Inside The 2026 IPMS USA National Convention Plan: Model Show Spotlight

You can feel when a Nationals is being built with real intention and Fort Wayne is making that case early. We sit down with John Figueroa, chair of the 2026 IPMS USA National Convention, and treasurer Dave Mason to get the behind-the-scenes look at what’s coming to the Grand Wayne Convention Center in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 5 through 8. The big headline: they’re not doing this with one club grinding for four days. They’ve assembled 11 clubs across Region 4 to share the workload, share the payoff, and still have time to enjoy the convention like everyone else.

We dig into the attendee essentials: a vendor room on the scale you expect from IPMS Nationals (about 426 vendor tables with only a few left), plus a seminar schedule that runs from beginner to advanced. Expect practical topics like scale model photography and lighting, CAD, Silhouette and Cricut paint masks, and weathering for dioramas, along with subject-focused sessions and special interest group guidance. If you come to Nationals to learn new techniques, this lineup is designed to keep you moving from room to room.

Then we get into the “why” behind their choices. John explains a deliberate push to welcome more genres, so automotive, ships, sci-fi, and Gundam builders feel just as at home as aircraft and armor modelers. That shows up in theme awards, custom decal sheets, and a raffle they treat as one of the three core pillars of the show, with plans that even let you check results online. We also talk logistics that matter: online pre-registration is open, it’s $55, pre-registration closes June 30, and on-site registration jumps to $65. Finally, Fort Wayne adds a unique capstone: an awards ceremony in the restored Embassy Theatre connected by skywalk.

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2026 IPMS National Convention - Fort Wayne, IN

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Transcript

Sponsor And Quick Shoutouts

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.

Weather Talk And Recent Show Buzz

Kentucky Dave 0:36

I am. I am. I'm doing okay. How about you?

Mike 0:40

Uh I can't complain.

Kentucky Dave 0:41

It's uh I would appreciate it if it would stop raining.

Mike 0:45

Uh it did stop raining in Lexington. Uh may it may rain this evening, but I don't think we're supposed to have much tomorrow. And uh there's a couple days coming up that we might get some more. But yeah, we were in drought until Thursday. And Friday. It's been Noah like ever since. Sunday. It's just been raining and raining and raining. But uh we've only gotten too much in a few areas of the state.

Kentucky Dave 1:10

Yeah, well, of course, just when I get my pool open, then the rain comes.

Mike 1:16

Oh, sun will come out and be good and green again.

Kentucky Dave 1:18

It will be. Yeah. Oh, believe me, I'm working on it every day to try and keep it from going that direction.

Mike 1:26

Well, it didn't look like it rained on the Rocky Mountain Model Expo. I've been seeing a lot of posts from that. It's like Scott's team uh had a banger of a show, so glad to see that.

Kentucky Dave 1:36

And uh I I am too. I talked to Jim Bates in the last couple of days, and it apparently went off really, really well. So I'm I'm thrilled for Scott and his team out there. I like the concept they've got going, and and I'm more than pleased to see it uh succeeding and growing.

Mike 1:56

Well, uh hopefully that'll catch on, and maybe something out here on the east side of the country might take up the mantle. And heck, Dave, maybe a Smoky Mountain model expo.

Kentucky Dave 2:06

There you go. But hey, we we we got a fairly large show coming up uh in our area of the country, don't we?

Why Fort Wayne Is On Deck

Mike 2:15

We do in the Midwest in August. We uh have the IPMS National Convention coming up in uh in August, like I just said, there. And we had an opportunity to speak to a couple of team members there on the on the show committee and just had a nice conversation. So won't we let folks hear what's going on with the Nats planning and what they can expect for that show? Let's do it.

Meet The 2026 Nationals Leadership

Mike 2:41

Dave Summers here, and it's getting close to that time of year again. We're gearing up for the IPMS National Convention.

Kentucky Dave 2:48

Yeah, my hands are starting to itch already. I can tell it's close to convention time.

