Last night (20 July), I went from work in Ellisville to Affton Elks Lodge 2635. I was running the IPMS/Gateway monthly meeting, which featured this month SLAM FEST. Starting promptly at 7:00 pm, attendees had two hours to assemble and finish a model kit. (No pre-painted items allowed.) In scale modeling, rapidly putting together a kit without regard for fit and finish is called slamming a kit.
Promptly at 7:00 pm, SLAM FEST began and I got to work. This kit had ten total parts, counting the two-part display stand. I put it together within 15 minutes, with several parts not used--an alien figure under the dome and jet engine pods in the upper aft section. Looking at pictures of the flying saucers in the movie, the dome was painted over in silver, so the alien figure was not needed. Also, the saucers didn't have the jet pods, so I did not install these parts and filled in their mounting holes with super glue.
I brush painted Silver paint on the flying saucer but needed two coats to adequately cover the parts. I needed approximately 15 minutes between coats. I used Tamiya's acrylic paints, which dried quickly and easily washed with water. Just over one hour after starting the kit, my flying saucer model was done and on its display stand.
I milled about the meeting room, watching the three other models in the contest come together. They were completed in time for the contest judging to begin.
Just after 9:00 pm, meeting attendees began to cast their votes for the SLAM FEST entries in a people's choice contest. Each voter ranked the top three entries on his ballot before turning it in to the contest Chairman, Bill Wagner, who counted the votes. My flying saucer just missed third place in the contest. The top three vote getters--an AH-64 Apache helicopter, a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, and a Space Ship built from various aircraft parts--earned for their builders gift cards from Schaefer's/
Despite not winning, I really had fun with SLAM FEST, and that was the point of the night. We scale modelers are usually fixated by taking our time getting the fit and finish right on our models. Because of this focus, we can lose sight that this is a hobby and it should be fun.
IPMS/Gateway meets in two weeks, on 3 August, due to the IPMS/USA National Convention in Las Vegas starting the day after our regular meeting date. A seminar on model contest judging will be held at the next meeting.
Later.
Weblinks of entities mentioned in this post:
Affton Elks Lodge 2635: Elks.org :: Lodge #2635 Home
IPMS/Gateway: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)
Schaefer's Hobby Shop: Schaefer's Hobby Shop - Arts, Crafts, Beads, & R/C | Schaefers (schaeferhobby.com)
Polar Lights Models: Polar Lights | Round2 (round2corp.com)
"Plan 9 from Outer Space" on IMDB: Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) - IMDb
Tamiya USA: Tamiya USA
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