¶ Chattanooga Model Con Show Spotlight
Merry Christmas listeners and Merry Christmas to you , dave .
Merry Christmas listeners . Merry Christmas to you , mike .
Well , dave , we got a couple of shout outs for some shows coming up , because , no matter how good your family is when it's all said and done , come day after Christmas you may wish you were somewhere else .
That's always a possibility . I'll tell you what struck . We are already spotlighting shows in 2025 . Do you realize how close 2025 is ?
Maybe a week and a couple days , something like that .
I mean , doesn't it seem like we just sat down to plan out 2024 ?
We did , and it seemed to fill itself up pretty quickly .
It did , it did and it seemed to fill itself up pretty quickly . It did , it did and I got no complaints . But yeah , I'm starting to look forward to the shows coming up in 2025 .
Well , folks , at least a couple of geographies , at least on the eastern side of the country , are going to get some opportunities in January . Yes , pretty quickly out of the chute are two shows that we're going to spotlight with our show promoters .
The first one is Chattanooga Model Con , which is going to be real soon here in January , and we had their show chairman on for a little chat about the Chattanooga Model Con and let's let folks get educated on that one , dave .
That sounds good .
Well , dave , the model show season is going to get off to a rousing start . We've got two to cover in this episode and the first up one is the Chattanooga Scale Modelers , and we've got Mr Ben Gibby with us tonight from the Chattanooga Club . Ben , how are you doing tonight ?
I'm doing well , how are you doing ?
We're good , good . We hear you've got a show coming up . Yes , we do .
It's coming up in January . On the 10th we're about half a day on the 10th and the 11th we've got all day , basically for the bug part .
Well , that's interesting . Is that normal for your show ? As an IPMS Invitational ? You do a day and a half .
Yeah , we've done two days for as long as I can remember .
I've been with the club since 2014 , and they were doing it before I started Now . Has the show always been this early in the season ?
Yes , that was the decision made way before I got there . I really can't give any logic or reason for it , but it's kind of the first one of the year .
Oh , that's great . Hey , listen , nothing wrong with being first .
Yeah .
People have all that Christmas money . They got to come down and spend it at your vendors .
There you go , and they probably have a malaise from all the holiday activities . Yep , it's a good way to get out for the day . That's right , day and a half actually . Well , where is the show actually held within Chattanooga ? It was at the .
Chattanooga Convention Center , downtown .
Oh , okay , oh , where the Nationals was held .
Yes , the same building .
That is a wonderful facility , I've got to say . I've been to a lot of Nationals and Chattanooga for many reasons , reasons is one of my favorites and that facility is just top notch yes , it is .
We get a lot of very complimentary things said about our show and trying to talk them into doing another one what another national ?
yeah oh , that'd be awesome you .
You would get nothing but cheers from me . I would love to see you all do another national .
It's going to be a hard sell , though we got a lot of people who are .
Oh , come on , I'm sure Mike is just chomping at the bit to be the show chairman at another national .
Well , actually that would fall to me . Mike moved away from us .
Oh , when did he move ?
He moved like three years ago . He's up in North Carolina right now .
Oh is he .
Yeah .
Okay , Well , you could draft him back in . Bring him back in .
We could probably talk him into it .
There you go , there you go . So your show's a day and a half . Yes , it opens at noon on the 10th , or what ?
time on the 10th Roughly noon . Don't let anybody in . If they want to help us with the setup , you can come in early .
There you go , there you go . Is it a classic IPMS-style show with first , second , third and all of the categories ?
We actually do gold , silver , bronze . Okay , is it an ?
open .
Open system gold , silver , bronze , okay yes , we've gotten some negative comments and very positive comments on it , but we're sticking with it because we like it okay , well , that's that .
That's you do . Do what the club likes .
That's the important thing you gotta run to run it .
Yeah , really , you got to run it . So run it the way you like it . What's your vendor setup ? Look like Lord knows . You've got to have plenty of room at that center .
At the moment we're at , 110 tables have been sold for the vendors . That's getting close to the record . I think the record was like 123 a couple years ago .
Wow .
But yeah , we do really well on the vendors . People like coming to us just for that yeah , I can see why yeah now squadron's one of our sponsors are they .
