2019 TigerCon in Columbia

Early Saturday morning (2 November), I drove to Marion Morris' house in Maplewood. Marion was driving myself and three fellow IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/prod/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) members to Columbia, Missouri that morning. We were attending TigerCon, the annual model contest run by IPMS/Central Missouri Scale Modelers (http://www.cmsm-ipms.org/).

David Thomas joined me at the Morris house. We piled into Marion's minivan and we headed west. On the way, we picked up Jim Victor and Jim Triola, who were also going with us. Four other club members went separately to Columbia.

After a brief visit to Marion's home when he and his family lived in Columbia some years ago, we arrived at David H. Hickman High School (https://www.cpsk12.org/HHS), the venue for TigerCon. After registering my two contest entries, I took my models into the contest room and placed them on the proper category tables.

After that, I walked around the show area. I bought ten tickets for the kit raffle. Three of them were lucky: I won two kits, and some photo etched metal car model accessories. I browsed among the vendors at the show, buying two kits from them. Additionally, I chatted with several members from the host chapter.

I volunteered to help judge the model contest. After a meeting with fellow judges, along with some pizza for lunch, I and the other judges went to work. My crew judged the aircraft entries. We evaluated some very fine entries in the categories before deciding the three best models for the awards. We also determined the Best Aircraft model for that special award, which was also a candidate for the Judges' Grand Award.

The awards were presented at the end of the show. I was happy that two IPMS/Gateway mates--Doug Barton and Don Will--earned awards for their entries. So did I, as my Durak Du-1 took Third Place in Miscellaneous. I was glad to win, though not surprised; there were only three entries in that category.

The five of us then packed up our things and got into Morris' minivan to head back home. After dropping off Triola and Victor, the three of us--Morris, Thomas, and I--arrived back at Morris' house. I got my stuff out and put it into my car to drive home. It was a very fine day.

Later.

TigerCon 2018

Yesterday morning (3 November), I was up early and driving to Marion Morris' house in Maplewood. He was driving myself and some others from IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) to Columbia, Missouri for TigerCon. That's a scale modeling contest and vendor swap meet run by IPMS/Central Missouri Scale Modelers (http://www.cmsm-ipms.org/). (By the way, the show name alludes to the Tigers of the University of Missouri in Columbia.)

Marion stopped to pick up three others--Jim Victor, Tom Aldred, and Jim Triola--before we headed towards Columbia in earnest. After a breakfast stop in Kingdom City, we arrived at the show site, Hickman High School (https://www.cpsk12.org/HHS). We got there a bit early, so we waited to register our models for the contest until nearly 9 am. Morris set up his vendor table, with some kits he and Victor were trying to sell. Two other IPMS/Gateway members--Mike Brickman and Greg Kuklinski--arrived separately and set up their vendor space with many kits for sale.

I entered two models--a Vostok Rocket and a Dewoitine D.520--in the model contest, and admired the other entries as they came in. I also shopped among the vendors. I did buy five ship kits from Victor, three aircraft kits from Brickman and Kuklinski, and another aircraft kit from another vendor. Additionally, I bought some micro brushes from a tool vendor. I also bought raffle tickets and won a small model display case.

The hosts treated the contest judges to pizza just before our meeting to select judging teams and go over judging procedures. I helped to judge ships and dioramas in the contest, along with Victor and a girl. We had some very nice entries in those categories, but in the end we made choices for the top three in each category that were right.

The judges then selected the best of in the major categories (such as ships and dioramas), before we all voted on the Best of Show from among the best in each major category. The awards were then presented to conclude the show. Triola took a second for one of his aircraft, while Tom Bogacki (who went by himself) took two seconds and two thirds for his work. Overall, it was a very nice show.

Morris drove us all back home, dropping off the others along the way at their residences. I was back home early last night.

Later.