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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
Texas Kicks Off Model Season: January Model Show Spotlight
Texas decided January should belong to scale modelers, and we’re not arguing. We map out two can’t‑miss events—Model Fiesta in New Braunfels and Winter Blitz in College Station—so you can plan builds, book time, and show up ready. From streamlined online registration to judging formats that respect your effort and schedule, this is a practical guide wrapped in pure hobby energy.
We start with Model Fiesta on January 3, hosted by the Alamo Chapter, where clear rules, posted scoring sheets, and an open gold‑silver‑bronze system set a fair stage. Display‑only builders get real love too, with sponsor‑selected special awards that include a Cold War theme, People’s Choice, aerospace, vehicles, sci‑fi, and more. The vendor hall is nearly full—about 140 tables—so expect plenty of aftermarket, kits, and tools, plus a handy location with food nearby. The website makes everything simple: download forms, pay online, and walk in ready.
ModelFiesta
Then we head to Winter Blitz on January 24 at the Museum of the American GI, a venue where restored Shermans and half‑tracks share space with your entries. It’s armor‑centric, fast, and focused: doors at nine, judging by noon, medals on the table, and a short ceremony spotlighting 16 Best Of categories and the sponsors who make it happen. This year’s theme celebrates military support vehicles, and the Tank of the Year target is the 38T in any variant—bring your Hetzer or Marder and go for it. New categories—Brown water Navy, Landing Craft, Helicopters, a P‑47 challenge, and MaschinenKrieger—open the door for more builders without diluting the armor vibe. There’s a Friday soft open for early drop‑off and a group dinner at Tad’s Louisiana Cooking to turn logistics into community.
We also talk Hall of Fame honors for past Best of Show winners, vendors, and a weather policy that keeps the show on unless ice shuts the roads. If you’ve been looking for a reason to finish that support truck, dust off a 38T, or finally paint a P‑47, January in Texas is your cue.
WinterBlitz 2026
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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.
Well, Dave, we took a short break from this sort of thing over the last month, but uh stuff's picking back up in January for sure. At least in Texas it is.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:You know, with the holidays and all, we kind of get into some time compression and and schedule stuff just comes over the horizon really quick. And I I really wish I could have got this first show a representative from the Alamo chapter to uh come pitch the show, but uh I put out a feeler and I I guess it was just too late. So first off, I want to apologize to those guys for for not getting one of them getting one of their representatives on the show, but you and I are just gonna do it because uh it's worth pitching. I don't think we've ever pitched this show in January, if I'm if I recall.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I don't think we have.
Mike:It's just worth doing because it looks like it's a really a really fabulous event, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and not only that, but I mean shows in January are are fewer and far between. And so when they're when there's something going on, I I want to promote it.
Mike:All right. Well, let's see what we can do for Model Fiesta. All right. Well, Model Fiesta is again hosted by the uh Alamo chapter of the IPMS, and it is January 3rd, so barely in January. Wow. January 3rd, 2026. That'll be the first Saturday in January, which is just barely 12 days away, man. I know. Uh, it's gonna be held, Dave, at the New Bromfels Civic Convention Center in New Bromfels, Texas. And again, that's on January 3rd. So when does the show open? Well, they've got vendor set up beginning at 6 a.m. on that Saturday through 9 a.m. So if you're gonna vent there, you better be ready to rock and roll, man. Doors open for the contestants, Dave, at 9 a.m. and show should run to about 5 p.m. Did they say when registration cuts off? Model registration live is 9 a.m. to 11 30 a.m. that morning. And uh it gets to a good point. You can do a lot of stuff online, man. Their website, by the way, I don't want to forget to mention it, is absolutely fantastic. I don't know who did this for the club. They've done a bang up job, and all this is on here, including registration. You can pay online, you can get both the model registration summary form, which lists all your entries, and I'll elaborate on that in just a little bit, but also there's a downloadable form for your individual entries. Both these are in PDF and Word format. You can get them right off the website, and through a drop-down and a cart system, you can pay your adult entry fee, your junior, and there's also a preteen for uh modelers not quite teenagers yet, and there's a general admission. You can pay all that in advance on the website.
