Plastic Model Mojo
Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby
Plastic Model Mojo
Smokey Mountain Model-Con 41: PMM Model Show Spotlight
Catch the buzz surrounding the Smoky Mountain Model Con as we connect with show chairmen, Michael Polin and Johnny Galza. Despite the occasional sniffle, we're unpacking the excitement of the Knoxville Scale Modelers Association's 41st annual gathering — a nexus for creativity and community. Delve into the categories from meticulously crafted aircraft, armor, ships, automotive, etc., to the fantastical realms of Gundam models.
Then, navigate the nuts and bolts of event orchestration with us, from entry logistics to the thrill of snagging raffle treasures. We’ll give you the scoop on local Knoxville cuisine that's as rich in flavor as the show is in history, and paint a picture of the region's evolution that's certain to stir up a blend of nostalgia and novelty. As the show season kicks off, we're here to guide you through the allure of the show and its regional draw, promising a full palette of activities for enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Join us, Michael, and Johnny for a journey into the heart of model building — where passion meets precision.
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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us. We are grateful for having you as listeners, and the community that has grown around Plastic Model Mojo makes it all worth while.
well, listeners, welcome to the uh april edition of the model show spotlight and uh, excuse my partner here, he's a little under the weather well I'm, I'm surviving.
Kentucky Dave:uh, I've been hit with what the doctor at the clinic referred to as an april cold. I tested negative for covid or the flu. But, man, I'm telling you what either I'm getting old, which might be happening, but colds may be getting stronger because this thing has kicked my butt. You're going on a week there, buddy, I know I know. No, literally no modeling for a week. I didn't miss any work, but I worked from home for most of the week. I mean it's, oh wait, a minute.
Mike:What? You sure you got that right. Yes, okay, well, you're a good company man.
Kentucky Dave:I'm a good company man. I miss no time from work, but I did work from home all week. It's just exhausting, just literally exhausting, and I'm only now starting to recover, starting to feel on the upside of it. So hopefully the bench is in front of me. I'm not sure I'll get anything done tonight after we record, but there's hope on the horizon.
Mike:Mental modeling. Think through your next project, man.
Kentucky Dave:Mental modeling and I got to give a shout out to the NHL because at least when I've been sick on the couch in the evenings I've been able to sit there and watch really enjoyable playoff hockey.
Mike:Well, enough of that nonsense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, not just the hockey Right. This is the model show spotlight, dave, and this month we are going to feature a show down in Knoxville. Yes, from your old stomping grounds my old stomping grounds.
Mike:The Knoxville Scale Modelers Association has their show coming up and we got to talk to a couple of those guys who are taking care of business down there and let's see what they had to say about their show. Dave, we've made it until the end of April here and we've made good on our model show spotlight so far and this time I think we've caught it far enough in advance that we don't feel rushed and we give some folks some opportunity to act on this special episode. Tonight we're looking at Smoky Mountain Model Con, hosted by the Knoxville Scale Modelers Association. We have two of those gentlemen with us to talk about the show tonight Michael Polin and Johnny Galza. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us.
Michael Polin:Thank you so much for having us on.
Mike:Thank you very much. You're welcome. I don't care who starts, let's just get right into it. Somebody tell us about the show and when it is and where it is, and let's get into the details of that anyway.
Michael Polin:So it's our 41st annual show and it is Saturday, may 25th, obviously 2024. And the show is at Knoxville Catholic High School and that's where we've had it for the last couple of years. It runs from 9 am to 4 pm and we close entry at 1 pm for entrants, for models entered into the show, just because judging starts at 1 pm. General admission can still come in after that. But the address for Knox County High School can be found on our club website, knoxvillescalemodlerscom. But it's just on the west side of Knoxville, right off I-40. Pretty accessible there.
Mike:Cool. Yeah, I was looking at the address. It's out in the Cedar Bluff area, I believe.
Michael Polin:Exactly yeah, right off Cedar Bluff Road. There the school and gymnasium and the church all associated with it are right there, Just north of 40, about a mile and a half.
Mike:All right, and this is 41st annual show Now. I've been to a few when I was in college in Knoxville and maybe a couple before. That Should have a good reach. I think I put a compass on Knoxville for about a three-hour drive and, man, you can pick up a lot of population centers. So I hope you guys have something that's well attended.
Michael Polin:Yeah, we appreciate it. We've historically done pretty well and in general, looking back the last few years, we've had seven to eight states represented each year from kind of all the neighboring area from our region.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, that's not a bad drive, even from Louisville. That's about maybe four and change.
