.
Kentucky Dave:Really, honestly, every year you don't think that they can top it, and every year they seem to seem to get make the show better and better.
Mike:Well, we learned a lot with this conversation with the Hamilton crew and I think they're going to top. Last year Maybe not, you know, who knows attendees or whatever but as far as the show overall, the entire vibe of the thing, I think they're moving onward and upward. Man, I agree, let's get into it. Well, dave, it's a new year and we're kind of in the middle of the first quarter and something really exciting comes up at the end of first quarter of the year it's HeritageCon time again.
Kentucky Dave:One of my favorite shows, man. This will be my third year. I cannot wait. I look forward to it every year now and I'm already deep in planning for getting up there.
Mike:We've got Duncan Young and the crew from the Hamilton Club and the HeritageCon team with us tonight. Duncan, how are you doing?
Duncan Young:I'm doing well. Thanks, Mike and Dave.
Mike:Well, it's good to have you back and I'm sure you guys are all excited.
Duncan Young:I'm sure you guys are all excited. Oh, we are, yeah. With me tonight is Robin, our club president, and Bernie, who doubles as our club treasurer, as well as our newly minted registration guru. So we're all working hard in the background trying to get things organized and ready for the end of March. But, yeah, happy to appreciative and happy to be talking to you folks this evening.
Mike:Well, it is a phenomenal show. I've been twice, I'm hoping to make three times. We'll get into that offline. Give us the ins and outs of when and where, and this is coming up kind of quick now.
Duncan Young:Robin, why don't you take that question?
Robyn Germann:Sure, so it is actually upon us very soon. It'll be on Sunday, march 23rd, in the lovely town of Hamilton, ontario, at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. It is a fantastic venue and we are very privileged to be able to help these airplanes keep running with our show. And the show will run from 9 am to about 4 pm. Depending on awards it might go a little longer, but we try to finish by four or earlier to get everyone in and out on time cool and we can certainly second and third that, that that the venue is phenomenal.
Mike:I mean it is. We've been to another show at a museum that's a lot smaller than the World Plane Heritage Museum and it's small enough to the point where you're ducking and bumping leading edges and stuff. So the facility up there is massive because they've got some at least one really big plane, the Lancaster, and it's just a a really great place and the vibe there's always just been really energized and exciting and we've enjoyed all the time we've spent there. So, with the show coming up, I know last year there were some newish registration things. Uh, what's that looking like this year? Anything different? Or folks need to know about who are planning on attending the show.
Duncan Young:For sure. Yeah, there's been, I would say, an evolution of our registration process and Bernie's been spearheading that with some help from others. But, Bernie, why don't you run through all the dips and dives of what registration looks like this year?
Bernie Hack:Yeah, it is exciting this year. I volunteered last year at Nationals and volunteered on the sign-in of the model kits and I was totally amazed how easy, how quick it went. So I decided to reach out to IPMS US to see if they would help us out and they got us in contact with Mark Stevens, who created the registration program, and Jim Coatney from Mad City Modelers that put the awards presentation together. So I've been working with both of them to get the system up and running for us for this year. So it's really exciting.
Kentucky Dave:That system that IPMS USA is now using for the nationals is the result of years and years of evolutionary development, so it's really nice that you were able to get in touch with them and, of course, they're both great people and more than willing to work to share their knowledge.
Bernie Hack:Dave, let's put it this way. I sent an email out in the morning. By mid-afternoon I was already in contact with Mark Stevens and Jim Coveney. That's how fast it went.
Kentucky Dave:As a board member on IPMS USA. I am thrilled to hear that, because it hasn't always worked that way.
Bernie Hack:Well, Scott Hackney gave us the okay, and the only thing he asked from us was just a follow-up at the end of the show, just to let them know how it went, how the program ran and if there was any glitches or any problems that we could report.
Kentucky Dave:Yep and that is something that IPMS USA has gotten a lot better about, particularly in all the aspects of running the nationals is trying to learn from each year and evolving it for the next year, so any information you all can supply about how things go is certainly going to be helpful.
Bernie Hack:Well, I tell you, mark and Jim have been pretty patient with me. A lot of this stuff is new stuff for me, but you'll be impressed when you register your model. Speaking of registering, if people are interested in entering a model kit, they just go to our IPMSHamiltonca site at slash HeritageConn, they register in and then they can start putting their model kits in. Part of little different this year with the registration. So it's $10 to register your models and it's unlimited entries.
Bernie Hack:Oh my Lord, I hope you all have plenty of tables, well, I've been checking the entries as they come in Right now we're sitting at it is still early, we're sitting at it is still early, we're sitting at about 96 entries so far.
