Highlander

Is that an offer? Cause I love Bricktown. I have to tell this story. At the OKC Nats, three of us from our local club attended. My wife was there with me. We discovered the Bricktown Brewery and their jugs of beer. We walked and ate there every night and bought a jug and had it filled and refilled -- cause there was a considerable price break if you bought the jug itself. My wife only had one glass. By the time we were ready to walk back to the hotel, the three of us were in that sombre and very serious phase of drinking, and we became very concerned about the jug. We designated my wife as the jug carrier. Because we were worried that we might be drunk enough to drop and break it. We told her that jug carrier was a position of great honor. We wandered along, quite jolly and happy to be at Nats. While my wife trailed, holding a jug of beer. She didn't think it was as funny as we did.

Lots of good discussion. Seems there are a number of tradeoffs that IPMS, the Nats organizers, and individual IPMS members have to make. Cost is one. I found some site online which estimates total cost for a trip from Albuquerque to Columbia and compares driving with flying. I rolled in hotel costs in Columbia and food during the entire adventure -- and some incidentals like registration and banquet. Plus I estimated I'd drop @250 in the vendor room. If my wife goes with me, driving, roughly, is @$2300 and flying is @2700. If she stays home, driving is reduced to @ $1700 and flying to @ $1800. And, if my wife comes, she'll shop. If I had to pay $200 for a room, counting room cost and taxes, it would add another @$400 to the total cost. So, either @2700 driving or @$3100 flying w/wife. @2100 and @$2200 without. That is way over $1000. (See why I'd like a Western convention?)The closer the convention, the less time I spend on the road and the less food I buy. As hotel price goes up, my cost goes up hundreds of dollars. My saving grace was staying with friends in Phoenix and Omaha and, looks like, in Columbia. And sharing a room in KC. I had reservations in Columbus, but it just got too expensive -- so I cancelled. A second tradeoff is the focus of the Nats. As others have asked, is it a modeler's convention or a family vacation? With the exception of my wife, who can tolerate a Nats event for about one day and will find a quilt shop somewhere, Or two quilt shops. Or six. there are lots more quilt than hobby shops and they are everywhere. I have no interest in the Nats as a family event. I go for the models and the judging and the vendors and friends --- I find that interesting enough. I basically ignore all of the family stuff. Obviously, others don't see it that way. If I drive, I find that I can discover lots of things to do and see on the way and back. A third tradeoff is the date of the Nats. Other discussion has indicated that those who make the Nats a family vacation want Nats in the summer. I would rather have Nats in the fall or spring, when it isn't so hot (usually) and when school aged kids aren't all over the places I want to see. I understand that, in the distant past, Nats used to be in the spring? But, I'm inside in air conditioning so the date is not a major issue for me. I guess it really comes down to cost and available time. If Columbia winds up being costly, I doubt I'll ever be back East -- unless, as this year, I will combine the Nats with other visits to family and friends and spend at least three weeks on the road.

This thread makes me feel so much better. Not due to Schadenfreude, but just knowing that someone else has similar issues.

So you are implying that a primary consideration in what bid gets selected for the national convention is the amount of profit that can be generated to the organization? I did not infer that DM was implying that. What I read was that IPMS has a core set of activities that requires we must first meet certain hard rules of finance. Without regard to the perceptions of individual members. Or IPMS will cease to exist. And, if IPMS is sailing close to the wind (that's a sop for you ship builders) financially, then the core business activities must dominate IPMS Nationals decision making. Which could lead to your conclusion above. I have no insight into how close to the financial winds IPMS may be sailing. I would think, that if IPMS has or projects to have, funds to have a secure business base, then it can make the location of a National Convention a higher priority than the pure projected net profit from the event. So, to reveal a prejudice, a Western convention projected to make less profit might be chosen over some other area's more profitable convention bid. Because IPMS might have a financial buffer if the event "fails". However, if the financial priority overrides all other considerations, I might conclude that IPMS is very close to the wind. I also have no insight into how close IPMS may have come to falling of the edge of the world, financially, in the past. I know from experience that escaping a financial disaster can make one very conservative in making future optimistic decisions. I was an officer of another club in another hobby. We sponsored two events a year. Our financial philosophy was to maintain a base amount of funds to eat both events if they were complete busts -- all expenses and no income. That almost happened once for one event -- it was outdoors and it rained for three days before and the day of the event, leaving our venue area a complete quagmire. We lost our shirts and pants and socks on that one, maybe getting 10% of our costs back. But we had it covered and we were only dealing in a couple thousand dollars per event. IPMS Nats is a much bigger boat.

I wandered onto this dated thread. In reading it, a memory arose. The last Nats banquet I attended involved the room's doors being opened right before the awards ceremony. A flood of people, well over 150 of them, charged in and the chairs up against the rear wall were quickly occupied. Although most of the non-banquet folks made were courteous, a goodly number stood in the aisles between the tables -- blocking the view of the banquet attendees. When asked not to block the view, words resulted and resulted in other words. I particularly remember one response to the request not to block the view -- "I have the right to see the awards presented and I can stand wherever I want. So, go ...." It sort of ruined the awards ceremony, which involved looking at about six people's backs. Now, without referencing other threads discussing the worldview of some IPMS members, that incident does raise questions -- "Do those who pay for the banquet have a right to view of the screen? Can those who didn't pay for the banquet obstruct the view of those who did? What exactly should a non-banquet attendee be afforded in terms of seating and views? Depending upon the venue, should the organizers limit the number of non-banquet folks to the number of seats available to seat them -- and how would they control the flood upon the doors opening -- and the irate folks not permitted entry?" My table was half wives. I can empathize with someone who chose not to pay for the banquet and then could not attend the awards ceremony due to spouses sitting who did not register for the convention. I'm glad I don't have to deal with these issues. But I think that managing the expectations of non-banquet awards ceremony attendees may not have always been well handled. And, per my example above, the expectations of banquet attendees were also not well managed.

Are you daft? Liverpool F. C.! And you're not allowed to discuss this season. Or you'll forever walk alone. Of course, in the US, I follow Real Salt Lake. We won't discuss their performance this year either.

Welcome. BTW, how do you stand on Liverpool? You answer is essential and critical.

In another hobby (yes, I know, I'm a heretic) there are "conventions" being held on Father's Day weekend and ... get this ... Easter weekend. I'm not going to either. And, in yet another hobby (OK, you can burn me), astronomy, things are much simpler. Things are available when the sky and weather make them available.

So I guess Billings is right out. But, having read all of the previous posts, I can only say this. As it gets more difficult for me, a Westerner, to attend Nats -- in part because there are fewer Nats in the West -- I am less and less motivated to attend Nats. Last year, I cancelled my Columbus plans and am now reconsidering Columbia (which would be my first Eastern Nats) -- breaking a string of years of West/Center attendance. And the less motivated I am to attend most of the Nats, the less benefit I get from being an IPMS member -- I can participate in every IPMS sponsored contest, except Nats, without being a member. So, whatever the logic and whatever the motivation for bidding and whatever the selection process, there will be some Westerners such as I who drift away from IPMS as the opportunity to attend the annual showcase contest withers away. Without anger or frustration or recrimination -- just a bit of sadness.

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.