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

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

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

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

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

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

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Transcript

Sponsor And Spring Show Season

The Voice of Bob 0:00

The Model Show Spotlight is brought to you by the World of Armor. Communicate, share, and learn with armor modelers worldwide at the World of Armor. If armor modeling is your thing, follow the link in the show notes or at PlasticmodelMojo.com and join the team.

Kentucky Dave 0:35

And now that the snow is melting and the sun is shining, people are getting itched to go to model shows.

Mike 0:42

Well, April's going to make that really possible, man. We've got three shows we're featuring tonight on the model show Spotlight. And let's get right into it. Our first one up this evening is in Indianapolis, Indiana, hosted by the Roscoe Turner chapter right here on Region 4.

Kentucky Dave 0:58

One of our favorite shows.

Mike 0:59

One of our favorite shows, unfortunately, with the HeritageCon scheduling. This gotten a little harder to get to.

Kentucky Dave 1:04

Yep.

Roscoe Turner Show Basics

Mike 1:05

We'll see what happens going forward, but we got special agent 001 Mike Radsky to come on here and uh tell us all about it. So let's get into it. You got it. Dave, we're going to lead off the model show spotlight tonight with special agent 001 Mike Radsky from the uh Roscoe Turner chapter in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mike, how are you doing tonight? Good. How are you guys? We're fantastic. I don't know how it was in Indy today around Indy Greater there, but man, it was sure nice in Lexington and Louisville today.

Mike Rajki 1:41

Yeah, you can't complain. The sun finally came out this afternoon and it was gorgeous.

Mike 1:46

Yeah, I worked outside all day, so I'm gonna be dead dog tired. I gotta get up at 4 30 tomorrow and take my son to the airport. So not gonna be fun. Well, it's that time of year again. You got a show coming up here early April, the Roscoe Turner Invitational. Why don't you tell us uh when it is and where it is and what you got going on?

Mike Rajki 2:06

We do. Is April 4th, 2026. We open the doors to the public at 9 a.m. We'll hope to have everybody out by about 3, 3.30. We may run a little late, but we're gonna try not to with it being Final Four weekend in Indianapolis. Oh no. So if you're in town for the final four and you need something to do that morning and you're a modeler, come up and join us. We're at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Indiana. It's 1300 east, 100 south, and really is right off of I-65. So it's about a 35-minute drive from downtown, right off the off ramp. You're there. Check it out. That's interesting.

Mike 2:44

You might actually get some folks from way out of town this time. Possibly. Unusually far out of town, like from the West Coast or something. I'll be real curious if that actually happens because it could. Well, we did have the Quagga once. That's true.

Kentucky Dave 2:57

Well, he shows up randomly everywhere.

Mike 3:01

Speaking of special agents. Yeah, that's right. Well, I know it's a pretty standard IPMS format. Give give us a little take on the on the judging and your general categories and what folks can expect there.

Mike Rajki 3:15

We are a one, two, three show. We've got just general categories: aircraft, military vehicles, figures, automotive, ships, space sci-fi, and fantasy are kind of all rolled into one. So real space, sci-fi, everything there. Dioramas, we've got a juniors category, and then a miscellaneous. Our biggest category is aircraft. Our second biggest category every year is automotive. We typically have about a third of the models on the table are automotive. And typically we have anywhere, you know, 750, 800 models on the tables.

Mike 3:51

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

Mike Rajki 4:01

It is. It is, and it's a great facility. We've got two buildings basically tied together. One side's all vendors, which we have 124 vendor tables, typically 50 to 60 different vendors in there. Anything from your hobby shops to your guys selling off their collections, wanting to get out of it. We know last cavalry will be here this year, uh and a couple other good ones. Yeah.

Mike 4:25

Who else we've seen there before? I think David Doyle's been there before.

Mike Rajki 4:30

I think he's been there before, not this year. I think, you know, with Amps being two weeks after that. Well, right.

Mike 4:35

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

Kentucky Dave 4:54

Every year. That's hey, that's part of this hobby. That's part of the enjoyment of this hobby. Absolutely.

Mike 5:01

Is there any special awards you guys do that are uh aside from the normal best of?

Mike Rajki 5:06

Yep. We've got three special categories this year. Best Indianapolis 500 themed entry. Uh typically we do that one every year, kind of makes sense for us. This year, best World War II German armor entry, and then best traditional hot rod. Oh, okay.

Mike 5:22

Yeah, no surprise Indy's a big car modeler too.

Mike Rajki 5:25

Yeah.

Mike 5:25

It is. I bet I bet Daytona is too, right? Yeah.

Mike Rajki 5:30

We do have a little added bonus this year. We do close the model room during judging. So this year we are gonna have Brent Avance, who's done some books for Sabo publications. Yeah, he's gonna do a figure painting seminar for us while we're in the judging room. So we've got that extra space. We're gonna tear down the curtains after the judges' meeting and have him do a presentation on figure painting.

Mike 5:53

Nice. That is nice. Yeah, he's he's with Sabo and he was with the VLS for a long time too. I've got one of his books that he did during when he was with the with Bob Letterman's outfit. But that's it's a pretty good draw. I think he doesn't he live over in the in the St. Louis area still, or is he still?

Mike Rajki 6:09

Yeah, he lives in St. Louis pretty close. He he regularly attends the show, so we came up with this this year, and we're hoping it, you know, gives some people something to do during that break while we're in there.

Mike 6:20

Well, and for you guys, it's easy to manage because you have those co-joined buildings that you can kind of shut some doors and pretty much make everybody stay on the other side.

Mike Rajki 6:28

Yeah, exactly. And you know, the vendors are still busy at that time. Yeah. Uh you can jump out, grab lunch. We do have food there, so that is provided by the Indiana pork producers. So you got some pulled pork, some burgers, whatever you want to grab there.

Mike 6:42

Yeah, that's right. You guys are at the fairgrounds there. It's an interesting arrangement. Now I was, you know, we were gonna ask you that, but you beat us to it. So the Kentucky pork producers are a big show at the Kentucky Fairgrounds, too. So uh that's kind of interesting.

Kentucky Dave 6:56

Uh yeah, works out pretty good. Having been to your show before, I've actually eaten the food, and it is it's a cut above what you would expect at at the at a concession stand at a local show. It's actually it's actually pretty darn good food.