Mike:So what can you tell us about the show itself? What's going to be going on in the general format I assume it's probably an IPMS general format show and vendors? Whoever wants to talk, let us know a little bit of the details about the show.
Johnny Galza:I can tell you about vendors. We got 16 vendors and we sold 33 tables requested so far.
Michael Polin:Actually totally sold out on tables.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, I was going to ask do you still have vendor tables available in case there's a vendor listening who wants to make a run last minute At?
Johnny Galza:this point. No, we only get so many tables from the high school, so we have to have those available for the contest categories, and then, whatever we have left over, we sell off to the vendors. Gotcha.
Michael Polin:Yeah, we do have a wait list at this point for vendors. There have been kind of an influx in the last week or so reaching out, but we've already sold and reserved the tables that we have. So outside of the vendors, the show is like you said, it's the general IPMS format. So we are first, second and third place with the show in each category and we do have honorable mentions in each category as well for other standouts that don't reach the top three. We have some interest in the club and of transitioning over the next year or two potentially to a gold, silver, bronze system and we plan to pull attendees to get a sense of their interest in that transition as well. So that's something we're thinking about, but sticking with the traditional IPMS format for this year. It's my first year running the show, taking over from Johnny. He's done it the past five years or so and I'm just trying to run a successful show like he has, before I make too many changes to it.
Johnny Galza:He's doing well.
Michael Polin:He's doing real well. But we've got standard categories. In aircraft there are seven different categories and those are just broken down, as you'd imagine, by scale and type of aircraft and the kind of era they come from, and then in armor a similar breakdown across eight categories. In auto we have 12 categories and it's broken down essentially by the various finishes and types of autos and then in miscellaneous that encompasses figures and sci-fi and fantasy and dioramas and vignettes and there's 10 categories across that and there's a junior category in each of those. In general I would describe our show as kind of a small to medium sized show. We generally bring in about 300 models and that is in the last few years. It's been about 60 to 65 different modelers entering models in the contest and then it's flushed out to about 300. We had a larger year last year with 350, but we had a good turnout from the Gundam group and have actually this year broken down the Gundam category into two separate categories just because of the turnout we had last year with that.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I understand you all have a fairly vital Gundam group down in the Knoxville area. Yeah, I know.
Michael Polin:Jason Campbell I, I think, talks with you all, uh, periodically and he's a big proponent of gundam within ipms and growing that he's been a valuable asset to our club and and and to our show on that aspect of things we even had him.
Johnny Galza:Uh, give us a rundown on what to look for in judging uh in our last meeting.
Mike:And well, that's helpful, yeah, especially if you're not familiar with it, because it's a little unique, at least by the standards of the more traditional modeling.
Michael Polin:Yeah, yeah, and there's some extra things, as I learned that they take into account that we don't always think about with classic aircraft and armor. But in addition to the regular categories, we have a theme award this year, and so the theme is the decade of 1946 to 1955. So essentially any model entered in the show in any of the categories that has an affiliation with that decade, they can annotate on their entry form that they want to be considered for the theme award as well, and then that's selected in addition to the standard awards across the category and then, in addition to that theme award, we have the best of each category and then show overall.
Kentucky Dave:So what does it cost to enter both entry and what's it cost for general admission folks?
Johnny Galza:You want to take it, Michael?
Michael Polin:Yeah, so general admission is $5, and then model entry is $10 for the first three models and then a dollar per model. Thereafter. Anyone younger than 18 years of age gets in free, and then also any disabled veterans with the appropriate ID for that get in free as well. That's great, and then, outside of the vendors and the contest itself, which people come for both, then there's the raffle, which can be a big draw for people. We usually have about 50 models or so in the raffle. Raffle tickets are a dollar each and people can buy as many as they want.
Johnny Galza:This year, though, we do have a couple of 116 scale tanks that we're thinking about doing those at $5 for the raffle tickets. It's a 116 scale tank with a complete interior. I mean that's like a $200, $300 kit right there.
Mike:Yeah, we just got back from the AMPS International Convention and they had some big ticket items. They had a $5 bracket on their raffle too and it seemed to be pretty popular actually.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Johnny Galza:Well, michael and I are both AMPS members as well.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, Well then, how come you didn't make it up to the National? It wasn't that far. It was not that far for you all.
Johnny Galza:Yeah, I was attending my older daughter's wedding, so oh, well, couldn't go.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, they probably would have noticed if you weren't there to walk her down the aisle. So, yeah, you get a pass on that one.