Mike 2:55

And we got a couple of gentlemen here tonight from the planning team, the Fort Wayne group up there. Won't you guys introduce yourselves and let's get this ball rolling about uh what kind of show you're gonna put on?

John Figueroa 3:05

Uh my name is John Figueroa. I'm the chairman for the uh 2026 IPMS USA National Convention in Fort Wayne. We're gonna be at the Grand Wayne Convention Center, which is right smack downtown Fort Wayne. And downtown Fort Wayne's maybe six blocks by seven blocks. I mean, you can walk from kitty corner from one end to the other in about 20, 25 minutes, depending on how fast you walk. So it's very walkable. You know, being downtown is nice. There's parking garages there. You can come in, and if you got a hotel downtown, park your car, you may not even need to get in your car again for the whole time. There are a lot of places to go and things to do, but you know, there's certainly more than you can do in four days downtown.

Kentucky Dave 3:53

Well, we're looking forward to that part of it. Well, John, you were the madman who put this thing together. This is kind of different from a from many of the past national conventions. I mean, you've got how many clubs directly with manpower participating and supporting this show?

John Figueroa 4:13

Well, we've got 11 clubs, all in Region Four. Steve Bacon from the Roscoe Turner chapter in Indianapolis and I were talking one day about four years ago. And Steve just off the cuff mentioned to me, he said, I'd really like to do a nationals. And I told him, I've always wanted to do one, I'd like to do one too. And that started it. And so, you know, we took it to our club. We were trying to get under the wire to get the bid in for 2024. We were gonna go up against uh Madison. And uh we got the bid together, but by the time we got it, you know, I spent like every waking hour I had for three weeks getting this bid together. And then we took it to our club at the club meeting, and the bid's due in a week. So we put the club on the spot, you know, and said, Hey, we gotta, you know, have an answer tonight. And they're freaking out. They're saying, Well, we don't know, you know, what are you asking us to do? How much time is it? And then I didn't have any answers, you know. So the the club, you know, turned us down. And you know, I'm not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing, you know. They they weren't gonna sign up for something they didn't know about. So we backed up and we uh we talked about it. We said, you know what, where did we go wrong? And one of the things that they really were concerned about is, you know, how much effort is involved? How how how many hours, you know, volunteer hours are we talking about? And I had no idea. I, you know, I asked many, many people, including former chairs, and they, you know, they all had guesses, but they were saying, well, you know, I don't know really, but I would think maybe about, but nothing was even close, I don't think. So, you know, long story short, we decided

The 11 Club Hosting Model

John Figueroa 6:05

we wanted to expand the because it, you know, if you split the profits and one club gets, and I'm just gonna pull that number out of my uh out of the air, but let's say twenty twenty thousand dollars. Uh no club needs twenty thousand dollars in in their treasury, I at least in my opinion, right?

Kentucky Dave 6:25

Right, it can cause as many problems as it solves.

John Figueroa 6:29

Exactly. So and then the the the flip side of that is that these guys are working 16 hours a day for four days, right? Because they got one club doing it. Right. So we figured, well, you know what? Let's get we were shooting for 10 clubs, and uh it took me a year. I put a PowerPoint pitch together, and we went out on the road, we went to 15 different club meetings, and we had 11 club bite and and join up. So then once we did that, we were you know on our way and we talked with John Bonani and then Scott Hackney as the second VPs, and got the ball rolling. So with 11 clubs, everybody does a little bit of work and you get a little bit of money for your treasury, but nobody has to work the whole convention. You know, they can go and enjoy though the convention that's in their own backyard. So we thought that was a pretty good, you know, uh paradigm to shoot for. And I'm not sure that anybody else that I know of has ever had that many clubs. I'm I'm not saying there wasn't, but I don't know of anyone that ever did.

Kentucky Dave 7:39

I think the record is like maybe three, possibly four. Four.

