Before classes wrapped up for the academic year, the Shenandoah Valley Modelers coordinated with Randolph Macon Academy for a make and take event with ten of their students in mid May. The event was organized and led by the club’s Outreach Program Coordinator, Marc’in S. Ravens who supported this event were club treasurer Scott S, club expert-level builder and judge Randy C, Marc’in, and club benevolent autocrat Chris K. The students built a range of kits from the simple to the mildly complex; even two of the school instructors got into the building as well!

The students at RMA are very sharp and each of us participating from the club were impressed by the students’ intelligence and drive to succeed. Hopefully the make and take event sparked a new interest in model building and a new generation of craftsmen and craftswomen. We will look to return for the Fall semester as well as doing reach outs to other schools.

Good day gents. The theme for the April build was summer and Scott won a mini Raven for his bodacious babes dio. I think he won for the figures vice the vehicle! The other entries were just as great and the models on the regular table were top notch. Special thanks to Chaz for his very interesting primer on what it takes to be an air show reviewer. Everyone should check out his website for some great aviation photographs

Ravencon planning is pacing along and we are up to five committed vendors so far. We have room in the gym for about 15 vendors (more or less) so we are about a third full. If we get a lot more interest from vendors, we will see if we can negotiate renting hall space at the school to allow for extra vendors or work with the 15 or so vendors this time to learn and perfect our vendor expertise for the next show.

The June build is D-Day so any build that is rather obviously tied to D-Day. A P-51 with invasion stripes for instance. A Sherman with hedgehog gear attached to it. The model must be easy to determine it is related to “the longest day”. And July is Tom S’s happy theme-the F-14 Tomcat. Meeeeeow.

On April 18, the Ravens of Shenandoah Valley Modelers flew into the Northern Virginia’s Model Classic show. As anyone knows, the Model Classic show is one of the biggest in Region II and competitors and vendors come from near and far to attend this show. Some only attend this show given it size and scope. Many members of our club showed to observe, shop, and compete and included brand new member Chaz, former member Chad, and current members Scott, Jeff, Tom L, Todd, Pat, Marcin, Mark M (with Mrs Mark M!) and Mark T, Nick and Gabe, Randy, myself, and Coby. Randy was a vendor and from he told me, he did very well for himself – good on you Randy!

Competing were myself, Scott, Jeff, Todd, Coby, Gabe, and Pat. The Ravens did rather well at this very tough show. Scott, as usual, took the most awards out of all of us. I hope he has a good safe deposit box at some bank to safeguard all his bling! Special shoutouts to Pat, who competed for the first time in a large show and took a First in motorcycles and to Gabe, who took the special award of Best Junior. Wow! Gabe is on a roll! First at Nationals and then again at Model Classic. You go Gabe! Another shout to Coby, who also competed for the first time and took an award in the maritime category. Great work Coby!

The April meeting went very well. We were a bit shy on member attendance due to many having holiday commitments with family and friends. Those who attended were able to take a delicious bite of our anniversary cake sharply cut by little Rob! Good cutting Rob! The humor theme of the month brought out two candidates, with the guillotine vignette competing with a super neat “funny” car crafted by Andre. The guillotine vignette won by 1 vote! It is interesting to note the theme winner for March was tied at first before Pat won; this short trend tells me we are all equally talented! Todd gave a superb second parter of his lecture on creating custom molds and parts. Todd is a natural in teaching and I hope he volunteers for more lectures.

We discussed having a solid attendance at the Salem shootout this year. The Roanoke club puts on their show every 2 years and in addition to each contestant competing, each club competes against the other. The Tidewater chapter usually takes the honors as they have a deep and talented bench. So let’s show in force; it’s hard to beat a flock of Ravens. We will need folks to compete in many categories across the board, not just two or three. We all know when Ravens show up, Ravens win but we need as many of you to come to that show or give your entry to one of us going to enter it for you. Aircraft builders, armor builders, car and truck builders, ship builders and diorama builders – unite!

