Wonderfest 2005 ... Be There FSM.

Hey, Rob! Good to be able to communicate w/you!

I might have been of a mind to wear a Hawaiian print shirt each day of WF, but had only brought the one with me. This year, perhaps I'll bring 4 or 5 so that I can swap out for the evening events. Should be especially interesting if all of us wear a shirt to the Anti-Banquet Suday night. Imagine the look on the face of the waitress when a dozen or so folks show up all wearing the same style of shirt. They'll think it some sort of Parrot-Head convention!


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Back on topic: I have no clue why it is that FSM has YET to publish anything in the mag about WonderFest. It certainly gives the impression that the SciFi/Fantasy folks in the hobby don't mean much to TPTB at FSM. If they can have someone show up a couple years back, have folks there at a table and even put pics up on The Net, why can't they publish even a simple one or two page article in their magazine? I still know lots of modelers who aren't 'Net Savvy, so miss out on those "special expose" type pics.

We're not worthy...?

Saw the Fine Scale Modelers this weekend at the Butch O'hare show in a suburb of Chicago. They were taking lots of pictures. If FSM liked that show... then you will love Wonderfest.

on another note... I was impressed that they had some sci-fi at the Butch O'Hare show. I wish I took some pictures to post for y'all.

Heya Griff, glad to here you're still out htere.

Hmm...co-ordianting shirts....that could be fun.

Makes me want to check into having custom fabric printed up. Imagine a hawaiian shirt with scifi subjects burried in it.

QUOTE: Originally posted by kylwell Heya Griff, glad to here you're still out htere.

Yeppers. Very moderate moderating occurs here, so it's a place that appeals to me.

QUOTE: Hmm...co-ordianting shirts....that could be fun. Makes me want to check into having custom fabric printed up. Imagine a hawaiian shirt with scifi subjects burried in it.

Lemmeknow if you find something interesting. I'd be interested in possibly hooking up with you fundage-wise and getting something custom done. Could be lotsa fun.

Will do Griff.

Think it'd be cool, having custom hawwaiian shirts.

Maybe I should think about going into biz, scifi subject hawaiian shirts....hmmmm

Be kinda kewel to have a shirt made of all kinds of SciFi/Fantasy/Anime logo's, wouldn't it? Nuthin' too risque' tho, right? Wouldn't want to offend too many delicate sensibilities.

Well, nothing so far. I've got calls in to a few people that might do custom fabric printing. The sewing isn't an issue (Sueanne voluneered if worse comes to worse), just trying to find somebody who'll do a limited run of fabric. One place I talked to said "Sure, minimum 15,000 yards"...a shirt takes about 3 yards to make. Don't think I could handle getting rid of 5,000 shirts.

I've also got a few other people involved in researching it, and am also going to see if anybody else has ever done somehting like waht we want.

Heck, worst case, just find something already printed up. If it's got Star Wars, Star Trek or just some silly SF related stuff, I'm sure it'll sell, if only to a small group of us. Have you looked in to how much it might cost to have it silk-screen...? Prolly more than it's worth, I'd guess....

Hey, you just gave me an idea.

Somewhere, sometime, I've seen Star Wars sheets. They're cotton, coupla yards each...hmmm. Where's Naoto when you need him (I've never seen somebody more able to find truely obscure stuff on the web).

QUOTE: Originally posted by kylwell Hey, you just gave me an idea.

D'Oh! I hope it didn't hurt! I have those so rarely myself.... [:0]

QUOTE: Somewhere, sometime, I've seen Star Wars sheets. They're cotton, coupla yards each...hmmm.

I know someone else who's done something similar to that, tho they made curtains out of a set of sheets. Kewel idea, regardless!

QUOTE: Where's Naoto when you need him (I've never seen somebody more able to find truely obscure stuff on the web).

Prolly over at SM? Don't recall seeing him anywhere else, regardless.. I still can't sign in, but you're still on good terms there, so drop him a PM. He's always willing to help and bet he'd be able to get you what you need.