Mike Rajki 7:13

They do breakfast sandwiches in the morning, coffee drinks, the whole nine yards, and then they roll into their barbecue in the afternoon. Well, that's sure to be a big hit. Um, general admissions. So if you just want to get in the shop, $5. If you've got entries and you want to get in the contest, an adult entry is 10, and that's unlimited. We don't limit entries at all. Juniors and youths, 17 and under are free for both of those. Oh, I'm sorry, general admission, kids 12 and under are free. If they're over 12, they got to pay that five. But juniors for the contest are free up to 17.

Kentucky Dave 7:47

Is your registration online?

Mike Rajki 7:50

Yep. We will do online registration and at the door. Uh, if you go to our website, which is www.ipmsroscoturner.org, you can go there and pre-buy your administration or your registration as well as pre-fill out your entry forms. We've got fillable PDFs, so you can print those out. And we prefer that because it makes the judges' lives easier when you have to read.

Model Handling Tip Raffle Registration

Kentucky Dave 8:16

But you still can register day of show. Yep, you can still register day of the show. Classic in-person, fill out the forms there, etc. Exactly.

Mike 8:27

Okay. Now we normally ask, is there anything unique about the show that sets it up off or apart from the other IPMS shows either in the nation or in our region here in Region 4? I'm going to mention one thing that I know of. Maybe you can elaborate on that just a little bit because I don't think it's a long topic, but Roscoe Tunner has a unique way to get the models moved around the model room.

Mike Rajki 8:47

We do. So fortunately, we have a club member who gets, we'll just call them, you know, plastic bases, really. We've got a couple of milk crates full of all of them. So if you've got a model either on or not on a base, we ask that you use those. That way we can just grab the base to move the model, never having to touch your model. Variant size, you know, we've got some like as small as four by four, up to, you know, we've got some 10x10s. Just a simple gray little piece of thicker plastic.

Kentucky Dave 9:19

That's a great idea. I wish more clubs would go to doing something like that, because I know Mike also, but both both Mike and I have been in the past head judge at our local show in Louisville, and there is nothing that that judges hate more than having to touch someone's model, particularly having to pick it up and move it. So the ability to move the the that base and not touch the model is just is just so nice.

Mike Rajki 9:57

Yeah, it really does. It makes our lives a lot easier. You don't even just to spin it to look at it, you don't have to touch any. Yeah, it's great. And I do believe we are gonna be sharing those uh with nationals as well. Oh, good. Okay.

Mike 10:13

Good. Yeah. Well, uh, that's a little bit of an aside, but is does does Roscoe Turner have any co-involvement with the nationals this year? Because I know our club does.

Mike Rajki 10:22

Uh, we've got some club members that are as a as a club itself, we are not. We are gonna sponsor a special award, hopefully. So we discussed that last night at our club meeting. We're gonna do obviously a best of 80500, hopefully.

Mike 10:35

Is there anything else at Roscoe Turner folks might want to know about that's uh a little different than anything else?

Mike Rajki 10:41

I know you guys like to tout the Louisville show as the biggest raffle in region four. I'd like to think we're we're nipping at your heels and catching up. We've got an excellent raffle, four different categories, and then the big drawing at the end that typically has airbrushes and wing nut wings kits and some of the newer, harder to find stuff.

Mike 10:59

Can't go wrong there. And if you if you pass us, you pass us, we'll just have more work to do.

Kentucky Dave 11:03

Yeah, that's true. Nothing like a little friendly competition to make both of both clubs better.

Mike 11:09

Absolutely. And our show's book in the season, so it's not like yeah, we're fighting each other.

Mike Rajki 11:15

So yeah, yeah, we're not competing.

Mike 11:18

Well, all right, Dave, you got anything else?

Kentucky Dave 11:21

Um, no, just one more time. Give give us who, what, when, where, etc. The show.

Mike Rajki 11:28

Yep. So it's April 4th, 2026, which is the Saturday before Easter. Unfortunately, that was the only date we could get. We do have it booked for the next four years, and it will not conflict with Easter the next four years.

Kentucky Dave 11:40

Good.

Mike Rajki 11:40

Uh, it's at the Centennial Hall at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds, 1300 East, 1,000 South, Lebanon, Indiana, 46052. And the doors open when? Doors open at 9 a.m. We say 9 to 4. We're gonna try our best to get you out of there by 3, 3:30. It'll all depend on how many models are on the table and how many people sign up to judge them.

Kentucky Dave 12:04

And when does registration close?

Mike Rajki 12:07

Registration closes at about noon. Uh we have our judges' meeting starting at noon. As soon as we're done with that, we roll into judging.

Mike 12:15

Well, all right, Mike. Thank you for being such a friend to Plastic Model Mojo since the very, very beginning of this stinking podcast. And we always want you guys to have a super show because we always have had a great time at Indy. It's just the last few years has conflicted with another trip we're taking. Hopefully, soon though, we can get back to come to that show on the regular because it's uh it's a fun time. And I really recommend folks check you guys out because it's it's a well-run show and a great atmosphere.

Kentucky Dave 12:41

Lots of lots of friendly modelers.

Mike 12:44

That it is. And I'll ask you one quick question in closing. Are you going to be at Amps this year?

Mike Rajki 12:50

I haven't decided. If I am, it's only going to be maybe for the Saturday. Uh too much going on that Thursday, Friday. But I may, you know, it's an hour and a half drive from the house, hope to hop up there just for the Saturday.

Mike 13:02

Okay. Well, all right. We'll we'll be there Saturday for part of the day anyway. We got a little problem I do on my side on the kind of on the tail end of that show. But uh, we will be there. So if we see it, we'll say hey.

Kentucky Dave 13:14

Yeah.

Mike Rajki 13:15

Yep. And if not, definitely be at Amps. Or I'm sorry, Nats.

Mike 13:18

All right. Well, we'll let's go, man. Thanks a lot. All right.

Mike Rajki 13:22

Thank you.

Mike 13:28

Well, I wish I could be two places at once because uh me both, man. I'd I'd like to do Brett Avance uh figure seminar.

Kentucky Dave 13:36

Have having sat having sat in on one before, I can tell you it is fantastic. I mean, he's a real talent and he's a really good teacher. So if you're going to if you're even close to going to Roscoe Turner, go to the the show and and sit in on that seminar. You will not regret it.

Mike 13:59

And we'll double down on the folks coming into Indianapolis for the NCAA champion or tournament games. If you're gonna if if you've got an evening game you got to go to and you got some time to kill and you're a modeler and you're in from out of town, Dave and I highly recommend you head out a little west of town there to Lebanon, Indiana, and check out the show because it's a good show. It's one of our favorite.

