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Standing (left to right): John Lester, Neil Prentice,Terry Miesle, Bruce Graw, Phil Lacefield Image: Bobby Horne demos foam erosion techniques. Image: Tom Grossman ponders masking. Image: Ron Gross talks about casting. Image: Mark Youngblut and his photo studio. Image: The dynamic Mark King Image: Anthony Taylor and Jay Chladek manned Cult's table. Image: Congregating at the AoG display. Image: AoG's Phil Lacefield is just a happy guy. Image: Neil & Terry are absorbed in the demo, but me .... I'm confused. Image: Joe "Camel" Brown talks foam, while Clark Bradshaw is distracted by the man behind the curtain. Image: Kirk Shermerhorn and Ross Waddell explain basic model lighting. Image: Joe (left) and Erin (right), doing what they do best. Image: Once again, CultTVMan's new video debuts to a standing room only crowd. That's Dave Merriman's best side filling the center of the frame. Image: Phil Conner was like a kid in a candy store. Image: Yes, Terry, these shorts DO make my butt look big. Image: "PL" from Federation (left) and Dennis of Starcrafts (right), and a table full of modeling riches. Image: Dance, Mark, dance. Image: More crowds
Image: Coming soon from Polar Lights - Mark V and Drej. Image: The Mark 5 should be available in August.
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By John Lester - images & text © 2000
Wonderfest, held every year in the late spring in Louisville, KY, is considered by many to be the premiere sci-fi and fantasy model show in the US. Each year for the past decade, Lee Stanton and crew have been putting on a fantastic convention that draws people from around the world to talk, eat, sleep, and dream models for three days. And it's a sci-fi dream come true - where airplanes, tanks and cars are marginalized and sci-fi geeks rule! Once again the gothic Executive West Hotel on the outskirts of Louisville hosted the show. The hotel provides the perfect ambience for a show that has traditionally focused more on figures and horror subjects. It's dark and brooding, with an antiquated air-conditioning system barely able to do anything about the heat, let alone the humidity. This year's show saw a marked increase in the sheer quantity of sci-fi vehicles and hardware, easily double last year's tally. The best part of the show - of any model show, really - is meeting other modelers. Plenty of old faces returned to mingle with the new faces. I was particularly glad to meet Phil Lacefield, Victor Martyn, Christopher Doll, Mark Fergel, Sean Sides, Tom Grossman, Mark Youngblut, and Ken Haverly for the first time. You'd think that 72 hours would be enough to see everything and everybody, but that just wasn't the case - some folks I really wanted to chat with, like Mark Dean, I only found ten minutes for! Once again, I won't bore you with the gory details; I'll just hit the highlights. The dealers room was again packed, and like last year, figures and anime were the main focus. Agents of Gaming showed up for the first time, with tons of minis and even more exciting news (which we'll broadcast here when it becomes official). Federation Models was back in their corner office, with a huge stash of kits and accessories from Federation, Thomas Models, Starcrafts, SFSM, Skyhook and more. Starcrafts debuted their new 1/1400 Steamrunner; Thomas showed off their new New Orleans-class right next door at CultTVMan's table. Resin Ranger's accurate Gallileo made a big splash too. Something new this year was a series of free, short "how-to" demonstrations held Saturday and Sunday during the day. These replaced the pay workshops held on Fridays of previous Wonderfests. I picked up a whole bunch of good modeling tips and techniques - I highly recommend these seminars for any modeler, regardless of skill, and I hope they'll become an institution at future 'fests. Particularly useful were Kirk Schermerhorn's dicussion of lighting basics (with the lovely Ross Waddell as his "Vanna") and Ron Gross' lecture on basics of resin casting. Bobby Horne showed a really neat technique for eroding insulating foam with lacquer thinner to make plaques and bases, Jay Chladek discussed weathering techniques, Joe Brown demonstrated how to use insulation foam to sculpt models, Tom Grossman showed some good, basic techniques for masking and airbrushing vehicles, Mark Youngblut gave model photography tips and Mark King went over basic tools and techniques for scratchbuilding. All-in-all, these were excellent, useful presentations and I learned alot I hope to use in the near future. I missed CultTVMan's get-together and the Polar Lights' pizza party, alas. I did manage to catch two of my all-time favorite movies ("Army of Darkness" and "Galaxy Quest"), shown after a hilarious reel of 50's TV toy commmercials, while discussing business. The highlight of the show, as always, was the model contest. This year saw more vehicle models - and the craftsmanship was simply amazing. It seemed, paradoxically, that less awards were given out in the vehicles category than last year .... but the high standard of judging just made the awards that much sweeter to