Bernie Hack:Yeah it's way early, yep. So now the cutoff for entry is going to be March 21st at 11.59 pm. And getting back to the pre-purchasing of your entry ticket, the Hamilton Warplane has graciously offered us if you register your entry ticket before March 21st, you have an opportunity to get two seats on the C-47 Dakota.
Kentucky Dave:Oh wow, that's a great one.
Duncan Young:Yeah, so maybe just to chime in the incentive there. Oh, wow, that up a number here, but like 1,500 or 2,000 entry tickets have been pre-purchased a week out. Well, it's going to be a busy show and that allows the museum to make sure that they've got enough volunteers, enough food. They often to deal with some of the parking overflow. They have a deal now with the airport next door where they can get access to an overflow lot at no cost store where they can get access to an overflow lot at no cost. So we would definitely encourage anyone who's listening or thinking of coming up to the show.
Duncan Young:You can go to the museum website. It will go to their events page. Navigate to HeritageCon. You can purchase both your entry ticket and pay for your contest registration fee. That all goes through the museum, all through at the same time. You can buy them both at the same time and they'll also send you over to our webpage for registration. But yeah, please, you know it doesn't take much a few clicks and if you do it before the Friday, the 21st of March, we'll be. The museum will announce who wins that flight or a pair of tickets on that flight at HeritageCon, and it's for the 2025 flying season. So definitely worth the two minutes it takes to buy your entry ticket.
Kentucky Dave:And that is something that people need to understand. All of the payment for admission to the museum goes to the museum. This is a giant fundraiser for the museum to support the work that the museum does, and I think that what you all have done for the museum is really awesome to keep that class operation going.
Duncan Young:Yeah, for sure. I don't know, robin, do you have anything? You've been at HeritageCon multiple times, but I think, just seeing how it's evolved over the years, it's definitely become a big show for the museum, right.
Robyn Germann:It has, and we owe the museum so much gratitude because we get to have our club meetings under the wings of the Lancaster or the Casa PBY, yeah, and stuff like that. So what club gets to do that? Not very many.
Mike:No, not very many.
Robyn Germann:So we owe them everything, and you know what this show is a little bit of a thank you to them to help them keep the airplanes flying, and that's all that matters.
Kentucky Dave:Duncan, I've been two years in a row now, correct. Coming up third year, other than the Canadian dollar being cheaper, which means my money's going to go better at the vendor area. Yes, what changes have occurred for this year besides the slightly modified registration system?
Duncan Young:Well, yeah, like any show, we're trying to always evolve and move forward. So we have three new, well, three speakers that are going to be putting on presentations throughout the day. One speaker is going to be focused and they're all local. You know people around. The first speaker is going to be focusing on 3D printing. What does that look like? What can you do? So it's just sort of a bit of a becoming the thing right. It's a very accessible technology. More and more of our own club members are picking these printers up. So that'll be the first seminar. The second seminar is actually it's a colleague of one of our club members who was a former. They served in a Leopard tank in the Canadian Armed Forces, so they're going to be going through their service history, but they're also a model builder, so that's kind of cool. So they've spoken at our club before and it was a great presentation.
Duncan Young:The third show will be a local Gundam club called Side Six from Toronto. Again, they've presented at our club and others in the past, but they're going to be, you know, the whole world of Mecha Gundam. What does that mean? And I'll be honest, when they came to our show about a year ago or, sorry, our club about a year ago. It was a full room. They gave away prizes, so people who you know got to take a Gundam home. But they, you know, they really go in and explain what that part of the hobby is all about, what that means to them. How, what are the? What do you judge when you're building a Gundam, how do you paint them, things like that. So fairly diverse seminars this year, but hopefully something for everyone.
Kentucky Dave:One of the nice things about the museum is that you have a separate auditorium that is attached to the museum where the presentations are done, so it's not like they're trying to be done in the hustle and bustle of the main room or anything like that. It's a really great presentation space.
Duncan Young:Yeah, they will be hosted in the Dome again. That space has actually been recently renovated by the museum, but they are making it available to us for the seminars. Yeah, we're always evolving. It's a busy day. I've mentioned this in other areas. It's a great way of catching up with people you may not have seen for a while. Obviously, the vendors are there. We have over 130 vendor tables. We added about at least 10, if not 20, vendor tables this year by sort of rearranging things. That's going to hurt my wallet. The email, you know, went out well in advance. It was about the end of november, just around the american thanksgiving. So they opened at 9 am on a saturday and by you know, six hours later those vendor tables were sold out wow.
Kentucky Dave:So the demand is high.
Duncan Young:I even received an email just the other day saying oh, heritage con is coming, I'd love to get a vendor table. I'll go 2026. So it's going to be busy for sure.
