Model Car Club
Our club meeting venue, The Matt Ross Community Center is closing for the next several weeks. Word so far is that our space for next months KC Slammers meeting will not be available, so we will be cancelling the April meeting. Watch this space for further updates as the Covid-19 emergency unfolds.
On behalf of all our members, please be careful and stay healthy as we all work though these trying times.
How many people can you fit in a Ford Edge? 5 if you want to create a Clown Car. Ford says its a 5 passenger vehicle, but I don’t think they were talking about adults. In any case, we managed to squeeze 5 KC Slammers into my car and headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a road trip to the Daryl Starbird Rod & Customer Show.
This venue is one of the largest, pillar free exhibit spaces in the country. The Starbird show fills it with around 1,000 hot rods and customs each year, so there’s ton’s of cool cars to see. They also have a demolition derby, monster truck exhibition, motorcycle stunt show, burn out contest, pin stripers, vendors, and who knows what else we may have missed. The best thing is that it is all indoors. Can’t ask for more than that in the middle of winter.
In December, our monthly meeting is replaced by the KC Slammers annual Christmas dinner. The club provides Bar-B-Que meats, beans, & rolls from Jack Stack, while side dishes and desserts are brought in by members. As you might guess, with food on the agenda, member turnout is the best of the year.
We minimize the business aspects of a normal meeting, and instead have some fun with a Dirty Santa gift exchange and general socializing. This year, we also had a contest for best painted Ed Roth bust, and a give-away of some anti-tip-over glue/paint holders.
Resin castings of Ed Roth’s head in a top hat were graciously provided by one of our members, Richard “Zimm” Zimmerman. 10 castings were handed out to be painted and returned for judging at the Christmas party Richard provided a $30.00 prize to the casting judged to be the best painted. Hats off to Richard for his strong and continuous support of the club.
Fellow member Bob Leslie was also in a generous mood and handed out a device he came up with to keep an open bottle of glue or paint from tipping over on the workbench. A big thank you to Bob as well.
Finally, we had a gift exchange in the form of a “Dirty Santa”, or sometimes known as a “White Elephant”. Participation, of course is voluntary, but this always adds a lot of fun to the event.
Best wishes for the coming year from all of us at the KC Slammers
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.
This week, we lost a great friend and long time member of the Slammers. Ellis E. Kendrick, 70, of Liberty, MO. passed away July 16, 2019 at the University of Kansas Medical Center. The Mass will be said at 11:00 a.m. Monday, July 22nd, at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church in Blue Springs, MO. Visitation will precede the Mass from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to Sensational Hope or Pawsitive Tails.
He served over 40 years as a public school educator and administrator in various districts in Kansas and Missouri. and ultimately retired from Glendale Elementary School in Independence, MO.
After retirement, his passion was model cars, resin sculpting, and spending time with his family, and his two dogs, Zoe and Maisie. Ellis joined the Slammers in 2006 and has been an asset to the club ever since.
Ellis was always the joker of our group and his antics will be missed. He had such a wit, humor, and brightness about him that cannot be replaced. A real cornerstone member of the club. Seems like only yesterday that he was with us, spreading good cheer and friendship. Ellis leaves a legacy of smiles. You may remember him as the longstanding Master of Ceremonies at our annual Heartland Model Car Nationals. He was our ace announcer, fortified with a gifted wit and the ability to talk to one and all he met.
Memories of Ellis and condolences may be left at Meyersfuneralchapel.com.
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