Does Wonderfest limit the size of models entered? I thought I'd heard that they have max height and width rules.

There are indeed size restrictions. However, this year was my first WF and I didn't enter anything, so really don't remember what they are. From what I can recall of this years WF, they're fairly liberal.

For instance, several groups had entries that exceeded the single entrant size restrictions. However, you are allowed to combine entries, thus somewhat "bypassing" the restrictions. This means that some groups are able to have huge diorama's. A group calling itself the "TechMages" (mostly from the Chicago area) made what was called "J-57 - Jeffries Station", a 1/1000 scale Star Trek space station. The station itself was easily 4' tall and had a fairly large area of table space taken up.

Another group of guys had a Mech battle display that took up probably 4' across by 3' or so "deep" and perhaps 12" high. It was most impressive.

I checked http://www.wonderfest.com/ <---The Official WonderFest website. Took me a bit, but I finally found the contest rules section in the Online Flyers sub-section. Click here to go to the --->: http://www.wonderfest.com/contest.html - Model Contest Page.

HTH,

Is it May yet?

not yet, but soon. mark your calendars.

Another couple of weeks before the website is updated! Can't wait!

I hate having to wait...sigh...

The website is updated! Looks like a "Time Machine" theme this year. And judging by the patterns I've noticed over the years, all of the silver/gold awards will go to the person who scratchbuilds a 3' time machine...

I've got my room reserved!

I've got my room reserved as well, I plan on teaching at the Sci-Fi U classes before Wonderfest. For those that don't know Sci-Fi U is a pre-Wonderfest event designed to help share some the skills and techniques used in building kits of all genre's. Last year we covered Basic Construction, Weathering, Scratch Building and Electronics. We should be publishing a list of covered topics for this year, check it out on the Wonderfest web site.

I will be leaving on Thursday and returning Sunday after the awards ceremony to miss all the Memorial Day traffic. My offer for the ride still holds....

I'm leaving Thursday morning and driving back on Monday. I really don't have to worry about the traffic, I only really have to come through one major city on the way, and that has a bypass.

Where you coming from, Ross, maybe we can convoy? LOL

We are getting there on Thur. and leaving Mon.(or Tue. if we decide to go to Six Flags).

I'll be driving up on Thursday and leaving sometime Monday, maybe Tuesday. I've got a friend in Louisville and some friends up in Cincinnati I might visit after WF is over. I'll be rooming with Dave "Blappy" Guertin and have no plans to attend SFU. Prolly do a bit of site-seeing on Friday and see if I can drag Dave along with me. I think it'd be kewel to go to the Louisville Slugger factory/museum.

when does the thing open to the general public? i want to make sure i get in early enough to take advantage of all the limited run wonderfest kits. i'm told its a rush to those tables... is that true?

D'Oh! Sorry, hadn't visited in about a month! My bad....

The dealer room doors open up to the general public at 10am, I think it is. However, if you pay the extra cash, you get in two hours earlier than everyone else and there's not nearly the crowd as there is at 10am and after. Don't recall for sure what the exact price is for the Early Bird ticket, but it's worth the extra to me. Should be up on the main WonderFest site, methinks.

It's expensive- I think it's around 45 extra bucks to get in early! This year will be my fourth year in a row going, and I'll stand in line at 9am every time. The dealer's aren't going to run out of what you need. Plus the hot dogs and pop are good...

Geesh. You guys are everywhere....

Hey Blappy! Welcome to FSM.

Mr. Usher... any word on FSM being there this year?

I will probably go this year since I am a whole 40 miles from Louisville and the wife is into sci-fi as well. It should be fun. I was lucky enough to be stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL in 1996 when Star Trek had their first official convention there. It was great not having any travel or lodging expenses.

One month to go! Any news on the FSM making an appearance at THE LARGEST Sci-fi/figure/horror model contest in the country?


Here's to hoping...