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
From Aviation Academies to Museum Hangars: October Model Show Spotlight
October brings two exceptional modeling events to the Midwest that showcase the unique character and community spirit that make scale modeling such a rewarding hobby.
First up on October 4th, the West Michigan IPMS presents their Great Lakes Challenge at the West Michigan Aviation Academy. What makes this venue extraordinary is its connection to aviation education – hosted at a STEM-focused public school where students actively participate in both organizing the event and building models themselves.
Perhaps most impressive is how the show bridges generations, with Aviation Academy students eagerly assisting throughout the day. These young modelers represent the future of the hobby, learning precision and patience through scale modeling as part of their curriculum. With hourly seminars covering everything from weathering techniques to creating display bases, there's something for modelers of all skill levels to learn.
Just two weeks later on October 18th, the Cincinnati Scale Modelers transform the Tri-State Warbird Museum into a modeling showcase where history comes alive. Picture displaying your 1/48 scale P-51 Mustang beneath the wing of an actual restored P-51D – that's the unique experience this venue offers. With fully restored World War II aircraft including a B-25, Focke-Wulf 190, the museum provides an immersive backdrop that celebrates both modeling craftsmanship and aviation history.
Both shows feature vendor areas, special awards, raffles with valuable prizes, and food options that keep you fueled throughout the day. Whether you're entering models in competition, looking to add to your stash, or simply enjoying the craftsmanship on display, these Midwest shows demonstrate why this hobby continues to thrive.
Mark your calendars for West Michigan on October 4th and Cincinnati on October 18th. Can't wait that long? Join us at the MMCL show in Shepherdsville, Kentucky on September 27th . Come say hello!
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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.
Kentucky. Dave, the show season is in full effect. As we mentioned last month in the model show spotlight, We've got a couple more good ones coming up here in October.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we do, yes, we do, yes, we do, telling you the spring season and the fall season for model shows always a great time.
Mike:Well, let's not waste any time getting into these. Our first one is from the western part of Michigan and let's see what show's going on up there up there. Well, Dave, we've got first up tonight in our double bill. We got some folks from the West Michigan chapter of the IPMS. We got Andrew DeBoer and Dave Kettler from the West Michigan chapter. How are you guys doing tonight?
Andre DeBoer:Doing great Thanks. Thrilled to be here. Thank you.
Mike:Well, Andrew, I always look for familiar names, and yours certainly was, because I know you've been a longtime listener. So I went and searched my email, because I have every email that's ever been sent to Plastic Model Mojo and you've got one from 2020, so you've been with us a long time there. Wow.
Kentucky Dave:He survived the pandemic with us.
Andre DeBoer:Hey, you're not wrong, Dave. Hey you're. You're not wrong, dave. You know I I listened to a lot of podcasts and walked a lot of miles with my dog during the pandemic.
Kentucky Dave:You and me, both brother, you and me both.
Mike:Well, you guys are here to tell us about the 2025 Great Lakes Challenge, so let's just get right into that. I want you to tell us a little bit about when and where, and all that to start out with well, all right, I'll take us in on that.
Andre DeBoer:The Great Lakes Challenge is in Grand Rapids, michigan, on October 4, 2025. We are lucky because we are right at the Grand Rapids International Airport, gerald R Ford International Airport he was from here, so we are lucky enough that we can have our event at a school. It's the West Michigan Aviation Academy. They have signage. We have signage Makes it very easy to find, so this is under IPMS rules. Essentially it's a 1-2-3 contest. In two years, when the next one happens, we are counting on going to Gold, silver, bronze. But this event will be a single-day contest and it opens at 9 o'clock in the morning and the awards ceremony will be at 4 pm. Sounds expeditious.
Kentucky Dave:Now, is this location where you've held this contest previously, or is this a new location for you?
Andre DeBoer:We've held this contest here the other two times. This is not a very old contest. It it goes every two years. Originally we were gonna, we were gonna do one on the west side of the state one year, one on the east side of the state the next year, but the the west prevailed and uh, so it's, it's an it's an every other year thing and that's fine with me.
Kentucky Dave:Well, good. Now you say it's at an aviation school, attached to or next to or co-located with the airport. Is it a building, a hangar? What's the actual physical facility like?
