I really enjoyed this show. It was small, but the models were good and some very unique projects were on display. I'll post some pics of the show within a few days. This show had the fun good vibe feeling of the first few cabin fever shows way back when it was in Leesport. It wasn't a vendor feeding frenzy show, which was fine by me. No fudge, trinket, hot dog and pretzel vendors, or junk dealers cluttering things up.
Several folks whose work I admire were there and the smaller show size meant that you could look closely and take time talking with the person who made the model. Very different from the elbow to ribs crowd of Cabin Fever, and the show wasn't all about massive auctions and radio control construction equipment. This was the first time I got to really look at Rich Carlstedt's Monitor engine in good light without being jostled by people trying to shove in. Talking with George Britnell and seeing his engines getting fired up in such a relaxed venue was a real pleasure, along with seeing other folks whose work I admire like Joe RIchmond, Dennis Sage, and others who I'm just not coming up with tonight. The last week+ has been five days of travel to and staying in Lansing followed by two days at the show and then getting back to tidewater Virginia today. I'm a tad crisp around the edges.
Everyone was running their engines for folks all though the show, very few static displays.
Some very nice miniature firearms and tools were displayed by several folks. Some of the exhibitors were actually NOT gray beards! There's hope for the future.
Willy Demis is doing some really excellent work that combines electronics and machining as key parts of the projects. Exotic materials (crystallized titanium, Mokume-gane, tungsten, timascus, damascus, something fun I've missed no doubt) plus magic eyes, bargraphs, components arranged on circuit boards to be aesthetically part of the presentation, an exciting and different approach I would have never considered. I would have just buried an arduino or ESP32 under the base rather than doing a complete discrete component layout to be part of the show. Just doing the electronics so they work well is tough enough, doing the board design as art is fascinating to see. Willy made his fan / flywheel using tilted rotary table setups to cut blades rather than doing a 3D CNC job of it. He even has one top made with an outer rim from metallic meteorite remains. Not everyday material selections OR everyday model engineering sorts of projects eh?
Gary Martin put on a superb pattern making presentation Saturday afternoon, darn glad I made it.
It felt as though the museum and the show organizers has a few disconnects about what had been arranged on Saturday, I was very disappointed to not get to see a lot of the cars and trucks that day. Fortunately my wife humored me and I got to come back for a few hours on Sunday and all seemed to have been sorted, basement was open, all the tape was down. The museum folks I spoke with were all friendly and helpful. There are things in that basement I'd never seen or in some cases even heard of.
My apologies to those who I failed to mention by name, all the exhibitors were great and welcoming and all the club members were working hard and went out of their way to encourage everyone's interest and to be helpful.
For those who haven't ever met him, 55fairlane is a really good guy, lots of fun to talk with.
Thanks to everyone who put this show together, and thanks to all who displayed at the show. I hope to get back next year.
Cheers,
Stan
