Founding members met at Military Hobbies, located on Two Notch Road in Columbia, South Carolina.  Military Hobbies, a good store for the modeling enthusiast, later closed its doors and the club had to find a new meeting point. Some of these members were Jim Sloan, Mike Beatty, the late Dr. Craig Moran, Darby Erd, Faron, Steve Issacson and the late Monty Tuck. There were others too but the names are not known to this author.   

For a period of time, club meetings were held in various members’ homes.  Finally, the club meetings were moved to the new official location, the Richland County Public Library, located in downtown Columbia.  While a good centralized meeting spot, problems with scheduled meetings at the Library arose and the club meetings once again shifted back to members’ homes.

Steve Isaacson arranged for meetings to be moved to the Dutch Door Hobby Shop, located on Broad River Rd. It was around this time that John Sherrer, Phil Campbell and Hub Plott came into the club.  These arrangements lasted for a while, but when they eventually ended, another founding member, Keith Frape arranged for the club to move its meetings to the Hobby Scientist, a hobby shop that he owned. It also helped that Monty Tuck and John Sherrer worked at the shop.  From this location, the club started considering putting on model contests.  Keith Frape financed the first few shows with Hobby Scientist being the sponsor.  The first club show was held on Two Notch Rd. at a local hotel.  The success of the show was moderate in regard to attendance.  Future shows were moved to the National Guard Armory on Bluff Road. 

Monty Tuck played a critical role in these arrangements.  Two armories were used. First was the Bluff Road Armory or as it was affectionately known as “The Hot Box” due to it’s less than wonderful air conditioning system. It was a large arena with ample space for a good show and room to move around. The other armory,  on Platt Springs Rd, was also a good location but did not allow any room for growth.  Attendance to this show was good, but due to the size of the show, square footage was very limited.  From this show, the club realized sound financial earnings and new consideration to the club’s finances started.

During the 1990s a new club began in Sumter, SC. Being less than 50 miles from Columbia many of Sumter’s original members started out attending our meetings as many were active duty Air Force stationed at Shaw and we were the closest IPMS chapter. As their numbers grew they wanted to form their own chapter closer to home and did so very successfully. This has led to a close friendship between the two clubs and their members. . Many members in each club hold dual membership in the other chapter.   The Sumter IPMS chapter started out by assisting our club at our next to last show at the Bluff Rd. Armory in approximately 1993. This show was tremendously successful and had 583 models entered. The next year they became full partners in our joint contest. It was after this show that those in both clubs who did most of the work on the show decided that we would put on a show every two years. This collaboration has proven to be most successful and the track record of the contests have improved each year. Hard work and sound planning by both clubs have shown just how good two clubs working together can be and how this can lead to a better contest. The last show in 2001 has (so far) been our most successful show ever, again thanks to the hard work of both club’s members.

The club continued to move around trying to find a permanent location to meet.  Meetings were conducted back at the public library, the old Irmo Recreation center, the West Columbia Leisure Center, and even at Hero’s and Dragons.  Finally, the club settled in at the HobbyTown USA located in the Harbison Shopping Center.  The club continues to meet there to this day.

In 1999 the club suffered a tremendous blow when Monty Tuck passed away at the age of 38. Monty had held every office in the club at one time or another and since 1993 had been contest chairman, often doing most of the contest organizational and legwork himself. He left some very big shoes to fill. It was not until he was gone that everyone realized just how much he did and how much work went into all the details of a contest. It was also decided that the best of show award would be named after Monty and Keith Frape was kind enough to sponsor this trophy.

The club has undergone numerous membership changes, including of course the officers for the club.  The current officers are Hub Plott, President, Steve Iaacson, Vice-President, and Randy King, Treasurer.  The club boasts high membership participation in the National Chapter of  IPMS.  The club recently established a bank account for its financial balances. We also have established our presence on the World Wide Web, thanks to the efforts of Randy King and Joye Poole. In addition to contests, our club has been involved with displays at Veteran’s Day celebrations, airshows, movie openings including the movie “Pearl Harbor” and one Congressional Proclamation ceremony for Congressman Floyd Spence. Club dues still remain at a low $12.00 per year.  Recent shows have been profitable for the club and as such, provided greater flexibility for club expenditures and support for other club projects. There are many others who have helped to build this club into what it is today and we apologize for leaving any names out but all this is from memory as nothing much was written down in the early days and we hope that these individuals will understand.

With a growing membership, good relations with all the clubs in our region and a close association with IPMS/Gamecocks of Sumter, the future is bright. We continue to promote our club, IPMS/USA, our neighbors in Sumter and the hobby of scale modeling to all ages and skill levels.