Andre DeBoer:building a hangar. What's the actual physical facility like? The answer to both those questions is yes. We don't actually use any of their hangar space for the contest. What we use is their front multi-purpose room, which is lunchroom assembly room. You know it's a multi-purpose space. You can see a picture of it on the contest website and it actually has a couple of airplanes hanging from the ceiling like real ones.
Andre DeBoer:So this school is aviation focused. It's a STEM public school. But they also have a gymnasium which is connected to their multi-purpose room and that's where we have the contest. It's huge, it's really well lit, it has the shiniest floor I've ever seen, and so it's. It's a really great place to have a contest. It's got. It's got tons of space we have. You know, the front room is basically our vendor room and that's great for the vendors because it is literally 30 steps from the curb where they're unloading into that room. So it's really convenient for the vendors. And the other thing that makes it really convenient for the vendors is that we have a ton of volunteer students from the Aviation Academy and those kids are highly motivated and truly dedicated. So when you ask a group of West Michigan Aviation Academy students to do something. The echo hasn't faded from you asking and it's done. They'll be out helping the vendors hump their stuff in from their trucks or trailers and they'll do anything that is necessary.
Kentucky Dave:Speaking of vendors, about how many vendor tables do you all usually have at the contest we have?
Andre DeBoer:50. Okay, and we're sold, so we're looking forward to a pretty decent density of offerings. We tend to get a lot of show vendor types, not as many stores that are in the area as a matter of fact. Yeah, we had a store have to have to uh back out because of a family crisis, but but yeah it, yeah we're, we're full.
Kentucky Dave:Good, that's always a good sign, especially three or four weeks away from the contest.
Andre DeBoer:Right. Our, our uh coordinators have been have been beating the bushes early on and making sure that people who come to our show have a lot to pick from. And on the subject of having a lot to pick from, one of the things that's going to be happening all day the doors open at 9 am and the raffle will be running every half hour all day, will be running every half hour all day, and so we have over 200 kits and books and tools and whatever else you can think of to put into the raffle, and I can say from personal experience that it's profitable.
Kentucky Dave:Now, when does your registration close?
Andre DeBoer:Registration opens at nine and closes at 12.
Kentucky Dave:Do you have it so that people can either download forms or can they actually?
Andre DeBoer:pre-register online or what's the setup for that? They can download the forms and fill them out on their computer and then print them, or they can just print blank ones and write in them. So either way works. We don't have an online registration system. That's a little heavier of a lift than yeah, not many local groups do.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, not many local shows do.
Andre DeBoer:Doesn't the nationals even do that?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, the Nationals and some regionals do that Well, and something like Hamilton the Hamilton show up in Canada. You have to do it all online.
David Kettler:Yes, yes, I recall that. Yeah, the form can be found at westmichiganipmsorg. There's a whole section on the show there and you can download the forms there.
Mike:Good yeah, We'll, we'll. We'll make sure we put that link in the show notes so folks can get to it.
Kentucky Dave:Now what's the food situation like?
Andre DeBoer:The school is going to be offering food for sale and they make that sort of a fundraiser, so it's a good cause and it'll probably be chips and drinks and pizza. But uh, the the school is also pretty close to a lot of things. Just because you know it's a, it's at the airport. The airport isn't all that far away from other things and our, our main street is just up the road from from the airport, and then anything you can think of is found on that road. And for people who wanted to get really crazy and and stay overnight or something you know, grand rapids has given itself the name beer city and they're not kidding because, uh, founders Brewing is here. We're right up the road from Bell's, right downstate, from Shorts.
Mike:So we don't have a problem. Well, it sounds like the venue and the fact that you have all these young students to help out with the logistics side of things making your show kind of unique. Is there anything else you guys do that's different than a normal?
Andre DeBoer:invitational type IPMS show. Well, this show does have seminars going all day. We're also doing a make and take. So yeah, we'll have seminars on the hour from 11 am to 3 pm.
Kentucky Dave:I wish more invitational shows did that. As everybody who listens to the podcast knows, I am a huge fan of the seminars at the nationals, and so I'm really happy to see a local show, an invitational, doing seminars.
Andre DeBoer:Well, you know, I got to be honest. I'm kind of bummed that I'm going to be busy during this whole show because I don't want to go to the seminars. There's one on weathering an Air Force Phantom award winning Gundams, creating display bases, and you know, anybody who's been to Louisville to the show there has seen a couple of the bases by the guy who's conducting this seminar. He's he's uh kind of known for using rocks in his bases.