Kentucky Dave:That's nice. That's it's nice when, and there's you're seeing more and more shows go to this where they are adding more and more to their websites to both make it easier for the modeler who's going to attend to get all the logistics paperwork out of the way. And it makes it easier for the club because they don't have two guys sitting at a table and a line of 20 people standing there holding their models.
Mike:That's right. Well, I encourage folks to take advantage of all this, and we'll link the website in the show notes. And this is just really, really cool. I was really impressed when I went to their website to to do this for them.
Kentucky Dave:Um now are they a one-two-three system or a gold silver bronze open system?
Mike:They are a gold, silver, bronze open system. Okay. And all the rules for uh the contest or the exp exhibition, I guess you'd call this one, are online. All the categories you can find uh find that. Even the scoring sheets that will be used for each category are right there for you to peruse and see how it's gonna shake out. So uh all their scoring sheets are there for all the all the entry categories for the for the awarded for the awarded categories. Now, they've also got display only. Oh, great. They got tables for that, and an interesting twist for that that they're doing, they say new this year, is that the display models are eligible for the special awards.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, well that you know that kind of makes sense.
Mike:Well, and the way they're doing this, based on the web information, is the uh the the judging freedom to do this is because it's going to be done by the the the award sponsors for the special awards. So in addition to the best in class for the for the normal things, there there's a uh what it was the best of show, best young modeler, best aerospace, best military vehicle, all those, you know, for the for the standard entry type categories, the paid entrance, non, the non-displays, the actual con contestants. Uh but the special awards, there's a theme award, and theme's the Cold War this year. It's the 50th anniversary of the Cold War from 1946 to 1991. So there's a theme award for the Cold War, and their graphic for this is just phenomenal. It's just really great. So we'll put that in the teaser graphic.
Kentucky Dave:Okay.
Mike:People's Choice Award, there's a Tomio Award. Our friends over at the Modelers Without Borders are doing their Wow Factory Award. So there'll be a representative from that that gang over there to do that one. There's a U.S. Veterans Award, Outstanding Ford Vehicle, Iron Resurrection Award, which is for classic car restorations and things like that. There's one for trucks, it's a Korean War subject, Jolly Green Award for uh looks like uh helicopters, rotary wing aircraft, U.S. Air Force Award, the Minuteman Award, airlifters. It goes, there's a lot of them. Yeah. Uh Red Star Memorial Award for Best Uh Russian Soviet subject. And there's just Out of This World Award for uh Best Space or Sci-Fi or Real Space. So it's really, really cool that the uh the uh display only will be available for these and they'll be determined by the actual uh award sponsor.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and that takes some of the some of the heavy lifting off the judging teams.
Mike:Do they do they list their vendors on their website? I did not get into it enough to find the entire vendor list, but they have capacity for, looks like about 140 tables.
Kentucky Dave:Wow.
Mike:And if this vendor table map is updated showing the vacancies, there's got they shows the ones that are confirmed and paid, and they've got some yellow ones that are pending payment, but there's only eight, looks like eight tables left available at the time of this, December 18th. So maybe they're gone now. I don't know.
Kentucky Dave:That's amazing to have a local show with 140 vendor tables. That's that's pretty impressive. So, Mike, do the does the website indicate that there's food on site or vendor food vendors nearby?
Mike:There's nothing on site, but uh there's a lot that's really close. Gotcha. That ought to be covered. So they ought to be doing good there. Again, encourage folks to check out the website and and get to this show if you can. It just looks like a phenomenal event, Dave, for the first first Saturday in January. January, yeah. Yeah. So and it's there's also a gallery of past shows and some history about the about model fiesta, and they s they give a little bit on the website. It's it's the longest running annual modeling event in Region 6, and uh just continues to grow, and they they look like they average about 500 contestant entries every year. So uh looks to be a good one.
Kentucky Dave:So why don't you give me the date and time one more time?
Mike:Uh it's gonna be the 3rd of January, 2026, at the New Bromfels Civic Convention Center in New Bromfels, Texas. Again, that's January 3rd, and the website is uh modelfiesta.com. Pretty easy, and we'll get that in the show notes so folks can check it out. Well, if you can't make Model Fiesta, Dave, you can wait a few weeks and then uh head up to College Station to uh Winter Blitz 2026.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'll tell you what, man, Texas is obviously the place to be in January.