Kentucky Dave 14:22

If you're in the area, you don't want to miss it.

Commies Fest Logistics And Entry Rules

Mike 14:26

Well, Dave, we got another show on the same date, April 4th, but it is miles and miles and time zones away in the Denver, Colorado area. It's Commie's Fest. Uh, a really interesting show. We know some of our podcast friends out there with the posse have taken in this show quite a bit, and they've they've done some after show reports on it. But uh, we got them on to tell us about it for the model show Spotlight. So folks are going to hear this one too. Dave, we've got another show we have never featured before, but we've heard a lot about through either the other podcasts or uh just uh in the model sphere in general. Commies Fest is coming up, and we've got a couple of representatives from that club on the line. We got Brad Guy and Dan Holmes from Commies. Gentlemen, how are you doing tonight? Good. How are you doing?

Dan Holmes 15:20

Doing very well.

Mike 15:21

Well, it's spring is happening in Kentucky. I hope you guys are doing good in Colorado. It is. Just looking up for the better weather. I'm sure we all are. Yeah, quite warm. But with that, show season is upon us and things are really getting thick out there, and we've taken on three shows for the show Spotlight, including including your show, which is uh sometimes a stretch for us, but uh it seems appropriate given the number of shows in in uh April to uh go ahead and feature as many as we can squeeze into this thing. So I don't know if Brad wants to do it or Dan wants to do it, but uh, let's start out with the who, where, and what for your show. I'll take care of this.

Brad Guy 15:56

Uh our show is called Commies Fest, Colorado Modeling Militia enjoying sci-fi. And we're holding our 15th annual show on Saturday, April 4th, at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden, Colorado. It is a regular IPMS show, local show, Region 10.

Mike 16:16

All right. Dave, you always ask, but I'm gonna I'm gonna beat you the punch this time, man. You know where I'm just gonna ask. Can you give us the ins and outs on start time and the registration protocols and those things? Sure thing.

Brad Guy 16:28

The start time, you can bring your models in starting at 9 a.m. until noon, and judging will start then at noon. The address of the place, by the way, is the fairgrounds is uh 15200 West Sixth Avenue in Golden, Colorado.

Dan Holmes 16:43

Easy to get to off the main road.

Brad Guy 16:46

So and entry fees are uh five dollars a model for the first four models. After we've got that, then you can enter as many as you want after that for free. There is no registration fee as such, just the if you want to enter a model at five bucks a model. Unless you're an IPMS member.

Dan Holmes 17:03

Yep. If you're an IPMS member, you get a dollar off.

Brad Guy 17:06

Good. I'm glad to hear that. Trying to bring IPMS members into the show, and it seems to have worked well for us. We've had that set up more or less since the very beginning.

Kentucky Dave 17:14

Uh now, when does the show usually wrap up?

Brad Guy 17:18

We usually wrap up. Judging begins immediately after the last uh models are entered at just after noon. Our head judge is Phil Peterson, you may know him.

Kentucky Dave 17:28

I know Phil.

Brad Guy 17:29

Uh he'll have a judges meeting shortly after noon. Put together teams of three judges, and then we start judging. That will take it's taken as little as an hour and a half, and sometimes it's taken like two or three hours, depending. But I think it's gonna take a little bit less time now. And then we'll have an award ceremony after that, and then everybody gets to go home. Sometimes that has everybody's gotten to go home at about four or four thirty, other times it's been around five thirty. I think again, I think it's gonna be a little bit shorter than that for reasons that we've updated our judging software, and it's a lot smoother this year.

Mike 18:08

Well, given we've got a one, two, three judging system, typical IPMS affair, what's it like for you guys running that?

Dan Holmes 18:15

Well, in the years past, we've had a fairly fragile electronic judging system show up, have us input your various vitals, you know, your name, all of your models, what category they belong to, into our system, and then try to pull the data out of that and use that for our judging. And it's kind of worked, but it's it's been kind of rickety. And this year, I've spent an awful lot of time and energy on rebuilding that completely. And so now it's it's all done on your phone. So we need judges. This is my pitch right now. Everybody hearing this, we need judges. More judges we get, the faster this thing's gonna go. So our judging system is teams of three people under Phil, as we talked about earlier. Phil's gonna go over our rubric, what our criteria are, etc. And then all you got to do is log into our software, pick a category you want to judge, and then it'll present all of those models in that category. And then you just select one, two, three, hit save. That's that's your category. After all the categories are done, it pulls all of the first place winners into a division selection. So now we've got our our division groups. Just need to go in there and say who's the the winner out of all of these categories for the division, champ. Away we go. And then our special awards. So we envision this beat a very, very easy and very quick and simple and lightweight. There's no app to install, it's all browser-based. You can do it and readable on your phone or your tablet. We'll have extra devices if you don't want to even use your own device. So please come with us. We've we've spent a lot of time and a lot of energy on this.

Kentucky Dave 20:01

So show up with a charged phone, and I take it works for both Apple, iOS, and Android-based systems. Everything. Okay.

Dan Holmes 20:10

Everything. I even have a little handheld PC that I play games on to work on that.

Kentucky Dave 20:15

Gotcha.

Mike 20:16

All right. Well, folks, for for those listening, help them out if you're gonna attend that show.

Brad Guy 20:21

And then we have division awards and special awards, best of show, the theme award, which this year is called Sparkles. Anything that sparkles is available for the we try to we try to keep the theme awards entertaining.

Dan Holmes 20:38

All you need to do is justify it being called a sparkle award. It could be something that sparkles, it could be painted with sparkles. You could have Captain Sparkles driving the thing. We really don't care.

Mike 20:49

Gotcha. So the the 24th scale of ass boats. Yep. That would be just fine. Yep. Absolutely.

Brad Guy 20:56

Ordinarily we would have an award ceremony in which we hand out each award, but this year we're those protracted awards ceremonies.

Dan Holmes 21:04

Before you get into that, Brad, I wanted to talk a little bit about the special awards. You know, we were talking about the the the Sparkle theme award, but we've also got a couple others that uh are kind of our own flavor here. We we have a what's called a Mr. Peabody Award, and we like to give that out for the best use of technology in a model, whether that be lighting, whether that be motorization, what you know, something, but it has to do with technology of some sort.

Mike 21:29

Gotcha. Like the Waybag Machine.