Andre DeBoer:So um and you know the history of stealth aircraft and even even one on paintbrush care, which I think has been a sort of a topic of conversation recently, with people trying to figure out how how to not uh, lose their their paintbrushes too early in life. Another thing that's interesting about this show, that is unique compared with previous years in particular, is that we're keeping the contest room open during the judging.
Kentucky Dave:More and more shows are doing that.
Andre DeBoer:Yeah, and I recognize the perils of that and you know it sort of. You know it could be inconvenient and you kind of have to shoo people away sometimes hey, can you let us work here. But I felt like it was really important for us to not take away that part of the event for four hours. Right, Well, three and a half hours. I take that back, yeah, because judging is from 1230 to four and that just seemed like a really like a real negative to me.
Mike:So I got my way on that, yeah it really could hit hard for folks who are late arrivers.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:And then they never. They can't come see the models until everything's done and over with with the judging. So hopefully that'll work out. You won't have too much interference and it'll all be good.
David Kettler:Absolutely.
Andre DeBoer:Yeah, you know we're optimistic. We're really going to maintain a positive outlook on that and see it for what it is, and that's just an opportunity. Like you took the words out of my mouth, mike. You know the idea that somebody can come and register their models at 1130 and not get locked out of the contest room an hour later.
Mike:Yeah, that's true. Well, if they're going to see models, typically, how big of a show is this in terms of entrance and number of entries on the table?
Andre DeBoer:Two years ago we had a little over 300 entries, Okay, and so you know we only have two historic contests to gauge by, but the numbers are going up, so we're confident that we can exceed that this year this year Now, do you have a theme for the contest or special award or awards in addition to the regular one, two, three and the best of Dave? I'm talking a lot. Do you want to get a word in edgewise here?
David Kettler:I did want to mention that we do have a lot of science fiction and Gundam categories that we do have here.
Andre DeBoer:Well, good we, we have let me let me pull this up so I'm not, uh, completely mangling this we have five special categories that we're going to be giving awards on, and uh, one is, uh, the best great lake subject or theme award could be a, could be a lake freighter or Coast Guard helicopter it could be anything but great. Subject Best model by a West Michigan Aviation Academy student. Best documented replica the Spud Award for Excellence in Aircraft Modeling. You may have seen that award at the Nationals a number of times One of our founding members 51 years our club has been in existence. One of our founding members was named Spud Ensing and his son, gordo, is still a member of the club and he gives an award every year for an aircraft model that represents a type that his dad flew in. His dad was in the Air Force and the Navy and flew in a number of types and worked on a number of types. So the Spud Award is always fun to give out. And then the fifth category is best modeled by a female modeler.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, okay.
Andre DeBoer:Yeah, the West Michigan Aviation Academy has a model, a scale modeling club, and our club works very closely with them to sort of pass on what we know and remove some of the mystery. They do a project every year where the class builds a model, every kid has to build a model, and so we show up on weekdays. I say we in the loosest sense of the word, because I have a full-time job but some of our retired guys are very faithful about showing up to guide these kids and it's fun to watch.
Mike:Yeah, I was going to ask, after you said that there was a best model by basically one of the students of the academy, what involvement there was, but that sounds like a really cool thing.
Andre DeBoer:It really is and really what we try to do when we're sort of giving guidance to these kids is stress that it doesn't have to be historically accurate. You know, one of our favorite models last year was by a student who she took an A-10 model and she painted it black and then she painted pink paisleys all over it and it was gorgeous. She had such a good time doing that and she didn't care what kind of airplane it was and you know she did a good job putting the thing together. Really, following instructions is one of the things that they are emphasizing with this model building project. You know, they want to.
Mike:They want to these kids to sort of get used to the idea of following procedures, If they are, if it's an aviation-centric kind of curriculum that you know that fits right in with the pre-flight checklist and all that kind of things, to make sure you do things nip and tuck and in the right order 100%.
Andre DeBoer:Yeah, some of these kids are going to end up some of them graduate with private pilot licenses, some of them go on to aviation careers, some of them go on to not aviation careers at all. But having gone through that school, I gotta say I'm just hyper jealous about these kids getting to go to this school.