Mike:Well, we got a good buddy Brandon ready to tell us all about Winter Blitz this year, so let's get into that one. Dave, there is a lot going on in Texas in January. I know, I know. And toward the end of the month, we've got a show that we've been featuring, I think, since its inception. That would be Winter Blitz, and as usual, annually, we've got Special Agent 003 back once again, Mr. Brandon Jacob, to pitch this show, and we're glad to support you again. Brandon, how are you doing?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:I'm doing great, guys. How are you doing? We're we are enjoying the winter solstice here in Texas. We're a little colder than we'd like to be. We're a little bit warmer than we would like to be.
Mike:We were pretty pretty seasonable today. Yeah, it wasn't bad. Not bad. Well, we hear you're back for more with winter blitz, man.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Can you believe it's going to be the fifth annual this year?
Mike:That's hard to believe. It's hard to believe. It's going to be really our seventh year of starting, the beginning of our seventh year during this pot doing this podcast.
Kentucky Dave:So I which I also can't believe.
Mike:I believe it because it's happening to us too. But uh your thing's been growing, but we'll get to the details in a little bit. Give us the ups and downs and ins and outs about when and where and all that.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:All right. Let me uh let me go with the high high level fifth annual winter blitz. It's gonna be held at the Museum of the American GI, same museum in College Station, Texas, and that's gonna be Saturday, January 24th, 2026. Oh man. So just about a month from now. Just about a month. We here in Texas, we've we've we've we get to enjoy two great shows. We're gonna be in Alamos Squadron on the third, and and then uh the the 24th, we'll be at Winterblitz. So it's it's pretty exciting.
Kentucky Dave:There are not many places in the country that have two shows in January, man.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:I think we are the place.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:We are the place. Well, if folks are new to this, give them a little bit of background about the place and why it's so cool to have a model show there.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:The the Museum of the American GI is a special place. It's a it's a growing museum that is not gigantic but packs a gigantic punch. They have meticulously restored all types of fighting vehicles: Sherman's M5s, a Hellcat, Half Tracks, FT17, and they all run. That's what's so cool about it. The museum hosts events twice a year where they actually take these tanks out. We haven't been able to convince them to take them out on Winter Blitz, but these are these are meticulously restored vehicles and are other artifacts in the museum. A perfect backdrop for Winter Blitz being that Winter Blitz is a 98% all armor scale model contest.
Mike:Well, that does sound like a good place to have it then.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, really. Yeah, I mean, I mean, who who how how cool is it that you know there's a there's a you know an M113 and and and next to it is a table full of you know scale M113s or Sherman's or whatever. It's really uh really it it it sets it sets a pretty good vibe and a pretty good buzz for the day. Well, when do the doors open and when does registration close? Okay, so we we open at nine o'clock. And Dave, we we are we are going to do a soft opener this year, meaning if you come at four o'clock on Friday, we would be happy to get your models on the table and get you all ready. Absolutely. And we also do pre-registration online on the website. But Saturday morning the 24th, registration starts at nine, and we like to start closing it down at 11. We're not gonna turn anybody away if someone's running late, but we do get judging no later than noon, and of course, that's when it's officially shut down. Gotcha.
Mike:And remind us again the judging format at this show. What are you guys doing there? I can't remember.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:We are doing one, two, three, and we are proud to be doing one, two, three. That format, uh first, second, third, uh, that format of judging fits perfectly with the judges that we have here in Texas and with the the shortness of the event, right? Right. Part of the part of the goal when when Rick Cotton and I set out to launch Winter Blitz was a winter kind of Texas grudge match in College Station at the museum, which means not a lot of people live in College Station who attend this show, right? And we like to wrap it up no later than about four so people could get heading home wherever Austin or Dallas or San Antonio or Houston. And the and the first, second, and third just has worked well for us. We put the medals on the table as we judge, and at our award ceremony, which we have a lively, fun award ceremony where the emphasis is on the this year, it'll be 16 best of categories. And that's pretty much all the people, all the names we call is this is the 16 best categories.