John Figueroa 7:45

That's what I'm thinking too.

Kentucky Dave 7:46

And I'll be honest with you, John. I'm not so sure this isn't kind of a wave of the future because the the national convention has gotten so big and and is is labor. It's not labor, well, it's not as labor-intense in the planning coming up to it, but it has become more labor intense for the four days of the actual show. And so I'm not so sure that what you that you came upon, having more than two or three clubs do it, isn't really the the way to go in the future.

John Figueroa 8:28

Steve and I were the same, we were saying it's probably gonna be the new paradigm. Uh I don't have a crystal ball, but I if I was gonna do it again, uh which I'm not because I'm 70 years old, you know, if I did it again, I'd be 75. So I'm not gonna do it again. But it's not because I don't want to do it. You know, I'm I'm having a great time doing this because I've got, you know, a lot of these chairs have the best guys from you know, a club or three or four clubs, right? But I've got the best guys from 11 clubs working this. So, you know, I did a I was at Model Classic uh Fairfax, Virginia, doing a roadshow for the convention. And uh we did uh a podcast with uh the model geeks, and you know, they would ask me questions, and I had to laugh and say, you know, I don't know, I I can't answer that question because that you know, that's one of my guys that's doing that, and these guys are like autonomous, you know. These guys are guys that get up and they do something, they tell you they're gonna do something, they do it, they get it done. You don't have to worry about it. Right. The best guys from 11 clubs working in the the 14 different positions that we had as leadership positions. So it's been pretty, pretty good. Not that I haven't been busier in a Fleetta Cat dimension, but I can't I can't imagine if I didn't have that many guys that I could trust. I don't know how these other guys do it with one or two or three clubs, I'll tell you. It's I wouldn't want to do it.

Kentucky Dave 9:57

So when is the show?

John Figueroa 10:00

It's five through seven, I'm sorry, five through eight August.

Kentucky Dave 10:04

Okay. And it starts on like a Wednesday at noon or three o'clock or something like that.

John Figueroa 10:13

Well, we we opened registration at 10 and we opened the the uh convention at one. Gotcha. Uh on Wednesday, yes. And it's yeah, it as far as I know, that's the the the paradigm, is the way to say through Saturday. I I've never seen a convention that wasn't, you know, in that format.

Mike 10:31

Yeah, and Wednesday used to be kind of a a travel, almost a throwaway day. Yeah, and now it's it's it's morphed into a kind of a don't miss if you if you can help it kind of uh extra day. So glad it's gotten filled up with uh at least good access, and now there's actually quite a bit to see on Wednesday, either well, no matter where you are at the show.

Roadshow Strategy And Outreach

Mike 10:54

What else uh you mentioned the roadshow. Let's talk about that a little bit because that's I've seen like at the the at a national convention in the past, the the team who's got the bid for the for the coming year is often set up at the the national convention year prior to the one they're they're hosting, and that's that's a pretty common thing because they're probably at the convention anyway for their own enjoyment. But what you guys have done, uh and I know because I keep seeing you or some of your minions out at every show I've been to in the last 12 months, including our show in Louisville. So you guys have get gotten around, so I guess you got a bunch of retirement. We saw two of your team at Amps last month. Yep. And you just mentioned another show you're at on the road show. What kind of effort's that taken? What's it been like pulling that off?

John Figueroa 11:44

Well, you know, Steve and I talked about this quite yeah, and Steve Bacon is the uh vice chair for the uh convention. So he and I kind of uh started this, and when we talked about it, I was really impressed with in 2019, I was the president of uh Northern Virginia Modelers in Fairfax. And Mike Moore, who was a good friend of mine and Lynn Petty from Chattanooga, asked us if they could get a table at our show to do a roadshow. And I said, Well, what are you gonna do? And he explained it to me and you know what they were doing. And I thought, oh, that's a great idea. So we kind of borrowed that from them, but I think we've, you know, I talked to Mike since and he told me, he says, man, you guys are sure doing a lot more than than we ever did. Like I said, I'm retired, I've got the resources, you know, to to do it. So, you know, Nora and I have, you know, we drove down to Austin, Texas. We've drove, we've driven down to Tampa, we've gone to Atlanta twice, we've gone to where New Hampshire, and just all over Rochester, Minnesota. We've gone to Virginia, we've uh several Northern Virginia moders uh in Fairfax, the uh show in Richmond, uh Odeo, the uh uh what is it, Old Dominion Open?

