Do you support your local model club

I've been a member of at least a half dozen or more local modeling clubs spanning the last 18 years (I am in the military and move every 3 years). One of the first things I do is to locate the nearest IPMS and AMPS chapter (sometimes it is the same club) via the web. I get in contact with someone on one of the various websites who is a member and get the meeting times and locations. Then I show up.

At my last assignment in Massachusetts, I brought my daughter (she was 8-11 during those years) to the meetings regularly and she entered kits in the last show we attended there in 2004 (she received 3 plaques). She was very popular with the club members, Al may remember her from GraniteCon. Her brother attended a couple of meetings as well, but he was much younger and would fall asleep before the meeting ended.

I've submitted articles to AMPS's Boresight magazine (although it has not been printed) and had a few articles printed in the different local IPMS chapters' newsletters where I was stationed.

I've had numerous modeling articles and reviews posted at sites around the web as well.

The last group build I did I built a truck along with my 3 yr old son. It is displayed on a shelf in his room, but not after he played with it for a while. I've also built the snap together Speed Racer Mach 5 and Mach 6 kits with him. They are made by Jada and are quite well engineered models, but made of a more durable form of styrene. He played with them until they broke.

I've given model kits and supplies to young teenagers in the neighborhood as well as to my nephews. Being an old tanker and living at the home of Cavalry and Armor, I always kept a few of the Academy and Trumpeter Abrams kits around so boys could build kits of their dad's tank. I've also found that the old Italeri HMMWV kits to be popular with young model builders.

Although many modelers here have a negative view of entering models in local shows, I will tell you that if no one brought models to the show, there would be no show. You don't have to be a master modeler or even a mediocre modeler to enter in a local show. Just bringing something to the table will help make the show better. Even if you have no chance (in your mind) to win anything, you just may inspire someone to think, "Hey, that guy brought that kit to the show. I build better than that. I bet I could bring one of my kits to the show next year."

And you never know, I am not a figure modeler by any means (normally toss them in the parts box) but one year I brought the reissue Polar Lights Spider-Man kit. I ended up winning a 3rd (out of 3 entries) place award with it. Yeah, I know, cheap win, but at least I built a model and brought it to the show.

I support it and run it and am the head cheerleader for it. While we may be small, and ahave about as many entrants in our local contest as others do members in thier club, we always try to do everthing we can with high level of quality.

Twice a year we do month long library displays in the glass cases, with plenty of contact information for our club, and it is the same library where we meet.  Once a  month we hold bulding demonstrations at the USS Kidd veterans museum. I have been on the local cable access TV show now four times highlighting the hobby and the club, and once to promote the annual expo (we use the term show and expo instead of contest...yes a play on words but it seems to be more "open" to some people). We also make a point of supporting the other IPMS clubs around us.  To that extent we have been instrumental in helping get two new clubs moving towards chartering with IPMS.  I normally carry cards i made with my name and contact info, and club website info, for when i meet new people in hobby shops, and these tend to be returning modelers.  

So, to answer the question, YES! :)

David

I support two "local" clubs...one being IPMS-Steve Wittman which is about 20 miles from my home and the other is IPMS-R I Bong which is over a hundred miles from my home.

Last night was our Steve Wittman Chapter meeting and afterwards as I was driving Billy Crisler back to my place, we were discussing the guys and their models. Of the attendees at the meeting only one was a "local." The rest of us commute anywhere from twenty to over 100 miles to attend the meeting. Two in particular have been making the lengthy commute for over 25 years!

Our little Oshkosh band of modeling brothers once had a membership base of about thirty modelers at its peak. Now we are a comfortable crew of a dozen or so with more new faces appearing each month.

Both clubs are diverse not only in subjects the membership build, but in demographic composition  as well.

I served for many years as the Steve Wittman Chapter President, while I took my modeling hiatas the club survived. When I was a "born again" builder my return to the club was seamless like I had only missed a couple of meetings in a years course. That's how comfortable and easy going our group is. 

Pretty much dry around here... The only local stuff is model railroaders and I don't feel like commuting 45 minutes to next closest place on the list.  I do have the local Hobby Lobby's manager as a friend though, and she's rather warm to my idea of a "local talent" display in her store of folks who build using the stuff they find in her store though...  The problem is getting her district boss to see it as a plus and giving up floor space for it, since it would have to encompass much more than just modeling...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

The only local stuff is model railroaders

And what's wrong with model railroaders?  Modeling is modeling regardless of the subject. In fact I've learned a great deal of the weathering techniques I use on aircraft from those in our club that are heavy in to model railroading. Maybe you could teach them a few things too! I know I have...it is the exchanging of ideas and techniques that makes us better at what we do. Who knows, you might find a few who are closet aircraft and armor builders...help bring them back into the light!

