Awards of note:
Joe Lotz and Roscoe Petra. I was glad to see Ross' conversion of the 1/35 Italeri Crusader be properly appreciated!
Ed St. Denis' 1/72 Armor. I thought his Prime Mover/Trailer/Marder build was possibly the best model of the Show. The opinions of our hosts differed. Ed had a good day nevertheless!
Larry Clausen was well awarded too! Little Liam's star wars playground got an award too.
You can see that awards were Gold/Silver/Bronze. The judging process is a lengthy one so it takes some time, with entries coming on to display tables the whole time. I expect the vendors did really well during judging, because it gave contestants something to do during that time.
Gary McDowell built an improved model of the Aurora Forgotten Prisoner that he made as a kid. This is the "Best Figure" award recipient.
Gary's small armor models also fared well. You have to devoted to attend in Monticello from West Virginia!
Our Hosts placed the regular awards on the tables by the awarded models. Delivering awards take a little while too. Joe thought he got skunked. I was preparing to offer the traditional shoulder for crying on. "It could be they aren't done with awards yet." Yo see how well Joe did. No weeping proved necessary. The Best of's and special awards were announced.
Adam Mangold and his cadre' of Flea Farting Fellows did a fine job! 60 Modelers entered 211 models for consideration. 40% more models than any previous FleaCon. Did I win anything? OH! I actually did!
Gold Award clean sweep! Chibi Godzilla got his first award and seemed excited about it! The Teeny Tiger Tank of Tunisia and "Three Mile Limit" received the same. I am humbled by the appreciation of my fellows.
Mark Karolus' build of TLAR's 1/700 Horace L. Hunley submarine too! Hunley caused quite a stir as modelers realized what He was and looked CLOSER at Mark's fine build! Now I gotta mail another package to Mark!
Teresa's harvest of raffle prizes slipped from 19 to only 17 prizes. The huge raffle attracted monstrous ticket sales. $1,100.00 worth!!
The started Revell Hawk Missile set looked to be the only less-than-new kit she won. Our return home was without mishap between big, April thunderstorms.
We found our grandson Russell near the Marion house and he came for a visit. I taught him how to open the box and read the instructions as his first step to model making. His Mom called and he said "I can't talk right now. Grampa and I are talking airplanes."
I awarded Russell a Gold Medal. "Best Grandson in the Whole Wide World" is how the citation reads.
When we returned from a rousing evening of laughing and singing at Pitcher's Bar in Marion, I made an effort to finish my FleaCon 18 photo essay. My sweet Girl found me asleep at my keyboard and sent me to bed around 0400 this morn. Yesterday was a big success for both of our Hobbies!
Quotable Quotes:
"AMPS Nat's? Amps Gnats? Is that smaller than an AMPS Fly, then? Is it black like the other flies in Minnesota?
Is the Gnat amplified? If you plug it in, does it go poof and let out a tiny bit of magic smoke?"
I love the play on words. Ed St. Denis was chatting about the National AMPS contest and I kinda got carried away.
"Virgil, Terrence & Trie Dactyl. See? We're a pair-o-Dactyls!"
"You're a pair of SOMETHING all right. I thought was funny before you explained it."
"I think is was funny to explain it!"
"If you want to wear your mask, feel free to do so. This also means we are just as free to point and laugh."
"That's a submarine? I thought it was a machine gun!"
Thanks again for looking in!
) resin and future water. Stringy, unfinished and sloppy looking. A fine 1/35 PBR model is lessened by hurried, unfinished, water effects. I do not think unfinished cotton should ever be used to simulate water. Smoke? You bet! When modeling water, Less is more. Don't dink around so much.