Mike:That's great because one of our friends of the podcast, kit Mass, from Canada, actually out on your West Coast BC, is actually going to be there with, and they managed to get a table, so they must have been paying attention up early. Well, that's great. I the I was in my stash closet today looking at some things and noticed a couple that had bought it there last year. Uh, it just it never fails that, for you guys do a great job with the vendors. There are a lot there and they've got a lot of great stuff and and I think even for for for the locals, the canadians, the prices are pretty good. So, uh, not just us, but always managed to find a lot of things I didn't know I needed when I come to heritage con. Well, is there anything we haven't talked about yet?
Duncan Young:I don't think so, robin any. Any last thoughts from your end?
Robyn Germann:oh yes, we forgot something very big. We've been listening to our fans and we decided and Bernie spearheaded this is we got Herchcon pins for this year. Oh great, so you can get your official Herchcon pin.
Kentucky Dave:I'm thrilled IPMS USA has pins at the Nationals, and I'm one of those people that have collected them over the years, and so that thrills me that we're going to have Heritage Con pins this year.
Robyn Germann:I was very excited for this too, and I'm glad the guys talked me into doing it, because I'm a collector, I love pins, so does Dave, yes, so does, dave?
Mike:Yes, one thing I would like to say is that we launched the podcast in 2020, the COVID year, and you guys had a break during that time, and maybe 2021 as well, I can't recall. Yes, we did. Yeah, but the attention to detail and the evolution in the years that we've been engaged with you folks for HeritageCon has been really impressive and you've got a great thing going, and anybody who's out there who can make this show needs to try to go at least once. It's just phenomenal.
Kentucky Dave:It is the most impressive one-day show in North America, without question, so great job.
Duncan Young:Well, we always appreciate the feedback. I would say and I think Rob and Bernie can chime in but you kind of get through March. You maybe take a bit of time off on April, but you know we were revising category listings in May. Bernie's been working with, as he mentioned, with the team probably since well, post-nationals. So you know, five, six months to get that up and running. We had kind of a Christmas deadline and then Bernie and Mark hit that and now it's all that other work that goes in for the next two months to see it through. So yeah, we appreciate the feedback. It's a lot of work. If anyone wants to be a volunteer judge, we're happy to have you help, you know. I'll even say Mark Copeland and team came from Minnesota. Last year Steve Hustad won best of show as well as best of aircraft, I believe, but both of them volunteered to judge, you know, and that was fantastic to have some extra hands.
Kentucky Dave:They are good guys and, weather permitting, they're supposed to be back again this year. Well, fantastic.
Mike:All right, we'll let you guys get back to show planning. We appreciate you coming on the show again and giving us the ins and outs of what's going to be happening for HeritageCon in 2025.
Robyn Germann:Just one last time the date, the place and the website Robin go for it when We'll be Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in the lovely city of Hamilton Ontario. It'll be on Sunday, march 23rd. We will be opening the doors sharply at 9 am and trying to finish by 4 pm. Awards pending.
Duncan Young:And, bernie, why don't you go through the registration quickly one more time, because there's some deadlines there.
Bernie Hack:Yeah, again, registration you can go through the ipmshamiltonca slash heritagecon. You can register through there Again. It's $10, unlimited entries, and the cutoff for the entries will be March 21st at 1159 pm.
Kentucky Dave:That's great. Can't wait to see all of our Canadian friends.
Mike:All right folks. Thanks again and I wish you the best in another phenomenal Heritage Con show. That's great. Thanks very much for having us. Thank you, so that's great. Thanks very much for having us.
Duncan Young:Thank you.
Mike:Well, those guys have always got their crap together, man, yes they do?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, they do, and with an increased number of vendor tables and the Canadian dollar being a little bit cheaper, I'm sure my wallet's going to take a hurting.
Mike:Well, maybe not as bad a hurting as it might, but you might get more for your money.
Kentucky Dave:We'll see. And well, with kit masks there, I know I'm going to be spending some money at that table, so yeah, you can get a lot for your money there, though. You can't, you really can't.
Mike:I hope it's a big success Again it seems to have been the last two times we were there and I hope I get to go.
Kentucky Dave:You and me both. Buddy, you and me both.
Mike:Well, we wish them all success. And folks, if you're out there and you're in a commutable distance to Hamilton Ontario for a Sunday show, it's a little odd for a lot of folks, but if you can do that, maybe take that Monday off or you can get back to where you live within an evening of a show conclusion on a Sunday. You really ought to go to this thing because it is a sight to behold.
Kentucky Dave:It is. It is unique in North America among one-day shows.
Mike:All right man Hope we get to go.
Kentucky Dave:You too, you take care. Bye.