They make your show they have 10 tables . I was about to say how many of those are brandon's yep , always looking forward to brandons . When I was in college I used to come through Chattanooga quite a bit . Yeah , because I had friends that lived in South Middle Tennessee down past that and in the 80s . I don't know how long you've lived there .
I've been here off and on all my life .
Okay , I would say in the 80s , mid-80s , late 80s Chattanooga was kind of in decline , oh yeah , and I guess a lot of their heavy industries had moved out and just a lot of stuff was gone and I don't know when the revitalization started . But it's been a huge success and we go down there to the Tennessee Aquarium about every other year .
In fact we were down there just in the spring because I had a niece getting married down that area and we took a day and went to the aquarium again . But what can you tell folks about downtown Chattanooga now , down around the convention center ?
You got the aquarium . You got all kinds of restaurants . It's a great place to be . Everything's within walking distance of the convention center . We've got the free shuttle that runs . You just find your spot and they'll stop at it and take you pretty much anywhere in town .
Well , isn't there also an auto museum close by ?
Yes , there is , and the name fails me at the moment .
I can't remember it either , but it's .
Coker Tire I think it's Coker Tires . Yes , has a museum .
Yeah , and it's Coker's Tires has a museum . Yeah , and it's an amazing museum .
Yes , I've never been , but I've heard great things and seen lots of pictures .
Oh , it's unbelievable . So I know that I walked by it when I was down there at the 2019 convention . One of the things that impressed me about downtown Chattanooga in 2019 was the number of really nice restaurants that were around . Boy , you've got a really great selection of food and a great variety .
Almost no matter what type of food you like , there's a restaurant in downtown Chattanooga that serves that cuisine .
If you go hungry in Chattanooga , you're not trying hard enough .
Well , and they've got some really good microbreweries .
Yes .
Are you all tied to a particular hotel ? Do you have a deal with a particular hotel ?
Not this year . The prices haven't really been real good , so it's just kind of a fin for yourself , gotcha . The only thing I'm going to say bad about the whole thing .
Well , that's pretty much the industry these days .
Well , I think January in Chattanooga finding a room is not going to be a problem .
Yeah .
Not like June or July , right ? Well , back to the vendors you got . You know , about 10% of your tables are squattering . Any other notables or is it ? As you know , typically we we see a mix of cottage industries , hobby shops , that that sort of thing , and then folks just getting rid of stuff .
yeah , we've got john's models , firehouse hobbies , a lot of local stuff and regional stuff and quite a few actual , just small vendors , one and two man that's a lot of tables , even with a squadron taking 10 of them .
Yeah .
That's one thing I've always been impressed by . Even when I wasn't involved in the club , I went to a couple shows and it's just like , wow , this is the model heaven for me right now .
So when does registration close ? I assume at some point on Saturday .
Model registration stops at noon on Saturday .
Noon on Saturday ? Yes , and then when do you all obviously you judge after that , when do you get the awards done and get the show wrapped up by we ?
try to get the awards out by about four o'clock by . We try to get the awards out by about 4 o'clock .
Okay .
But we're not . We don't always get it because we do have a different judging system . Sure , every model gets looked at , so that can take us a while , but we aim for 4 o'clock , okay , and we start judging Friday night when we get the first registration and we'll go look at those before we close down for the night .
Yeah , that's Chicago . When Mike and I went to the MMSI show in October they did the same thing . They judged the stuff that had come in Friday on Friday , and then stuff that comes in on Saturday on Saturday .
We'd never make it if we didn't have Friday to start judging on .
Gotcha .
Yeah , I have to wonder if that played into the two-day or day-and-a-half decision there . Your judging format .
Honestly , that makes a lot of sense . Mike Moore was just kind of a rebel in the whole thing and wanted to do it a little bit different , so I think it was really his decision . But I like it . A lot of people are very complimentary on it , so we're keeping it .
I think the tide's moving that direction . There were quite a few well , I won't say quite a few , but there was a surprising number of shows that were either new shows who started with that format or have moved to that format . We had a spotlight for a show out in California . I think that's right , dave .
That was going to be an open format show and , yeah , I'd be real curious . Dave and I are trying to do some more shows down in your region this year and I don't know this is tempting . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yes it's very tempting because chad nuga is especially for mike is not not a long drive at all , right , no , no , it's not too bad from lexington .