Good day Ravens. The March meeting was so much fun and was marked by three neat highlights. The first was Todd’s most excellent how-to demonstrations on making silicone molds. I like Todd’s style as he lays it out in easy to grasp steps and words. Next month Todd will do the second part of his demonstration on how to make parts using the silicone molds. That should be another great demonstration

The second highlight was the March theme month build contest of “babes and animals”. The models presented were absolutely stunning and everyone was contest-worthy. Taking the club’s first ever Baby Raven award for best theme month model was Pat’s Creature from the Black Lagoon (hence the monster mash title). This was Pat’s first ever figure and he took the honors! Wow! What was personally rewarding to me was Pat’s admission he likes the dark side of figures now; hehehehe another convert!

The last highlight was the reveal of the Ravencon 2026 Best of Show award, which was built by Tom S and his brother in law over the course of about 60-70 days. When the trophy was revealed, it was neat to see the reaction of everyone and I think I can sum it up by stating all the members were blown away! I know that the Order of the Raven award is likely THE most unique and dare I say best looking contest trophy out there! I am not posting a picture of it here so we can keep it to ourselves till the show in November.

Wow, that February meeting took place on one very cold day! The theme of “winter” was spot on for this meeting. The two highlights of the meeting were celebrating Scott’s birthday and Mark T’s excellent primer on judging. The presentation on the large screen was very nice and Mark’s keen insights and experience were perfect adjuncts to the brief.

Marcin raised a great idea off line regarding the theme model builds each month, so we will do what we did in December with the members present at each meeting voting on the “people’s choice” build for that particular month. Remember, March is babes and animals month. After the meeting, Scott and I went to Dan’s store and found Coby had beaten us there – good business day for Dan with Ravens showing up at his “nest”.

I still have a good number of the comfy club logo sweatshirts so let me know if you want one before they all sell out. Scott, Tom S, Nick and son, any myself have one so far. Don’t miss out.

The Ravenhood did not escape the mega cold storm in January 2026. The snow fall was rather striking. In Berryville it was almost 3 feet! That is the most I ever remember it snowing while I have been in Virginia. While it was bitter cold and snowing like the Arctic outside, model building was still taking place! For instance, Jeff was painting vehicles, Scott was finalizing two big semi trucks, I was working on a helicopter, and Coby was working on a version of a Russian tank I had never seen before. Stay warm, stay safe, and keep building! Looking forward to the February meeting – appropriately themed a winter build meeting!

Hey everyone, he’s no girl but Scott made the IPMS USA Journal 2026 calendar. if you have not seen it, we will bring one to the February meeting for all to peruse. Scott’s impressive Woody’s Garage diorama made the August 2026 spot. The other months were filled with great models. What a creative hobby we are all in (albeit frustrating at times!)

Happy New Year to the Ravenhood. Many thanks to all who came to the meeting. We discussed Ravencon 20226 and how things for the show are looking on glide path for a good show in November. It was good to see young Ollie again and to see he is still very active with his figures! Go Ollie go! We had about 4 displays of motorbikes for the theme of the meeting. Collective hats off to Pat who (1) built his first motorcycle model (2) dropped his first motorcycle model (3) repaired his first motorcycle model and (4) displayed a real good motorcycle model! Pat, you must be exhausted by now. My cowboy figure got his head knocked off during the meeting but luckily it was a clean break and I can easily repair him. Hey Pat, you and I had the same fate (though not good ones). February is winter theme – basically anything white or just cooooold looking and Mark is going to give a judging lecture. For March, Todd once again is going to give a two parter talk on making castings and doing resin (March/April respectively) Busy first quarter for us.

On 24 December, I visited Carpet Monster Hobby Store. No longer just a web-only vendor, Carpet Monster has a brick and mortar presence in downtown Berryville in the town’s incubator site. The location is sponsored by the Berryville Main Street organization to allow new businesses to develop a base and to grow with the goal of launching the business to flourish on or slightly off Main Street in Berryville. A win win for the town and the young business. Donovan Jonkers, a member of Shenandoah Valley Modelers, runs the business. He stocks Gundam and military models (armor and aircraft) along with various paints and tools. He is looking to have modelers display their build(s) in his glass enclosed shelves to motivate buyers. Come bring your model to show! As the business matures, Donovan hopes to have build nights at the store. During the week, the store will be open 4-8pm and on weekends the store will be open longer. Stop by and say hi. The location is 23 East Main Street, Berryville, 2nd floor.