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NNL East was a blast! (56K+ Warning)


freakmech
03-25-2006, 11:12 PM
Wow, what an awesome and exhausting experience! AFers in attendance were, Blubaja, Zoom Zoom, Willimo, Joeham, MadMattMD and myself... i feel like im leaving someone out here? Anyhow, there were 1300+ model cars on display ranging from awesome to awesomer and though i passed over the tables 10 times i still probably only saw about 60% of them, just to many great cars to look at. And believe me it was a mad house. The place was completely packed and the vendors, 43 in all, were every where. If there is a kit made it was there at some point. I have to say that getting to meet Bob, Will, and Joeham was awesome and seeing there models in real life was amazing! Pictures just dont do any of these guys builds justice. Matt was a blast to talk to as always, we were the only guys there talking mid-century architecture among these gearheaded freaks LOL. Will is a really funny guy as well, glad to finally meat him even though we used to live an hour from each other. And the real highlight for me was meeting Bob. He is a master builder, a huge inspiration, and the most down to earth, humble and genuinely nice guy in the world. He is a legend to me and to meet him was awesome, every bit the great guy that he is here on this forum. Near the end of the show we all got our cars together and talked shop, it was so nice not having to type LOL. Frank bought one of every kit at the show as usual :tongue: Joeham's blue Civic with the bike rake and bike was selected by Model Car magazine to be photographed, Crongrats man! after the show Frank, Will, his lady, and I all went to dinner and had lots of laughs and discussed future projects and general shop talk. Was a great time and thanks. Wish the Acme boys could have made it to dinner but they had a plane to catch back to ATL. To say the least this was an awesome fun show full of awesome cool people. I could go on and on but i am dead tired and i have new kits to hold and fondle. Hope we can all meet up again sometime, thanks everybody for one of the best days of my life!

Frank, me, Bob, Will

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c18/freakmech/DSC03599.jpg

AF Meet!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c18/freakmech/DSC03608.jpg

Joeham and Will's fine collection of Hondas

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c18/freakmech/DSC03609.jpg

AF represent!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c18/freakmech/DSC03610.jpg

and it keeps going!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c18/freakmech/DSC03611.jpg

Please add if ive missed anything! My camera is lousy, sorry but ill PS the pic of us tommorrow.

toyota00
03-25-2006, 11:19 PM
Wow it looks really fun. I will have to go to one of these sometime in the future.

SteveK2003
03-25-2006, 11:59 PM
Oh look, Frank grew the beard back.....:uhoh:

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-26-2006, 08:33 AM
Yeah it was a blast! I had a great time, it was a madhouse. Loved meeting you guys and seeing all the A/F cars, I was really impressed w/them. After seeing Joehams's Civic w/the bike I gotta get my Fujimi mtn. bike and thule roof carrier going on my Outback :icon16: Wish we could have stayed for dinner. I'm getting a list of albums from the show. I've heard there were somewhere over 1650 cars, one person said over 1800 on display-it was a new record attendance. We also met Gasman03, SidewaysS15, and BRE350Z was the other ACME guy who is on A/F about once a decade :uhoh: :lol: . He brought the two-tone black/silver SAS C-West 350Z. He also had a pair of vintage Cobras and also brought our ACME group build blue '06 Mustang that was on the Mustang table-which was built by me, BRE350Z, CADguy, Mach I 2003, and another guy.

Our trip home was painless, BRE350Z popped for biz class upgrades for all of us so we owned that plane :naughty: and we landed 50 minutes early :)

I'll attempt to link to the various albums I've found so far.

http://public.fotki.com/mamaprez/model_car_shows_/nnl_east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/Keith__Shannan/keiths_model_car/model_car_shows/nnl_east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/ClubVic312/nnl_east_20/
http://public.fotki.com/TNMCC/modelcarshows/nnl_east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/ghogg1633/nnl_east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/BobD/nnl-east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/jsharisky/model_car_shows/nnl_east_06/

This is the link to the album from the host club, it will be filled today w/hopefully pics of every model there.
http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/nnl_east_20/

I'll reply w/more albums when I get 'em. Hope some of you guys can make it down the the ACME NNL in November...it's not as frantic, it's a lot more laid back, you get a lot more time to talk shop since we have hospitality rooms both Fri. and Sat. night. We snagged a few more good vendors this weekend for our show as well :sunglasse

stryfe101
03-26-2006, 09:34 AM
yep that settles it....i'm going next year..or whenever another nnl is on the east coast..

mike@af
03-26-2006, 09:42 AM
I really wish I could have been there, looks like a great show. I couldnt afford to take the time off of school this year, but maybe next year I will be able to head up there with a bit more of a street rod. :icon16:

yep that settles it....i'm going next year..or whenever another nnl is on the east coast..

