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GSL XVIII (2001)
The Eighteenth GSL International Model Car Championship exceeded all prior
events with the best models, widest range of informative seminars, congenial attendees, and a terrific tour of the new Museum facility!
By the time the final numbers were tallied, 410 models had been entered in the
competition with 54 additional models on display, all from 147 contestants and attendees drawn from 31 states and four foreign countries (Netherlands, Great
Britain, all the provinces of Canada, and Finland). We were pleased to host Juha Airio for the first time at the GSL Championship.
The Championship also presented a wide array of seminars, including the
now-annual State of the Hobby roundtable discussion held on Thursday evening. Emceed by Mark S. Gustavson, the panel included Kirk Bell (then the Editor, Scale Auto), Gregg Hutchings (Editor, Models Cars), Matthew Wells (Scale Motorsport),
and Roger Yu. Along with GSL Trustees Pat Covert and Paul Anagnostopoulos, they led the audience in a wideranging discussion of the hobby.
The next day, the GSL-XVIII Seminar Series began with three-time GSL Best of Show
winner Augie Hiscano presenting a seminar on aluminum cylinder head and pulley fabrication. Next up was a presentation on the Dream Truck book and model where
Truck creator and auto journalist Spencer Murray entranced the audience with stories and historical information about the Truck. During the third seminar, Tom Graham presented an excerpt from his book History Makers: The Miniature World
of Revell that focused on the "H" prefix kits issued from 1951 through 1979. After that, Museum founder Mark S. Gustavson presented a new crop of historic models
that have been lent to, acquired by, or restored by the Museum, including Jim Keeler's MCS-X100 bubble-topped Corvette, Darrell Zipp's Revell-Pactra I model
and the Dream Dragster (with which Zipp won Starbird's Predicta in a Monogram contest in1970), and Rick Harris' restored Revell-Pactra I Regional paint
category-winning '40 Ford. Seminar four was presented by Bob Paeth, who entertained an audience with his vintage customizing tricks using a woodburner (surprisingly effective!).
On Friday evening, we had a special presentation in honor of Royle Glaser Freund
who, with her late husband Lou, founded and operated Revell for many decades. This seminar was particularly important because classic Revell employees ( Jim
Keeler, Bob Paeth, Lloyd Jones and Darrell Zipp) joined Royle on the dais to tell the tales of the early days at Revell: it is unlikely that such a collection of historic figures will be gathered together again.
On Saturday, the GSL Seminar Series continued when Greg Nichols and Jim Devine
presented an incredibly informative seminar on how to build better models using easy tricks and tips. Bob Wick and Mark S. Gustavson then presented a seminar on
advanced building techniques and considerations while discussing Mark's redesigned and re-engineered Dream Truck2 to illustrate the points. As part of
their seminar, Bob and Mark presented their new model building booklet, How to Build Better Scale Model Vehicles: Construction Considerations for Building ChampionshipCaliber Models which was distributed free of charge (thanks to a
generous Museum endowment by C.E. Anagnostopoulos).
On Saturday afternoon, attendees toured the Museum and, while the GSL Judges
took on the enjoyable (and frustrating) task of judging the entries, attended a wonderfully successful Museum Benefit Auction. The Sunday morning Awards
Brunch began at 9:00 a.m., and after breakfast, Mike Carroll, Andy "Moose" Kallen, and Norm Veber entertained everyone with this year's Plastique Players' skit.
Following this, and before the Awards presentation, three exceptionally generous donations were presented to the Museum by Scale Motorsport's 1% for The Hobby Fund,
the annual terrific donation by NNL-East and TSMCC (their Support the Hobby program), and a donation from the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club.
Finally, the top award winners were announced to the enthusiastic audience.
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