Kentucky Dave 13:07

Old Dominion Open.

John Figueroa 13:08

Yeah, uh great show, and that is a great show. And uh so we've gone kind of all over the place doing this stuff. I wouldn't ever expect anybody to do that, but to me, this is my bucket list kind of thing. You know, like I said, as soon as Steve said I want to do a uh nationals, I said, Yeah, so do I. I've always wanted to do one, and it's you know, I'm gonna check this off. So I'm putting everything I have into it. And you know, I understand that other people may not be able to do that, and that's fine. But some of my guys, we've done sometimes three in one weekend, we've done three road shows, you know, three shows model shows. Yeah. And I I think we've done about 25 model shows this year.

Kentucky Dave 13:54

That's amazing. That is that that is amazing.

Mike 13:57

Well, let's let's pivot here and get Dave in.

Dave Mason 14:00

Yep.

Mike 14:01

Introduce yourself, Dave.

Dave Mason 14:02

Yeah, Dave Mason, the treasurer for this weekend getaway. Uh yeah, John snagged me at San Marcos at the Nationals there and kind of talked me into it. And I'm still here with all these different clubs. It's actually running fairly smooth. All right.

Kentucky Dave 14:24

Well, I'll I'll tell you the treasurer's job for a national convention has gotten a whole lot easier than it used to be, and I'm sure it's still tons of work for you. But with the national organization taking over more and more of the back-end financial and administrative stuff, the treasurer job used to be just an absolute misery. So, how's it been for you?

Dave Mason 14:54

It's the you're running interference

Vendors And Seminar Lineup

Dave Mason 14:57

between the guys that want to spend money and the national that pays for it.

John Figueroa 15:02

So it's I have to uh sure that would be that would be me, the guy that wants to spend money.

Dave Mason 15:10

Yeah, it's that sounds about right. Is it really necessary or you know, can't we do that? So you're a filter. Yeah, I it's the is it necessary or is it just something we want? Yeah.

John Figueroa 15:24

Mm-hmm.

Dave Mason 15:24

It's been going. I've been enjoying it. I know the with the electronics and stuff, it's gonna be uh as the future goes on, it's gonna be less and less of a strenuous job and more of during the show itself job.

Mike 15:37

Two things that other than the contest that are kind of the primary draw for folks at the conventions is certainly the the vendor landscape and then the the seminar docket. So what's gonna be going on there? What's it what's it looking like? We sold out yet?

John Figueroa 15:54

Well, the vendor tables, we I think we got like 426 vendor tables, and we've got like 12 left. All right. Do you want to talk about the seminars?

Dave Mason 16:08

Yeah, I got uh we got a full schedule for seminars from the basics of scale model photography, so you you can get the lighting and how to photograph your models so they're presentable to submit to magazines online, whatever. There's a Gundam, the basics of Gundam, CAD. We've got CAD and there's Silhouette Cricut, a seminar on how to do your own paint masks. There's quite a few. We got a special one for the Star Trek 60th anniversary, the special interest groups. There's a seminar on those for the people that don't know what they are and how to set them up and keep them going. And we've got some workshops at all the paid workshops are already sold out, the Grecks, and there's a couple others. We've got weathering for creating dioramas and vignettes. There's a seminar on the Omaha Beach to do a diorama of that. Anything in between from the basics to the advanced, we've got a seminar covering it.