Mike:Certainly makes things go faster.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, that's that almost every modeler I know prefers that type of award ceremony.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:You know, we could go off here, but I I just don't get it. I I don't, I don't, we would never do it. We did it one year actually, and it's just horrible. Yeah, it's just it's absolutely horrible. And what it does by not doing that is we've had people say they really like when modelers leave their models on the table and they could see who won, right? Because the gold, gold, silver, and bronze medallion, uh, first, second, and third medallion is is next to the model. And then it also enables us to extend the award ceremony by giving credit to not only the builders who received the best of awards, but also to the sponsors, right? Like, like it's it's more than just simply, hey gee, thanks, Lionheart. Let's move on, you know, to the next one. It's it's we really want to make sure people hear that Lionheart Hobby has sponsored this award.
Kentucky Dave:That's a good point.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Have you already got sponsors for all of your awards? We uh we are looking pretty good. Yeah, we uh we um are are pretty excited to say that things have lined up pretty good. Everybody's listed on the website looking for one or two more table categories, but as far as the best of categories, absolutely we are uh secured.
Mike:Great. Well, what is that website?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:The website is winterhyphenblitz.com.
Mike:All right, we'll get that in the show notes.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:It's the please do what I'm doing this year, a little something different. Is I figured out how to do like a little blog entry. And every time there's like a oh yeah, I need to remind someone, I do a blog entry on the website. So if someone goes there, there's a lot of information. The website is building. We have we have the winners from past years, the statistics from past years. It's really what what we're trying to do is make it more than just a, hey, this is where the show is. Of course, that information is there as well. But definitely try to make the website a little bit more interactive, if you will.
Kentucky Dave:Did you say you can actually pre-register on the website?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yes, the uh forms are available on the website, and somebody could just fill in the form and email me. My email's on the website, and we just we pay through PayPal and and they're good to go.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, that's great.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, and we've had a lot of people. I mean, it really makes sense, right? It's it's it's a it's a great way to go.
Kentucky Dave:All right.
Mike:Well, we've covered all the blocking and tackling, all the basics, and the foundation here. And you know, there's a lot of things about this show that are consistent every year. And one of them is you you have a theme typically, and what's it gonna be this year, Brandon?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:This year we we uh we in the past it has been like Battle of the Bulge or Vietnam, right? Like like a time frame. This year we did something different. We're we went with support vehicles, military support vehicles, which we're really excited about and have had a lot of people say, Well, that's pretty cool because you know the somebody who's gonna win it is is not your it's probably not gonna have tracks.
Mike:Yeah.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:It's it could it could be pretty exciting.
Mike:So basically, any vehicle that's not a point of the spear kind of thing, not a combat vehicle.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:You got it. We've already addressed the question of if a deuce and a half has a 50 cal on it. Well, that's a defense 50 cal, and that's certainly not a combat vehicle or a quote unquote combat vehicle. That's a a support vehicle, right? So if it's there to support the troops, so you know where that where that cuts think ambulances, think deuce and a half, think cubal wagons, jeeps, motorcycles, like recovery vehicles and uh absolutely or a tractor or a bulldogs. Yes, yes.
Mike:Well, well, that should be an interesting one.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:It will be because you don't see that often, right?
Mike:No, you don't. We see them built, but not not for a theme.
Kentucky Dave:Now, how many models do you all typically have on the table at past shows?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:You know, Dave, I I think it would average about 350. Last year we were here's a crazy stat is we were actually up in number of people entering. We had 70. Now, granted, there's a lot more people at the museum, right? But we had 70 contestants, which was up 10% from the prior year, but oddly enough, our model count last year was down. 320. We were at 320 last year, and it was and we can't, you know, there's a the end of COVID. Yeah, now we're not a new.
Kentucky Dave:I think that's a big part of it is people didn't have the backlog of completed models that they have in years past.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:I think so, but we're actually anticipating that to swing the other way because of the new categories that we added. Plus, attending Eric Choi's amp show in Austin in October, he was way up. I mean, he had the biggest year he's ever had, and it was like like 80 more models than I can't remember the exact numbers, but so there's a lot of completed models floating around Texas right now, armor models. That's good news. It is. So we're we're really enthusiastic. And and you know, it was okay being slightly I'd rather see more contestants than you know, having fewer contestants. But you know, we absolutely would would like to see that number bounce back to the the the the 350 to the three to the even a four hundreds that we that we have had in the past. We've never had four hundred, but we've had come close to it.
