One of the signs of spring here in the Northeast is the complete melting of all the grubby snow piles in mall parking lots, but since Old Man Winter was especially bitter to us this year and there are more piles of snow in New Jersey parking lots than rivets on a Trumpeter 1/48 scale jet, we have to look for other signs, such as Mosquitocon, the annual show run by IPMS New Jersey.
Mosquitcon and Blizzardcon (run by IPMS Columbus) are two of the best regional contests I've attended over the years. Both are consistently well attended, have robust contests, and great vendors. 2014 didn't disappoint those of us who, suffering severe cabin fever, ventured out on a gorgeous Saturday to re-engage in our hobby.
The vendors room was better than ever. Guy Holroyd of
Linden Hill Imports was back after a long absence.
Yellow-Wings Decals made their first appearance at the show (I think it was the first time), showing previews of some exciting new releases. Jeff Garrity of
Rare-Plane Detective was back again, anchoring the show with local hobby shop
Ridgefield Hobby, both with a great selection of older, hard to find kits. The room was further filled out by many other vendors, professional and casual. There were bargains to be found, mostly from the guys selling from their personal stash.
The contest was as good as ever, with just under 400 models. The 1/72 single engine prop category was probably the largest with some really nice entries. There are some very talented ship modelers in the area, and their work impresses everyone, regardless of what you typically build. I'm afraid the armor category may have taken a bit of a hit this year, as the AMPS convention was held the same weekend down in Virginia.
If you're within three or four hours of Wayne, New Jersey the contest is definitely worth the trip. Keep an eye on the club's
web site for the dates of next year's show. See you there!
And now, some of my favorite entries. The most interesting to me was a scratchbuilt, 1/400 scale model of New York's Throg's Neck Bridge. Really cool!
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| Scratchbuilt 1/400 Throgs Neck Bridge. |
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| Detail of the Throgs Neck Bridge. |
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| Best Aircraft and Best of Show, a Wingnut Wings 1/32 FE.2b by Adrian Davies. |
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| Adrian told me he spent two months rigging his FE.2b and was sick of it by the time he finished! |
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| Beautiful 1/72 Bf-109. |
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| Perfectly executed camouflage on a 1/72 Bf-109. |
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| Nice Minicraft 1/144 Constellation. |
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| Tamiya 1/48 F-16C |
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| Perfectly finished Meng 1/72 F-102. |
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| A 1/72 Fw-190A painted and weathered using the salt technique. |
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| Joe Volz's 1/144 MD-88. |
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| Gorgeous example of Airfix's excellent 1/48 Sea Vixen. |
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| Perfect NMF on an Anigrand 1/72 XA-38 Grizzly. |
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| Italeri 1/35 LVT-4. |
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| Tamiya 1/35 M51 with perfectly done weathering. |
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| Trumpeter 1/35 T-62. |
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| 1938 Ford Roadster detailed in 1/35. |
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| Tamiya 1/24 NISMO GT-R. |
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| 1/350 USS Indianapolis. |
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| Gallery 1/350 USS Wasp. |
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| Cinart "A Trip to the Moon." |
Some really great models in there, and a few amazing ones. I think what separates the two for me is the degree of imagination you can see in there, as much as the actual quality of modelling. Plus a display base nearly always kicks the model up a level or two. Sounds like a great show!
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