Dan Holmes 21:32

Exactly. Exactly. It's made named named after Mr. Peabody and Sherman, exactly. And then we also have the People's Choice Award, which you know everybody there votes on. And then we have one that that uh we call the Bees Wall, which is the best example of something we like. And we hand that out to the model. You know, you you go to a model show and you look around, and there's always at least one model that you Look at it and you're like, I got no idea what it is that's speaking to me about that model, but it is something that is telling me that is cool.

Kentucky Dave 22:08

Yeah.

Dan Holmes 22:09

And we get together as a group and we vote on it, and that's the best example of something we like.

Brad Guy 22:15

I like it. It's whim whim whimsical. Well, speaking of which, we also have a whimsy award called the Squee Award. And that's the one that Sue Ann, she picks that and gives an award for the something that just seems whimsical to her.

Kentucky Dave 22:30

So you got plenty of specialty awards in addition to the class. That's right.

Mike 22:36

Yep. Well, you got that covered, sounds like. Well, you know, we're not really that familiar with your show. We we've not attended it. But what's the the vendor landscaping looking at at commies?

Brad Guy 22:46

Well, we've got 47 vendor tables that we've sold. Typically, they're like most smaller shows, there are people who are selling old stash. Although we do have a couple of businesses that come in. We've had Culpar Hobbies come in once or twice. No. Um there's a name I know. Yeah, the big local show.

Kentucky Dave 23:03

One of my favorite hobby shops I've ever visited in my life. It's wonderful. It's a really good place.

Brad Guy 23:08

That's where we meet once a month.

Dan Holmes 23:09

So this year we've got a game store that wanted to show up. They've got minis and paints and brushes and stuff like that, along with some board games. But our vendor tables are generally quite inexpensive. So we're trying to branch out a little bit.

Kentucky Dave 23:24

What does the contest look like typical numbers-wise, as far as number of entrants?

Brad Guy 23:29

Typically, we'll have anywhere between three and four hundred entries and maybe about 50 to 75 entrants, people entering models. Last few years we've been averaging about 75.

Mike 23:40

Okay.

Kentucky Dave 23:41

Do you all charge for just general admission?

Dan Holmes 23:44

We do not. No. And we also have a food truck vendor out in the parking lot. So we've I was gonna ask. Yep, we've got grilled cheeses, gourmet grilled cheeses, and cookies. Cookie dough. The truck is what would chees us do? And the truck is the rebel cookie dough trip.

Mike 24:04

Nice. Always nice to keep everybody fed at the show, that's for sure.

Dan Holmes 24:07

And uh yeah, well, and the the fairgrounds are a little bit away from some of the easy food options. So we wanted to bring something in to keep people.

Mike 24:15

That's a good idea. And the food truck guys will love that.

Seating Food Truck And Seminars

Dan Holmes 24:19

Right. Yeah. And we have a nice seating area for everybody to hang out in and things like that. I mean, the idea is to keep them there. We've got demo tables and stuff like that. We don't we really don't want anyone just dropping their models off and then leaving.

Mike 24:31

Well, you said demo was gonna segue us pretty well, but before that, I think one thing that a lot of shows overlook, especially given the demographic of the modeling community, is that there's not enough restful seating around for folks.

Brad Guy 24:45

I was gonna bring that up too. Yeah, we models are coming all shapes and sizes and colors and such, but we're almost all old men. And we need a place to sit down. So over the years we've expanded that. So about 25% of the venue we reserved just with tables for seating. We put different colored tablecloths over them so people will know that that's where you go sit down. And it helps, you know, to have a place to fill out your paperwork if you haven't filled it out already. And just take a load off, yeah. Or just sit down and talk with each other, take a load off, or get something to eat and sit down and do that.

Dan Holmes 25:20

What thrills me to no end is when I see somebody bust out a toolbox or some paints or something and sit there and work on a model at the show.

Kentucky Dave 25:28

You said seminars or demonstrations. What do you have going on at the show and what in the way of seminars and demonstrations?

Brad Guy 25:38

Well, we have two tracks of seminars this year. We had two tracks last year as well, and each track is about an hour long, or each seminar is about an hour long, so we have eight of those going on. Wow. Uh two of them are a judges meeting, but the others are going to be a lot of painting demonstrations. Uh, we got a guy who teaches how to paint men's, got another guy who is really good with airbrushes, and he teaches that this year. One of the guys that's supposed to be coming in is a former U 2 pilot. He's going to be doing a little slideshow on what it was like to fly the U2. Cool.

Dan Holmes 26:15

We've got a dry rushing demo, we've got a photo etch demo, etc. So we we actually have quite a few really, really good demos. We're we're trying to move away from everything being an intro to and more advanced stuff. You know, we we've had for years the intro stuff. Let's let's let's step it up a notch, you know.

Kentucky Dave 26:36

Well, and I do think that that's you know, there's that hole where the judging is going on. And if you can keep with a food truck and demos, you can keep people there and give them something to do. I think that really does help the social aspect of the show.

Brad Guy 26:54

Yeah, yeah, agreed. We don't close off the uh the show during judging, so you can still wander around to look, but it does kind of give you, you know, something to do between between when we start judging and and after everybody's had a look at everything, they can go, you know, look look at a demo or look at a uh you know, get themselves a cheese sandwich or something like that, and then just stay put. Uh just people seem to like that quite a bit.

Mike 27:21

Well, I think the the your your approach to pushing the skill levels on the demos is a really interesting thing because and pro probably you you realize this on your own, but for for the for the basics, if folks are coming to a model show, they probably are already down that road already, wouldn't you think?

Brad Guy 27:39

Yes. Yeah, they pretty much are. They all know more about model building than I do.

Mike 27:43

So um you've got the the demonstration. In our region, it's really uncommon right now in this day and age to to have a have a demonstration at an invitational level, local level show. So it's nice to hear that you guys are still kind of fostering that and and you have so many to to to offer, actually.

Brad Guy 28:04

We've done that since I think our second show in 2011 was our second one. I think our first one was 2010, and we've had demos the whole time, and it just seemed to be popular. People seem to like them. Sometimes there'll be like two or three people sitting there watching it, but sometimes it's sitting it's standing room only.

Dan Holmes 28:23

Yeah. We've had some pretty pretty interesting demos over the years. We've uh one of the guys that is uh a staff painter for a Reaper lives not too far from us and eventually comes down and will do do painting demonstrations. And we've had Colin Cantwell before he passed away in our show several times. You know, so it's been it's been a lot of fun.

