Before I started Scale Model Soup I did a bit of research about what it takes to write a popular blog. One bit of advice I found was to be controversial. No one wants to read boring articles that don't take a strong stance on a subject. So I thought to myself, okay, maybe I can occasionally do that with SMS. Mind you, I'm not a confrontational guy and generally avoid conflict, but part of the appeal of writing a blog is the chance to raise my voice above those on the forums and discussion groups.
Well, it's taken a year, but my post to one of the forums promoting my latest article on "that guy" struck a chord in the moderator of one popular forum and was deleted. He found it to be "demeaning, insulting and a mean-spirited stereotyping of modellers."
I'm open-minded, so I see his point of view. But I think 99 percent of my readers find the humor in my writing, and I almost always get a few chuckles from those of you who respond on the forums or post comments here.
As I explained to this moderator, it's never been my intention to offend. My goal with Scale Model Soup is simple...to promote the hobby and to provide light-hearted commentary on the scale modeling lifestyle. Let's be honest. We're an odd bunch of characters, myself included. I allude to stereotypes because they're funny and (in my opinion) far from demeaning or mean-spirited. I'll even be the first to laugh at myself because the gods know there's plenty to laugh at when I examine my life.
Yes, I called out people with body odor, and if that had any scent of mean-spiritedness, I willingly accept the charge. I find it rude of anyone to attend a public event without having properly bathed. I don't think that's controversial.
For the record, I'm not bitter. This gentleman has the right to run his forum the way he sees fit, and I respect that. It's a great site, one of the best on the interwebz. I will continue to post to his forum, but I've agreed to be more discerning in the topics I select.
My sincere thanks to those of you who laugh with me. And to those who laugh at me.
If you’ve attended more than three or four model contests, you’ve run into “that guy.” He’s at every contest, local, regional, and national. He’s in the United States and has peers in Europe and Asia. He’s international. Here he is in his five incarnations.
1. The guy with body odor. I swear, every contest I go to there’s one guy who smells really bad. It's like he hasn't showered for a week, or he's just finished installing a new roof on his house and came directly to the contest. Either way, he’s gross and offensive. Take a shower. Use some Axe, liberally. Don’t be that guy.
2. The know-it-all. Several years ago I was talking with friends in the contest room and was introduced to a man who I knew as a respected expert in his field. As my friends continued chatting, the guy pulled me aside, pointed to a model on a nearby table, and started critiquing it. Keep in mind, I’d never met this man before and here he was showing off how much he knew. I'm sure he was correct in his analysis, but it was not the right time. What if it had been my model? At least he was a real-life know-it-all, but still. The other kind of know-it-all is the one who walks around dispensing his knowledge with random quips, stories, and anecdotes. He’s more likely to speak at you rather than with you. Don’t be that guy.
3. The loud talker. Everyone knows the loud talker. He's not unique to scale modeling. You can hear him from across the convention hall. Often he's on his cell phone. A 2011 study found that 72 percent of the time he’s a know-it-all as well, which makes him doubly toxic. Please, use your inside voice. Don’t be that guy.
4. The cheapskate. This one comes from a friend who occasionally works as a vendor at contests. No matter how low he prices the kits on his table there's always someone who asks for a bigger discount. Look, we all seek out a good price, but if you find a $45 kit priced at $20, jump on the bargain and be happy. The vendors need to make a few dollars, too. Don’t be that guy.
5. The complainer. This guy finds his groove as soon as the date of the convention is announced. He's immediately on the forums berating the organizers for having it too late in the summer. Or he doesn't like the location. Or the venue. Or the expense. Or the parking lot. Or the food. Or the lighting in the contest room. You get the idea. Putting on a convention is hard work. I can assure you the organizers have done everything they can with the resources they have to make the show a great experience for you. Give them some slack and try to sympathize a little. Don't be that guy.
Some of you have attended more than a few national conventions. One person over on Hyperscale noted that he's been to close to 25! If this is your first, however, here's some advice to get you ready for The Big Show.
Look for other hotels. Even with less than two weeks to plan a trip to Loveland, if you haven't make hotel arrangements yet, consider staying "off campus," that is, a hotel other than the one at the convention site. The convention hotel tends to be on the expensive side, so if your budget is limited, it’s okay to stay elsewhere in the area. Use a web site such as Travelocity or Orbitz to find something more affordable. Although it’s convenient to be able to run up to your room during the day, it’s really not necessary. Don’t let an expensive hotel bust your plans to attend the Nats. Last year I stayed at a very affordable "tourist" hotel about five miles from Disney, and this year I'm staying at a hotel ten miles north of Loveland. I'll save about $200 doing so. Will I spend that $200 on models? Maybe.
Compliment contest entrants. As you're browsing the contest room and see someone unpacking his models, take a moment to offer a compliment. Remember, most of the entrants won’t see the glory and fame that accompanies a Nats win, so your compliment may be the only positive feedback they receive. It's also a good way to make new friends. I met one of my best friends after talking to him at an AMM contest 20 years ago. Our friendship now transcends the hobby.
Talk to other attendees. I know most of us are introverts at heart -- we'd rather spend an afternoon in the basement than at a party -- but you're among friends here. Talk about what you're looking at. Share your thoughts. Introduce yourself. And while you're at it, talk to the vendors as well. They're spending three or four long days sitting in one spot, so a friendly face is sure to break up the monotony.