Mike:Well, another thing Dave and I like to do and we typically get more at the national shows that kind of have more than one day, but it's been so long since I've been in Knoxville for any kind of length of time, especially out on the West End. What's the opportunity like out there to find something good to eat?
Johnny Galza:Oh, I've got a list that I'll have on the table of several different places around there. I mean, you get Mexican, you got traditional American. There's the Carolina Ale House, there's.
Kentucky Dave:Double Dog that sounds like my kind of place. Yeah, there's several different places.
Johnny Galza:There's Parkside West, which is traditional American food, but then we also have. Outback Steakhouse which is not too far away, carrabba's Italian. So we've got quite a bunch of different stuff. Also a lot of fast food joints. So if you want to go that way, you can go that way as well.
Mike:Trying to think what was out that way when I was down there in the late 80s. Not much.
Kentucky Dave:Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. That's right.
Mike:Back to your theme. That's kind of an interesting period. There's a lot. Well, there's the Korean War's in there. That's the obvious one.
Johnny Galza:Yeah, well, look at post-World War II, basically you want to talk about, and basically the start of the Cold War, Korean War, which was the epitome of the start of the Cold War, so to speak.
Kentucky Dave:And then you've got French Indochina for the first Vietnam Wars, they refer to it. Yeah, you've got. I mean aircraft, armor vehicles. Man, that's the sweet spot for some really classic vehicles.
Johnny Galza:Plus, you can also get into any sci-fi if you wanted to from that era, and I know there's a lot of sci-fi stuff that went on back then.
Michael Polin:Yeah, the goal with the theme award that we've tried to do the last few years is just pick something that could encompass any category, so you really don't alienate anybody with the theme. Yeah, so you really don't alienate anybody with the theme.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, now do you all have your forms up on your website for pre-registration, or at least downloading and being able to fill them out so that you don't have to do it at the show?
Michael Polin:Yeah, on the webpage there is one specific page dedicated to the model contest and there's a link to the show flyer on there. There's a Google Maps link to the location of the Knoxville Catholic High School, and then there's also the registration form, the entry form, as well as the category form, and the registration and entry forms are both fillable PDFs that people can complete either electronically or print them off and handwrite them, and do it no way for electronic submission. It all just has to be printed and brought in, whether it's typed or handwritten.
Mike:Well, is there anything else you'd like to draw people's attention to? We can get the links to the show information in our show notes and we'll certainly do that, but is there anything else, before we wrap up, that you might want folks to consider?
Johnny Galza:The room that we are in is the, the gymnasium, and I've went to several contests around the whole areas. This place is well lit, so if you want to see models, there's good lighting in there, you don't have to worry about being dark or anything. Yeah, that's important for us to judge. It's going to be. You know, I do. I get to judge the car category, so I get to judge that car, you know. So that's good because I can see the actual finish on the cars and everything and see what kind of engine details and everything they do. You know, when they put in there. Sure, and for the people just coming in to look at the models, you know they can actually see them a lot better. So, yeah, this place is a lot better than the Jacob building we were in before in Chihuahua Park.
Michael Polin:So it's a lot better lighting and if you come to the contest.
Johnny Galza:You'll enjoy it much better.
Michael Polin:Yeah, I think the obviously big elephant in the room for our show this year is that it's Memorial Day weekend and, yeah, I think it could play in our favor. It could hurt us a little bit and I think it'll all settle out in the wash. But the nice thing is is for people that do come from a little bit further away, there's a lot of great stuff in East Tennessee between Knoxville, pigeon Forge, sevierville, gatlinburg. People wanted to make it an overnight trip to do the show and then also hit some of the sites in the area. There's ample opportunity for that. You can easily make a long weekend out of the area.
Johnny Galza:In Sevierville there's an aviation museum you can go to. There's also a hot rod museum nearby so you can attend that too if you wanted to check out. There's a lot of old cars and stuff from the muscle car era and back.
Mike:That certainly sounds great. I've found my notes I made prior to this and just hope the weekend works out in your favor. I really do Folks listening if you're willing to go about three hours to a show, three and change folks in Atlanta, huntsville, alabama, murfreesboro, nashville, the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee, asheville, north Carolina, spartanburg, south Carolina and Lexington, kentucky. Of course, if you go a little bit further, you pick up Louisville and Charlotte too. So all those places are within a reasonable commutable distance for a weekend model show. I've certainly done it and, dave, you've done it with me.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, yes, absolutely. Although we haven't been back to Knoxville in a long time. We need to look at taking a year and doing that.
