patd

I think the convention staff did a fine job. Good communication and explanations of what was to be expected. I went for the Hyatt (a whole 600 feet away 😉 ) They were set up automatically for a Tuesday arrival and a Sunday departure, earlier and later check-in / out in times than the Embassy plus free parking. Interestingly at 1PM CST a couple of the hotels still had rooms available. Pat D

Agreed! If the communication aspect of the convention chair is any indication of how the convention will go, we are in good hands indeed. I think it speaks well of the convention chair and his team with the way the Embassy room openings and relocation of the Hilton rooms for the RNC "grab" was handled. Pat D

Brett, we also had some wobbly tables in the aircraft category. Leaning against tables looking closely at an aircraft or elbows resting on the tables being used to steady a camera had them moving slightly. One had to be careful as the tables were really packed with entries.

I am glad that we got to hear the side of the story from one who was accused of wrongdoing. To have people exonerated from any perceived wrongdoing then 2 weeks later totally reverse the ruling certainly makes the powers that be look confused. I am a senior National judge for going on 20 years and can also state that it is HEAVILY emphasized at the mandatory judges meeting by the head judge that if you see ANY perceived impropriety report it IMMEDIATELY do not wait to the next day or next week or whatever. If there is a problem the judges will be interviewed and if necessary the category will be rejudged. Thats why we have Check Judges to spot these problems. Once those judging sheets go to the tally team it is pretty well carved in stone. It is also called out in the judges meeting for judges to stay in the area as they may be needed to judge another category or be asked about a problem that the check judges have found. At the total end of judging the head category will release the judges and or have the team leaders stand by for "Best Of" nominations depending on how that class does things. I sincerely hope that the powers that be can do a hard reset on all of this out of the megaphone of social media. The judging system works, true not everyone wins a trophy but as it is set up it works. I think if the rules laid out in the judges meeting were followed this would have been handled THAT night by the appropriate checks and balances and not in the podcast / social media spotlight in hindsight. Pat Donahue IPMS 5261

Tangential to this conversation, but I have felt for a long time that if the IPMS membership wants to give out more trophies then raise the entry fee slightly and buy more trophy packages hence more splits equals more trophies. If you have 30 models in a category with 1,2,3 obviously only 3 will win but do a split to 15 and you have doubled the 1,2,3 chances-ASSUMMING one can do a meaningful split-not an easy task in many cases. 1/72 axis inline =probably no problem. 1/48 civil, sport and air racing= not so sure. Having said THAT as a member of the splits team I might regret it.😜 I also have doubts how an GSB can work on a scale of the Nationals, right now judges are volunteering to do 3 hours of judging on a Friday night however will they also be sanguine about doing 3 or 4 sessions lasting 3 to 4 hours over the 3 days of the convention? 3000 models is a lot to look at and I think our current winnowing out process works well in the 1,2,3 awards. I quite agree going GSB vs, 123 is not going to stop people complaining about the judging that will be with us till the end of all contests. It is good to remember that EVEN if you do everything right you may still not win--ask Drew Brees!

"Most of the NCC may have quit, but it wasn't because they're "not getting their way" anymore. It's because they've been spit on by the current Eboard. It's because despite offering some compromises to the Eboard they've had that hand slapped away and been handed edicts instead. It's because they've essentially been told their experience and knowledge is no longer needed or wanted AND that their years of past service to IPMS (in some case DECADES of service) doesn't count for anything with this current Eboard. They're not getting mad and quitting because they're in a snit. They're washing their hands of a situation where they no longer have any say." ^THIS^ There is a lot of corporate memory among the senior judging people: How the split methodology works, `How to assemble the judging teams, How to handle Q/C problems, How the paper work trail to Eileen Persichetti works, to name a few. 20 years ago, the A/C judges were judging until the early morning hours, now with the exception of the Best A/C the judges are finished by 10 P.M. or so. All this has happened while the conventions have become more and more successful, and with larger model turn outs (IIRC 800+ A/C alone in San Marcos) so they have to be doing something right. If the EBoard does not get a handle on this and enough of the senior people go then a lot of the knowledge as to how and why the conventions work as well as they do is going to go with them. I wish that a reset could be done and this could have been handled out of the social media environment. I have been judging since 2005 and IMO judging have improved by a factor of magnitude. Yes there have been Q/C problems and as Jim alluded to above if we had to the category was re-judged and Q/C'ed again. 6 judges moved a probably 300 models Thursday night setting up splits and putting misplaced models into the correct spots nothing was broken to my knowledge. One of the secrets why the A/C judges finish early-all the splits are done and waiting for the judges to get to work after the judges meet at 6P.M. A lot of good people volunteer their time and effort in all the categories to make these things work seemly are being told now that they have been doing it all wrong. I think this is a slap in the face to those who have worked really hard to make the conventions successful. Pat Donahue IPMS 5261

