Hi All, Albert here.
Just got back from Louisville, KY, where I spent a long weekend at Wonderfest: a hobby show and model contest with sci-fi, horror, monster, and comics-related subjects. They offered great classes all weekend long. There was a huge vendor room with a big focus on resin models and garage kits. The model contest had over 700 models on the table.
Fellow Livonia member Mike Anderson was there, along with John from Warren club.
I attended classes on Arduino programming, decal preparation, resin kit prep, and mini painting.
The model categories were very different from a standard IPMS contest. (I only saw one tank on the table!) Here are the categories:
- SF / Fantasy Figures (includes robots)
- Horror Figures
- Vehicles
- Super Heroes & Super Villains
- Mecha (mobile suits)
- Anime Figures
- Dinosaurs
- Kaiju (giant monsters)
- Props
- Dioramas
- Humor & Super Deformed
- Original Sculpt / Scratchbuilt (any subject)
One particularly interesting exhibit included a number of studio-scale Star Wars models. Original Star Wars models were made from off-the-shelf kits back in the day. This display broke down which kits were used on some of the original Star Wars models.
Here, someone had scratch built a Jawa Sandcrawler based on some original unproduced concept sketches.
And how about this sweet 1:1 R2-D2?
One room was full of hobbyists who built Lost In Space Robots. There were at least 10 Robots filling the room!
Here are some other models I liked in the model room.
Long story short: Everyone was super welcoming, especially when they found out it was my first Wonderfest.
The model contest was very well-run, and the awards ceremony was fast and efficient. Both Mike and I took home awards.
I hope to make it back to Wonderfest next year!