November 11, 2006. ACME Southern NNL Nationals. Great show, lots of hospitality. Any of the ACME guys here can vouch for the show.

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-26-2006, 10:06 AM
yep that settles it....i'm going next year..or whenever another nnl is on the east coast..

In addition to our ACME NNL, there's the Mid-Atlantic show that's put on by the MAMA's boys in Baltimore. That show is usually on the Sat. before Mother's Day, in early May. I'm sure Chad/Freakmech or Matt/MadMattMD can get you the exact date and details. It's a great show too.

No show is ever going to be as big as the NNL East, it's central location in the vast megalopolis of the NE US can't be beat. You have to have the central location and it takes the roughly 50 million people w/in easy driving distance to get 1,000 people in the door at Parsippany to look at/show off/buy model cars :icon16:

tonioseven
03-26-2006, 12:24 PM
My wife just told me I could plan on attending the Southern NNL!! She wants to hang out with her cousin in ATL, I wanna hang out with more plastic fanatics!!:sunglasse

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-26-2006, 12:34 PM
My wife just told me I could plan on attending the Southern NNL!! She wants to hang out with her cousin in ATL, I wanna hang out with more plastic fanatics!!:sunglasse

Sweet :sunglasse

What's she going to say when you tell her after the show you want to move to ATL? :evillol:

tonioseven
03-26-2006, 12:52 PM
She'll tell me to find a good job and we can do it!:sunglasse I'm going to try to get thing taken care of so we can stay at her cousin's house and hopefully they can do other stuff while I have fun with you guys!:sunglasse

mike@af
03-26-2006, 02:49 PM
My wife just told me I could plan on attending the Southern NNL!! She wants to hang out with her cousin in ATL, I wanna hang out with more plastic fanatics!!:sunglasse

Hell yeah! But, did you get that in writing?

freakmech
03-26-2006, 03:34 PM
yep that settles it....i'm going next year..or whenever another nnl is on the east coast..

Mid-Atlantic NNL is May 13th, so come on over. It will be a great show with a bunch of great builders and some of the best resin casters in the business are MAMA members (the host club). heres the link for details http://www.toadmail.com/~mama/MidNNL.html

After meeting the ACME guys im totally going to NNL South. Talked to Sarah and she is cool. Her friend is buying a house in Athens and she wants to go see it. So i get to go to ATL for the weekend and hang out again! Tonio it would be great if you could make it. Looks like we are in for another fun weekend guys!

willimo
03-26-2006, 04:36 PM
It really was an awesome show. I don't have any pictures to post of it, though :( Next year they need to search up another venue. Packing that much awesomeness into a gym is rough. It was awesome to meet all these people I know just from AF, to put some faces and personalities with the names I see here every day. The models were stellar too - I've got a long way to go! I kind of feel like I should thank everyone for being there, because that's why it was so awesome. I may think about coming down to the MAMA show, too, if I have time.

highhobbies
03-26-2006, 04:39 PM
Wow those civic look great. Better than most on the street now at least.

blubaja
03-26-2006, 04:56 PM
It was so great to meet you guys in person. I have about 90 pics to load up. I'm afraid it will make this thread load so slow tho. Anyone have a site I can host them on? My camera actually didn't suck yesterday. Hehe..

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-26-2006, 05:04 PM
It was so great to meet you guys in person. I have about 90 pics to load up. I'm afraid it will make this thread load so slow tho. Anyone have a site I can host them on? My camera actually didn't suck yesterday. Hehe..