Mike:We do.
Kentucky Dave:We appreciate you guys who come yeah.
Mike:Well, guys, we appreciate you coming on for the show Spotlight. We wish you all the success in the world. Hope you fill up the tables and sell all your raffle tickets.
Kentucky Dave:We hope we'll see postings on the dojo from the show, letting us know how it went and what got entered the show, letting us know how it went and what got entered. And we love it when the dojo members go to shows and post, because we can't make every show. Everybody still wants to see what a particular show is like, so we'll hope you'll do that.
Michael Polin:Yeah, absolutely. Well, we sure appreciate you guys putting the spotlight on Knoxville here and we'll keep you posted on the show and follow up with you afterwards to let you know how it goes.
Mike:All right, guys. Well, we'll let you go and get back to your modeling and your families and maybe we'll see you. Thank you, mike. Thank you, dave, appreciate it, you're welcome, thank you guys Take care. Appreciate it. Well, Dave, I think they have a little bit of a challenge going on Memorial Day weekend.
Kentucky Dave:I think they do. But then again it is possible somebody looking to turn it into a three-day weekend mini vacation. Knoxville's a great place. You got Pigeon Forge, you got the Smoky Mountains, you know East Tennessee. For all hillbilly jokes aside, east Tennessee is a beautiful, beautiful area of the country. You want to score some points with the family and get to a model show. That's a great way to do it.
Mike:Well, that's not the only show we're going to talk about, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:I know we're thick in show season, buddy, and we got the big one coming up.
Mike:Thickens show season, buddy, and we got the big one coming up. We do, dave. At the time of this recording it is 80 days from the ipms national convention in madison, wisconsin. Oh my lord, oh two and a half months, buddy, I know I know it, just it blow in my mind.
Kentucky Dave:I realized all the, all the stuff I got to get done, and I'm not talking finishing models, I'm just talking all the things I got to do to get life in order before that comes.
Mike:Well, at least you got your group build done. Yes, I do.
Kentucky Dave:You're in good shape. Yeah well, that's right. The one model that I have to have done for Madison is done, so anything else I bring along is going to be a bonus.
Mike:Well, you can bring the old mouseroo, stale mouseroo build.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I could, I could, but you know I'll be honest with you, it's not my best work, but we'll see no-transcript, so I may go that route we'll see.
Mike:Well, that'd be a good thing. You know, I may take some as well. Yeah, I've got some that have. You know, I've got one that placed in in, uh, las vegas. Yeah, seems like ages ago now it was 21 a couple of the moose root builds. Yep, I might. I might display a few as well and I'll probably have an entry. I hope we might have a little.
Kentucky Dave:PMM display.
Mike:Well, we said 80 days from the time of this recording. The actual date is July 17th through the 20th 2024, of course.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:At the Monona Terrace Convention Center, madison, wisconsin. That's right. So this is coming up quick Now. I guess the current hot news is this Embassy Suites that is scheduled to open. It's under construction. They're probably slinging paint and wallpaper at this point. Yeah, they've opened up. Well, it's been a while now. At the end of March they opened up the what would you call it. It's the the room block. Well, they didn't open the room block. They it's the room block. Well, they didn't open the room block. They opened the waiting list for the room block. Yeah, so hopefully that gets sorted out soon. And you know this is this is coming together.
Mike:Jeff's doing a good, Jeff's doing a good job.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:And I tell you the information has been at the forefront. I think he's. That's where. I think this has been really good for these guys.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:They have done an excellent job of pushing out info. Well, folks, if you need information, you can get it at nats2024.com. That's nats2024.com. That is the official website for the convention. They're going to find just about everything, and this site just keeps getting populated with more and more stuff as the months roll out. Pre-registration is open and I believe it closes on June 15th, I believe so, so, get pre-registered, you do not want to waste time registering at the show.
Mike:Well, Dave, we are in the thick of show season and I'm sure hopefully folks in a commutable distance to Knoxville will make that show. That show's kind of got a lot of potential.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, it does.
Mike:Because it's within three hours of a lot of major population centers and it's in the heart of a huge tourist area with the Gatlinburg, pigeon Forge, smoky Mountains, yeah. But it's a good opportunity for those guys to grow that show and I hope folks in those cities I rattled off during the conversation with the Knoxville guys take heart and come in and up and out to that show, make a rundown, you'll enjoy it. Well, dave, until next time. So many kids, so little time, Bye.
