Highlander

IPMS, being a volunteer organization, has to make lots of trade-offs to put on a quality annual National Convention. One of the major trade-offs, IMHO, is the continuing string of summer shows .... nasty heat versus a cost affordable to many members. Other trade-offs are accepting pretty much anybody who is willing to contribute ... along with their quirks and foibles and idiosyncrasies. If you want to experience such first-hand, volunteer to judge at any level IPMS contest (which you really ought to do). I count myself as one of the more peculiar. I have been participating less and less in IPMS activity due to the abrasivenss of some IPMS members who are ... well, offputting. And done more building and enjoyed it more. As you indicated, one can have a really good time at a Nats show without having to wade in the swamp. So, just ask questions and join in and show us what you are building.

You did that with a Matchbox kit! Kudos.

This whole thread is interesting.

I've never heard of the technique, but it looks like it is working.

In general, I have found that you should let any coat of anything you put on a model dry for at least 24 hours. 72 hours for oils. The problem usually is that you don't want to add weeks to a build just letting stuff dry. So you find ways of speeding things up. Often by reducing your wait time for drying. As I'm doing right now on a 1/72 scale Sherman's clear coats, which I've let dry for as little as three hours. You don't have to do this, but you should. You can learn your materials and develop techniques where you don't need to, but you should. Because, eventually, you will discover that you really should have.

And they call golf a masochists's game. Yesterday, I discovered some sort of streak on the side of a Sherman I am just about to finish. As if the clear coat lifted. I have no idea where it came from or how it happened. So, now the fine grit sanding paper and patience, a characteristic that I lack. And somewhere on the floor of my model room are, not one, but two BA-64 grab handles. Unsucessful in scratch building a replacement, I have now purchased my third kit just for one teeny-tiney, incredibly fragile part with the ability to fly on its own and hide in plain sight.

Sierra Hotel! How did you do that incredible blanket?

Got my first bust -- a Viking. Hope I can do as well.

Good work. At 1/72, great work.

Impressive. Especially the chainwork.

That's just wrong. On so many levels.

Hmmm. Another interesting IPMS unwritten rule. I don't know anywhere in the rules where the size of a model is to be a consideration. Just the quality of the build. But I wouldn't be surprised.

Had a discussion on the topic of a permanent Nats site just this afternoon at our local B&M. The consensus was that, if it happened, it would be in the East due to population density. Which would leave a number of us in the West permanently out of attending. Which would leave a number of those to conclude that, since anybody, IPMS member or not, can be an IPMS chapter member and can attend local and Regional contests, then there would be no reason to be an IPMS member.

Great job. And with that kit.

So, the convention site will be in the city of Columbia? Correct?

Duke of Earl?

That's fairly spectacular.

Amen on the ships, brah. I have a couple that I purchased as an intro for shipbuilding. After hours of examination, I cannot figure out how to fold the PE. And, for a couple of the smaller ships, there are absolutely no instructions on where to put the PE. Or what the PE is supposed to represent.

I learned a long time ago to not make any comments, other than genuinely positive ones, when viewing models. Hoverers generally are not appreciative. They are often defensive and sometimes hostile. Once it got to the "step outside" point. So my approach has become, "If you can't say something nice about......".

For whatever it's worth, I always thin every paint I ever use. It is a bit obsessive, but I would rather deal with paint that is too thin than paint that is too thick. If I'm in doubt, I use one or two drops until I'm sure that the mix is going to work. And I always have a surface (old model or paper or wood) that I hit with the airbrush before I hit the model -- every time I fiddle with anything -- brush adjustment, paint mix, after the brush has been sitting for a minute or so. So, I don't put paint on a model until I'm sure that the mix is going to work.

All excellent points. Thanks for taking the time to point me in several right directions. I have noticed that kicker can discolor both the superglue and, sometimes, the surrounding plastic. As well as introducing bubbles.

Thanks. My next experiment will be with baking soda. I want to see if it sands smoother than talc. I'll take the heating phenomenon into account. BTW, I quit using zip kicker - except when I am using glue to tack two surfaces together. I like to sand before the glue is completely, totally set and zip kicker seems to create a cure that is harder than normal curing. And, therefore, harder to sand.

My bueno. E útil.

Estoy de acuerdo. I also lose interest after I have completed a kit and entered it in several contests. My interest shift to the next kit I am building. Espero que comprende mi espanol pobre.

Contestants who enter well after the entry deadline and the head judge who permits it. I recall a Nats in which a modeler, staying in the convention hotel and who had been present for the previous two days, showing up over an hour after judging began. We had to rejudge every category in which he had belatedly entered a model. I also recall a major regional contest in which judging was delayed for over three hours because some modelers had called in and complained that traffic was delaying their arrival. Others coming from their area left for the contest earlier and had no trouble being on time. There were people removing their models and leaving before judging finished. Their were judges who removed themselves from judging. And there were contestants who removed their models and departed before the results were announced.