I can host them on my Fotki account. Check PM.

tonioseven
03-26-2006, 05:55 PM
Mid-Atlantic NNL is May 13th, so come on over. It will be a great show with a bunch of great builders and some of the best resin casters in the business are MAMA members (the host club). heres the link for details http://www.toadmail.com/~mama/MidNNL.html

After meeting the ACME guys im totally going to NNL South. Talked to Sarah and she is cool. Her friend is buying a house in Athens and she wants to go see it. So i get to go to ATL for the weekend and hang out again! Tonio it would be great if you could make it. Looks like we are in for another fun weekend guys!
I'm going to somehow!:evillol: :evillol: :evillol:

cham2020
03-26-2006, 07:42 PM
nice models . they are truely AWESOME !
and freakmech
you are quite handsome also

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-26-2006, 08:06 PM
Official numbers: 1,853 models on display, 1310 people paid admission.

I've dug up more albums:

http://public.fotki.com/donaldanthonybanes/nnl_east_march_25_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/JCole/model_car_shows/nnl_east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/Tomk/model_shows_and_contests/nnl_east_2006/
http://public.fotki.com/mjcole/model_shows__contests/2006/nnl_east/
http://public.fotki.com/ElCaminoBilly/model_car_shows/nnl_east_2006/

MPWR
03-26-2006, 08:54 PM
I'm really bummed I couldn't make it- stopped by a last minute illness. Sounds like it was a terrific event, and I was looking forward to meeting other AFers. But Mid Atlantic is only a month and a half away, and I will definately be there. Which reminds me, it's time to get building! :uhoh:

So, anyone score anything cool from the vendors??

ImolaEK
03-26-2006, 09:39 PM
It was an awesome show! Wayy better than last year. Im super happy one of my models atleast got pictures taken of since that was my only goal for this year. Sucks that i couldn't have gone with you guys to applebee's but i had a mess to clean up at home after staying up til 3:40 finishing my Hatchback for the show. Hopefully next year i'll get there earlier and get to put my models in a decent spot :icon16: I have pictures, but will put them up later.:smokin:

SidewayzS15
03-26-2006, 11:24 PM
NO ONE took pics of my teg or S13, im kind of upset. I noticed that a lot of the pics i saw were of the american classics, so I guess it shouldnt have been a surprise.

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-27-2006, 06:28 AM
The official Fotki album http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/nnl_east_20/ from the host club is now up and has pics of all the models, and lots of candid shots like the one below.

Joeham is famous :icon16:

http://images17.fotki.com/v297/photos/5/51282/3375873/NNL20_1724001-vi.jpg

drnitrus
03-27-2006, 07:30 AM
There is another show coming up in a couple of weeks called Mosquitocon. Anyone thinking of going.

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-27-2006, 07:39 AM
There's the big Masscar contest next weekend in Massachusetts, though it's a full-blown judged contest vs. an NNL which is like a scale 1:1 cruise night. It's a good show from what I hear, though the admission price is steep if you enter...$5 for the first model, $4 for each additional model. So bring your best and leave the rest. $5 just to go look around.

http://www.masscar.com/Events/flyer2006.pdf

ImolaEK
03-27-2006, 09:18 AM
Joeham is famous :icon16:

http://images17.fotki.com/v297/photos/5/51282/3375873/NNL20_1724001-vi.jpg

:smokin: I didn't even notice anyone snappin pics at me !:icon16:

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-27-2006, 09:54 AM
It really was an awesome show. I don't have any pictures to post of it, though :( Next year they need to search up another venue. Packing that much awesomeness into a gym is rough. It was awesome to meet all these people I know just from AF, to put some faces and personalities with the names I see here every day. The models were stellar too - I've got a long way to go! I kind of feel like I should thank everyone for being there, because that's why it was so awesome. I may think about coming down to the MAMA show, too, if I have time.

They'll never move the show unless they are forced to by the PAL. Other smaller shows had a similar problem and moved, and then people stopped coming. People like things to stay the same, and the NNL East will always be crowded. Gotta get there early! This year was record-breaking, but it was crowded 10 years ago too.

