Omacon 2008 Show Report

I just got home from attending this year’s Omacon Model Show, which also happened to be the Regionals. It was a two-day event, Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, 2008 in Omaha, NE (my old stomping ground). It was a great event and location is excellent. It was held in the Mid-America Center on the border of Nebraska and Iowa.

There were the typical vendors – Sprue Brothers, Wings-n-Tread, CRM and several individuals selling their personal stash. I was able to pick up the new Tasca M4A1 Sherman (Late Production) for $55 and a Roden Sopwith 1B1 French Bomber for $10.

I also won several interesting items in the Raffle - a Trumpeter T-54A, T-53 and a Dragon T-34/85. Also won a Tamiya Wildcat and a Revell F-18E Super Hornet. Not bad for $20.

There were many great models at the show (I took over 300 pictures and still missed a few). There were a lot of armor models and the competition was real tough among the AFV. I believe there were more armor models than aircraft models. Surprisingly there not many Autos – maybe 6 to 7 in all.

Another great activity was the Make-n-Take. Our friend’s son and daughter both built cars that they were still playing with the next day.

The awards ceremony went off without a hitch and I was fortunate that 4 of my 5 models won awards. My Sherman tank didn’t win in it’s category, the Fokker DR. I won 1^st place in the larger scale Bi-plane / Tri-plane category, my 1/72 Corsair won 3^rd place, 1/48 BF-109 won 1^st place in the 1/48 German plane category and my 1/48 Tiger I won 1^st place in the 1/48 scale Tiger category (they split off all the Tigers).

My daughter won 1^st place in the other junior category with her Gundam Mech. Our friend’s son won 1^st place with his airplane and 1^st place with his auto in the respective categories. He is already planning what models he wants to build for the next show. It is nice to see a 7 year old get excited about building models.

Overall, this is my 2^nd time going to Omacon and have really enjoyed myself both times. It is held at a nice venue, the people are friendly and I plan returning next year.