those who received them. I was floored that four of the five models I brought won anything - let alone two bronzes, plus "Best Humour Subject" from Mad Models for the Teletubbies:TNG. I personally thought Kirk Schermerhorn's Bender was better - especially with the hilarious sound clip that filled the contest room all day long. Far and away the most popular - or at least the most photographed - model was "How Rude", which won a Gold and "Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Figure". Was the show worth the six hour drive there and back (even trapped for six hours in a car with Larry "The Spoon" Strickland)? Heck, yes. Will I be there next year? Heck yes - with more and better models. This is a trip that I recommend to any sci-fi modeler, no matter how hot Kentucky gets. ![[Gold awards]](wfest2k/models_!golds.jpg) Dave Merriman took two Gold awards for his scratchbuilt "21-X" (left, above) and "Space Station One" (right). |
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Photo Gallery |
| Some of the writing on the entry cards was hard to decipher. If I've spelled your name wrong or mis-identified your model, please contact me to get it corrected! |
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Figures Image: Kirk with Tribbles, by Christopher Dobsch Image: Princess Leia, by Chris Gaskill Image: Dale Jones' Minbari Ranger .... Image: .... was right next to his Shadowman. Image: Edward Holsclau's "StormtroopHer" Image: Cloudstrife with Hardy Daytona, by Jason Walker Image: Matt Johnson's Alien Parasite Image: Mike Nicholson's Cutey Honey Image: Bad angle on a couple of good figures by Richard Gaskill Image: Randy Van Dyke's Terminator and Ross Waddell's C3PO Image: Sandre Kramer's Kusangani from Ghost in the Shell Image: Watto, by Sean McNally Image: Another view of Kusangani, plus a companion Guyver Image: Iria and Zeriam, by Tony Krerowicz Image: The babes of Evangelion, by Tony Lamb Image: Proof you can make a good model from the MPC Anubis kit. Image: The mummy in his tomb. Image: Left to right: "Here's another one, Murray" by Andy Mihail, Neil DeConte's Dr. Smith and Robot, and Mark Fergel's Robot. |
Vehicles and Hardware Image: Terry Miesle's Pathfinder Image: Bill Mayo shows what the Sakura Wars robots are SUPPOSED to look like. Image: John Creed's SF3D mechs Image: Joe Graziano put a lot of effort into upgrading this Fliege Image: Mark Youngblut scratchbuilt the cockpit on an Armorcast Madcat. That's his Vulture in the background. Image: Neil Prentice's Dougram "Ironfoot" and Master Grade Gundam Image: Peter Fay's Perfect Grade Zaku Image: Phasers through the ages, by Clark Bradshaw Image: Christopher Doll's Excelsior Image: Erin Lantz's "AT-ST Pickup" Image: Erin's rendition of and Earth Force mail carrier Image: Erin's Marsliner in UPS colors Image: Erin's Vorlon Cruiser took a Bronze. Image: David Guertin's Griffon Labor and Narcissus escape pod. Image: Joe Brown broght a lot of models. This is his Psi Corps shuttle. Image: Joe's Marsliner in FedEx livery Image: Joe's Norway-class USS Oak Ridge Image: The ILM folks were impressed with Joes scratchbuilt NSEA Protector Image: Sulaco by, you guessed it, Joe Brown Image: Jim James' B5 station looks even better in person Image: MP5, by John Larson Image: Joe Brown snuck in a Gungan sub, too. Image: Jim Piszar's Movie Jupiter 2 Image: Kenny Haverly's Future Fighters Image: Michael Hamby's Workbee Image: Matt Hawkins built this AT-PT Image: Cavorite Sphere, by Matt Johnson Image: Neil Prentice's Colonial Viper Image: Peter Robison won the "Best Sci-Fi Vehicle" award sponsored by Federation Models Image: Sean Sides' Vulcan Shuttle .... Image: .... and his very nicely done Voyager Image: Terry Miesle's BattleFleet Gothic destroyer mini won a Silver Image: Terry's Jem'Hadar attacker and Whitestar mini Image: Tony Lamb's Reliant Image: Tracy Man had three of these super Grissom-class ships on display Image: Apollo-Soyuz link up Image: Another Jem'Hadar Assault ship Image: Aaron 'HARLOCK' Propper's Arcadia (green ship) and it's surroundings Image: Another look at David Guertin's and Terry Miesle's models Image: Lots of mechs and robots were at the show Image: Victor Martyn's AT-ST Image: Will Ortiz's Spindrift |
Dioramas Image: Jay Chladek's Star Wars scene Image: Regimental Scouts, by Jerry Conner Image: Jeff Macker's Warrior Bug scene. Image: Abduction, by John Sowinski Image: "All hands, brace for impact!" by Phil Conner Image: Tom Seiler won a well-deserved Gold for "Daisy, Daisy", plus GEOMetric models Best Diorama," and Amazing Figure Modeler's "Most Amazing Figure" of this year's WonderFest. Image: "Daisy" was about 3 feet tall, and included lights and a sound track of HAL's last words. Image: Victor Martyn scratchbuilt much of this X-Wing repair shop. Humour Image: Tom Grossman's Grommit Image: "Shuttle o' Love", by John Lester and Terry Miesle |
This page copyright © 1997-9 Starship Modeler™.
Last updated on 19 June 2000.
![[Model geeks of the world .... unite!]](wfest2K/wfest_people_AoGbooth.jpg)
![[USS Kyushu]](wfest2k/wfest2k_new_03.jpg)
![[Giant robot on display]](wfest2k/wfest_models_lil_b9.jpg)
