iHobby Expo/The HMA Show

looks interesting, but somewhat limited for the plastic Modeler? I see some paint and airbrush CO. only 2 plastic manufacturers though. please tell us your experience. I want to make it but may not fit my schedule

I was thinking about it,but it seemed like mostly train stuff I'm holding out for Mosquitocon on April 2nd

We just got back about an hour ago.  As said above, it was great for trains but it wasn't too bad for plastics and paints.  Academy was there with a test shot of their soon to be released USS Indianapolis.  It's HUGE.  They had quite a bunch of their aircraft kits there also.  Minicraft had their 2016 new releases there. The 1/72 PBM-5 Mariner USN, 1/48 Beechcraft T-34 A/B &C Mentor and the 1/350 USS Olympic with new tooling.  In 3 or 4 months they will be coming out with a 1/48 Cessna 182 to go with their 172s now out.  Picked up their 2016 catalog with kit numbers and prices.

Vallejo was there "in force".  All types of paints there plus the metal colors.  Had a guy demonstrating the metal colors on planes with different undercoats to show how the metal colors show up.  Picked up an 83 page catalog with "all" their colors shown.  Couple of airbrush manufacturers there.  One had a new pistol grip type that worked well and @ $169.95 with a show cost of $99.95 was very tempting.  The rest of the line looked pretty nice too.

The R/c section was loaded for bear with all types and sizes of Drones from palm sized w/flashing lights to very large ones that looked like mechanical monsters.  Very big selection of R/C off-road vehicles in all sizes. 

A fantastic 3D printer by Rigidbot drew a large crowd.  Plans can be downloaded on a flash drive and put in the printer to be built on a 10"x10"x10" plate. They had all types of samples there from simple items to complicated structures. At $600 for the basic unit it drew a lot of attention.  

Large selection of tools and glues for the builder. Spent a good amount of time looking over the assortment of dremel bits and clamps of all types.  

I think it was time well spent. They had a small contest there with some very nice looking entries.  About 2 dozen of them.  It was in a closed off area and you couldn't get up close to look at them like our regular contests.  Spectators got to vote on their choice.

Jim  

Thanks for the update - would have love to see the Vallejo new Metal colors in person.  Sounds good enough of a go next year if they come back to NJ.