The Cape Cod Scale Modelers Association’s 12th Annual Model Show, held on September 28, 2003. This was my first-ever visit to this event, so I won’t be comparing it to previous years.
Disclaimer:
This is my first attempt at writing a show report. I’ve taken Scott’s first two as a sort of guide. I’ll try to describe what the show was like, and how it was run, so that others can decide if it is a good fit for their interests in the future.
I’ll admit that I attended this show with reservations. From the flyer, I got the sense that the sponsoring club had a big focus on model cars and trucks, which was borne out by the entries. I was glad to find that the vendors and the raffle were more balanced, with a lot of stuff for the sci-fi, aircraft, and armor builders. (Only the model ship builders looked to be poorly served.)
The Preliminaries:
The club has a website, with a copy of the show flyer available. The flyer included clear directions to the events, which is always a plus. The registration forms were not on the website. Cost to enter was $3 per model for your first four entries, models after that were free. Spectator admission was $3. Juniors had free entry for all models, as well as free entry into the show.
The Venue:
The show was held at the Cape Cod Community College, in West Barnstable, Mass. The organizers get high marks for providing signs to the event. There was a sign at the exit off the highway, one at the end of the ramp, one at the entrance to the College, one directing you to the appropriate parking lot, one in the lot to send you to the right building, and one marking the correct entrance.
The show was held in the dining hall. The room was an appropriate size for the crowd, with room for the model tables and the vendors. Refreshments were available from vending machines, and there was a variety of fast food places close by. Lighting was good, and the tables were on risers.
Registration:
Registration was well organized. There was plenty of space to fill out forms, and plenty of pens available. The show used small tags (maybe 2x5 inches) to go with the model on the table. I like this approach, as opposed to a full sheet of paper, as most modelers don’t need that much space to describe their entry.
Competition:
There were 31 categories for entries. Three of them were for the juniors, who were broken up by age range. One category was for age 9 and under, one for 10-13, and one for 14-17. I think this is a better way to break up the juniors than by subject matter- it gives the younger entrants a chance. There were more junior entries here than at other events I’ve attended— I wonder if the awards structure plays a part…….?
Looking at the categories ahead of time, it looked like it catered to car modelers. There were ten different car/truck categories, for example, but only two armor categories, pre- and post-1950, all scales. (There was also a category for Military-Wheeled.) There were only six categories for aircraft: Single & multi-engine 1/72 and smaller, single & multi 1/48 and larger, jet 1/72 and smaller, and jet 1/48 and up. There was no rotary class, a shame, as there were 6 nice helicopters that ended up in the miscellaneous category. (I overheard a club official say that they had no rotary category because they had no entries in the previous year.)
There was a “No Sweeps” rule- entrants were limited to two out of the three places in a category. There was no out of box awards in any category, except one—the “Box Stock” category. The contest flyer said the only things you could to the model were paint and glue. I found out when I got there that this was a car category, only car models could enter it.
There was a Master’s category. The definition of “Master” was Models that have taken first in previous CCSMA contests.
Vendors:
There were several vendors present in the room. It was a good mix of new and old stuff—most of the vendors did not appear to be branch offices of a retail outlet. There was not much in the way of details, decals, etc.—mostly kits. Many of the vendors were selling car-centric stuff. (I saw a lot of diecast 1/64 and 1/43 stuff.) Still, there were a couple of guys with a good selection of old aircraft and armor kits. I managed to find a couple of items that I couldn’t resist.
Raffle:
Like our intrepid editor, a major attraction to me is a decent raffle. The raffle was run on the usual “take your pick when your number is called” format. Each registrant was given a free ticket, and additional tickets were $1 each. There were a lot of prizes, covering all the modeling subject areas. Also, there were two big prizes, which were drawn separately at the start of the awards ceremony, after the regular raffle was complete. These were very generous prizes- a 1/32 scale F-105, and a 1/48 scale C-130.
There were some things about the raffle that I thought were great:
1. All of the prizes had stickers on them telling who they were donated by. I think the donors deserve the recognition!
2. Winning raffle tickets were posted on a Bulletin Board. If you missed an announcement, you could always check the board later.
3. The organizers of the raffle made an announcement to crowd before the big prize draw at then end. We were told that, in the current economic climate, that the donations were down a good bit from previous years. The CCSMA club members made up the shortfall themselves, and earned a hearty round of applause for it!
The raffle was run continuously throughout the day, with a few pauses. I arrived at 11 am, and while registering, they were drawing numbers. That was a bit distracting to have that going on while also trying to complete the forms, unpack models, and get them to the right table.
If I were to run the raffle, I’d make some changes. First, I’d run it in flights, so all the choice items aren’t gone in the first half dozen draws. Second, I’d announce a schedule, so that people knew when it was OK to leave the building. I was reluctant to take my son to lunch, for fear they’d call more numbers while we were gone.
To me, the last 45 minutes or so of the raffle was painful. There were probably 20 items left on the table, and as we know, these leftovers are not items that people are excited about. The result was that a lot of people had mentally “checked out” of the raffle, (“there’s nothing there I want”) so there were a lot of numbers called with no one claiming the prize. This let to even more and more numbers being called--- the whole process seemed to be really dragged out. (At GraniteCon last year, as the raffle wore on, the winners were told to take 2, and even later, 3 items to close the raffle out on time.)
Judging and Awards:
Judging seemed to go OK. It started at 12:30 and the awards ceremony began a little late, but was underway by about 3:10 PM. A few of the classes had people take two of the three trophies, but most of the hardware seemed to go to different people. The awards were very nicely done—they were larger trophies than I’ve seen at other local shows. The awards ceremony went quickly.
I think the club members and the other attendees deserve recognition during the awards ceremony. I looked around- no one was packing up while the awards were being handed out—everyone was paying attention. I thought it was neat that most of the award winners took their trophies and set them on the table next to the model, to sit until the award ceremony was completed.
Bottom line is I will go again next year. The show felt that it was well organized, overall. I’ll recommend the event to club members, with the warning that the armor and air categories may be a little disappointing. I don’t know if the limited categories for aircraft and armor are the result of limited entries, or the other way around. (But I do know that nothing will change unless people enter.)
Report Card:
Excellent: Directions, venue, overall organization, encouragement of juniors, big raffle prizes.
Good: Vendors, raffle, awards.
Fair: Armor and aircraft categories.