I'm not only a member, I'm also the president

So if I ain't supporting it, there's a problem

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

Hans von Hammer wrote: The only local stuff is model railroaders And what's wrong with model railroaders?  Modeling is modeling regardless of the subject. In fact I've learned a great deal of the weathering techniques I use on aircraft from those in our club that are heavy in to model railroading. Maybe you could teach them a few things too! I know I have...it is the exchanging of ideas and techniques that makes us better at what we do. Who knows, you might find a few who are closet aircraft and armor builders...help bring them back into the light!

LOL..  Yeah, right.. That's about the same as sayin' "Why don't you hang around with Marines? Military is military regardless of the uniform."  Well, it ain't...  Being on the same side isn't being in the same branch...  Sure, some of the lingo is the same, and the weapons and tactics cross over ok in some instances, but that's where the similarity ends..  Different mind-sets, different focus, different philosophies, different histories, different missions...  

I built several model railroads over the years, and didn't find it remotely the same, outside landscaping and weathering... Not to mention that it got just too damned expensive and it was never, ever, gonna be finished...   That's the first thing I learned about railroading, I assure you...   

The second was that no matter what, I was never, EVER going to be able to afford to do everything I had planned and would, in all likelyhood, be found dead under some benchwork after havin' told the wife for the 50th time, "I SAID, I'll be up in a minute, honey! I just GOT to track down where that dead short is that's hangin' up my coal drags near the switches for the mainline at the Smithville Hump-yard!!!"

I was a member of our local club for about a year.  Turns out, only one other member actually built models while the balance of them just thought they were cool.  Most of the meetings focused on a rather colorful and difficult ex-member, and how awful he was/is and his antics.  Also spent a lot of energy deciding how best to snub him when possible.  Needless to say, I grew tired of their bashing QUICKLY and went my separate way.  I do occassionally run into one of them, and they are usually quick to tell me all of the gossip about this guy.

So, I really try to avoid my local club.

Rob Gronovius wrote:

Update: I stated a week ago that my article had not been published by AMPS. It is now in the current issue of Boresight (AMPS bi-monthly journal).

 Congratulations, Rob!

If there was one here I would.

High five Rob!

Hans...what hobby is ever finished? Why do you think model railroading has enjoyed the longevity it has...it is perpetual. So what if you are found dead under your bench...you went out doing something you enjoyed. Better than sitting at a desk doing a job you hate.

Our little group has a three model railroaders in it. Though they do other subjects much of their talent and techniques are great resources which they share with us all. Much has to do with the individuals and their personality. I've experienced both good and bad groups.

One of these days I will start my railroad layout, I look at is as writing a book...each step a chapter....chapters turn into a book....more books turn into a trilogy...all of it good.

My layout will be tied together with my aircraft...so I will enjoy both worlds! 

DrewH wrote:

I'm not only a member, I'm also the president So if I ain't supporting it, there's a problem

Same here. Only thing is, the membership insists on refering to me as President for Life.

ajlafleche wrote:

DrewH wrote: I'm not only a member, I'm also the president So if I ain't supporting it, there's a problem Same here. Only thing is, the membership insists on refering to me as President for Life.

 Agreed! Also, when I registered with IPMS as the president, I got an email back welcoming me to the thankless world of life long president

To the best of my knowledge there is no club within thirty minutes of my house, but I wish there was. Maybe someday

gary

Hans...what hobby is ever finished? Why do you think model railroading has enjoyed the longevity it has...it is perpetual. So what if you are found dead under your bench...you went out doing something you enjoyed. Better than sitting at a desk doing a job you hate.

Ok, it appears to me that you might think I have something against rail-heads.  I don't... It's a cool hobby, one I enjoyed for several years... I no longer have any interest in it though... I also have no interest in joining a RR Club for that very reason... I've no interest in improving the looks of the dynamic brakes of a GP-30, nor do I care about wiring an AmTrak drag for constant lighting, or repairing the smoke system in a UP 4-8-0...

Conversly, I doubt that they'll find much use for my intimate knowledge of the M109 155mm Self-propelled howitzer, or correcting the spade latches on it...

What I AM saying is that there is no scale model club in my town, and I'm gong to commute into a city to join one.  Should another club form in this town I'll consider it, but until then, my "Club" is this forum...

You'll notice that my posts are confined specific areas of the forum as well...  I don't post or read much in the Auto, Sci-Fi, Helicopter, or Ship forums... Why?  Very little in those forums interest me.  I'll venture in if I need to, but I don't hang around in 'em... I build, far and away, military dioramas, 99% of which are aircraft and armor.  There's a diorama forum for that as well.  So...

In a nutshell, I consider joining a RR club to be a waste of time.  It would be another story were I still a Railroader, but I'm not, so I don't...

As for sitting at a desk doing a job I hate, I don't do that either... I don't have a job in the classic sense. I'm retired military, I get a fair pension, and I manage an apartment building for a small salary and a free place to live.  My full-time endeavor, the one I spend 40-50 hours per week at, is building models... My other "job" is pretending to be a German Soldat a few times a year, and going to airshows...

I think I'm doin' ok, knowwhutImean?