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Noel (and all): I totally agree with you, and IPMSUSA has JUST begun to try to step us in the direction of de-emphasizing the contest. They've recently mandated that beginning this year and at all future conventions the host MUST have as many Display Only tables as their venue can provide. Of course that is AFTER they've taken care of the contest area first, so it will vary from show to show. Still, up til now, "display" has been only an occasional afterthought. Now IPMSUSA is going to encourage guys who don't want to compete to bring their stuff to display. Personally, I've reserved 2 display tables for ANYONE that'll be dedicated vacuform and resin models. There are two major differences here in the USA as compared to the UK and Telford. First and foremost, our Nats is the way it is because it started out with a competition format and has steadily grown from there. It's a VERY successful show, and the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies to a great degree. Would it be as big and successful with less of a contest here in the USA? Perhaps.....but I'm not sure any host wants to take that financial risk since the current format is a "money maker". In other words, we're sort of stuck with what we have because it's what we've always done and it works well! The second difference, as I mentioned before, is our vast distances to our shows. Anyone in the UK is a day's drive from Telford. Even a lot of Europe can be there in a single day's travel time WITHOUT having to hop on a plane. That makes the transport of models and stuff needed for booths much more practical. I consider the upcoming Chattanooga show to be an easy drive, and it'll be close to 7hrs. I plan to drive to the Texas show in 2020, and that will involve two days of driving and probably no less than 20hrs travel time. The rest of the shows involve airplanes where you're lucky if you can carry more than one model on, not to mention the hassle of TSA security checks! Only in the eastern US, or possibly southern CA, where there's a greater density of clubs per state, could we possibly have what Telford has with club booths...but with no tradition of doing that, the "clubs" never really consider it. Rick Jackson NAILED IT in his post above. Just bring your models, put them on the contest tables and go enjoy the show for the sake of the show and don't worry about winning or losing! GIL

Ralph's comment to a certain extent may be passionate about how he feels. But has competition got to be the be all and end all for IPMS? Telford is an example of how competition and exhibition can go hand in hand without people feeling that they have to compete. Many Modellers are not bothered one jot about competition, yet the models they enjoy just exhibiting would do well in competition! There is room for both within IPMS. We have to ask ourselves if we are a modelling society promoting the hobby or a modelling competition society? Everyone was a novice to start with, and we should be reaching out to those people as well as more established hobbyists. I fear that IPMS is in danger of taking itself a bit too seriously at times.

I recently scored a kit with an MSRP of $169.99 for under $15 delivered. Guys from my model club in Louisville posted about some deep discounts on Dragon kits at Dragon USA. While the kit they were discussing was a 1/6th scale Panzer II normally $350 for $16 and discounted to $10 after using their Father's Day code, I searched other mistakenly discounted kits. I found the Dragon Iron Man Age of Ultron Mark XLIII kit listed for $10 and change; $7.18 after the 35% off discount code. With shipping, a whopping $14.82 delivered. Others tried to order the giant tank and one guy tried to order Iron Man, but their orders were cancelled. By the time they posted their orders were cancelled, I got a shipping notice. It arrived a two days later. By the time it arrived, the price had risen to $101.99. http://www.dragonusaonline.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=DRA38155

And yet again, when some low performing modeler berates one of our members with the painfully monotonous myth of IPMS rivet counters, our knee- jerk reaction is to rend our garments, beat our breasts, and fall on our xacto knives in shame. People will believe what they want to believe whether it is written on a bathroom stall wall or on the idiotnet. Nothing we can say or do will change that! Nor should we change. All IPMS has done over the past 50 years is give credibility to a hobby that was not taken seriously, help plastic modelers increase their skills and enhance their enjoyment of the hobby, demand that kit manufacturers take this hobby as seriously as we do and organize competitions that are as scrupulously fair as human integrity will permit! We have NOTHING to be ashamed of or apologize for. My personal experience of the people such as those whose uninformed comments you had to endure is that they are poor modelers whose work will not stand up under the most cursory of assessments. What we should be ignoring is the whining of these cry-babies whose skill level is so low that they are simply not competitive when faced with the standards of excellence that IPMS encourages and rewards in it’s members. Let’s all show a little more spine! Why should we seek an association with such narrow, hateful little minds? Regards, Nick Filippone, Senior National Judge