WonderFest Take Two

Growing as a creative person sometimes means knowing when to say "no" or at least "not right now."

Last weekend was WonderFest a convention for awesome model builders held in Louisville, Kentucky. I attended last year and decided to give it another go this year, because of the amazing things I had seen.

All Work and No Play…

While I am retired I have gone back to working part time for a few reasons… mostly so I don’t eat away at my retirement savings, but also to give myself “egg money” or money I earned for things like… buying stuff that may seem frivolous to the Dursleys. The only problem is to work means to not have time for other things (like this blog, or attending events you might want to. I work Saturdays, so I had to limit myself to only Sunday at WonderFest which means I know I missed a lot of stuff, but I did see some wonderful things in that short time.

Every kind of geekdom has there events. Build LEGO sets. There’s a convention for that. Like comic books? There’s a conventions for that. Play games? There’s a convention for that. Build, modify, and paint plastic model kits? There’s WonderFest. I discovered WonderFest thanks to Michael Possert who presented last year about his work on the rocket pack used in the film adaptation of Dave Steven’s The Rocketeer. He was presenting on his book, and I was close, Louisville is a little over 2 hours south by car, so not that bad of a drive (Note: I have driven further to get a sandwich).

Why Me?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Not really but when I was growing up my dad would build models. My Grandmother painted lead miniatures of revolutionary war soldiers, so we know where he got some of it. My dad’s models were usually airplanes and as I got older my brother and I would sit at the table and build along with him. Now my dad was meticulous and worked very hard on details and getting everything perfect. Me? I was a kid, I’d slop everything together and before the glue had dried would be zooming around the room with my new jet. The clear cockpit glass having gluey fingerprints all over it. It was the 1970’s and the ceiling of my bedroom would have model planes hanging from it. My dad would got back and try to repair my mistakes and I learned to slow down and take it easy. I’m still not sure why my dad stopped. Funny thing is right after my mom passed away I found some half finished models in a closet. I remember my dad working on these around the time when I was in high school. They were still works in progress.

Goal Setting and an Epic Failure

WonderFest is divided into two vendor halls, and then a few rooms set aside for showcasing builds. The largest room is for those submissions that are up to be judged. Last year there was a table in one of the vendor halls showcasing a challenge. Each builder was to take the same kit and then modify it as they would like- basically have fun. Last years kit was the Shuttlecraft from Star Trek (Those Old Scientists version 😉) and they were amazing. From Herbie the Love Shuttle Craft to a Gilligan’s Island Shuttlecraft. Each one out did the previous one. I decided that if I were going to attend this year, I’d push myself and try to create something cool for that challenge.

The challenge ended up taking the Back to the Future DeLorean and do whatever you wanted with it. I had an idea, started working on it and then… stopped. Work, and life started to get in the way. I never had enough room to spread out and work, I realized I didn’t have the right tools. I had friends offer space and stuff, but it just slipped away and I gave up. Kinda like my dad’s model in the closet. The crazy part was, when I arrived at WonderFest on Sunday, I looked for these models, and couldn’t find them. I later saw photos of some, but I never could figure out where they might have been put. I did find out that my “awesome ultimate original idea” was done by someone else, so I was kinda glad I didn’t get mine finished. I still might play around with it, now that there is not deadline, then again, I might just pitch it all.

Wow… all I can say is “Wow”

So with limited time I met up with my friend Pat, who is an awesome model builder and had never been to or heard of WonderFest before I mentioned it to him. He had been there a day and had the lay of the land. We headed to the main hall where the awards had been placed on the models and I just took it all in. I’ve heard some grumbling on social media 😱 about the judged awards, but most of what I saw was great and I would have been happy displaying them whether I received an award or not. It seems that the awards are given dealing with the technical aspects of model building, not necessarily on creativity or originality, but one how well you put the model together, how well you painted it, applied decals, etc. Some were good and others were impressive. Looking at those who started with the same kit and then how they finished it showed the skill level needed- something I definitely need to work on (if I am so inclined). One thing you notice at WonderFest is the focus is not on military models, there are other shows where people build a specific plane, tank, or whatever to historical specs. WonderFest focuses more on the “other” category. Spaceships, Monsters, pop culture stuff, so for this comic book guy, it was great.

So many different categories, so many different awesome models. 3D printing has also been a game changer.

Of Course, The Vendor Hall & Stars - of all different size screens

Most of you know my feelings about bringing celebrities into a show that has nothing to do with whatever the con is about… You know the “Why call it a “Comic Con if there are more celebrities than comic book creators featured as guests?” WonderFest being a modeling convention dealing with pop culture can get away with this especially since the models being shown are done by the participants and the celebrities are the reason why some of the models are even in our cultural vocabulary. Would we care about the Space:1999 Eagle if it weren’t for Nick Tate who was the actor piloting that iconic craft? Bringing in the right people, and not creating autograph and photo op packages makes this much more palatable for me.

One room focused on screen accurate builds and the Vendor Halls had model kits and 3D prints

The Vendor halls were filled with people selling classic models, toys, and the tools of the trade. I held off from falling down the rabbit hole and stuck with two things- a wind-up Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still (breaking my rule of never buying anything robot related- Then again I had read Harry Bates “Farewell to the Master” which the original film was based on, so I know Gort’s (Gnut’s) true role in it all. I also picked up a larger “XL” version of the original starship Enterprise from Star Trek (Those Old Scientists). Something I had been looking at for a while, but figured the price was right and the opportunity had presented itself. As Patrick had commented earlier- the price were really reasonable.

Rinse and Repeat? Will I do it again?

It’s close and not that expensive to attend ($40 for the day compared to a lot more for most comic cons). Will I get into the whole model building hobby? I’m not sure. If this did anything, it made me think about all those designs I created while teaching CAD that I lost when the District killed my account without notice upon retirement. I know I can create them again, and probably better. So maybe I’ll get myself a 3D printer, but that is a big leap for me. First I probably need to work on painting things and doing decent finishing work, before I make that move, which means I need to consider that as my next step. The question then arises- what do I give up in order to have the time to do that? Then again, I could attend WonderFest and be inspired by the talented people and their work and go home and… do things I can currently do- like drawing.

One point I need to make after attending a number of LEGO shows over the years- At LEGO shows you end up seeing some of the same things over and over again. I’m concerned that this will be the case with WonderFest. That I will end up seeing some of the same “awe inspiring” things each year. I stopped going to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville when I stopped saying “Wow!” when seeing the Space Shuttle they had on display. The same thing might happen here, only time will tell.