Member Interviews: President Gordon Cheung

Meet Gordon Cheung: As part of an internet presence over ten years ago your humble narrator extended a cordial invitation to Gordon to check out a BPMS meeting. He’s been a committed member and put into service under various positions ever since. Before we get to his illustrious career within The Club, we need to tell the tale of our 39 year-old president. 

As a lifelong Queens resident, Gordon is currently employed as an accounts receivable specialist at a prestigious Long Island university for over ten years. He has distinguished himself at work for his ability to embrace new technology and put it to good use, saving time and hours. His knack for tech drew him, like many in the hobby, to the internet for research.

Models weren’t anything new to Gordon as his earliest hobby experience was during his childhood when his father bought him a kit of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard. I wonder how much that model is worth now since the show has been pulled from various networks last year? But I digress, when they got that kit home, his dad observed how complex the kit was and put it aside until he could find someone who could help his son with this. Undeterred, Gordon found the hidden model and built it on his own. A modeler was born! After that he kept it up, building mostly snaps at first, then more complicated glue together models, he started painting his work during his middle and high school years. When the maturity of college came around, Gordon started becoming more serious about the hobby. Like many of us, his skills improved through various books and magazines that he devoured for knowledge. Then the internet brought a wealth of information to everyone’s fingertips. At that point he learned expert skills that allowed him to build at the level of precision that he does today.

 Gordon is a disciplined hobbyist, keeping his model-world contained within his own bedroom. From there he builds largely science fiction models with a preference for the Gundam Universe. His favorite model must be the Master Grade Gundam RX-78-2 version 1.5 from Bandai. It was a model that represented the robot that spawned the entire series. What’s more, the model was the start of those complex kits from Bandai designed to assemble perfectly. It would really bring him joy if Bandai would add some more kits from WAR IN THE POCKET as they only had two offerings from that series.

Despite recent advances, Gordon believes the hobby has many challenges. The high prices for models are discouraging young people from entering the hobby. Couple that with the way technology has a grip on younger people (between social media and video games), it’s an uphill battle to encourage young model builders.

In a couple months Gordon will finish up his two-year term as President of the BPMS. At that time he would like to resume his previous role of posting photos from the various club contests on the Photo Blog and Facebook page. He might even have time for his other diversions, such as archery and video games. Regardless, his heart is with The Club: I have not met a more laid back scale hobby club then the BPMS!