Kentucky Dave 28:45

Well, this is a question Mike and I always ask. Usually Mike asks it, but I'm gonna uh get ahead of him and ask it this time. Do you have something other than what we've discussed already? Is there something particular about Commise Fest that you that's kind of unique to it or that you don't see at many other shows? You know, a lot of these local shows have some sort of local flavor or twist, be it silent auction, be it demos or whatever. Is there anything you haven't already mentioned that you want to highlight about your show?

Sci Fi Focus Gundam And Kids Build

Brad Guy 29:24

Yeah. We're largely the club itself is a science fiction modeling club, mostly, not exclusively. And so even though our show is a general IPMS Region 10 show, it tends to be fairly science fiction heavy. And so we wind up splitting up the uh science fiction awards. We seem to have a lot of splits in that. People, I don't know if it's because the subject of science fiction has just grown more popular or because we're pushing it or or what the deal is, but we do tend to have a lot more science fiction models in our show than average. Nonetheless, the majority of the models you see are still going to be the same things you'll see at any other show. There's a lot of aircraft and a lot of armor, a lot of cars, but we tend to be known for you know a lot of science fiction stuff too.

Dan Holmes 30:09

We're trying to expand a lot of our offerings into the uh the Gundam and the Minis groups as well. We're trying something new this year with our Gundam builders. We've got a we've got a sizable Gundam group in the Denver area. And so we're instead of judging them necessarily by IPMS rules, we're we're working out where there's basic Gundams and then more advanced Gundams. So you're not having like a high grade being judged against a perfect grade, for example.

Kentucky Dave 30:36

Yeah, and that's an area of growth.

Mike 30:38

Have you gotten to that realization through input from from that community?

Dan Holmes 30:45

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Again, with such a large group, we've got a lot of spillover between between the different groups. We we work at another anime convention in Denver area called NDK NonbezuCon. And that has a lot of Gundam people at it for obvious reasons. And in talking to them, that's when we started realizing that we weren't servicing that community appropriately and trying to expand our offerings in that and not realizing that like the Gundam Builders World Cup and such is judged by an entirely different set of rules than what IPMS judging is. And I'm not saying IPMS is perfect or anything like that. It's just that's what we've stuck with because that's what we've known.

Kentucky Dave 31:30

Right. Well, I commend you for doing that because you are correct that Gundam World is different and just like we had the same thing with auto modelers 25, 30 years ago, and trying IPMS trying to adjust to the fact that auto models are jud yeah, yeah, auto model contests are judged differently than IPMS was doing classically, not necessarily judging, but how to break up the categories because auto modelers had their own categories. And Gundam, I think, is the same way. You know, you mentioned high grade and perfect grade, et cetera.

Dan Holmes 32:16

Exactly. And and since we started out as a science fiction club, we're kind of used to some of the niche within a niche aspects of our modeling. And so we we're really trying to be sensitive and and understand what their needs are and try to and and literally try to service those needs. I mean, we we love putting on this show, and we want as many people as we we can to actually come to this and and give everyone a venue to display what they're what they're into. We generally have a very large minis contingent, and our Gundam categories are generally the first to get split from so many entries.

Kentucky Dave 32:53

Well, that's great news.

Mike 32:54

Well, I think it's commendable that you've taken that approach because it would be really easy. And I think I don't know, but I was I suspect that a lot of clubs who are trying to embrace that community are really through no fault of their own because of the way they've done things in the past, are trying to shoehorn this new stuff into their current methodology of doing things. But these organ these these communities have their own set of standards and their own set of expectations.

Brad Guy 33:25

Right. We've kind of flailed around trying to learn that in the past ourselves, and we're still flailing around trying to learn, you know, how how to improve our show every year and you know how to invite more groups in. We're trying to invite a lot of a lot of wargaming mini groups in because it's not just adjacent to modeling, all the techniques apply to, you know, from them to regular plastic modeling. So we're trying to be as as open and inclusive with everyone as we can.

Mike 33:54

I would go on to say that you are not the first show we've featured in Model Show Spotlight who has actually accommodated that community through their input instead of trying to just open up categories and make them fit your show categories like they were any other. So I th I really think that that's a really good approach, and I know that community is going to be appreciative of that. If that's the first category you've probably split every show, that that's working out pretty well for you. So that's that's really good to hear.

Brad Guy 34:23

Well, I'd like to say it's because we know what we're doing, but we really don't. We've done it the wrong way before in the past, too. So we're just trying to get a little bit better.

Dan Holmes 34:30

Well, that's the thing we try every year is we try to do things just a little bit better than we did the previous year. You know, we we really try to improve every every year. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, but we really do genuinely try.

Mike 34:43

Well, if that's a goal, that it is a goal. That's a silly statement. If if if you're gonna make that your goal, it's it's really is very commendable, but again, because it's it's so easy to have a a recipe for a show and put it on every year and do it this exact same way and come what may, oh, this year we had 300, this year we had 500, next year we got 250, next year we got 600 entries, whatever. But you're really not trying to to do anything but run your recipe. And I think if you're if you're gonna continue to be successful, you're doing it the right way. So that's that's really encouraging that to know clubs like you are out there who want the incremental improvement because that's that's how you get there. It's how you that's how you stay relevant, I think.

Dan Holmes 35:29

Well, and it is, I mean, it's a lot of work, but it's also an awful lot of fun, too. I mean, we've been together as a group, and it's been me, Brad, Rob, Suwann, you know, and a couple others since since the group started. And we're all friends, and we're not friends outside of modeling as well. And with a name like the commies, we obviously don't take ourselves very seriously. And so we we try to inject a lot of that in there and just try to try to bring the joy back, you know, bring bring that fun back. We all had.

Brad Guy 36:01

We also have a make and take program at the show. We're building dinosaur kits for kids. Anybody under 18 can join in. It's completely free.

Kentucky Dave 36:11

All right. And just your classic make and take. Yeah. Show up, put a model together, the glue and uh nippers and stuff are all available.

Brad Guy 36:21

We've got all that stuff. Most of these are simple enough, they don't even require glue. And then if you are so inclined, enter your model on the show.

Dan Holmes 36:29

They're a relatively simple dinosaur kit, but you actually have to build the skeleton first before you can put the skin over it, as it were.

Mike 36:37

I'm sure the kids will love that. I hope so.

Kentucky Dave 36:39

Yes, kids love dinosaurs.

Mike 36:41

Well, guys, it's it's been great having you on on for the model show spotlight. So once again, let's run down the uh the vitals so folks can can be encouraged to come to your show.