And that "I've got a long way to go". Looking at your models, especially the F430 and the Camaro I call "bullshit" :icon16: Your game is just fine, you've come a long way already. Just keep on building and every model you make will be cool, it's obvious you're learning as you go. Park your F430 next to a Ferrari I proudly built when I was in my mid 20's and you'd be amazed. I would have cried during my teens with what I was building then vs. what guys like Mike and Joeham are building now. Seriously...my stuff was crap by comparison-barely worthy of the Junior table now. Now I have all my ACME friends and many others that are a constant reminder that I can't ever back off :uhoh: :icon16:

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-27-2006, 11:23 AM
Here's something written on another board about the NNL East. It's from one of the host club's main organizers, Mr. Tom Geiger, who was visible all day on Saturday tirelessly working the show.

"Yes, this was a banner year for number of models on display. This year we had 1,853 and the past two years we had 1,427 (2005) and 1,456 (2004). This was up from 1,227 in 2003.

This is very encouraging to us because we track trends, and we've been getting a better attendee to displayer ratio the past few years. This is important to us because we want people to participate in that spirit of NNL, which is to share your work, your skills and make new friends in the hobby. There will always be a set number of folks who come to the show only to raid the vendor room and quickly leave without contributing anything to the show, but we've been targeting the show to the serious modeler who is traveling a considerable distance and is there to fully participate."

"We don't wish to grow the show to a larger attendance because we will outgrow our hall and we feel that this is the maximum size we can manage and still have that NNL spirit. So as our crowd grows, we cut back on our advertising, keep the numbers about the same and work on improving the quality of the show each year."

So while we can bitch about the crowd, I can fully appreciate those sentiments-especially considering we've had similar rumblings about our show that it could get too crowded and we should automatically move. That's a dangerous thing for a show, so many fall off because people are conditioned to go to a particular place for a show. Notice the NNL East charged $10 for admission-that's pretty steep for just general admission. Many shows only charge minimal general admission, and more for entrants. You can tell the NNL East is geared towards the hardcore builders. And that's why it's so good, and is able to grow.

tonioseven
03-27-2006, 04:37 PM
NO ONE took pics of my teg or S13, im kind of upset. I noticed that a lot of the pics i saw were of the american classics, so I guess it shouldnt have been a surprise.
I came across your S-13 in one of the Fotki albums I viewed recently!:uhoh: It photographed just great!!:sunglasse
http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/nnl_east_20/street_machines/

willimo
03-27-2006, 05:57 PM
I'm not bitchin', just sayin. It was still totally awesome, I just wish I was able to give more attention to the cars that were there. I'll just have to show up earlier so I can see them all come in.

ImolaEK
03-27-2006, 06:11 PM
I'm not bitchin', just sayin. It was still totally awesome, I just wish I was able to give more attention to the cars that were there. I'll just have to show up earlier so I can see them all come in.

Same here, Next year my goal is to get there before 9! This is my 2nd year going and unfortunately i have arrived there after 1 pm both times! :frown:

ZoomZoomMX-5
03-27-2006, 06:28 PM
We pulled into Burger Thing across the street for b'fast before the show and there were already people in line at 7:30 am. I was happy to be inside w/in minutes of the doors opening and getting models on display immediately. My BRAT model was chosen while I was setting it out and photographed by Scale Auto by 9:15 when there was no line on the stage :wink:

Joeham and any others-which models were photographed for which magazines? My BRAT was photo'd by SA, and my 914 and Scag were photo'd by MCM.

gasman03
03-27-2006, 09:20 PM
NNL East was awsome as usual. I got there around 10.00 A.M and there was no space left on the 6cyl table, I had to place my 66 Mailbu wagon on the edge of the table which made me very nervous. but luckly, it was'nt knocked over.

my only issue with the show, I had a 101* fever. and was on so much medication. I finally gave up around 2:45 and tried to sleep on the couch they had set up in the front. I went to the doctor today and found out I had a pretty bad ear infection. which explains the dizzy spells I had at the show.

all in all it was a great show, and I'm already making plans for 07. I also got some great ispiration for some future builds. next show for me is the Mid Atlantic NNL in May.

Here's my haul for the show. made out pretty good. the Revell-AG Ferrari 288 GTO was a steal at $13. The 91 Firebird is one of the kits i've been wanting for a few years now. I wanted to build one to place next to my AMT 91 Camaro I built a few years ago. The Beretta and the Taurus might be my best model buy of all time. I got both kits for $5 bucks. The Taurus is complete, and the Beretta is missing a few parts but nothing major.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/gasman03/haul.jpg

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