Show Report: Cleveland Model Show 10: November 5, 2006

By Jim Bonanni

Hosted by IPMS Western Reserve and IPMS John H. Glenn, Cleveland Model Show 10 was held Sunday November 5, 2006 at Kirtland High School, Kirtland Ohio, and again, it was ‘just as advertised’. Like last year, the weatherman cooperated with mild temperatures although there was significant cloud cover on the Lake Erie coast. We missed the sun, but it was a very comfortable day for all attendees. Contingents from “The Buffcon Boys” of IPMS Niagara Frontier, 3 Rivers IPMS, and Shenango Valley IPMS were present. The IPMS national office was represented by Treasurer Ed Kinney, who entered a number of the kits he has reviewed for the IPMS national website.

The show was well publicized, as fliers were available at other shows, regional hobby shops and by direct mail to club contacts. Show information was also available on the club web site: http://home.windstream.net/dchalke/CMS10/ and at http://ipmsusa.org/ by clicking on Upcoming Events. Pictures of the contest and the winning models should be available on the club web site in the near future.

The show flier covered the usual 5 W’s, with the street address, directions and maps prominently displayed on the front of the flier. I like having the address of the venue on the flier, as you can easily use Yahoo Maps or MapQuest to get door to door directions. As before, set up began for vendors at 7:30 AM, with the general public being admitted at 9:00 AM. The contest featured their usual regular and open categories, numerous special awards, most popular model, two Best of Show Awards: Junior and Adult, and the “Ace of Aces” award.

Entry fees for adults were $8 for the first three entries. Juniors and Bantams were $3 for unlimited entries. General Admission was $2 (12 yrs. and over), with a $5 early entry fee was charged for early access to the vendors room. In the past we arrived early and waited until 9:00 AM, but like last year, we lingered at a McD’s enjoying the coffee. After a quick $2 at the front desk, on to the vendors.

This year’s show was on Sunday, to accommodate the vendors in the school gymnasium, where you could find the biggest hobby shop in Cleveland that day! An outstanding list of vendors were present, including CRM Hobbies, Dean’s Hobbies, R & J Hobbies from the Cleveland area was present with their “Great Wall of Plastic”, which covered a good fifty feet of the gymnasium. Pace Enterprises displayed their custom spray booths, and Three Guys Hobbies from Buffalo was there with an extensive line of specialty items. They are a fine source of hard to find tools and Vallejo paints. Mark Klutchko of Michigan Discount Models had his great selection of armor related items there, and Rick Geithmann of Toledo displayed the latest resin kits from the world of theoretical, hypothetical, and actual aircraft. It was nice to see Depot Trains of Cleveland’s west side there, with a number of new releases, and Wings and Treads, a specialist in 1/48 armor, had the new Hobby Boss 1/48 T-34s and Shermans. As before, there were few collector kits for sale. Oh well…there is always ebay.

The raffle was the best that I have seen in a long time. It was truly world class! Items of note were a grand raffle of a Pace spray booth, Aztec airbrush, and compressor. The special raffle included at least two more airbrushes, six aviation art prints, and a 1/32 scale Tamiya F-16 Thunderbird. The general raffle featured gift certificates, books and kits, kits, tools, decals and more kits. Tickets were $1 each for the regular raffle, $2 each for the special raffle, and the super special raffle was $5. A “special value” combination of tickets could be purchased for $10. Items were raffled off by the half hour, beginning at 9:30 and ending at 3:00. Any unclaimed prizes were raffled again at 3:15 until a winner was called. My luck in Cleveland continued, as I scored some Tamiya 1/48 armor. Also, the raffle guys always take care of the kids…with a raffle that large they were able to distribute a number of kits to youngsters who were perusing the raffle table.

A make and take program was available for the kids with a great number participating. I commend the club members who assisted in the youngsters. It is great to see the next generation active in the hobby.

The contest room was very well lit, and with the numerous entries, the tables were a bit crowded. The final count showed 303 models in the competition, keeping the count within the usual parameters. As always, quality of the entries was very high in all categories.

Registration closed at 12:00 sending the judges into action. This allowed us non-judging types to explore the area’s culinary fare. As the show is located close to I-90, numerous eateries of all kinds and price ranges are nearby. We made our annual lunchtime pilgrimage to Chipotle’s in search of the titanic fajita burrito. At the last moment, my buddy Dave opted for the soft tacos, leaving me the sole sufferer of a self induced burrito coma. A couple of diet cokes garnished with lime wedges helped keep the old blood sugar at a reasonable level, and after a quick stop at Hobbyland USA, it was back to the show.

As before, the host clubs provided maps listing the Cleveland area hobby shops. Cleveland is target rich environment for the hobbyist, and when you visit these maps are a must. If you contact the host clubs for this information, I am sure they will be happy to provide it.

The judges were chosen from numerous clubs, with several national contest judges participating. First, second and third place awards were given in the regular categories with plaques being given for the special awards. Open judging was implemented in the open, junior and bantam categories, and gold, silver and bronze awards were given for deserving entries. There wasn’t a junior or bantam who went home empty handed.

The award ceremony was held in the school’s music room, and the club attempted to have a PowerPoint presentation when announcing the winners. Unfortunately, technical problems ensued, and the awards were delayed as they tried to sort things out. After a significant delay, the awards presentation began, and was completed shortly before 5:00 PM. Putting together a presentation of this kind is very difficult under regional or national conditions, and the Cleveland guys are to be commended for the attempt. I’m sure they will have this perfected for next year‘s show.