Slam Fest with IPMS/Gateway

I was at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) this past Tuesday night (16 July) for this month's meeting of IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home). The meeting featured the annual Slam Fest, in which members had two hours to build and finish a model kit. It started at 7:00 pm--30 minutes earlier than usual--to fit in this event.

Before building got underway, I was recognized by club President Rick Keasey for editing the club's newsletter, The Arch Scaler News, which was just awarded the IPMS/USA Region 5 Newsletter of the Year Award. I showed off the plaque that I received the day before for this honor.

I worked on an old kit I had won a few years ago at the club's Kit Auction. It's a 1:50 scale M.B. 326, an Italian jet trainer and light attack aircraft. It had few parts, so I selected this as my build this night. It came together fairly well, though one of the wings had a hard time staying attached to the fuselage, even with using "super glue." Fortunately, Keasey had some "super glue" accelerator, which I borrowed, and the wing stayed attached. However, I misjudged the wing to fuselage join, so this wing had a different dihedral than it should have. Oh, well.

At the end of the two hours, five of us--including me--had completed models, and these were judged by popular vote of the attendees. Mine missed out on the top three, and those three leading vote getters earned their builders gift certificates to a hobby shop.

At the meeting, we also got some word about next month's IPMS/USA National Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee (http://ipmsusanationals.com/). I will be going there--in fact, I made my hotel reservations this past Sunday--and we were trying to tie down who will bring models for the contest and who will bring models for the display-only area. I will do both.

Later.

An Honor for The Arch Scaler News

One week ago Friday (5 July), I received a message on the IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/IPMSGateway/?eid=ARCU4AQX-jg-vm2ByTPrrNO3Tp43UH6a0ajMHn-oKqlYv6fJ1RGy_QHV-vijYQoBpBLb-3GJ7rFq2KAM). It was from Jim Coatney, the Regional Coordinator (RC) for IPMS/USA (http://ipmsusa.org/) Region 5, which covers several Midwest states, including Missouri. Coatney posted on the page that The Arch Scaler News, the IPMS/Gateway monthly newsletter which I edit, was awarded the Region 5 Newsletter of the Year Award for 2018-19.

I was most happy to hear this news. Since becoming editor in late 2017, I have worked to produce the best quality club newsletter possible. I suggested to IPMS/Gateway's executive board (e-board) early this year that we nominate The Arch Scaler News for this award, along with ourselves for Chapter of the Year. (We lost that honor to one in Iowa.)

I soon got the news out to IPMS/Gateway about this award, and several members offered my congratulations to me for this honor. Naturally, I mentioned this on Page 1 of the July issue, which went out late last week, with more of mention inside the newsletter.

IPMS/Gateway meets this Tuesday night (16 July). It starts at 7:00 pm--30 minutes earlier than usual--as we are holding our annual Slam Fest. Members will have two hours to assemble and finish a model kit, which would then be judged by their peers. Should be fun.

Last May, The Arch Scaler News received Second Place in its category at the Missouri Professional Communicators (https://www.facebook.com/MissouriProfessionalCommunicators/) Communications Contest. With the Regional Newsletter of the Year honor, The Arch Scaler News is now eligible for the IPMS/USA Newsletter of the Year Award, which will be announced at the IPMS/USA National Convention (http://www.ipmsusanationals.com/) next month in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Later.