KC Slammers

UPDATE: 07/21/2020

A month and a half ago, Kansas was advancing rapidly through our 4 phase Covid-19 recovery plan. From that perspective, we were fairly comfortable that this year’s show could go on with minimal inconveniences. Now, with the current resurgence of virus cases we have decided to cancel the show for this year. Considering the crowds we normally get, it would have been difficult, if not impossible to manage social distancing, face mask rules and other constraints in order to maintain a safe and healthy environment while still allowing everyone to have a good time and enjoy the event.

Sorry to be the messenger of bad news, but health and safety have to come first. We thank and appreciate the modeling community for the great support of our show. We look forward to seeing you all next year in June.

UPDATE: 04/23/2020 – We are happy to announce that we have worked with the Overland Park Convention Center to come up with an alternate date for this years Heartland Nationals. The new date is August 22nd & 23rd. That gives us an extra two months+ for life in the Covid-19 virus era to calm down and hopefully return to some sort of normalcy. We hope you will make plans to come join us.

UPDATE: 04/20/2020 – The KC Slammers will be postponing this years Heartland Nationals until later this year. We are currently looking at available dates in the August / September time frame. Our goal is to minimize conflicts with other shows in this area (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa). Please check back over the next few days for further details. Thankyou

04/15/20 – In light of the current Covid-19 virus and related social environment, the KC Slammers contest committee is actively discussing our options for this year’s Heartland Nationals contest and swap meet. We expect updates to the State of Kansas and Johnson County, Ks plans for extending or ending the current stay-at-home orders by the end of the week. We are also contacting our venue, the Overland Park Convention Center to determine our options for rescheduling the event for later this year.

Please check back this weekend, April 20th, for further information. We expect to have a more definitive plan and details at that time.

In November 2018, we headed up to Elwood Kansas for the first annual Pony Express NNL. That first show was a great success, so several of us Slammers followed it up this year to see what year #2 had to offer. We just had to get in one more contest before the New Year.

Elwood Kansas is a small town, but easy to find since it is just across the river from St Joseph, Missouri. The show is put on by the Midwest Modelers; (for information, email: www.midwestmodelers@yahoo.com ). This event is presented in the NNL style with Top-5 Awards voted on by the attendees, plus the Bill Helm Memorial Award for best theme and a Best Junior Award as well. This years theme was model years ending in “9”. The awards are styled as automobile license plates, including a fancy frame, so they can add something a little different to your display shelf. I didn’t get a count on the number of entries, but they did a good job of filling two rows of tables with some pretty cool models.

Year #2 verdict; another good show, great vendor showing, even good weather and an excellent Mexican restaurant for lunch. We’ll be back.

A half dozen or so of the Slammers crew made the trek up north to Nebraska for this year’s Mid-America Nationals in Bellevue Nebraska. This is typically one of the last model contests of the year, so it’s nice to be able to get one more road trip in before temperatures start falling. I could swear there were some fall colors on the way up, but when we rolled into Bellevue, there was nothing but green trees everywhere you looked.

Word has it there were roughly 150 entries across the 16 contest categories. The theme this year was anything black, so black paint jobs were definitely plentiful, and there were some nice ones. One of the cool things about this show is vendor turnout; one of the strongest around. If you like to shop for bargains, The Mid-America Nationals should be on your travel list. The attached photo of model kits is only one row of many at the show.

Our thanks go out to the show organizers for dedicating a category and saying some kind words about our lost friend Ellis Kendrick.

Several Slammer members attended the Prison City Modelers show and contest in Leavenworth this past weekend. This show comes around every year as summer is ending. It is put on by an IPMS club, so the majority of models were aircraft, armor, ships figures and Sci-Fi related, but there were 7 categories for automotive. Long time Slammer, Bill Barker took home the Best of Automotive award for his 1:24 scale Jaguar D-Type. In Bill’s world, this is considered LARGE scale as he builds quite a few 1:43 scale cars.

Leavenworth Kansas is such a pleasant, laid back sort of place. We always have a great time at this show. The Prison City guys are a nice friendly crew and excellent modelers. Even though they focus on mostly non-automotive subjects, we don’t hold that against them. There’s a great deal that can be learned in techniques, especially in regards to painting and weathering. IPMS judges focus on builder skills and basics, so these contests help us improve on the little things that we sometimes overlook. There’s also a vendor area. Through the years I’ve picked up some great deals here, and some really cool tools and supplies.

At our meeting this month, we discussed plans for the upcoming Slammers end of summer picnic. Last year the event was held at Shawnee Mission park on the shore of the lake. This year one of our members has graciously offered to host the picnic at his place in southern Johnson county. We held our monthly raffle (Alyn Loya took home the prize; a model kit of the ZZ Top Eliminator 33 coupe).

We then used the remaining time to view a video presentation from a recent road trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Slammers member Richard Zimmerman brought along his scratch built 1:8th scale Bonneville lakester RC car. Richard talked the head official into letting him run the car on the track at the close of regular runs on one of the Speed week event days

Motorsports lost a great one in August. Jessi Combs, 39, died when the North American Eagle jet car crashed during a run on an Oregon dry lake. Known as the “Fastest Women on Four Wheels” for her 4-wheel record of 398 MPH, she was an energetic and always positive ambassador for motorsports, both 4-wheel and 2-wheel. She appeared on episodes of Monster Garage and Overhaulin’, then went on to Host Xtreme 4×4, All Girls Garage, Mythbusters and The List. She had a class win at the King of the Hammers and a podium finish in the Baja 1000. She was the first women to be the Grand Marshall at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and first women to compete in The Race of Gentlemen.

Jessi has driven the North American Eagle as fast as 483 MPH (one-way run) and was attempting to surpass Kitty O’Neil’s record speed of 512 MPH. She is an irreplaceable asset to the motorsports community and will be greatly missed.