David Kettler:We meet in another building twice a month and it's kind of like their lab building and there's just tons and tons of model aircraft that I believe the students and other probably even some of the teachers there have made. So they're into the modeling scene too. So it's really great to do this with the Aviation Academy.
Andre DeBoer:Yeah, they've been really generous with their facility and their time and we feel like we have a really excellent partnership with this place and, you know, this contest is really going to reflect that. This contest is going to be a good time. We've got a great raffle, we've got terrific make and take area that will be available for kids to come by, and you know, it's always one of those things where a family comes out to see what this is all about and this is a good way for somebody to engage in this who might not otherwise been interested in just walking around and looking at models, who, what, when, where, and the website where you can download the forms and just tell everybody the basics one last time.
Andre DeBoer:We are West Michigan IPMS and on October 4th 2025, we are presenting the Great Lakes Challenge, which is a one-day contest at the West Michigan Aviation Academy, just adjacent to the Grand Rapids airport.
Kentucky Dave:Doors open at nine, registration ends at noon. And everybody. The awards will be out by four Yep, that's correct.
David Kettler:We'll see you there Saturday, october 4th.
Andre DeBoer:And what's the website again? That's westmichiganipmsorg Perfect. We'll put a link to it in the show notes.
Kentucky Dave:That's rightmichiganipmsorg Perfect, we'll put a link to it in the show notes.
Mike:That's right. Well guys, thank you. And the Academy information was the cherry on top of the sundae for this installment of our Model Show Spotlight. That's really interesting we may have to circle back and talk about that a little bit more sometime.
David Kettler:Yeah.
Andre DeBoer:Well, you can tell we're not. We didn't ever get tired of talking about it, so Well, you're modelers. Well, that is that is true. Thanks for taking the time to uh to quiz us about this. You guys really really proud to be on on your podcast.
Mike:Well, thank you, you're welcome. We wish you all the success with your show and, you know, if you guys got a photographer there who's on the Plastic Model Dojo, our Facebook group, have them give us a little photo montage of what's going on there.
David Kettler:Count on it Will do.
Mike:We really appreciate it, you guys, again, best luck with your show and thanks for joining us. Thank you, sure, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. You know that's one we ought to get to at some point. Dave, it's not that far.
Kentucky Dave:It isn't. And not only that. It sounds like they've got a really neat facility right next to the airport with a really good show. We need to get to it.
Mike:Well, I almost asked him if it was called Gerald Ford Airport, because that's where he fell down the stairs.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:Apparently not. No, but it's a good joke anyway it would have been. I should have hit it during the moment, though it doesn't quite work now, does it folks? Jokes aside, dave, the next one is right up here across the state line in Cincinnati. It's a show that we often make and gosh. We've been going to this show quite a bit, when we can. I've not been every year, maybe you have, but I haven't. But I've been to the show a lot.
Kentucky Dave:I've been to the show a lot too.
Mike:Dave, this one's a little closer to home, one we've frequented a lot before.
Kentucky Dave:It's one that's near and dear to our heart and one where, gosh willing the creek don't rise, we're actually going to be at this year.
Mike:Let's not kill too much time getting into this. Let's welcome Mike Ward from the Cincinnati Scale Modelers to Plastic Model Mojo's Model Show Spotlight. How are you doing, Mike?
Mike Ward:Hey, great guys, Thanks for having me. I really appreciate you bringing me on tonight and sharing some details about the show coming up. This is fantastic.
Mike:Well, you're welcome and we thank you too. We like to double bill these when we can, and you know it's kind of a double-double this time. I know you guys are pretty tight with Stuart Clark and Terry Measley on the Scale Model Podcast, but they've been a little bit indisposed of late and it didn't look like they were going to get you on, so we thought we'd ask and you took us up on it. So we appreciate it, oh great.
Kentucky Dave:Well, we want to get the word out. Mike's not kidding. Cincinnati is a show that is near and dear to our heart. I've been going for longer than I can remember and have so many great memories. So we're thrilled to have you all on and to be able to promote the show, because we want to see it succeed. So why don't you tell us the who, what, when, where and why?