Kentucky Dave 17:19

Well, I I'm glad to hear that. I, as you, as you may know if you listen to the podcast, I am a huge advocate for the seminars at the nationals and even at regional and local shows as well. I just think that they are some of the best things at the convention, and so many people don't know about them. So I'm glad that you all have devoted some time and energy to getting not only a lot of seminars, but a lot of wide-ranging seminars as far as subjects, as far as skill level, interest level, etc., so that there's bound to be a seminar of interest to somebody.

John Figueroa 18:09

Yeah, we've got the full list up on the website.

Dave Mason 18:11

Yeah. If you can't find a seminar that suits your interests, turn the page.

Mike 18:17

There's or schedule your own.

Dave Mason 18:20

Yeah, there's I mean the only issue that I see is there's a couple that I'd like to attend to, but they're the same time and the same day. I gotta make a choice of which which room I'm going to.

Kentucky Dave 18:32

Yep, that always happens, Dave. That just always happens.

Mike 18:36

When we're doing these local and regional shows, we always try to ask what if there's anything special or unique. Now we know a lot of what's encompassed with the IPMS nationals, and a lot of folks don't uh expand on that too much. Is is the Fort Dwayne show got anything new that we can anticipate enjoying?

Raffle Focus And Genre Inclusion

John Figueroa 18:56

When we had our first meetings, you know, we we have planning meetings twice a month, and then we have a leadership meeting once a month. We wanted to push the envelope, you know, but we wanted it to be still recognizable as an IPMS convention. But you know, we were we wanted to try and do some some new things. One of the things that I think is gonna go over very big is the uh the raffle. You know, Steve and I are kind of like brothers from another mother, you know what I mean? We we we're real good friends, we hang out, we talk a lot, we use each other's sounding boards. And he told me once, real early in this process, and I I talk about this a lot, so people have probably heard this before, but for those who haven't, he compared the uh IPMS Nationals to a three-ring circus. You know, he says, a three-ring circus has got three rings, and IPMS Nationals has got the contest, the vendors, and the raffle. He said, those are the three rings. He says, Everything else is a sideshow, it's it's important, but it's you know, you have to have the three rings. And so, in that vein, we we approached your club to the uh military modelers of Louisville to run our raffle for us because uh you guys run an outstanding raffle. We have pumped a lot of money into the raffle to get a lot of really good kits in there. In fact, we you know, Scale Reproductions is doing a lot for us. They're basically sponsoring our raffle, they're getting us kits at cost so that we can get good kits and a lot of them. And Alex Restrepo, who's uh uh the our raffle coordinator, you know, came in at because we gave him a budget. And he came in and said, Well, we're gonna come in under budget. I said, No, I don't want you to come in under budget. I said, Spend it all. Yeah, because he said, Well, we're gonna have about $500, you know, $600 left. Well, but it was in, you know, it's already in the budget. And I told him, I said, look, if you don't have anything else to buy, I said, I want you to buy uh $600 worth of or whatever you got left of Gundam kits because I want those in the raffle, because I want our Gundam friends to go and tell their friends, you should have seen all the Gundams they had the raffle. We're trying to real hard to reach out to I'm choosing my words carefully because I'm not trying to throw shade on anyone or anything. We're just you know trying to do the best we can. But that you know, there are some under traditionally under, I don't know how to say appreciated or something, you know, genres, you know. Uh sure. Sure. I got tired of hearing people say, oh no, I don't go to IPMS, you know, the International Plane Modeler Society. And and it just drives me up the wall because we're a modeling group, not an aircraft group. I I'm an aircraft modeler. I'm a An armor model. I do a lot of stuff, but my real love is aircraft. But we're already tied in with all the aircraft guys and all the tank guys, you know, the armor guys. But the auto guys, the ship guys, the Gundam guys, the all the sci-fi, we need to embrace them and bring them in. And that's what we're really trying to do. And in that vein, every convention has like five theme awards. And if you look at our theme awards, we got Happy Birthday America, which is a figure award. We've got the 60th anniversary of Star Wars, which is sci-fi. Star Trek. We've got I'm sorry, yeah. Yeah, Star Trek. Did I say Star Wars? Yeah. Shows it shows what I know about it. That's an extra. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. We've got the 110th anniversary of Battle of Juck for the ship guys. We've got International Harvester, you know, Chuck Town USA, because International Harvester and GE were like the heart of Port Wayne for you know half a century. They built this town and and they're both gone now. But we still, you know, International Harvester is one of our theme awards. And so we there's no there's no theme award for military at all, any military subjects, or for there's no armor or no aircraft in in those five. Now we do have some that are sponsored by individuals, like Nora, my wife Nora, and I sponsored one a theme award for the best auxiliary, amphibi, or aircraft carrier. So it's a you know a Navy one. John Fluck, our vendor coordinator, he is sponsoring. He's a Marine Corvette, and he's sponsoring best USMC subject. Round two is sponsoring the best round two subject. This guy, uh Adam David Stevenson in Texas, called me and he wanted to do All American Red, White, and Blue because he won that theme award in Madison. And he wanted to, he's, you know, he told me he says, I want to pay back, you know, to IPMS. And so I want to do the same award, and you know, he's gonna buy, you know, he is gonna buy the the plaque or whatever the award he's gonna have for it and present it. So we've got uh a lot of stuff that you know, if you look at our logo too, it was intentional that there's nothing military on that logo. And again, I I spent 20 years in the Navy. I spent 25 years supporting the Navy as a federal civil servant. So 45 years of my life I've spent with the Navy. So, you know, it's not that I I don't like the military, but it's just that there are underserved genres that we're trying to reach out to. And so it was a very calculated, very deliberate decision. You got anything on on that, Dave?

