Name Change for This Blog

Everyone:

Since I started this blog some years ago, I used the name Bobby D Blog as it was what I felt was appropriate with my character. Recently, I did some thinking and feel this should have a name more appropriate for my interests.

Effective with my next post, the Bobby D Blog will be known as Bob Delaney At Large. I feel this will better convey the variety of topics I write about on this blog. The URL will stay the same; just the title and the mission statement will change.

I should have a post tomorrow night under the new name.

Later.

Slamming a MiG-15 Kit for IPMS Gateway

Last night (21 July), I drove after work to Affton Elks Lodge 2635 (https://www.elks.org/lodges/ContactUs.cfm?LodgeNumber=2635) for this month's meeting of IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home). This meeting featured the club's annual SlamFest, in which participants had two hours to assemble and finish a model kit.

I brought a Hobby Boss (http://www.hobbyboss.com/) 1:72 scale MiG-15bis kit that I bought the previous Saturday from Schaefer's Hobby Shop (http://schaeferhobby.com/). Promptly at 7:00 pm, SlamFest began. The kit was rather simple to assemble, and the color scheme (overall natural metal) was simple.

I was able to finish this kit by 9:00 pm, though it was the sort of kit that would have been come out much nicer had I spent more time on it. Still, it was fun to do and I was able to enter this with the six other models completed in a people's choice contest.

Meeting attendees wrote down the entry numbers of the three models they thought were best in this contest, and the results were tallied. Mine did not crack the top three, which earned their builders gift certificates ($20 for First Place, $10 each for Second and Third) from scalehobbyist.com (https://www.scalehobbyist.com/index.php). I had no quarrels about the result, though. This was a fun night.

Later.

Two Items Bought from Mark Twain Hobby

Yesterday afternoon (27 June), I drove to Mark Twain Hobby Center (https://www.hobby1.com/) in St. Charles. I went to pick up an item I ordered on their website that morning, a Super Casting Kit from Alumilite (https://www.alumilite.com/). It has materials for making rubber molds and resin castings. This would enable me to make duplicates of model parts for my projects. I have one in mind in the coming weeks for a model kit I'm working on now, and another kit I want to work on in the future. I just have to learn how this all works and put it in practice.

Before picking up that kit, I browsed among the scale modeling items on the shelves--model kits, tools, finishing supplies, and publications.

I was about to check out with that casting kit when I noticed a book on a shelf near the check out counter. It was "Up There with the Biggest: The Story of Ozark Airlines." My friend Alan B. Hoffman, who I know from the Missouri Aviation Historical Society (https://moavhist.org/), wrote the book and he self-published it last year through The Book Patch (https://www.thebookpatch.com/). "Up There with the Biggest" tells the story of Ozark Airlines, a Local Service Airline based in St. Louis that operated from 1950 until 1986, when it was merged into Trans World Airlines (TWA). This book has stories about the airline, its leadership and personnel, aircraft it flew, services provided, and generally tells the highs and lows of Ozark. I added this to my purchases, and I hope that Hoffman can sign my copy sometime.

After checking out at Mark Twain, I headed home, stopping on the way at QuipTrip (https://www.quiktrip.com/) to add fuel to my car.

Later.

Two Contest Entries in This Month's IPMS/Gateway Meeting Contest

After work Tuesday night (16 June), I drove to Affton Elks Lodge 6235 (https://www.elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?LodgeNumber=2635) for this month's IPMS/Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) meeting. I received a text from club president Rick Keasey while on the road, telling me he could not make this meeting and asking me as vice president to run the meeting. I immediately replied that I would.

Arriving at the Elks Lodge, I waited with a few others from the club for someone from the lodge to open the building. Once that happened, I moved my stuff into the meeting hall and got ready for the meeting. After waiting for a few others to arrive and for the hall's audio-visual system to be readied, I called the meeting to order.

I made a few announcements, and opened the floor to Show & Tell, for members to tell of their in-progress modeling projects and other news of note. I brought in a 1:32 scale MiG-21PF kit I am working on.

This month's meeting had the club's second Modeler of the Year contest, delayed by one month. I entered two models that I built in recent weeks in this contest. A 1:48 scale Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis was entered in this month's Special Category, "Roaring Twenties," for 1920s subjects. I also entered a 1:306 scale destroyer USS Fletcher in the Ships Category. Both entries finished second in their respective categories (my Spirit of St. Louis lost to another Spirit of St. Louis model!), but I have no quibbles about my contest showing.

In addition to the contest, Marion Morris presented a demo on paint shading. He used the audio-visual system to project images and videos he took of an aircraft model he used to demonstrate how to vary the shades of paint to produce realistic weathering and wear effects. Marion also showed off the materials and tools he used to create the effects. I thought it was a very nice presentation, and apparently the other attendees agreed.

IPMS/Gateway's next meeting is on Tuesday, 21 July, and will feature our annual SLAM FEST. It's a quick model build and contest, with the building and finishing in two hours, followed by a People's Choice contest. This is usually fun.