Brad Guy 36:51

All right. Comm's Fest 2026 is going to be on April 4th, which is a Saturday, 9 a.m. to about 5 p.m. at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 15200 West Sixth Avenue in Golden, Colorado. The home of Coorsbeer. Oh, yeah, let's let's not do that. Which is well owned by a Canadian company. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike 37:17

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

Dan Holmes 37:30

Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Dave. Absolutely. Yep, thanks a lot. This was fun.

Mike 37:34

You're absolutely welcome. Uh we really like doing these. I appreciate your time, gentlemen. And again, I wish you all the success for your show.

Brad Guy 37:41

Well, thanks to you too. I really have always enjoyed your podcast. I listen to every episode, and I hope you're able to do it for another 100 years.

Mike 37:51

So do I. You and me both. All right, guys. Take it easy. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Well, that one sounds like another fun and interesting show.

Kentucky Dave 38:04

Well, Jim's been to it before, and he really likes it.

Mike 38:08

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

Kentucky Dave 38:21

You you you gotta love the laid-back vibe. I think that really that pre-stages a really good environment for a show.

Mike 38:33

Well, Dave, today I got an email email from Daniel Holmes, who we talked to there with the commies interview, wanted us to mention that their main communication method with the club is through their Facebook groups and look for Commies Fest there. And Sue Ann, who was supposed to have been the third guest, who had a little trouble connecting last night, which we hope to get addressed for all our future Apple users, does most of the communication there. So had she been able to connect, she would have probably mentioned that. So Dan wanted to make sure we got that in before we uh wrapped up the uh Commies Fest segment of the model show Spotlight.

Kentucky Dave 39:09

All right.

Wine Country Expo And Social Mixer

Mike 39:13

Well, finally, folks, we're gonna go out to the West Coast, the Pacific Northwest, to Northern California wine country. We've got the Wine Country Model Expo. And we covered this show in 2024. It was under a different name because they've renamed their club. But uh listen up to this one, folks. They've got some really cool things going on.

Kentucky Dave 39:33

Yes, they do.

Mike 39:38

Well, Dave, it's not often we get to do a repeat, but we're gonna do one tonight coming to us from the wine country, Northern California, James Mirando uh from the Wine Country Uh Scale Modelers. Is that right, James? Yes, it is. All right. Well, we talked to you guys back in 2024, and you were kind of at the front end of a more of an exhibition style show, something a little different than the normal show, but we'll get into that a little bit later. But let's get the basics of when your show is, where it is, and the name of it and all that. Okay.

James Morando 40:12

It's called this time the Wine Country Model Expo. It's on uh Saturday, April 11th from 9 to 4 in Petaluma, California, which is right in the middle of the Sonoma County Wine Country.

Kentucky Dave 40:27

What is the actual physical location and when does the show open and close?

James Morando 40:35

So, venue-wise, we uh we we're lucky we have both timing and and and location. We're in the early April, and and the wine country is beautiful then. And we're in Petaluma at the Petaluma Community Center, which is it feels more like a community gathering space than a convention center, it and which kind of fits into what we're trying to do culturally. We got a very spacious and well-lit main assembly hall. We've got a stage area where we're putting a silent auction and plenty of space along the wall for our raffle displays, and we have a separate seminar room for some presentations we're gonna do. Nice. So we're very happy about the venue. We open the doors at nine. The show will close around four, slightly later than four, but things won't be over then. We have another part of what we're trying to do that we'll move into then. We're having a post-event social gathering where we're inviting all the attendees to go with some food and appetizers hosted by our local club. Great. Well, that's a new take.

Kentucky Dave 41:47

Yeah, Mike and I are both big, big fans of the social aspect of shows and contests. So I think a post-show happy hour or post-show appetizer get together is a is a fantastic idea.

James Morando 42:07

Well, you know, our expo really grew out of the wanting to create an event that emphasizes more the connection between modelers. You know, we've been inspired by some of the experimentation going on with exhibition style displays, open judging, and we're trying to build it around those ideas. So, in particular, when we talked last time, we had we're doing our first open judging, and now we're experimenting with the exhibition style format, where each modeler's works are all put together on the table in one spot, regardless of genre. And if you see something on the table that catches your eye, you're going to be able to easily find and talk to the modeler, which is consistent with our focus on conversation, learning, and trying to build community.

Kentucky Dave 42:58

If you go to too many figure shows, you'll see that thing, that style where they group individual modelers or painters' work all together in one location, regardless of whether it's a bunch of busts or single figures or vignettes or dioramas. They're all together so you can see the one modeler's entire body of work.

James Morando 43:26

Yeah, this is very intentional on our part, drawing from that type of model. The in the display area for each modeler, there'll be a name plaque in front identifying them, and then the people who are attending will all wear name badges, making it really easy to find and connect with one another. You know, it sounds the idea of name identification sort of sounds simple, but I I think we really believe it changes how people interact at a show.

Kentucky Dave 43:54

I could not agree more. I really think that being able to Find the modeler whose work intrigues you, where you want to go to them and say, I saw this, I want to ask how you did that, or I want to ask what you use to create that. And once you get modelers talking with each other about modeling, everything just gets better.

James Morando 44:23

I couldn't agree more. I mean, I it you know, it really comes from what I when I look at my own experience of going to a show, what I actually enjoy most is talking to other modelers, asking them how they did something, sharing techniques. That's very engaging to me. And while that can happen incidentally at a traditional show, we're trying to design it so that that is more central to the experience.

Kentucky Dave 44:48

That I think is a fantastic idea. Um I'm happy to see your show and others go to that type of focus. Now, does your show you talked about the silent auction? I assume your show has vendors as well.

James Morando 45:06

Yes, we have a uh a separate vendor room that connects to the main assembly hall with some double doors that make it easy to go in and out. And we also have are gonna have some terrific, very well-stocked raffles, including having four grand prizes that uh people I think will get excited about. So there'll be plenty of opportunities for people to pick up new things if that's what they want.

Kentucky Dave 45:32

Well, that that never hurts, right? Uh you talked about the the post-show mix mixer or or happy hour or or whatever. During the day, is there food at the event space, or do you all have food trucks? Is there uh restaurants nearby?

James Morando 45:57

Yeah, food at this location is really easy. There's a very large shopping center right across the street, which has multiple coffee shops, specialty shops, little restaurants, quick lunch options, ATMs, and there's another one two blocks down, easy walk. We've actually prepared a list of the all the spots that are nearby, and we're including it in people's registration packets, so you don't have to guess at that. And uh the place has got real nice parking was another reason that drove us to this location. So load-in is easy and not an asshole.