Dave Mason 25:04

Well, it's like the the international that covers, you know, it could be military, as they were a big supporter in World War II. They made a whole lot more than I ever thought they did. Between the trucks, the tractors, scouts, the civilian and military versions of the travel all and scouts. There's plenty of models, the resin aftermarket. There's plenty oddball models, is just uh some of the genres that never get a whole lot of attention anywhere, but there's a lot of interest in it. So it we'll give it a chance this time to highlight

Pre Registration And Special Decals

Dave Mason 25:40

them.

Kentucky Dave 25:40

John, yes, the last thing you want to do when you go to a national convention is stand in line forever for registration. So can people register online?

John Figueroa 25:56

Absolutely. In fact, it's been open since March 1st. If you go up to the IPMS USA, it's got a link right there, or you can go to my IPMS USA, and there's a link there also. You can go up to our website and there's a link. So it's easy to get up there, and it's $55, and it's been $55 for years and years and years. We we haven't raised it. Pre-registration closes on June 30th. So we got a month and a half left on pre-registration. But if you don't pre-register and you register at the convention, it's gonna cost you $65 at the at the uh convention to register.

Kentucky Dave 26:37

And it's gonna cost you time.

John Figueroa 26:39

And time, right, because you're gonna be standing in line, like you said, standing in line at in the hallway there, you know, at by the booth uh with whoever else is in front of you, you know, to register when you could do it online.

Kentucky Dave 26:52

You know, meanwhile, meanwhile, all the smart people who pre-registered are gonna be in the vendor room buying up all the deals that you wanted to get, but you didn't because you failed to pre-register.

John Figueroa 27:06

Well, that, yeah, it's a little harsh, but yeah.

Kentucky Dave 27:12

I'm all about incentive. Get people to pre-register.

John Figueroa 27:16

Yeah, I I agree with you. I agree with you. And uh, you know, one of the other innovations that we talked about, and I'm gonna let Dave talk about this because this is his his baby, but we're gonna have a a decal, you know, sheet on it's gonna be uh some World War II Aces, Indiana Aces, that we put together. And but we also have another decal sheet that Dave was adamant that he wanted to get put together, and he's done a fantastic job. He sent me the artwork last week, and it I I think it's amazing. But Dave, you want to go ahead and talk about that decal sheet?