Mike:Well, I No, you also have a tank of the year thing you do. Tell us about that and what is it going to be this year if you still got it?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Oh, yeah. The tank of the year is a brainchild of Rick Cotton and I. And we just thought, how what can we do to every year? Like, you know, there's a theme, right? And the theme is again support vehicles, but what about something else special? Well, it's an armor show. Why don't we acknowledge and for lack of better terms, celebrate a vehicle? And what we took, what we do is we go down to the Houston Armor Club in Houston and we have the guys vote. And this year we came up with a pretty exciting one, the 38T.
Mike:And is it just a tank or any derivative of it?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Any variant. Okay. And that's exactly why we picked it. Because that one's a broad, you know, that could Hetzers, Martyrs, just your normal 38T. And you know, if anybody's listening, how it works is it doesn't matter where your 38T or your 38T variant is entered, could be a 172nd scale Hetzer or a 116 scale 38T. We pick the very best 38T in the room for the day.
Mike:Well, you alluded to the soft opening earlier, but there's a little more to that. So it's uh a little bit more than just a one-day show for if people do want to arrive early this time. Why don't you tell us what's going on, other than just getting your models put on the table on Friday?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Absolutely. I and it's important everybody hears this. Is in the past we've kind of, hey, we're going to dinner over here, and some people heard and some people didn't. One of the goals for this year is I wanted to have a designated. We're all going after after the museum boots this out on Friday night, we're all going to dinner here. And this year it's going to be Tad's Louisiana Cooking, which is just right up the street from the museum. I could give you the address of putting in the show notes, 1161 William Fitch Parkway. It's going to be on the website as well, but everybody's welcome to come. We we actually went up there and established a private room. So we're going to have a little bit of privacy. You know, the winter blitz group, we'll have a nice little, nice little room. And I think we might even throw in a few door prizes on Friday night as well.
Kentucky Dave:Well, that sounds good.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:I'm guessing that's Cajun cooking. Absolutely. And it's good. Everybody's gonna, I mean, it's Texas is Cajun, but you know, we we enjoy cage.
Kentucky Dave:We enjoy Cajun. I've never had a bad, bad Cajun meal, man. I would agree with you on that.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:In this case, it was the private room that won won the uh won the day for Tad's Louisiana cooking, but we should, we should, we should have fun there.
Mike:What's gonna be new for winter blitz in in 2026? You're always expanding. This thing's really getting some traction now, and I know you've done something new.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Oh, absolutely. You know, we we stepped back last year and we said what we want to do is continue to support and encourage participation in the hobby. And at the same token, we want to recognize guys, we have some damn good modelers, right? I mean, we we've had some of the best in in in Texas and the country come through Winter Blitz, but what we what we decided to do was establish the Winter Blitz Hall of Fame. And the Winter Blitz Hall of Fame essentially is a club, if you will, that if you have previously won Best of Shell at Winter Blitz, if you come to this year's Winter Blitz, we will induct you into the Hall of Fame. And we wanted to do that to a put recognition out to these, these, these handful of people have won the best of, and also put them in a category that eventually they could compete in and kind of clear the deck for up-and-comers.
Mike:Kind of like Amps does.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:It's exactly. But we want to be different, and we called it the Hall of Fame. But these guys are competitive, so we couldn't just simply say, hey, congratulations. You're in the hall of fame, and now you can't compete. So so what we've we've offered is you could compete with everybody else for the theme, the support vehicles. And we encourage and we will have the inductees bring the their builds that won best of and put those on display.
Mike:Yeah, that's a good idea. Hopefully can all make it and can bring those entries with them.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, and and you know, because these uh these entries deserve to be seen again, right? Yeah, absolutely deserve to be seen again. And and we built or had made, I should say, plaques that are pretty amazing. It it actually shows the build and the and the inductees' name and the year that they won best of show, and we're gonna call them up in the award ceremony and make a big deal about that.