Mike Ward:Fantastic. Yeah, so it's the Cincinnati Scale Modelers 2025 show. Yeah, so it's a Cincinnati Scale Modelers 2025 show and it's going to be on Saturday, october 18th, from 9 am to 4 pm, and it's held at the Tri-State Warbird Museum, which is right at just outside of Cincinnati, about five minutes from the 275 exit at Eastgate. The address of the museum is 4021 Borman Drive, batavia, ohio, 45103. And you know the why it's like years ago, you know, covid hit, we lost our old venue and one of our club members is a docent at the museum and connected us there, and this has become a really great venue for the show. It really has.
Kentucky Dave:I will tell you the first time Mike and I went up there and it was held at that museum, we were blown away. We were sitting under the wing of a Focke-Wulf 190 or well, focke-wulf 190-ish, and I mean, you know how do you beat that? You're just sitting there with you know vendors, models etc. And you're sitting under the wing of a warbird.
Mike Ward:You can't beat it yeah, it's really added a lot of luster to the show over the years and the show keeps getting better every year. We figured out you know details every year or something. Okay, we learned from this show, we'll take it to the next show and on to the next show, even beyond, and we get smarter every year and we've made little improvements and tweaks. It's been great and it's all about the experience.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, and I was going to say. We've noticed that because the first year you did it that we were there at the venue, it that we were there at the venue, the tables were maybe less optimized than they could have been. Then the next year you all optimized them, and then the next year you all did it different again, and it does seem like you keep refining the little details.
Mike Ward:Yeah, we really want to give a great experience to everybody that comes. You know, it's kind of a dual-edged sword. You've got, you know, obviously the hobby community coming to the museum for the show, but you also have just the general public that maybe isn't aware of the show and they come by the museum that particular day and they say, wow, look at this. You know I see all these planes, but this model show, this is pretty cool and, like you said, it's organized. It fits well now in the hangars and it's easy to move around and really see everything and really enjoy the show. So it's really turned out well.
Kentucky Dave:Registration opens at nine. When does it close? We'll close that around noon. And do you have online registration or do you have forms online that you can then print off, present them day of show? How does that work?
Mike Ward:Yes, we can, for vendors as well as entrants in the show. That can all be done through our online portal at cincyipmscom. They can fill out all of the registration forms. You can pre-register, fill out all your entry forms for the entries you want to put in. Vendors can buy their tables there. The general admission it's really $10. For the models and then if there's over 10, it's $2 for each model over 10. So it's just a flat $10 and then two bucks for every model over 10. Under 18 is free. We have a reduced admission. There is a donation to the museum that day for everybody coming in. It's $10. Normally the museum charges a higher amount. So, yeah, we've really worked out a good deal with the museum for everybody for the show.
Mike:Yeah, that was my next question. I remember the first year it was out there there was a contestant entry portion and there was a museum entry portion, yes, so I'm glad they're getting a reduced rate, but, folks, it's really worth taking in that IPMS Hamilton does the show up in Canada.
Kentucky Dave:You pay the admission to the museum and then you pay the entry fee to the contest.
Mike Ward:Yeah, if you're not entering, you're just paying the admission to the museum and you get a reduced rate and you can see everything there for the day. So, yeah, it really works out.
Mike:Well, remind us what type of judging format this show is.
Mike Ward:Yeah, well, historically we're still following the same kind of the first, second, third, you know, gold, silver, bronze approach and we've added some things. This year we're trying something a little different. We're going to stick with the gold, silver, bronze, but we're also we wanted to honor a lot of the club members that are no longer with us. You know we've had some pass away this last year or two and we got to thinking it'd be nice some way to honor them, and we see a lot of these poker chips floating around at different shows. So we came up with our own club poker ship this year and it's kind of a memorial award and there's really no judging criteria to it.
Mike Ward:It's really more of a club member walking around, you know, sees a model on the table and say, wow, that's really cool. I think that is just impressive. I like that. I'm going to put a poker chip down on. That Doesn't mean it's going to get a gold, silver or bronze, but it just it's another way to identify great work. And for those that maybe don't get a gold, silver, bronze, they got something that, hey, we recognize your model. We really appreciate the effort and quality of the build. So it's something new we're doing so. I'm excited about that.
Mike:Is there a particular theme this year for the show?
Mike Ward:There is not. Now we don't have any themes, but we still have the Boss Hog Award. That's probably the big award that we give every year, yeah, and we're proud to offer that trophy. It really is kind of a dual connection. It brings in the cultural history of Cincinnati being, you know, pork apocalypse, the pork producing capital, and then, you know, in our sponsor Mission, barbecue out of Mason, ohio. You know they've been sponsoring us the last couple of years and that's a great cause. They really support the veterans and first responder communities.