Dave Mason 27:54

Well, we kind of catered towards the commercial automotive side on the secondary sheet. You know, we've got placards, we've got international door decals or mud flap decals, we've got aftermarket gauges for the hot rods, the police fire, the municipality for Fort Wayne. We've got decals for those for future builds. It's just something that the automotive, other than a police car decal or a Corvette decal here and there throughout the past nationals, there hasn't been a whole lot of automotive.

Mike 28:31

I would say that's true.

Dave Mason 28:33

We're gonna make up for that on this secondary.

Kentucky Dave 28:37

I think that's a great idea.

Dave Mason 28:39

We had it in the budget. Like John says, the clubs don't need all the money, so let's provide something that's unique and nobody else is done.

Kentucky Dave 28:47

Well, that sounds great.

Mike 28:50

What's left to talk about, guys? We're gonna be coming up there in August, and it sounds like the vendor room's gonna be hopping. The raffle's gonna be busting at the seams, and the seminar docket is pretty stinking full. I guess I'd like to hear one more bit of what you say, good news about the walkability of the city and what folks can expect for uh a little nightlife and dining

Downtown Food And Embassy Theatre Awards

Mike 29:10

and something like that. Is that gonna be easy for us?

John Figueroa 29:12

Oh, yeah. They uh if you uh go up on our Facebook page, I've posted many, many posts on places to eat. There's like 60 places to eat downtown. We're not gonna do a banquet. The hard truth is that we really didn't have room. We barely had enough room to really do the convention justice. I mean, we we've got enough to do that. But I I didn't want to throw vendors out of a room, you know, on Saturday morning so that we could set up for the banquet.

Kentucky Dave 29:47

Well, you were lucky to have a convention space that didn't require it.

John Figueroa 29:52

Yes, yes, absolutely. Because a lot of times guys have to do a convention because they got $30,000 in food and beverage they got to cover. Right. Where we did we didn't have that. So, yes, we were very, very fortunate for that in that case. The other thing that I would like to mention is the embassy theater. We are going to do our awards ceremony in the embassy theater. It's right across the street. You don't even have to go outside. You can go from the convention center, you get on the escalator, you go up the escalator, past the tiger meet room, go across the skywalk, down the stairs, and you're in the theater. So the embassy theater opened in 1928. It is an amazing piece of architecture, and it's been you know restored to its, you know, all its grandeur, and it's gonna be, in my estimation, five years from now, when people talk about the Fort Wayne Convention, that's what I think that's what they're gonna say. They go, Oh yeah, that theater. Remember that theater that they had, the awards theater? Uh you know, it's 2,500 seats in the theater, so nobody has to, you know, sit in uh another room and watch it on a screen or something. You know, there's more than enough room for everybody, just probably on the main floor, but you know, we got the balcony also, so it's gonna it's gonna be pretty cool. I think that's gonna be the crown jewel or you know, of the convention for us.

Kentucky Dave 31:18

Well, I can't wait to see it. I've seen pictures of the theater, and it is amazingly impressive. I mean, it's been restored beautifully. I can't wait for all of the convention goers to see that theater and to sit through the award ceremony in the theater.

John Figueroa 31:37

Yeah, it's an amazing place.

Kentucky Dave 31:39

Back

Final Thoughts And Register Soon

Kentucky Dave 31:40

in.