Kentucky Dave 46:33

Now, speaking of registration, do you all have online pre-registration or is it all day of show? How do you all do that?

James Morando 46:42

Online registration, pre-registration is open now. You can go to our website, onecountrymodel expo.com, and you'll find uh the registration page which has the link to pre-registration. And we're having, you know, it's already having some early activity, which is really nice to see. The real advantage is that we'll have a separate line with pre-prepared pre-registration packets with people's names on them. So they basically just show up, give us your name, you hand you hand the person their packet, and boom, they're in the model room. So no hassle, no line. Very much like a national's. Well, not on that scale, but yeah, we we wanted to make it easy. They'll still we'll still take, of course, walk-up registrations. And it's interesting, one of the benefits that we didn't anticipate from going to the exhibition style format was the registration process is much simpler. We're just identifying really the modeler and the name of the modeler rather than individual models, right? They put all their models in one spot and we go and look at here's Dave's stuff, and then it's evaluated there. So when does registration close at the show? At the show is noon. The pre-registration is close the Monday before, so we have time to prepare all the packets. That closes on April 6th. But pre-regist the registration on the day of will go till noon.

Exhibition Style Open Judging Charity

Mike 48:08

We've covered a lot of the things that folks normally expect, regardless of the show format, you know, the food options, the raffle, the vendor situation, and all that. When we had you folks on in 2024, you were moving to this open judging. I can't remember if it was the first time you'd done it or not.

James Morando 48:26

It was. It was the first time.

Mike 48:28

It was. Okay. So I'm I'm real curious here because I've mentioned it under model show spotlights before. I think we can discuss how hard it's blowing, but the winds of change are starting to blow within the greater model sphere as to what model shows look like. It's certainly not a wholesale change yet, but you guys started with an open judging, which we've covered a lot of other shows in the spotlight uh over the months that are also doing this. I'd be curious how that went and was received your first time, and then take us back through again how it's changing from what you did in 2024 to now. And I think I know the answer, it's the exhibition style, but what else might be involved there?

James Morando 49:08

Well, yes, we had a very solid success with the open judging. We were the first local club within the Northern California region to do that. And people came, had a good experience. So we were pleased with that. It was there was no debate about whether to do that again. And then we wanted to take it a step further to implement this exhibition style. You know, some of that is, you know, it's like the experience when you walk in a room and conversations happening everywhere where modelers are connecting with other modelers, and you can go find the person that has done the work on the table that interests you. And in my experience, that's where the hobby really comes alive. People start sharing their techniques and ideas. But the first time I experienced that was when I went to the Rocky Mountain Hobby Expo a couple of years ago. And, you know, I realized after the first couple hours I had more meaningful conversations with modelers in the beginning of that show than I did typically in the whole day of a traditional show. You could just sort of feel the difference in the room. And uh, you know, it wasn't that the models were necessarily better, it's just the structure encouraged this interaction. So it's it's kind of hard to describe the feel of it until you're in the room. So we're we're hoping people will experience that at our show this time.

Mike 50:35

That's that's Scott Gentry's show from the Plastic Posse Podcast. And I know he's he's in the throes of planning this year's show for this summer coming up. You know, Dave and I have gotten a taste of that. What is it last year before last, and then in our history of of attending model shows is a similar situation. MMSI show in Chicago. They they tend to do an exhibition style format for their you know, their table presentations and just the way the shows run. So I'm certainly interested to see how this gets goes for you. I have my prediction that it was going to be a success. It just is. I've been to the figure show, but you know, I'm not a figure person, so I'm not I don't have an exhibition to put out there at this at MMSI, right?

James Morando 51:18

I do think it's something you need to experience. I think it's something that it's just a different energy in the room, you know, when the whole event's built around the interaction. So we we hope people will come and see what it feels like for themselves. And then for you guys, you know, if you're gonna travel for a show, Northern California wine country is a pretty great place to come for.

Kentucky Dave 51:40

That might be one I could convince my wife to actually go to. Yeah, mine too.

Mike 51:45

They could sure have something to do while we were at the show.

Kentucky Dave 51:47

Exactly.

Mike 51:48

We have to go pick them up, though.

Kentucky Dave 51:50

That's all right. Um you, James, you mentioned that you you all were having seminars, and that's another thing that I am a huge fan of. It's one of the things at the Nationals that I don't think gets enough attention. So, what generally just give me a description of some of the seminars that are gonna be going on while your show's going on.

James Morando 52:14

Absolutely. Yeah, we wanted to add a more sort of formal educational learning experience to it and some more value add to it. So we're gonna be presenting four really top-notch people who, including Martin Drayton, who's gonna talk on dioramas, uh, Grant Mayberry of the Classic FC, who's going to be speaking on figure painting, and then Brett Prusso, who's goes by Hammerhead Model Making. He's gonna talk about scratch building techniques. And then we're also doing a historical presentation by uh an accomplished author and historian uh named Carl Molesworth, who's actually a member of our club on P40s. He's written about 16 or 17 books, most of which on P40s. So we hope that's gonna add another component that people are gonna enjoy.

Kentucky Dave 53:05

Well, I'd I really love to see that. I'm I'm thrilled that you're doing that, and I can't wait to hear how how well it's received.

James Morando 53:16

Well, you know, I'm curious uh about you guys. You go to a lot of shows. I mean, what do you think makes a model show really memorable?

Mike 53:23

Well, oh well, Mike, do you want to I'll let you go for it? I'll speak for you, Dave. It is the social interactions we have with other modelers, be it through conversations about the podcast, which is usually what we get into just by nature of what we do right now. But it's not uncommon that we talk, you know, another modeler about something we have in common or a particular project they're working on. You know what? A lot of the shows we do, I think you're you're right, it's it's a lot harder to do that because it's hard to find the people.

Kentucky Dave 53:52

Right.

Mike 53:53

Um for for a technical discussion about a particular subject. And and then uh to pile onto that, we have our core group of friends that we kind of we have a travel entourage. There's just that's the best way to describe it, wouldn't you say, Dave? Okay. And I don't mean they're like subservient to us, I mean that that they are they are our our our core group of of friends who we meet on this. And you know, now we're sharing accommodations and and doing all our meals together, so that just really doubles down on the uh social aspect, but maybe just for a a smaller core group of people who we who we know a little bit better. But fundamentally, you know, we all like the models, we we all like the vendors, we all like the raffles, we all like the seminars, but I think fundamentally, if you can't share that experience with other people and have a mutual enjoyment, it just doesn't mean as much. So I think you guys are on to the to to the to the right formula here.

