USSMA at the AMA Expo Show in Ontario, CA

[Michael]

The US Scale Masters Association was pleased to have a booth at the AMA Expo show in Ontario, CA that we shared with the California Scale Modelers Association.  Our new Chairman, Bernie Boland, came up with a new idea that the USSMA could do more than just hand out information on the Scale Masters at the show.  His concept was to get a donated ARF model that a number of people could bash during the 2 & 1/2 days at the event to show prospective scale modelers they could take an out of the box ARF, and change it to make the model reasonably competitive in the Fun Scale Class in a short period of time.

Curtis Kitteringham was the spark plug that put it all together, got us the booth, and found the donated Great Planes Fokker DR 1 that we could work on.  Thanks to the generous donations of Gyro Hobbies, a local hobby shop in Laguna Hills, California, we obtained the Solartex covering, glue, exacto knives, upgraded wheels, Williams Bros. machine guns, OS 120 4 stroke motor, and other materials needed to make the bashed ARF project happen.  Curtis also arranged for Bernie to have three half-hour segments on stage center, one on each day, to talk about the Scale Masters program and some new ideas, and Gorilla Glue sponsored some give-a-ways for Bernie to hand out to the crowd of listeners at each talk.

Our program was a bit hit with the convention visitors that walked by the booth who stopped and watched the work being done, and the AMA was also happy with our hands-on contribution to their Expo show.  A win-win all around.  Some new members were also signed up on the spot.  There are some pictures already posted to this website in the media section showing the booth, the project crew, and the finished work that was done during the show.  Check it out and see what your US Scale Masters members were able to accomplish in a short period of time.  We even had the current US Scale Masters Grand Champion, Jay Steward, working on the project.

[jlovitt]

This is great stuff.  Thanks for posting and letting everyone know who was not able to attend the show.

Keep up the good work guys.

Was a location for the 2012 event advertised?

Jeff Lovitt