Scale Modeling in St. Louis and Leavenworth

One week ago last night (17 September), I arrived at Calvary Presbyterian Church (http://calvarypresbyterianchurch.org/) after work for that night's IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/prod/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) meeting. After helping set up the meeting hall, I helped to run the meeting as Secretary of the club. That night, I gave a demo on using poster tack gum for masking paint jobs. Despite a glitch with my airbrush forcing me to brush paint onto the wing surface, the demo went well and there was feedback from a few members on their use of the same or similar techniques.

We also had the Modeler of the Year contest, with the special category of "Let's Go Topless," for open-topped subjects. We also had a recap of our recent contest.

Early last Saturday morning (21 September), I drove to Leavenworth, Kansas for the modeling contest being held by IPMS/Prison City Modelers (http://leavenworthmodelersclub.org/) at the Heritage Center (http://www.heritagecenter-leavenworth.com/) in downtown Leavenworth. I was going in my capacity as Coordinator of IPMS/USA (http://www.ipmsusa.org/) Region 14 (Mid Central). It was a good show, with 46 modelers entering 160 models. I entered two of them: the British submarine Turbulent, and a Soviet Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) done as a humor model.

I browsed among the vendors there, and chatted with show attendees. Several congratulated me on being named RC-14, and wished me all the best in that job. I helped to judge the automotive and figure model entries. My Turbulent took second in the Ships--Submarines category. That's the third local show award that model has won, having picked up awards at the Louisville show in May and Gateway's show earlier this month.

I drove home after the show, arriving back in St. Louis that night. It was a happy trip, and I plan to make several more trips to scale modeling shows in my region in the coming months.

Later.