Don't blow your wad on your first pass through the vendors room. You'll feel overwhelmed when you walk in for the first time. The tendency, hardwired into your modeler-DNA, is to buy everything you like, but make sure you save some dough for the remaining days. That said, if you see a bargain, grab it while you can. And if you find that ultra-rare kit you've been searching for, snag it now. (I'll offer more tips on the vendors room next week.)
Criticize models discretely. If you're browsing the contest entries with a friend, it's natural to share your thoughts on the models. If you do, be constructive and humble. The owner may be right behind you. As much as we say we like to receive constructive criticism, some guys will take offense if they hear you picking apart their latest masterpiece. A short-tempered modeler may gut you from behind with his antique kukri.
Last month I wrote about the Brony craze and the suggestion that BronyCon might just make us modelers feel a little better about ourselves. And now there's more to the story. Maybe.
U.S. Air Force pilots have a wicked sense of humor, which is evident when you see the patch of UPT Class 14-05 from Vance AFB.
"Situational awareness" is of vital importance to fighter pilots, and apparently it extends to popular culture. Either that or there's a Brony in north-central Oklahoma. I can't wait to see their graduation video on YouTube!
This is the first in series of articles about the IPMS National Convention experience, leading up to Scale Model Soup's attendance at the Loveland Nats in August.
It was the summer of 1984. Vanessa Williams surrendered her Miss America crown after appearing in Penthouse, the Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets submerged to a record depth of 1,020 meters, and Ray Parker's "Ghostbusters" was at the top of the Billboard charts. As for me, I was 16 and full of hopes and dreams that have long since been squashed and ground into a fine dust. I had been a member of IPMS Ocala (Florida) for a couple of years and had heard about something called the IPMS National Convention, so when the guys talked about its being held in Atlanta, I was more than a little interested in going.
I was earning $3.60/hour at Kash 'n' Karry, so money was tight. Going by myself was out of the question. I had to rely on the generosity of a club member to extend an invitation, but with most of them making a family vacation out of the trip, my options were shrinking. Lucky for me one of the members was single and had plans to go, and he invited me to tag along. Unfortunately, like me, he was short of funds, too, so he told me we’d have to “wing it” in terms of accommodations. No problem; I was young and free of any standards, so I would manage. If teens just two years older than me could backpack through Europe, surely I could make an eight-hour trip to a city just one state away.
Jim showed up Thursday morning to pick me up…in a white van. Yes, a creepy white van. The kind of van usually owned by ne'er-do-wells. I wasn’t sure whether it would make the trip (in fact, I seem to remember it overheating on the return leg), but again, young and adventurous, right?
Fortunately the trip to Atlanta was uneventful, and on entering the convention hotel parking lot we immediately knew we were at the correct hotel when we saw guys walking around with their arms full of models. To this day, when I arrive at a contest I eagerly look for that first guy to confirm I'm at the right place.
Inside it was like Christmas morning. Everything I’d been enjoying about the hobby for the last few years was multiplied by a factor of ten. What I remember most about the contest was the quality of the models. Not to take away anything from my friends in my old club, but the models in the Nats were far beyond anything I’d seen before.
Models were everywhere, from the contest room to the vendors room. In fact, the hotel couldn’t accommodate the many vendors that had arrived, so a dozen or more guys were stacking kits in their hotel rooms, and the attendees were walking down the halls going room to room to browse and mingle. I remember there being a ton of bargains, which is rare these days. I think I went home with 30 kits and probably spent less than $100 on them. Yeah, times have changed!
Those hotel rooms were the closest we got to fine accommodations that weekend. Jim and I wound up sleeping, you guessed it, in the back of his van. He parked in a remote spot of the hotel parking lot, and we saved ourselves $200. Looking back it was incredibly strange, but teenagers do all sorts of crazy things without thinking twice.
Several months later I was surprised to see in the IPMS Update (the forerunner of the Journal) that I was caught in a candid shot in Atlanta. That's me on the right, with my giant, old lady, flower shopping bag my mother had given me. No, I will not be using that bag in Loveland!
I suspect most of you are plastic modelers, building aircraft, armor, ships, cars in various scales. You may not realize how much raw talent there is in the world of figure modeling. These are the guys who frequent the annual MMSI show in Chicago, MFCA in Pennsylvania (you may recall my brief report about this year's show), and the World Expo, which is rotated around the world every two years. Let's set aside their sick skills with paint and look at an incredible example of sculpting.
Korea's Sang Eon Lee has been sculpting and releasing a regular series of resin figures, mostly 20th century subject matter, such as this Waffen SS Infantryman bust or this one of Winston Churchill. But his most recent release may be his best yet, this bust of Douglas MacArthur. I can't imagine the the talent required to replicate a likeness this precise. I hope you appreciate it as much as I do.
I've written about my struggles with rigging in the past, so it should be no surprise when I say how much I admire modelers who excel with aircraft from the early years of aviation, particularly World War One.
It was quite fortuitous, then, that while watching a really good show on The Military Channel about WW1 aviators that I saw Dirk Polchow's Wingnut Wings 1/32 Fokker E.II on Hyperscale. It is in my opinion nothing less than a perfect example a modeling at its best. That the model is inherently delicate only boosts my admiration of Dirk's skill.
I could probably list 20 things I like about the model, but you're just as knowledgable about these sorts of things as I am, so I'll leave it to you to study the photos and sit in awe with me.
If you want to see in progress photos of the model, hop over to WW1 Aircraft Models.
My thanks to Dirk for allowing me to use the photo above.
