IPMS Gateway Meets at Calvary One More Time

Tuesday night (17 March), I was at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) for this month's IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) meeting. It was the club's last meeting at Calvary, before moving next month (we hope) to Affton Elks Lodge 6235 (https://www.elks.org/lodges/ContactUs.cfm?LodgeNumber=2635). Concerns about the current coronavirus outbreak limited the meeting's attendance to 14 members--usually attendance is closer to 30.

Early in the meeting, club president Rick Keasey presented my mother Joan Delaney with a $50 Target (https://www.target.com/) gift card, in appreciation for her work opening the Fellowship Hall for the club these past few years. She was pleasantly surprised by this gesture, and thanked us for the card.

After discussing other club business, we had Show & Tell. I told of my T-34/85 model taking a Bronze in Armor at KC CON (http://www.ipmsgreatplains.org/KCCon2020.aspx) in Kansas City, Missouri the previous Saturday. There was some other interesting items shown off by a few of our members.

After Show & Tell, Jim Triola, with assistance from Jim Victor, presented a demo on photo etched (PR) metal parts. They used ship models they are working on--Triola, a 1:200 scale USS Hornet (CV-8); Victor, a 1:200 HMS Nelson--to show the PE parts installed to this point, and the tools, techniques, and adhesives they use. It was quite an interesting demo and welcome by club members not experienced at all in PE parts.

The next day, word came that the Affton Elks Lodge is closed for now, which means we may not meet there on 21 April as planned. Hope to hear back on this soon. Already, several IPMS/USA (http://ipmsusa.org/) contests have been cancelled or postponed, and many chapter meetings have been cancelled due to their venues being closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. It's the right decision under the circumstances, though not welcome for those who worked hard to get these shows on and to meet their fellow modelers.

Stay safe everyone.

Later.

Scale Modeling Trip to KC Despite Coronavirus

Early yesterday morning (14 March), I drove to the First Church of the Nazarene (https://kcfc.org/) in Kansas City, Missouri. I went there to attend KC CON (http://www.ipmsgreatplains.org/KCCon2020.aspx), a scale modeling contest and swap meet co-hosted by IPMS/Great Plains (http://www.ipmsgreatplains.org/Default.aspx) and IPMS/KC AMPS (http://kcamps.org/).

I arrived at the show site, registered my three model contest entries, and placed the models in their respective contest areas. This show has two different model contests, in a way. The Armor entries are judged by Armor Modeling and Preservation Society (AMPS) (http://www.amps-armor.org/SiteMain/Main.aspx) rules, while the rest of the entries are judged by International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA (IPMS/USA) (http://www.ipmsusa.org/) rules.

Don Will, one of my IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) colleagues, went separately to the show. He entered several of his fantasy figures in the contest. I brought along some flyers for IPMS/Gateway's Regional contest this September, which I also talked up with some attendees I spoke with that day.

I walked around the contest area, bought a few raffle tickets, and browsed among the vendors there. The whole show was touch-and-go, due to the current coronavirus outbreak, which was causing postponements and cancellations of various public events around the country--including sporting events, schools, and other social activities.

I really got lucky in the raffle, winning four items with four consecutive tickets. (What are the odds of this happening?) I won two aircraft model kits, one car kit, and a kit of US air-to-air missiles for aircraft kits.

I helped judge the contest, specifically working junior aircraft and miscellaneous. At the judges' meeting, I did get some pizza, so I didn't have to worry about lunch. The judging went well.

The contest results were announced at show's end, and I was happy to find that my T-34/85 model won a Bronze Award. The AMPS contests judge models based on standards, not against the field. Three judges look at each model and grade the models according on construction, finish/weathering, and difficulty. The points are tallied up and determine if the model earns a Gold, Silver, or Bronze award, with no limits on the number of either awards that could be given out at a show. The judges also offer comments on the model. Two of the judges that evaluated my T-34/85 said the running gear needed work, but also that the decals looks very good. I was happy to get this feedback, along with the award.

Will picked up two First Place awards. One was in Miscellaneous for his diorama Martian Construction Machinery, and the other was in Figures for The Everliving. I was so happy for him.

After packing up my models and saying my goodbyes, I headed home. I drove through some rain on the way to Kansas City, but barly any rain fell on the way home. I got home that night, safe and sound.

Later.