Last week, I went on vacation, starting that Tuesday (19 July). Early the next morning, I drove in a rented Corolla to Omaha, Nebraska, site of this year's International Plastic Modelers' Society/USA (IPMS/USA) National Convention. After approximately 6.5 hours of driving, I arrived at the La Vista Conference Center just west of Omaha, site of the Convention.
I walked into the facility, got my convention packet, entered my three contest models, and began making the rounds. My three entries were an aircraft (1:48 scale A6M2 Zero), which I had just completed early that week, an armor (1:72 155mm M2 Gun), and a ship (1:720 USS Alabama).
I browsed around the Model Room, admiring the contest entries so far. Then, walking through the lobby, I received a free penlight from Sprue Brothers Models as a gift for being a loyal customer. There were two Vendor Rooms that I visited, checking out the various vendors. Along the way, I said hello to fellow IPMS members I knew and vendors at their stands.
Late that afternoon, I checked into the Marriott connected to the Conference Center. I roomed with an IPMS member from Iowa, Mike Halliday, who had an opening for that night. We got along very nicely.
Thursday morning (21 July), the first full day of the Convention, I packed my bags as I would be staying at the adjacent Embassy Suites the rest of the week. At the Convention, I took in some seminars that morning. One was by my friend Mike Mackowski on the history and modeling of lifting bodies and single stage to orbit space craft. Mike presented some highly interesting information on this topic. That was followed by one where several hobby industry people took questions from the audience on how they dealt with inflation and supply chain issues.
After grabbing lunch from a concession kiosk at the Conference Center, I viewed the Contest and Vendor rooms and chatted with others I knew or heard of that were in attendance. In mid-afternoon, I checked into the room I was sharing at the Embassy Suites with my IPMS/Gateway mate Jim Victor. The accommodations in Omaha were superb.
Thursday night, I joined other Convention attendees on a tour of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. We went by chartered bus to the museum, which was closed to the public but open for our group. Attendees browsed among the aircraft and other exhibits on display, then enjoyed a buffet dinner in a display hangar among several aircraft. That dinner--barbecue pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, cookies, iced tea or lemonade--somehow tasted better in the museum and among fellow IPMS members. It was a fun time going around the exhibits and even going into a few aircraft on display. Our group then got on the bus and returned to La Vista.
More on this Convention in my next post.
Later.
Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:
IPMS/USA: IPMS/USA Home Page | By Modelers... For Modelers (ipmsusa.org)
2022 IPMS/USA National Convention: IPMS 2022 (ipmsusa2022.com)
La Vista Conference Center: Embassy Suites Omaha-La Vista/Hotel & Conference Center (hilton.com)
IPMS/Gateway: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)
Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum: Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum (sacmuseum.org)