I think the room block reservations were handled as fairly as possible. As Nick said with the amount of enthusiast crowd we have all wanting to stay at the same place not everyone can be guaranteed a room. I got lucky and went on at 00:00:15 and got in but was prepared to go down the road a bit to find a place to get my head down if necessary. As an aside if the 'Nats are held in smaller towns with a smaller hotel near or co-joined to the convention center this may be something we will face more in the future, especially as most of us wish to stay at the convention hotel. I think the convention hotel had a total of 285 rooms and the IPMS has basically taken over the hotel with a 260-room block. I would imagine it will be harder and harder to have conventions like ours in big cities due to the space required and the cost factor. I was told by a friend who is most familiar with these things that it would be unfeasible to hold an IPMS convention in a city like New Orleans due to the cost and space constraints for example. Hopefully everyone will be able to obtain a room

Nicely done! With that gun pod and the weapon loads it screams Marine. Love the crisp color demarcation on the intake lips, weathering and panel wash. My compliments. Pat D

Brian, if you see this please contact me via a P/M Thanks! Pat Donahue IPMS 5261

For Highlamder: Alas poor OOB! I knew him well, David. A category of infinite problems, of most excellent confusion It hath borne me on the contest table a thousand times; and now, How grand in my imagination it is. Apologies to Sir William Pat D

With all due respect I think if more IPMS members READ the rules carefully and the preamble to the rules defining BKB much of this self-inflicted confusion and frustration would go away. The rules are written in the King's English and are pretty cut and dried, trying to parse the meaning and find loopholes that are not there is a waste of time. If anything, the new BKB rules are much clearer than the OOB rules ever were. Basically, if it ain't there or on the instruction sheet you can't add it. Provisions were made for certain cases like some armor or motorcycle models where non-plastic media is used to support the structure or are needed to assemble it (screws & bolts, metal chassis). No offence intended to anyone, but this is not that hard to build and compete within these rules if one desires to do so. Pat D

For 30 years this has been an ongoing debate and I seriously doubt that any change could come anywhere near to being agreed upon by the membership. How many would actually vote? How long would we debate it? Seems the 30-year debate on OOB showed that. Could we even come to a consensus? I rather doubt it. It would be our version of the 100 years' war. I think going to the membership on this would be like herding cats. Pat D

Rocky , I think you are O.K. with BMF from the BKB basic guidelines: A. Finish. All painting/finishing techniques are allowed. Insignia, markings, and instrument panels may be hand-painted instead of using decals. Weathering is permitted. I think using BMF can be considered a finishing technique.

True, it would be a long drive home after finding out you built a model for a non-existent category Yikes!

I understand what you are saying Ed, all I am pointing out is that the rules say: "kit" which I agree is an unassembled item. Kits with various other materials included (e.g. cast-resin or 3D-resin detailing accessories, etched-metal detailing frets, turned-metal detailing parts, and other similar detailing parts) will not be permitted. My hope is that all this is clarified before too long, I shelved an OOB (BKB) kit because the kit had P/E which in effect eliminated one of my entries, with the way I read the rules, the 'Nats will soon be here in 5 months and some of us build more slowly. Also, as one who works with the split teams in A/C the more clarification the better when we have to decide if an entry is eligible under the BKB rules. I fear some will show up at the contest still thinking OOB rules are still valid, true, ignorance of the rules is no excuse, but I do hope contestants do look at the new rules before starting a build, as to not show up for a disappointment. Best, Pat