Artists who work in plastic and paint on a very small scale are in Omaha/Council Bluffs this week for their annual world competition. Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley reports: Models :44
The International Plastic Modelers’ Society is bringing in miniature makers from nearly every state and from countries all over the planet, according to convention chairman Scott Hackney, of Omaha. He says it truly is an international event. “We’re expecting over 750 people,” Hackney says. “We’ve got folks from New Zealand, Czechoslovakia and Taiwan and lots of places coming in.”
The carefully-constructed models they’re transporting resemble objects and machines that are very familiar — like the Titanic, a 747 passenger jet or a Ford Mustang — and others that are unique, including imagined future spacecraft. “There’s over 200 categories, everything from airplanes to ships to tanks to cars to figures to sci-fi to dioramas,” Hackney says.
“By the time registration stops Friday night, there should be almost 3,000 models here.” They are far from the boxed kits many of us built as kids. Hackney says these modelers invest hundreds of hours hand-crafting and painting their creations, putting in the tiniest details, like every cockpit switch, exhaust grime and even wiper marks on tiny plastic windshields.
“They do the research on exactly how they want it to look,” Hackney says. “They build it, we paint the interiors, the rust and the hydraulic stains and the weathering from sitting out in the sun. All of that takes into account to make a miniature of what the real thing looks like.”
The convention is underway through the weekend at the La Vista Conference Center in the Omaha suburb of La Vista. Learn more at: www.ipmsusa2011.org