It's about four hours from us , but you guys are going to pull from .
Uh , oh gosh , I imagine the atlanta guys come up marietta area down there and then probably from north alabama and yep , we get a lot of help from the Marietta Club , a little bit of help from some of the Alabama clubs , knoxville helps a little bit . We draw from everybody . We got a little bit of everything going on .
Was there anything other than the judging format that makes the Chattanooga show unique ? Well , you got the half day on Friday , but it just sounds like it's a stellar location . Is there anything else that you might want to mention that's noteworthy for your show ?
I think we've pretty much hit the two main things the extra day and the judging style .
And the very crowded vendor's room .
Yes , the very crowded vendor's room , that's the high point .
I was going to say that's always an attraction for a bunch of modelers , especially a bunch of modelers who may have just gotten christmas money yep well , uh , where can folks online find information about the show ?
we are at chattanooga modelerscom okay , and what do you have there ? You have the show information . We have a show flyer .
Our homepage . We've got the Chattanooga Model Con . It'll give you the flyer , the registration forms you can download and fill out . Kind of shows you the whole overview of what's going on Model entry forms , scoring sheets , the show rules , judging guidelines , kind of our philosophy on the way things are judged . A small gallery of some previous shows .
Okay , so you got quite a bit there actually . Yeah , that's a pretty nice build
¶ Model Show Promotions for Winter Blitz
out . Well , tell us again the date and location so folks can come to your show .
It is January 10th and 11th of 2025 at the Chattanooga Convention Center . It's Friday from 1 to 6 and Saturdayurday from nine to four .
Ish 4 30 sometime around there and if you show up early on friday , they'll put you to work helping do setup you will be put to work helping do setup . Yes , sir well , that sounds great , and mike and I may have to talk . If we could , if we could steal a day , that would be awesome .
Yeah , probably couldn't do the day and a half , but we could get up , crack it on on . Saturday and meet you down there , yeah , maybe .
Yeah , let me know and we'll roll out the red carpet for you . Thank you .
Well , we appreciate you coming on and promoting the show and we hope some folks out there hear this and make the decision to come Sounds good .
Thanks for having me .
You're very welcome , dave . You always rave on and on about kind of like Buddy Holly , but like the National Convention held in Chattanooga , so you're familiar with the facility for sure .
The facility is fantastic . Chattanooga's a great town , a really , really great town . You and I got to see if we can steal a day and make a cannonball run down there , because I'm itching to get down there .
Well , I'll grow a mustache and you get the wrestling mask . You got it , dave DeLuise .
That's right .
Well , I'll tell you , the half day on the Friday gives a little incentive to folks coming from out of town to get a little bonus there if they happen to come in early .
Yep , yep , and there's tons to do and see in Chattanooga . I mean it really is . It's a great town for tourism to do and see in Chattanooga . I mean it really is . It's a great town for tourism . It's a great town for food and drink . I'm itching to try and get down there .
We got to see if we can steal a day . Well , up next is one our listeners should be quite familiar with . It's Winter Blitz , put on at the Museum of the American GI , and our Special Agent 003 , brandon Jacob , joined us again .
Familiar with it's Winter Blitz , put on at the Museum of the American GI , and our special agent 003 , brandon Jacob , joined us again . Gosh , it's like the fifth time , I guess , we've had him on to promote this show and it continues to get better . And we had a great conversation with Brandon .
Yes , we did .
Dave . Moving on to our second feature , tonight we've got Winter Blitz 2025 . And with us to talk about that is our old friend Brandon . Jacob Brandon , how the heck are you ? How down in Texas .
I am doing very good . How are ?
you guys doing . I'm good man . We saw a lot of you in 2024 . Yeah , we did .
I got around . Yeah well , it's always good to hear from agent 003 man 003 what I bumped into you , mike in knoxville yeah , I know that was a big surprise .
I didn't know that was a random , random , bizarre stop . And man , I went to amps nationals and I saw you guys , which was what a great show that was , and oh my gosh .