Mike:I'm sure they'll be well received.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah. Yep. We also we kind of go back and forth, you know, it's an armor show. Man, we want more people, right? And and you know, we just we go back and forth. I mean, and I said it with a smile on my face, but like, you know, hey, we would love to open more categories, but pendulum kind of, you know, one year we were almost out of room. Last year we had a little excess room because the museum's Antos was being repaired, so the museum had one a little more space for us, but we never know if the place is gonna be full of tanks or not, right? So we have to be careful with categories, but we expanded into some unique categories this year that's gonna let some people bring a model that may not have been eligible. And if you don't mind, I'll I'll list those off real quick with the new categories. Okay. You know, we decided there's a PBR uh boat in the museum. Why not have brownwater navy? Makes sense. Yep. And and so now a boat somebody who's built a boat could bring something from the brownwater navy, Vietnam Brownwater Navy, landing craft, which is a bizarre, unique category, but fun if you think about it. And that's going to be broad, right? If it if it brings men or equipment onto a beach, that's landing craft. And it'll be exciting to see if we get one or if we get 20 entrers. We we don't know. It's a little bit of a little bit of a guess. Helicopters, tank busters. I just that's an amps thing, but I candidly was tired of people saying, why don't you do tank busters, helicopters? So we're doing it.
Kentucky Dave:I'd make the argument helicopters are flying armor.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Well, I mean, and and that's what that's how amps looks at it, right? And then and and they do the tank busters, but so we, you know, last year we did Vietnam helicopters because our theme was Vietnam. This year it's moving to just straight up helicopters. It could be a modern well, I I mean, I'm not a I'm not a helicopter guy, but help me out. What it could be any real modern tank buster helicopter.
Kentucky Dave:Right. Anything from an Apache back to a Huey or a H13 from Korea. Yep.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Then the next one is really exciting, is the P47 challenge. And what this does is give our airplane builder friends a category. And that was wide open. P47, it's a P47. I don't care if it's 172nd, 132nd, or 132nd, doesn't matter what scale. A P47, it's a cool airplane. Let's face it, it's a flying tank, too. Um why not have that? So that's exciting. And then finally, the machine and Kruger. We were gonna open up a category and let the folks who are enjoying that line of modeling participate in winter blitz.
Mike:That's a good way to get more people with those extra categories, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing what you get at them.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, meeting. It's gonna be interesting to see how how many models wind up in these new categories. It's gonna be very exciting.
Mike:And I guess with your space uncertainties there, you gotta be careful what you wish for.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, you know, um Yeah, I will say this. It's a successful show when when when Rick Cotton and I are running around trying to figure out how to find another table to put more to put more models.
Kentucky Dave:Been there, done that, man.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We also we also expanded when we do one when I refer to it as the best of categories, uh, the categories that we call people up at the award ceremony. We didn't, we realized we weren't giving enough credit, if you will, to dioramas and vignettes. So we we're we're we started a best diorama or vignette or scenery, if you will, category. So we're gonna recognize someone there. And then figures. We've had such good figures. And in the past, you know, it's just one of those, and it's an armor show, but we also have figures. Well, by God, we're gonna we're gonna recognize the the uh the the painter, the builder who who brings the best figure as well.
Mike:You're gonna have your hands full, man. Yep. We train for this.
Kentucky Dave:That's good. That's good. Well, I expect that you were gonna take a lot of pictures and post them on the dojo when the show happens, and we look forward to seeing your success because I have no doubt it's gonna be a successful show.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Absolutely. We'll uh we'll be taking a bunch of pictures and hopefully it's as it's gonna be as successful as it's been in the past.
Mike:Well, we talked a little bit about it briefly before we started recording, but you wanted to expand on the any weather concerns?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Yeah, this and and I say this with a smile on my face, but I want to say this to all my all my friends in Louisiana and Texas and and wherever else you're coming from. Winter blitz will go, will happen, cold rain or snow. It doesn't matter, it's gonna happen. As I speak, I was in my garage today in shorts and a and a and a and a t-shirt. I mean, it's it's so unseasonably warm here this year, but we know January can get ugly in Texas. And what that what happens is Texans become, oh shit, it's cold. And will the show go on? Yes, it will go on. You might have to find your jacket, you might have to find your hat, and it might be wet, and it might be cloudy, and it might not be sunny. Like, I guess my point is we don't want people second guessing. Listen, if something horrific happened like an ice storm, we'd post on the website, but you know, we're just not rescheduling this thing. If I'm not slipping off the road, heading to college station, then by God, winter blitz is happening.