Mike Ward:And this unique award it's really just representative of the United States communities. And this unique award it's really just representative of the United States. It has to represent the US and depict an act of heroism and service. Some might be say a diorama, maybe of a Huey evac during Vietnam. Maybe it's a fire truck that served on 9-11. Or maybe it's a plane that was flown by or a bust of a pilot, a Medal of Honor recipient, something along that line. It doesn't necessarily have to be military oriented. It's really about the story that depicts the heroism for US and criteria they. Basically we require some kind of a written explanation or story about how the model conforms to the spirit of an act of heroism and service to the United States. And yeah, we've had some great awards in the past around that, so we've got that again this year and we're excited for it.
Kentucky Dave:Well, that's a really good transition. Speaking of Mission Barbecue and food is there food on site at the museum? Are there food trucks? Is there food on site at the museum? Are there food trucks? Is there food nearby? How are we going to feed all these people once we get them to the museum?
Mike Ward:Absolutely. We've got a great food truck Again. It's a hamburger truck, really good hamburgers. It's on site so nobody has to leave. We know parking can be a little challenging at times and we don't want people to leave and get frustrated and not come back, so we just bring the food to you. It's going to be outside at the museum Yep Hamburger truck.
Mike:Well, what's the vendor landscape looking like this year?
Mike Ward:You know we're looking really good right now. We've got 21 vendors. As of today, we've got four to four tables for the vendors in that area. So 21 vendors, 44 tables. I'm expecting it to top out somewhere in that. You know 50 table range. You know low fifties for the show.
Kentucky Dave:So you've still got a few tables left if there are some vendors who are making some last minute decisions.
Mike Ward:We do, yeah, so I've got tables left and we'll be doing another outreach to vendors just to make sure. Hey, did you get our email? You know I haven't heard from you. You know we'll do some follow-up phone calls. We want to make sure nobody gets missed on the list. Just you know, maybe they didn't read the email. So we'll be following up over the next couple of weeks on that and, you know, really solidifying it as we go into October. You know we've got some great sponsors for the show too, so we're excited about that.
Mike:Well, we always ask if there's anything special or unique about the show. If such a thing exists and I know what it is, unless you want to add something different but the venue itself, I think, is the big sell for this show. Won't you let our listeners know a little bit more about the museum, what they can expect to see, in addition to a lot of vendors and a lot of great built up models?
Mike Ward:Sure, well, we've got you know it's a great venue the Tri-State Warburg Museum. You know we've got fully restored World War II flying aircraft and they've got two hangars with them and they've also got one outside. Now they got a new one. They got an Albatross. Oh cool, they just picked that up a couple months ago. I love the Albatross. They just picked that up a couple months ago. I love the Albatross. It's a beautiful plane. It's big. I mean, when you get up next to this thing and it's the smaller version of the two they had. So when I look at this thing, you know, when you saw it fly in it was impressive. But when you get right up close to it, I just can't fathom how big this thing really is. It won't even fit in the hangar. It's so big they're going to have to build a new hangar. But yeah, I mean they've got a great collection. They've got P-51D Mustang, they've got the B-25. They got Texan. They got the Focke-Wulf 190, the P-40.
Mike:They've got there was a Corsair in parts.
Mike Ward:The Corsair is actually coming together. The fuselage is you know, together. Now they're working on the cockpit tub, putting the controls in Engine stiller construction, the wing root. They're getting that together. That's really coming together nicely. You know they got a grasshopper, a flip fire. You know expediter. It's just a lot of neat aircraft to see, truly a gem. It's a little hidden gem right outside of Cincinnati. It's a great show venue.
Mike:It really is. I didn't dislike the old venue. I think in some regards you were. I don't know what additional space there was at that school, but I know the vendor space was starting to get a little tight.
Mike Ward:It was tight. There was a lot of work at that one and you know we had some very strict limitations. So this is really the Warbird Museums have just been a great partner. They've really worked with us to, you know, flesh out a couple, you know a couple of kings early on that we both had and we've, you know, come to terms on it. It's always great other non-historical subjects. So just a great venue altogether and really looking forward to the show. It's always great.
