VonL

Yes Gil, I (no longer) read the Members Only sections and have finally notched out of these fights for the aforementioned reasons. Thank you guys, sincerely, for caring enough to wrestle with this stuff to try and make it right. But I will no longer follow it down the rabbit hole. Again: Modeling is my escape from this kind of thing in the so-called real world. Respectfully, Von_L

"Can't we all just get along?" Am truly sad to see the social media tempest-in-a-teapot erupting into something that damages this fine organization. Speaking from the cheap seats: IMHO, EVERYBODY in this chain and in the IPMS leadership cadre is deserving of the benefit-of-the-doubt, regarding their motivations, methods and efforts to conduct the events, inform the membership, sort through questions and problems, etc. Accusations of power-plays and nefarious intent frankly sound ridiculous, compared to the real stuff that happens in DC, for example. To whit: The reason various board members and such run unopposed is that most IPMS members, including yours truly, are unwilling to take on the administrative workload, much less the slings and arrows aforementioned. I am willing to stipulate that they are all doing their best and for the right reasons. "...in short, she graciously volunteered to help out her husband Mark and to keep the contest AND the awards presentation from FAILING." Now this is the true spirit of the thing; our best selves, if you will. Hence my most profound thanks, to all who step up to lead this org, conduct the various events, contests and administrivia, that modeling and the sharing thereof may remain my personal escape system from 'all that' in the so-called real world. Now, let's put on some relaxing music and go build a model.

I've got one in captivity ri'-heah! Give me an address and it's yours.

All of the above - !!! Thanx also for the family-member passes. My family members in the area (incl. active duty USAF) did cruise the displays and vendors - and bought stuff. Consider also the hobby 'recruitment' potential there. I'll keep workin' it, too.

FYI - I just CNX'd my Embassy/La Vista reservations for 20-24 July. So jump in and grab those as desired, but you may wanna note this cautionary tale... I first attempted to reserve the room when the convention block opened last summer. As described elsewhere, this process was fraught with trouble, which (hopefully) does not need to be rehashed here. I reserved a room available for three of the four desired nights...or so I thought. I called them in the Spring, hoping to add the fourth night and they had no record of my reservation and no availability. So I made alternative arrangements: Initial hack was the nearby Hampton, in the past a lovely option; but their sole available room was outrageously expensive. Fortunately, our relatives in town were willing to host us, so I CNX'd the Hampton. All good. But today, we got an upgrade offer from Embassy Suites, regarding that first, 'lost' reservation, which somehow magically re-materialized. After a difficult telephone experience requiring multiple inputs of various personal ID data (while holding a confirmation number!), garbled audio, an apparent language barrier and inconsistent descriptions of the reservation, my BS-meter was pegged and I CNX'd it. CAVEAT EMPTOR. Otherwise - am still looking forward to the fun part...!

All in a day's fun! QUESTION: Why is the KITLINX.COM website suddenly blocked to me, when none of the other ones are?

THAT is a spectacular piece of work! Thanx for posting it.

Well played! Beautiful work, a cool subject and the tribute-feedback is as good as it gets.

You do realize that Special Hobby kitted this version, over the summer-? Just kidding - nice job!

Go, Gil, Go! This thing is lookin' great so far.

Turn your own model pix into B/W with photoshop, or the MS Gallery tools and I'll bet beer that your blue is very close, after all. Nice work!

Peter Lorre imitation: "It is...a monster!"

Love it - esp. the Phantom-in-work!

FWIW, that 'pet-recipes' comment was just a hypothetical example of the lame, pop-culture goofiness with which one is usually stuck in the waiting-room reading venue. An older version of this point might have been "Jackie's UFO-Cancer-Diet!" CAUTION: Humor in progress. Love my hard-copy of the IPMS JOURNAL, too.

WOOF - !!! Love the G-sel. That is a magnificent bit of work. Please, please bring 'er along to the Omaha Nats, that we may get a closer look.

Yup. Just trying to be funny.

Maybe, but I really like the hard-copy issues of these, also known as "waiting room insurance." Kept handy in the car, lest one truly enjoys reading about Megan Markle's latest pet-recipes, ad nauseum.

Can I enter this one...by proxy...?

I remember that model. Super work! What's that model's wingspan?

Epic - !!!

Another nice one, Gil! Well done paint-in-lieu-of-decals. My brother flew these with VP-19 (the Big Red). Kit decals for that colorful scheme are shot, so I may try one of their rare, lo-vis versions. He flew them with those markings for DESERT SHIELD 1990. The plane in the foreground appears to have the (then) new 3-tone gray camo. The one in back appears to have the older gray & white paint scheme, with a grayed-out tail-emblem. I've never found any other pix of these birds...have you?

Nice model! You also did a great job with the camera angles and the 'scale height ground-view'. Extra credit, for capturing the size and character of the airplane!

Age five...it begins...

IMHO, Nick nailed it with "Better to err on the side of discretion and the ordinary rules of good taste." An example comes to mind from WWII Army Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's autobiography, when he was asked why he didn't draw dead bodies in his otherwise authentic battlefield (humor) vignettes. His response was that if he did his job well, it was implicit that death was likely nearby (it is a battlefield), while allowing some space for a lighter moment or topic, in that historic context. I've done a couple of these cartoons as dioramas and it works. Regarding 'discretion'': The ubiquitous 1/35 WWII German soldiers, defecating, visiting hookers, etc, are just not on the same level as, say Michelangelo's Pieta, which is an iconic death scene. If that distinction requires further explanation...

IIRC, that's how FSM started out, in the mid-1980s (cue the nostalgic music).