2019 IPMS Nationals in Chattanooga, Part 2

When I left off, I had gone to my hotel room at the EconoLodge in East Ridge, Tennessee (https://www.choicehotels.com/tennessee/east-ridge/econo-lodge-hotels/tn614?brand=EL) at the end of Day 2 of the 2019 International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS/USA) (http://www.ipmsusa.org/) National Convention (http://www.ipmsusanationals.com). The event was held at the Chattanooga Convention Center (https://chattanoogaconventioncenter.org/), located 9 miles (14.5 km) from the EconoLodge.

Friday (9 August) was Day 3 of the Convention. Arriving at the Convention Center that morning, I saw some more models in the Model Room--both for the contest, and for the display-only area. The latter included several more from IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) members, which made for a nicer display. There were quite a few chapters who displayed their models, and the items they showed were impressive enough.

I also browsed among the vendors, and made a few small purchases. There was plenty to see and plenty to buy, if you had the money to match your wish list.

The hallway was rather busy with convention and contest registration, kit raffles, and information on upcoming shows. The organizers of next year's IPMS/USA National Convention in San Marcos, Texas (http://www.nats2020.com/) had a table with information on the show and on the San Marcos area.

Just before 6 pm, I and other contest judges met to be briefed on the contest. The head of IPMS/USA's National Contest Committee went over procedures--what judges should look for and general protocol--before we formed into teams to judge the various categories. I and three other Aircraft judges--including an On the Job Trainee (OJT), a National contest rookie--were assigned to judge Biplanes 1/72 and 1/144 scales. We had 23 entries in our category to evaluate, and we meticulously examined each entry for any flaws in construction. We went through about half the entries before taking a short break for refreshments in a side room. Then we got back to work, and narrowed these entries down into the top three for the awards in this category. The top two were pretty easy to figure out, but third place came down to two entries that were close in both good and bad points. We did come to an agreement on the entry that we did award third to.

After reporting the results with the team to the contest control, I volunteered to help judge Figures I was assigned to join two others on Fantasy figures, working a split category of small scale entries--about 23 in all. After some intense evaluations, we came up with the top three in this categories. Then, we stayed to help determine Best Figure from the category winners. It came down to two entries, and one was selected after a close vote.

I then went back to the EconoLodge, arriving around Midnight. It was a long day and night, but I was happy to have done my bit for IPMS/USA in the contest judging.

I will tell about the final day in Chattanooga in my next post.

Later.