Eric Aitala

Mike - email me at webmaster@ipmsusa.org and I will assist. Eric

Hi, That is very odd. It works normally for me ... there is nothing in the URL that contains zoominternet.net It is just >> www.shopipmsusa.org/category-s/100.htm Eric

=> http://www.shopipmsusa.org/category-s/100.htm

Well, certain types of paints - Alclad, for example - require it. I think there are two reasons. Gloss paint is smoother. The black makes the silver pop more - especially things like chrome. I've also heard folks using dark blues as well to get a slightly different effect. Its possible that Alclad works its way into the enamel paint or interacts with it in some way. And it has to be enamel, if you try this with lacquer gloss black, you'll ruin the kit. Eric

Hi Mike, Try http://bit.ly/2j614Fb Eric

The change to the template is easy, but going through the database to clean up the data entered in the scale field (changing ':'s to '/'s), I see this I obviously can fix the current ones, but then what? Originally I had the scale field to be a number only, but we do have oddities like the Egg Planes and an entire genre, Figures, that has a different system. There are also products that can have multiple scales - "1/12, 1/20, 1/24" for race car decals as an example, so only allowing a number was not an option. Thus the scale is a text field... E

HI, We are not held hostage but it, but when constructing these types of systems, design choices must be made. Sometimes they are obvious choices, sometimes not. Ok, scale could be first, but there are details (and decals) for figures >> http://web.ipmsusa3.org/reviews/figures_dioramas/details and miscellaneous >> http://web.ipmsusa3.org/reviews/miscellaneous/details Here are racing harnesses for autos >> http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/sparco-blue-racing-harness with no specific kit. Here are rivets for multiple scales >> http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/05mm-rivets So it is no so simple. And no matter what choices are made, not everyone will be happy. I've had hours long discussions with university official on whether to use 'prospective student' or 'new student'; "Commonwealth' or 'State' of Pennsylvania..., shades of blue, etc. So.....

Hi Chuck, You might want to post this on the Event Calendar at: http://calendar.ipmsusa3.org/node/add/event We do have non-IPMS/USA events listed.. Eric

Actually, I have looked into doing something like this and because its just a programmatic change to the theme's template(s), it would work on the old reviews. There are a few things I would test, like making sure that the link to the review would not change and a couple other details, but it should work. Doing this might also depends on updating the code used to build the Reviews site to the latest version - this is something I'm slowly working into. The first steps have been moving non-review content to members.ipmsusa3.org and such. Not done there yet. E

That is actually on me as an editorial / web developer decision. I'd like to keep the title simple - if we add the scale, an argument could be made that we add the manufacturer. But if the review is a detail set for a kit, do we then also add the information for the base kit? So the title for this review would go from: P-51B/C/D Mustang Propeller w/Tool to P-51B/C/D Mustang Propeller w/Tool in 1/48 by Quickboost for Tamiya The second issue is that the reviews web team enters the data into a form (see screenshot) which goes into the database that runs the Reviews web site. The title, company, scale, base kit are all separate fields containing the data. It is considered to be bad form (in the world of databases) to enter the same information twice because it is easier for mistakes to occur. Thus it would be better to construct the title from the various individual fields automatically rather than rely on the web team to always 1) get it right and 2) be consistent. [Note: the reviews web team does a great job, but it's not possible to be perfect.] But the automatic title example above does not read well. You would prefer something like - P-51B/C/D Mustang Propeller w/Tool in 1/48th scale by Quickboost for the Tamiya kit. Now would the scale go in its field as 1/48 or 1/48th then append scale? Is the base kit field Tamiya or the Tamiya kit? How much is automated and how much is the responsibility of the reviews web team? I don't know what the optimal choice is... I always try to have as much relevant info per review on the home page - if its a detail set or decals, the base kit is listed; if its a book, scale is omitted and author is included, etc. Eric

Hey, I can look at making a few changes but I'm limited by what the forum software will do and who can run it.. I'm not sure I have the time at this point... E

I've set up a subform for Aircraft builds at http://forum.ipmsusa3.org/index.php?/forum/71-builds/ I could add a further sub forum for Richard's posts, but to do so for every build might become cumbersome... Take a look and let me know what you think. Eric

For more info, see http://www.f1m.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27391&start=20#p289776 E

If you like F1 scale models, check out this gallery https://www.flickr.com/photos/fl_hansen/sets/72157676409988055 Eric

http://www.ipmsusa3.org/gallery/v/logos/

I am looking to update the pictures in the slideshow on http://www.ipmsusa.org with some from the 2016 Nationals. Pictures of the various category winners would be the most useful. There are some criteria for the images I need. They must be at least 1200 pixels wide. Wider if they need to be cropped. They need to work in a landscape mode, i.e. wider than taller, or be able to be cropped into that mode. This image is a good example of that >> https://ipmsusa.org/sites/default/files/img_4941_crop.jpg Pictures should be as uncompressed as possible. I would prefer RAW or PNG, but can use sufficiently large JPGs. Larger file sizes are better... 500 to 600 KB at least. Images with as little background clutter as possible would be ideal. Images with out of focus backgrounds are preferred. Top down images generally don't work... So versus I will add a photo credit to any images submitted. If you have any pictures which you think can work, please email them along with any information you have about the model, to webmaster@ipmsusa.org Thanks, Eric

Hopefully next year Shenango Valley and Central PA won't have their shows on the same day. As I am centrally located between the two, I don't like having to choose. Eric

http://www.ipmsusa.org/member_services/achievement_awards/achievement_awards_chapter_oty_list.shtml All the awards lists are linked on http://www.ipmsusa.org/member_services/achievement_awards/ Eric

One reason why I would not use a spreadsheet to track customers and such is that there is no simple, reliable method to track changes to the customer information. i.e. what was their old email address or physical address. Yes, you could use the track changes feature in Excel, but it does not always work and I don't think it can be used to assess changes across the entire dataset - how many customers have moved, where have they moved, etc. Having a system that keeps track of revisions via a simple database setup also provides a history of the organization... which can be useful when the membership wants to know certain information.... E

HI, For #1 something like Mailchimp is good.. for most clubs they won't hit the # of email addresses or # of emails limit. For #2, I'm not sure as you probably want to store more information than just name and email address. I would look at some of the church membership management packages. I've not found many CRM (Customer Relationship Management) packages that work for small, non-profit organizations. I found a list at http://blog.capterra.com/free-and-open-source-crm/ but I've not looked into most of these. I've looked at CiviCRM and SugarCRM for IPMS/USA but these are pretty complicated systems and probably would be too much for a club. Eric

Anything that disables tracking like Blur or Ghostery may also cause the same problem. Maybe even the basic 'do not track' setting in most browsers. E

For F1, there are places like http://motorsportsminiatures.com , http://www.mshobbies.com , http://www.hiroboy.com ... finding the older stuff is not easy. I run F1M.com for Formula 1 models, so that might be a place to ask - there are a number of Indy car modelers there as well. Eric

Contact dfl@ipmsusa.org Eric

An interesting diorama... http://www.gerryanderson.co.uk/forgotten-space-1999-eagle-diorama/ E

There are some interesting techniques on this web site >> https://davidneat.wordpress.com