Later.

Back to Work for Enterprise in Ellisville

Last Monday morning (8 June), I was at the South Lindbergh Branch of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (https://www.enterprise.com/en/home.html), starting my day working in Traffic when my area manager called me to say that the Ellisville branch would be reopening the next day and wanted me back there. I told him yes right away. That day, I drove a minivan from our storage facility in Berkeley to a used car dealer in Columbia, Missouri, then got a ride back to St. Louis. Then, I took vehicles to three St. Louis area rental locations before returning to South County.

The next morning, I drove to the Ellisville branch for the first time in nearly three months. After the managing staff arrived and let me in, I reviewed the revised car cleaning protocol. This included videos shot at this branch in recent weeks, showing how and where to apply disinfectant cleaner on the interior surfaces of our rental vehicles. After viewing the videos and signing off on having done so, I got to work.

It is taking me a bit longer than I did previously to clear the interiors of the vehicles, to ensure I was being thorough with the process. Feedback from my supervisors has been positive so far regarding following this process. We haven't had many reservations this week compared to before the shutdown three months ago. Business is starting to pick up, though.

On my free time this past week (including my off day on Wednesday), I put together this month's issue of The Arch Scaler News for IPMS Gateway (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home). I got it out to the members on Friday (12 June), with the next club meeting this Tuesday night.

On my way into work on Friday, I stopped by Krispy Kreme (https://www.krispykreme.com/) in Fenton to get a dozen doughnuts for my branch mates. They appreciated the gesture.

Back to work tomorrow morning.

Later.

NFPW Honor for Me and The Arch Scaler News

Last night (6 June), I joined in via Zoom (https://zoom.us/) in the awards presentation for this year's National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) (https://nfpw.org/) Communications Contest. Normally, these awards are presented in person at the NFPW's Annual Conference; however, the current pandemic scrapped this year's conference.

I had earned a First Place award from Missouri Professional Communicators (MPC) (https://www.facebook.com/MissouriProfessionalCommunicators)--an affiliate of NFPW--in Writing: Publication regularly written by entrant--newsletter or other non-newspaper. This was for The Arch Scaler News, the monthly member newsletter of the Gateway Chapter, International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS) (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home). (I submitted the August 2019 issue to the judges.) By earning a First Place at the state affiliate level, I was eligible for a NFPW national level award.

I dressed like I was in person at this event and parked in front of my computer. There were other honorees in the video chat as NFPW officials announced the names of the winners, in alphabetical order, along with the awards and categories they earned. I was very happy when they came to me, and I was announced as First Place in this category. This is only the second national award I have received for my work--two years ago, a press release I wrote and distributed for IPMS/Gateway earned a Third Place in this contest.

I was also very happy for six other MPC members who earned awards this night: Suzanne Corbett, Ruth Ezell, Alice Handleman, Mary Scott, Allison Stein, and Kathie Sutin. There were over 1800 entries at the affiliate level in this year's Communications Contest, and about 550 of them advanced to the national competition. The NFPW will mail the certificates and judges'comments to the winners in the coming weeks.

It's a great honor to be considered for this award, and especially an honor to be chosen. I am looking forward to the judges' comments. At the MPC level, these comments have been most helpful in improving my work in communications.

After the ceremony, I stayed in the Zoom chat for a while with several MPC members at first in a breakout room, then with the general chat room until it broke up. It was great to congratulate my colleagues and join in the fun. Afterward, I cracked open a can of beer--specifically, Schlafly (https://www.schlafly.com/) Ale d'Or--in celebration.

Later.

The First Post-Quarantine IPMS/Gateway Meeting

Last night (19 May), the Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Modelers' Society (IPMS) (https://sites.google.com/view/ipmsgatewaychapter/home) met for the first time in two months; the April meeting having been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic-related closings of public facilities. This meeting was the first at the club's new meeting venue, Affton Elks Lodge 6235 (https://www.elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?LodgeNumber=2635).

There were 14 members in attendance at the meeting, and with the large meeting hall, there was no problem maintaining social distancing. The facility got raves from all of us there.

This meeting had a People's Choice Contest for models members built during the quarantine. I had completed two models in that time--a 1:48 scale Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, and a 1:306 USS Fletcher. They were among six entries in this contest, in which attendees voted for the three best models in the contest. My Fletcher got the third-most votes, and my prize was a roll of toilet paper and a cloth mask.

Besides the contest and the show and tell--which included my 1:32 MiG-21PF, a work in progress--I mentioned the Missouri Professional Communicators (https://www.facebook.com/MissouriProfessionalCommunicators) awards for the club's newsletter and press releases that I had received the day before. We also had a demonstration of Tru-Color Paint (http://trucolorpaint.com/), with samples of the paint and literature about the paint line.

I know that several club members stayed away because of lingering coronavirus concerns, which I understand. Attendance should improve as conditions improve for all of us.

Later