Mike:Sounds good. Well, given your your space constraints, what's the vendor situation at uh winter blitz?
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:We have here again, we have a a smaller but a powerful vendor room uh in a kind of shout out. We're we're lucky enough to have through conjunction with King's Hobby in Austin, there's there's there's sponsoring, if you will. Rick Lawler from AK is coming down, and he's gonna do what he was doing at Nationals in Virginia, where he's gonna be at a table and not doing not a time presentation or a you know a private class, but demonstrations all day long. So, hey, I I bought AK products. Can I can Rick, could you show me how to use those? Yes, I can. We've got uh uh Mac McDougal of a Dug Studio and Adam Coleman of Ling Liang Products, they're both going to be in the vendor room with their products, and they both threatened to do demonstrations as well. We've got Mr. Jim Root of Black Widow Model Disposal, my good friend Jim. He's threatened to come down and sell some some of his stuff again. And then finally, the the the friendliest man in in scale modeling, Mr. Steve Monsella, value gear, is is dying to come back to Texas and he's gonna be in the vendor room. So, you know, it's just a good mix of of products and people showing how to use products and hard to find products, and and of course, your handful of uh uh collection people as well. So we're we're really excited about the vendor room this year.
Mike:Well, man, it all sounds great. And come into January, Dave and I both may wish we were in Texas instead of Kentucky.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:That's right. Southwest Airlines.
Mike:Well, you know, that's not you're right about that. It could if you decide if you decide to go on a Thursday, you could probably get a cheap flight down there if there's a seat open. Well, I don't need a cheap flight. No, you don't, but I would.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:We would we would love to see you guys down here at some point in time. We would absolutely love it.
Mike:Sounds awesome, man. It's not like a museum, I'd like to see whether the show was there or not, but that would just be the icing on the cake. So uh yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Hey Brandon, I'm playing that lottery hard. If I hit the big one, you can count on me showing up.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:No, I think I think you could I think you could maybe pass on the next 170 second scale to Maya Zero and buy a ticket down here. I hear you.
Mike:Well, Brandon, before we go, give us one more time, the date and time and place and your your website information again, so folks can uh plan on coming.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:Absolutely. Winter Blitz, fifth annual, January 24th, 2026. Held at the Museum of the American GI in College Station, Texas. Instructions to the museum are on the website. The website is winter-blitz.com. It's important to remember the hyphen, right? Winterhyphenblitz.com. Feel free to ask questions off the website. I I'd love, I love knowing people are fired up for the show. If you have questions, if you want to pre-register, just go to the website, drop me an email, and we'll we'll get you taken care of. And and again, soft opener, you know, we're gonna open the doors four o'clock on Friday. But again, there's just not gonna be much other than just registering your models, and then we're all gonna go down to Tad's Louisiana cooking and have a have a big dinner and then kick it off at nine o'clock in the morning that uh following day.
Mike:All right. Well, Brandon, we sound off. We're glad to support you one more time and uh wish you all the success, man.
Brandon Jacob: Agent 003:All right, thank you so much for letting me come on here and yammer on.
Kentucky Dave:Not a problem.
Mike:They're doing it Texas style. Everything's bigger in Texas, even model show January.
Kentucky Dave:That's exactly what I was thinking. Well, that and and winter blitz just seems to continue to grow and evolve, and it's really kind of cool to see that from being there when they were promoting their first show to now seeing what it's grown to is really kind of awesome.
Mike:It is. So, folks, if you got time to get out and you're ready to get out by the uh 3rd of January and you're in the New Bromfels uh San Antonio area down there in Texas, check out Model Fiesta, and then cruise over to College Station at the end of the month and pick up another great model show that continues to get better. So that's January, Dave, in Texas. Yep. Hope we survive the holidays. I hope so too.