Yeah , All right . Well , we got another great show to talk about . Tell us about it , Brandon . When is Winter Blitz 2025 and where ?
and all that . All right , let me give it to you . Winter Blitz 2025 is going to be held this year January 25th , once again at the Museum of the American GI and college station .
For those who are not familiar where college station is , it's a home of Texas A&M and it's kind of located in the middle between Houston , austin , san Antonio , and then maybe it's just a little bit further out for our friends in the Metroplex to get down there , but it's in close proximity to all the big cities in Texas .
Well being in January in Texas . I'm assuming that you're not really worried about getting snowed out .
You know that's funny . I wish you didn't say that it's been such a mild winter here . I mean it was like 80 something degrees today . Oh yeah , I mean I'd kill for that Beautiful , beautiful day , and we always get our winter in late January and February . Yeah , so far , winter blitz has been very lucky . It's been cool .
Right , it's going to be cool , but we just been lucky with like ice and you always got a knock on wood because it could happen even even in texas well , this is , this is your number four number four oh man , I I remember talking with you when you all were just starting to do this , when , when it was just an idea in your head .
It's a wild , crazy idea .
Yeah , this is amazing .
It's crazy , isn't it ? Yes , I mean , it's the people that are helping , the people who show up . It's the museum , it's the great backdrop for a great armor model show . Yeah , we've been very fortunate .
Well , the museum has to be thrilled with what you built from scratch , because I'm sure it's good for them and for their attendance and for publicity for the museum .
You know it's funny you say that I'm not sure . Looking back , I'm not sure they really understood what a model contest could mean at the beginning . Like was this going to be ? Like you know , a bunch of guys showing up with snapped together kits .
Right .
And they definitely get it now . They definitely are happy with the show .
Well , good , so it's on the 25th . What time does registration open ? Open to the public at 9 , 9 am .
Okay .
And when does registration close ?
Registration . We close it at 1130 .
Okay .
But we always say hey look , since it's not a home turf show and someone might be coming from who knows where , if you could get in before your category is judged , we'll take late comers , but 1130 is the real cutoff .
Gotcha and you all use an open style system of judging , correct ?
We do , and we're going gonna stick with that , okay , um , and , and I think it works for our show in that a it is a shorter window , right , like , like our , we try to start the award ceremony earlier and remember it's just armor we're able to , I think , judge quickly and it has to be that system and it just works . It just works that way .
Well , you say , armor , only Aren't you making a change this year .
Yes , we are making one little change .
Does it have to do with your theme ?
Has to do with our theme . Our theme for Winter Blitz 2025 is the Vietnam War , and people may or may not know this , but it's the 50th anniversary of the United States and of involvement with the Vietnam War , and the museum just so happens to be heavy .
There's a lot of good stuff , artifacts from Vietnam , an Antos , an M113 , a mechanical mule , a PBR boat and even a Cobra .
One of the very few flying things they have in a museum is a Cobra , and we thought that the vietnam war theme not only worked for winter blitz , but it certainly works for the museum as well , sure , and you can't really commemorate the vietnam war without helicopters right right . There's just no way you could do that right .
I mean , you've got to have helicopters .
They're flying tanks Right .
So what we did this year is add a category . We wanted to keep it narrow , and it's United States helicopters flown in the Vietnam War .
Chinooks , hueys , cobras Sky cranes . Right Sky cranes .
Loaches , yep , and then some of the early ones from the early involvement , and then some of the early ones , the Flying Banana ?
Well , CH-46 , if you're talking about Marines .
Yeah .
We think we're going to see one or two Hueys Probably marines yeah we think we're gonna see one or two hueys probably , but yeah , it's an exciting . It's an exciting because we heard some feedback already from some of the airplane guys and they were very thankful .
It's like , wow , man , you have a good thing going on up there and even some of them would come and they couldn't enter , but finally an airplane guy gets to bring a helicopter .
And there are a lot of good helicopter kits out there .
Yeah , so it's going to be exciting to see how that goes . Just to make sure we don't burst at the seams for that category and that category only , we're saying one per entry .
One entry per person .
Yeah , that category .
They can bring a whole bunch of armor stuff , but if they bring a helicopter , only one you got it .
Exactly , gotcha Exactly .
Well , that makes sense since you do have limited space , since you're held in a museum . But I'm telling you what .