Mike 31:40

Well, John and Dave, thanks a lot for agreeing to come on and giving us the opportunity to feature the national convention. We've been a couple conventions, Kentucky, Dave, since we've had a big feature on I think we did it last year. We let somebody else had kind of done it and we just let it go with that. But we are really looking forward to this one because our own club's involved. We're really excited about this multi-club involvement across the board. You guys have been doing this roadshow, even to a bigger degree that I realized you were doing it. I I natural assumption would be that you were doing maybe at most one show a week because just you just had two or three people going. But it sounds like uh you guys have been spit splitting up the shows and had a lot of people going to a lot of places. So you guys have certainly put in the legwork to get the the word out in person. I think it's a great location in the country to have a show of this size because it's a commutable distance for a whole lot of people that's not not too far away. We Dave and I have driven a long way to these things. I'm sure you guys have too. Finally, we got one in the back out the back door, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 32:43

Yep. Yep. Uh guys, I'm looking, as you know, there is no bigger supporter of the IPMS USA convention than yours, truly. So I am really, really looking forward to this one.

John Figueroa 32:57

Well, thanks for having us on, guys, because this is gonna reach a lot of people, you know. It so it's serving as kind of a roadshow, and I didn't have to drive 12 hours. So I appreciate that.

Kentucky Dave 33:09

We're happy to lift the burden, John.

Dave Mason 33:12

Yep.

Mike 33:13

Yep. Thank you too, Dave. Let's see, you got any parting words?

Dave Mason 33:16

Well, uh just uh pay attention to the right raffle. We're gonna have some unusual, uh unique opportunities there. And we're it's also gonna be online to where you don't have to go stand and block the hallway to check your numbers. You can check it on your phone or on the laptop in your room.

Kentucky Dave 33:35

That's great.

Mike 33:36

All right. Well, we'll let you guys get back to your show planning and promotion and glad to have you. And we'll see you in Fort Wayne in a few months. Thanks a lot, guys. You're welcome.

Kentucky Dave 33:44

Thanks, Kevin.

Mike 33:49

Well, they're certainly doing the legwork to have a terrific show.

Kentucky Dave 33:52

I I'm telling you what, I am really thrilled. I think the show's gonna be off the hook. They really, I mean, John and his, he's built a team around him, and they are really working their butts off, I can tell you. And I'm anxious to see this. I'm anxious to see the changes and developments. I think there are some great ideas that are gonna come out of this show. So if you haven't made plans to be there the first week of August, guys, get make your plans now. Registration closes in 30 days.

Mike 34:32

That's right. So I should probably register.

Kentucky Dave 34:35

You and me both.

Mike 34:37

Well, let's take care of that soon.

Kentucky Dave 34:39

You got it.

June Spotlight PAMSCon In Florida

Mike 34:45

Well, this is the the model show spotlight. We typically would we would have built it as the June model show spotlight, but we had an opportunity to talk to the Nats team there, as you just heard. I did get a June show coming just under the wire, Dave. Today, in fact, here on Memorial Day, we got this from the who's this from? It's from the Polk Area Modelers Models Society down in kind of the central Florida area, I guess.

Kentucky Dave 35:09

Yep, they are. It's a great group of modelers. I know a number of them, and uh really good group of modelers.

Mike 35:17

Well, they're gonna be celebrating the 250 years of the brave, the bold, and the beautiful United States of America at their PAMSCon, which is coming up June 27th, at the Tico Expo Hall in Plant City, Florida. And uh looks like a a pretty standard IPMS affair. He sent me the flyers here, and I will get some links in the show notes to this show. So if you're in Florida in July, or excuse me, in June, you can take in a show there. There's a lot of shows down there typically. So I don't think we've fit featured this one before.

Kentucky Dave 35:52

No, and who wouldn't want to be in Florida in June? I mean, prime vacation time, man.

Mike 35:59

Again, that's gonna be the PAMSCon in Plant City, Florida on June 27th, 2026. Well, Dave, that's all I got for the model show Spotlight, and I'm really looking forward to uh the national convention seeing all our friends again, and uh it's gonna be a good time, man.

Kentucky Dave 36:15

Yep, we're gonna have a great time.

Mike 36:18

All right, man. Well, we need to get some modeling done, dude. Yeah, we do. All right, well, let's go for it.

Kentucky Dave 36:23

You got it. Take care.