Mike:You've mentioned the Poker Chips and the Boss Hog Award. Is there any other special awards at the show other than the typical best stuffs?
Mike Ward:Yeah, not anything. No other special awards at the moment, not to say something couldn't be added, but really just working on the best of categories. Best of show We've modified those acrylic trophies a little bit. Best of show we've modified those acrylic trophies a little bit. Best of show now is a little bit larger trophy than everything else. We've also upgraded our coin awards so we'll be putting out some of the older coins from last year that we had left over, as well as some new coins. We've added some color and tried to turn that up a notch and change the design a little bit. So a lot of the entrants will be seeing that as the uh uh for those that metal, uh they'll.
Mike Ward:they'll be seeing the new coins too, so you know, just another way to try to increase the uh, the value and and the experience of the show.
Mike:One thing we've not mentioned yet is is the presence of a raffle situation.
Mike Ward:Oh yeah, two great raffles. We've got our regular raffle, you know which. Typically we have 70, 80 items available. And then we've got the super raffle and that raffle has done well in the past years and a lot of attraction there. Those items in that super raffle are typically $100 or more in value and we have some really great kits. We've got some good donations. Blackheartheart studio or blackheart enterprises gave us some large busts for that squadron gave us some nice items to put in there and we've got some other things that we're working on. Still, you know, we're still waiting on some items from ravel, mrc, icm. We got some daniel found miniatures coming, so just a lot of other great sponsors along the way, and there's others I haven't mentioned, but yeah, just a lot will be showing up in that raffle. It's very unique and I think everybody'd be happy with it.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'm glad you mentioned that, brandon and Squadron, you'd reached out to them and they supplied you some stuff. I know, I mean, he's a very, very much a supporter of the hobby in the industry, so I'm glad you were able to do that.
Mike Ward:Yeah, yeah. They are really generous for us and very happy to have them on board as a sponsor and help promote them too.
Kentucky Dave:Well, before we wrap up here, why don't you hit us with the who, what, when, where, why, one more time, so that everybody knows where to go? Cause I'm telling you, if you're within driving distance of Cincinnati, y'all need to go to this show.
Mike Ward:Yeah, definitely, thank you, yeah again. The Cincinnati Scale Modelers 2025 show a Saturday, october 18th, 9 am to 4 pm and it's at the Tri-State Wardburg Museum. It's a beautiful venue. Like I said, over 10 different, fully restored flyable World War II aircraft. You'll see the displays of the models under the planes in the hangar and you can buy the model of a B-25 under the wing of a B-25. What better way to celebrate the show?
David Kettler:Absolutely yeah.
Mike Ward:The address is 4021 Borman Drive, Batavia, Ohio, 45103. And if there's any other questions or registration questions, that can also be found at our website for the club at wwwcincyipmscom. So yeah, looking forward to a great show and hope we get a great turnout for it. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Mike:Looking forward to it. We'll drop links to the club website and the museum into the show notes to this so people can find that easily, and I want to thank you for joining us for this segment and wish you all the best with your show.
Mike Ward:Thank you. I appreciate you really having us on and helping partner with us to promote the show. It's been great working with you guys and look forward to seeing you in October All right, glad to do it, take it easy, take it easy.
Kentucky Dave:Take care. I just unreservedly love the Cincinnati show, especially now that it's at the Tri-State Air Museum. It just it's a great one-day show. You get to go up there. You see people that you see at the different shows from time to time Socialize. It's a great atmosphere to socialize in. I just love it.
Mike:Well, I like it too. I hope I get to go to this one. I know you're most definitely going to be there with Inch Yep and sounds like a good time, dude Yep. Well, this is going to drop with one more opportunity, dave, to pitch the MMMCL show at Paracat Springs Convention Center in Shepherdsville, kentucky, and I'm definitely going to be there and Incha's going to be there, and you're going to be there.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:So, folks, you got about a week yeah, september 27th To get your plans in order to get to that show. It's going to be a good time. It's a great facility and always a lot of fun. We do a good job, dave, yeah.
Kentucky Dave:And come by and see us. We're going to have a table there, we're going to be setting up, we're going to be recording a little. Come by and see us. We'd love to see you at the show.
Mike:Folks, if you can't get to any of these, get to one somewhere Exactly, bye.