Mike and I have gone to several contests held in museums Heritage Con , of course , and then Cincinnati and there's something special and different about having a model contest in a museum and being around all of the full size items that you know that are , that are relatable to what we do as a hobby .
Again , I think people , people pay Winterblitz a lot of compliments , but let's be honest . It starts with that great backdrop .
Yeah , we've added helicopters or anything else you've , you've added .
Yeah , we did . You know , we really , we really haven't significantly changed other categories , but what we , what we did , and again , because we're just just armor , we have 25 categories , one being helicopters and 24 different armor categories .
So what that does is enable us to be more specific , right , like , like you bring a model and it's going to be probably judged against something that's a little more specific than just a general .
You know , world war two tanks as an example , you know we break it down as as much as we have a separate artillery category and then right next to that , we artillery category , and then right next to that , we have a category called all things towed , which was you have to have the tractor and a trailer and that could be an artillery piece or a trailer , you
know , just a water trailer , it doesn't matter .
But so we were able to be a little more specific , to go a little more specific this year we added an airplane busters category , meaning any self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle right could be a tank , half-track armored car , it even could be a figure right , as long as it's self-propelled and its original or main purpose is to shoot down an airplane .
That's a new category for this year and what that's going to do is , I think , kind of take a little pressure off , like the half-track category , because that's where they typically end up . Winding up is in that half-track category .
Well , another thing you've always done at this show is you have a Tank of the Year award and assume you've got a new , a new tank of the year .
We do this year we kind of excited about this . One it tank of the year for 2025 is the t-34 and its variants , and that's an important that's an important one . It's got to be . Yeah , it could be a variant .
Well , there's going to . There are a lot of good T-34 family of tanks that that that you can do out there . So that's , I'm sure that's going to be hugely popular .
It's . It's exciting because we also came up a little . It's going to be a little surprise , but we have a little , a small little token , if you will , for anybody who brings a qualifying T-34 , they're going to leave with a little token , and then obviously , someone's going to win the grand Tank of the Year award .
Why'd you pick the ?
T-34? . You know , what's funny is , last year was the first year we did a Tank of the Year and it was obviously Sherman and the boys down at the Houston Armor Club voted on that .
That was a good one to start with , and last year Rick Cotton and I , during Winter Blitz , we went around and , out of 375 models last year we had two T-34s and we decided we needed to see a few more T-34s . So that's really how we . It was that simple of a pick .
It's good to be in charge of the show , isn't it ?
It is . But you know that only meant if there's two T-34s and I think there was like four the year before that that only means there was a hell of a lot of T-34 models in people's closets .
That's right . Get them out and get them built . Get them out , exactly .
Well , I think we might have misspoke a little bit earlier about the judging format . It's not really an open system , it's a modified kind of IPMS system .
Once you elaborate a little bit on what you guys are doing a little different , it's what we call it is a loose interpretation of IPMS rules , but in general it is the IPMS rules , with the exception of we ask our judges to not just focus on the negative attributes , and by that I mean sometimes people .
The first thing I want to do is you know is it tracks out a line or and of course that's important at our show . But , like , look at the positive attributes as well . Does that make sense ?
yeah , oh yes absolutely the total presentation kind of approach , meaning .
Meaning if , if there's , you know , a work of art on the table and there's a speck of something that might or might not be a proper thing , you know , step back and say is this , is this still a winning model ?
right sometimes you see it shows things get disqualified and you go uh , I don't know , ma'am , the rest of the model was stellar , except for that one problem . And again , keep this in mind because of the way the categories are , we already start specific and we've always split a lot . In fact , last year all but five categories were split at least one time .
So it breaks down to most models are going to be judged . You know 10 to 12 models and when you do that it makes judging so much easier versus a sea of 25 models . You could focus on the model a little bit more .
¶ Winter Blitz Sponsorship Support and Updates
It looks like you've got a lot of support for the show this year as far as people sponsoring the show .
Yeah , we're pretty excited and we're thankful for every group that stepped up and you know , shame on me if I don't mention first of all , we've got Tamiya . Once again they're stepping up and sponsoring .
Well , it's an armor show . Darn well they should .
