Report From JerseyFest 2016

JerseyFest is a 3 day scale modeling show that's is concentrating on Sci-Fi and Horror.  There's not a Sherman tank nor Bf-109 anywhere nearby. :) Haha Each year it has been taking place in the Marriott Hanover, in Whippany, NJ. The venue is a very nice place and they provide for a large Vendor Room, two large lecture demo rooms, and a slightly smaller model contest room. Each year the show starts on A Friday and there are a number of scheduled workshops.  The other cool part is the leaders of the workshops are well know experts in their fields. There was:

1. Painting a Creature from the Black Lagoon Bust with Greg McKellar
2. Airbrush Painting a Monster with Casey Love
3. Sculpting a “Hulk” with Randy Bowen by Polyform
4. Miniature Figure Model Painting by Morland Studios (Friday Evening Class)
5. Painting a Star Wars X-Wing with Michael Salzo

 On Saturday and Sunday was the Vendor Sales and also a few lecture demos. They were:

Saturday

• Randy Bowen – Sculpting demo
• Casey Love – Overview of monster creation from sculpt to paint
• Greg McKellar – Painting monsters demo
• Sean Sides – The art of scratch building and tips for building and painting resin vehicle kits, including Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica models.
• Steve Neisen – Overview of methods used to bring Sci-Fi spaceship models to life from concept to production.  Includes techniques used for various Star Wars and Star Trek models
• Saul Alvarez – Demo of Painting ”Regan” from “The Exorcist”

Sunday

• Randy Bowen – Overview of past, current and future Bowen models and statues including collaborations with other artists
• Casey Love – Sculpting demo
• Steve Neisen & Mike Salzo - Patterning, constructing and painting studio scale Sci-Fi vehicle models
• Sandy Collora – Creature design and sculpture

Honestly the only thing I find rather annoying is the people running the show seem to forget to announce the times beforehand and it's until you are there do you find out who's talking when.  The show is based (IMHO) on a person being there the whole weekend, and honestly I think this is a mistake.  

I went on Saturday and due to circumstances behind my  control I got there late and missed most of the talks. I did get to see Randy Bowen's sculpting demo as it was the last one of the day. He ended up creating an awesome Caveman bust - 

 Looking thri the contest room is a terrific treat. Tons of awesome models. Here's a little slide show of some of the models. I didn't try to take them all, but just a taste of what's there. Click here for the slide show. 

Lastly I certainly found time to do at least a few laps thru the Vendor room. I made it a point to meet up with friends John Dennett of MoonDevil studio, and Paul Gill of Gillman Productions.  From Paul I got a kit of David as the Wold from American Werewolf in London. This is being released by Sharon Carter and cast by Paul - 

It's an older kit so as I glued on the legs for the image, I noticed that the legs don't fit perfectly and some filling will be necessary. The second thing is that my kit was boxed with 2 front left legs. So a quick FB message to Paul got that straightened out and I should have it in a day or two. I just noticed I didn't have the fangs nearby, so he's kinda gummy looking. The other thing is that it comes with a severed head, which is by his front paw.

The next is a Frankenstein sculpted and cast by John Dennett. What make this one different is that John used Mary Shelley's description of the monster from her book, and not the typical flat top Karloff make up. While I'm not a Frankenstein guy, it was different enuff for me to get. Here he is - 

John was gracious enough to include another of his "fiends" in my Box. Its the Chluthu figure - 

Next up is a new monster created by Sandy Collora.  La Tiburonera (the Shark Hunter) looka like a cross between a Snapping Turtle and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I picked up the Bust of the Shark Hunter. He gave me a mini bust, and while we were talking - he also grew up on Staten Island - he drew his monster on the bag he gives for purchases. Pretty cool!

 Finally I found an awesome looking kit from Moreland Studios. It's Perseu holding up the head of Medusa to the Kraken (who looks like an alligator in the sculpt). Looking at the pic on the box, the amount of detail is amazing and it fooled me into thinking it was somewhere between 75 to 120mm figure. I didn't think realize the box and contents was too light to be a larger figure and was surprised when a 28mm came out of the box!. The figure is amazingly detail, just thats it's small. I'll have to take out my Optivisors for that one - 

Sorry the pic is a little blurry. Thanks for lookin'.