Kentucky Dave 54:51

Well, and let me build on that because Mike was talking about, and you were talking about the way you're building your exhibition that you know you can easily locate the modeler whose stuff you're interested in and want to talk to them about. Mike and I have at the Nationals found models that we're really interested in and ended up finding the modelers. And Ed Bareth, Jake McKee, a whole bunch of guys that we've talked to on the podcast, where our relationship started because we were at a show and we found their models interesting and we went and found them. But it was really hard to do sometimes, and sometimes it just happened by accident because it wasn't built the way you all are doing it, where you're making it much more easy to identify the modeler with the model so you can seek that person out, especially at a post-show gathering.

James Morando 56:00

Yeah, that's and that's really interesting to hear that from you both. Yeah, I think part of this is driving is because the hobby is changing and and social media's changed things. Uh you know, every day you can look on the dojo and see, you know, incredible models by people. So model shows aren't any longer the sole point of exposure where you can see high-level work. And now I think when people are going to a show, they're becoming more interested in the interaction and having conversations and learning from others there.

Mike 56:32

That's a really interesting point.

Kentucky Dave 56:33

Yes, that is. That is a very good, and not just because I agree with it.

Mike 56:41

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

James Morando 56:59

Well, I don't know if it's changing, but I do want to just mention our our silent auction efforts. I mean, at our last show, we, you know, part of our cult club culture is to find ways throughout our hobby to gift back. And we did something for the Help Heal Veterans Organization at the last show. This time we chose a local charity, the local foster parents association, who do terrific work for kids who are in tough circumstances. And so we've got donations to put on the silent auction. We hope people will support that. That's an important part of our show as far as we're concerned. So I wanted to mention that.

Kentucky Dave 57:38

Well, you know what? That's I love I love to see that. And a lot of times, uh if the local club is doing something for charity, it's either veteran-related or military related. And it's kind of nice to see a club reach beyond that and just choose a charity or an organization that is doing social good in the community that is not necessarily related to veterans or modeling or anything like that, but just something that that's going to improve the overall community.

James Morando 58:16

Yes, totally agree with that. That's a really good point. You know, I don't mean to also underemphasize the evaluation part of the show. We're actually calling it a juried evaluation, taking Chef Payne's uh term, really. Yeah. Um we take the the evaluation part of the process very seriously, too. And we're we've been achieved our goal this year, which we set out at the outset of having a pre-selected and invited uh team of jurors, as we're calling them, including many from outside our local area. So we've already got that set up and we've sent them all uh written evaluation standards and judging a guide so they can study them ahead of time. Now, on the day of, they'll be organized in teams by genre as they go through each modeler's work. So the armor team will look at the armor work and so on. And then our head judge, Randy Baumgartner, who was on the call when we talked a year and a half ago, he'll be our head judge again this year.

Kentucky Dave 59:20

I like the the term jurors and juried rather than judged because I I do think that communicates that the that what we're doing is at least in some ways an art form and most art displays or or I don't want to say contest, but most art exhibitions are juried and that's as opposed to judged.

James Morando 59:51

Yeah. You know, back to the point we touched on about sort of the the changing aspects of the hobby and our intentionality in terms of how we've designed this. Your most recent guest, who I was just before we started, I was commenting on how fascinating the discussion with Jake McKea was about AI and so forth. But Jake just published an article that a really thoughtful piece on designing events around philosophy rather than just running contests. And a lot of what he talked about are, you know, connection, mentorship, and so forth, they're very aligned with what we're trying to do.

Mike 1:00:31

Yep. Let's get the the W's again before we break off here and let us know where when the show is and where this show is and what this show is.

James Morando 1:00:40

Okay. So it's on Saturday, April 11th in Petaluma, California, at the Petaluma Community Center from nine to four. And I'd just say if you're curious about a different kind of show experience, we'd welcome you there so you can come and see for see it for yourself. And we we think what we're trying to build about connection and learning and community is something that when you're in the room, you're really going to feel the difference.

Mike 1:01:08

Well, James, it's been a real pleasure to have you guys back for a second time. I know it's it's been well be two years since your last show by by the time this is all wrapped up on your end. Thanks for joining us again. And it's just I'm really curious, and I hope you guys will let us know either through the dojo or emails back to Dave and I about how this went down, how it was received, and hopefully get some kind of hobby press about it in some fashion that this is kind of a a sea change for the way shows could be conducted going forward.

Kentucky Dave 1:01:39

And please have somebody take pictures and post in the dojo.

James Morando 1:01:43

Well, thank you very much for having us and for helping us get the word out about what we're trying to do and this expo. And absolutely, we'll be posting on the dojo and reporting on how this all goes. It's you know, it's a bit of an experiment, in fact. So we'll be we'll be looking forward to seeing how it goes and then reporting.

Mike 1:02:03

Thanks. All right, James. We'll let you get back to your show planning. Thank you. I would really like to see what they're doing catch on a few more places.

Kentucky Dave 1:02:15

Yep, you and me both. I would really like to see that show, having heard about it. Yeah, I think that's just a great concept. I would love to see that concept spread.

Mike 1:02:26

So we see it a little bit at Chicago?

Kentucky Dave 1:02:28

Yes. That's probably the closest analog you and I experience.

Mike 1:02:33

And then Scott Gentry's uh Rocky Mountain Model Expo is kind of a similar vein. I think they the wine country ones kind of modeled after that, after they went to that show. And they were doing something similar before that, but I think they really honed in on the exhibition style uh presentation of the entries. So it's gonna be a cool thing.

Kentucky Dave 1:02:52

Yeah, they cranked it up to 11.

Mike 1:02:54

They did. Now we need somebody down our neck of the woods to try this.

Kentucky Dave 1:02:58

Yep.

Mike 1:03:00

Well, Dave, that is all we got for Model Show Spotlight. What do you think about show season so far?

Kentucky Dave 1:03:05

I I can't wait, man. I'm itching the first one you and I are going to is HeritageCon, and man, I cannot wait to get to a show.

Mike 1:03:13

Well, folks, that's where we're headed at the end of this week. This is gonna drop early the week we're leaving. So hopefully I have some great stuff to tell you about HeritageCon this year, and we'll catch you next time, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 1:03:24

Maybe we'll do a little recording on the road.