Absolutely right , and you know , we just we're grateful . We're grateful for their sponsorship . Yeah , and we won't miss a moment to say something good about Tamiya , lionheart , hobby , rudy and Danielle . They've been with Winter Boots since day one and they continue to support the show .
New for this year we've got Mr Steve Munsell with Value Gear and he is threatening to come down to the show .
Oh , that would be nice .
Yeah , so we're kind of excited about that .
I think a bunch of armor modelers would be really thrilled to see value gear actually there .
I shared with them . I said you're literally going to be in front of every serious armor modeler in Texas , so it's certainly worth this trip . And then G&G Hobbies , our favorite model shop here in Houston .
And then we actually got Mr Jim Ruda , black Widows , coming and going to set up shop in the vendor room and see if he could sell a few models as well . So we've got a good group of people coming .
Well , that's fantastic .
I am thrilled to see something that four years ago was simply an idea in your head blossom into what we're talking about now again , I couldn't do it without the museum support and , obviously , the rick cotton and eric choy people who are stepping up to put this thing on and and helping . Helping me is is is what makes it successful .
And I'll tell you before I forget , my good friend Austin Fields of the YouTube channel Sprues and Spoons , and as a matter of fact I love to give him a shout out . He does that interviewing of modelers at conventions , yep , and he's going to come down .
Well , that's great , that's great .
So hopefully we'll have one or two YouTube premieres after this year's Winter Blitz up for people to see Now do you have a website ? We do , and we keep it current .
That's good yeah right , not everybody does that .
No , and I'm certainly no expert at coding , but you know , I just go in there and try to try to update . We just did some updates on the rooms and in fact , let me just say this anybody who's coming and if you're gonna get a room and call a station man , the rates are like like our main hotel sold out .
There's something else going on , but there's like cheap hotels , hotels 10 minutes further away . There's no hotel right at the museum , so nobody's staying there , right , right , but it's important to keep the website updated for things like that .
What's the address ?
Winter-Blitzcom www .
Winter dash blitzcom .
you got it gotcha well , brandon , is there anything else folks need to know ?
if you're listening to , this and you're in Texas and you've never been to a show or you've never entered a show , come on out and enter , or come on out and just see it .
It's going to have a great raffle , great door prizes , great people , friendly people and , again , because of the time of the year , you know , we start at nine , we get judging at noon and we promise an award ceremony that starts at three and is over by four , so people could get out of there and get on the road before it gets dark .
And it's a quick day , but a lot in one day .
It's good to have you back on and we look forward to the next time we see you . I don't know when that's going to be , but we probably not going to make winter blitz . It's a pretty good haul for us .
I'll let you know , but hopefully I'm definitely eyeing amps .
Do me a favor , take a whole lot of photos at the show and post them on the dojo , so that we get to virtually experience the show .
I will definitely do that and and we'll put a link up there for austin stuff when he when he gets it out as well thank you all .
Right , well , we'll let you get back to your show plan and your own modeling , sir . Thank you , sir you take care . All right , y'all be good well , it's been fun watching that thing grow from an idea into something that I don't know . I sky's really the limit .
It could probably be whatever they want it to be at this point yep , yep , and I've got to say I'm very happy that we were .
we were kind of there from the beginning to watch this blossom and turn into what it's turned into , which is way more than the little model contest that I think they had the idea for the first one , and it's just become an amazing , amazing show .
Well , I hope Brandon and if he doesn't , somebody else will make good on posting a lot of those photos to the dojo , because I'm really interested to see what's at that show again , because there's really a lot of good stuff there last year .
Yes , yes , absolutely . I would love to see photos from both Chattanooga and Winter Blitz and Winter Blitz .
Well , folks , if you're in a commutable distance to either Chattanooga during their show dates or Winter Blitz there in the heart of Texas for their show date , make the effort , go the extra mile , try to get there . I'm sure you'll have a blast at either one of them .
Yes , hey , start off 2025 . Right Go to a model show .
Well , Dave , we better get on to our New Year's activities .
Yes , we better , Dave . We better get on to our New Year's activities . Yes , we better Start planning the 2025 campaign .
That's right . So , folks , Merry Christmas again and have a happy New Year . You may hear it from us one more time before January 1st . We sure hope so . You got it Bye .