Chris Bucholtz

Welcome back, Ron!

Not to criticize anyone, but how many websites make you download a .pdf to get the latest and, for some folks, most important news? And how many people recognize that "Mission Brief" contains hotel information? It's a layer between the reader and the information.

I was reading the new issue of he Hook (the Tailhook Association's magazine) and ran across this: James and I have each won this "ID the airplane" contest before. The prize is a mug and a year's free membership to the association. How Ironic is it that James took "his final cut" right after winning?

The problem is, once you've had two or three GSB contests and the same people win gold, then some folks will AGAIN think there's some "insiders' club" or something. At a certain level, some folks have a sportsmanship problem that leads to their perception problem. I've gone to 24 Nationals and I've won four times (statistically, less than the average 24-time attendee) and it's not because there's a cabal or because I'm not a good modeler (I hope!). It's because that's the way it goes. If you can't accept that, or if your personal identity is defined by where your model finishes, you're going to have a rough time in contests (or in watching team sports, or following politics or anything where there's winners and non-winners).

"The armor judge in the photo has since quit IPMS and who can blame him?" An update: that member contacted me and told me he's staying in IPMS. I would like to think that's because enough members contacted him with positive sentiments to keep him in the fold.

"If you tried to book a reservation from the 16th to the 20 th, it would not let you probably because the block was only for reservations from the 17th the 20th." Having the first day of the event unavailable is inexplicable. As for Tuesday, the day before the event starts, I know a number of us mentioned that Tuesday needed to be available in the block as late as July, so I'm bummed no one swung this with the hotels. If you're coming from the west coast, you just can't hop a plane and be there Wednesday when the show starts - flights west-to-east are going against time zones even if you leave at the crack of dawn. And if you're a vendor, you need to be on site for sales on Wednesday - so getting there Tuesday is kind of important. Oh well. We live and learn (hopefully, next time).

I suspect it's the same phenomenon with messed up many of us last year at San Marcos - the dates for the blocks were provided as just the dates of the show. Anyone coming from the West Coast as a vendor, for example, needs to get there on Tuesday to be set up for the show's start. And yet, for the last few years in a row, that has not been possible with the hotels - Tuesday is not included as part of the bock so it kicks you out (or so few Tuesday rooms are included the block fills up and, again, you're kicked out). It's an oversight that the e-board should address clearly in the parameters. Meanwhile, after 76 attempts, I got through on the phone to the Monona Terrace. All booked.

Yep. At 10:01, the Monona Terrace was unavailable on line and the phone wouldn't go through. I finally got a more expensive option 2.5 miles from the venue to work, so I have a hotel - but with more expense and less convenience.

Thanks for this, Jeff!

That big, ugly thing is Daedon Shoshonenis, an Entelodont that lived in North America from 23 to 18 million years ago. It was a 12-foot-long, 1700-pound monster that was omnivorous, and while it could certainly kill prey it probably did a lot of scavenging, primarily by intimidating other predators, which were largely non-social in North America at the time. Here, one is giving chase to a Parahippus Pawniensis, a three-foot tall horse that was one of the first to have fused lower leg bones for fast running and a single toe/hoof, with vestigial toes. Daedon came from the 1:20 Paleocraft kit, with virtually no modifications. Parahippus started life as a 3D-printed 1:35 "startled plains zebra," which has extra toes added from styrene rod and a new non-striped part job. The base featured plants from Silfor, Scenic Express and an unfortunate bristle brush that happened to be on my workbench at the wrong time.

The IPMS social media pages need to be run like any organization's pages. Coke doesn't allow some jag-off from Pepsi to come on their page and talk smack about them or their customers. GM has no compunction about deleting posts from the guy who insists his 1968 Camaro is haunted and it's GM's fault. Stauffers immediately deletes posts from that one person who posts about his exceptionally intimate relationship with stuffing. We are under no obligation to accommodate everyone on our own social media page, especially when the sole intent is to cause controversy and make the organization look bad.

Dave is the only person in a position to head off what will be a catastrophic set of decisions that will end the society. I'm glad we updated the process for disbursing our assets in the event of dissolution, because that's where we are headed right now. BTW, I'm not resigning as Journal editor for one of the specific reasons Gil cited. I don't believe you can save something by removing yourself from it.

Hey! Please volunteer! So we can screw you when weasels scream about something on social media! This is no way to run a railroad. Absolutely pathetic.

Amen to the Tuesday-night option. It allows us west coasters to be there for Wednesday.

Thanks for doing this, Jeff. It's very helpful for those of us who will attend as anything beyond a regular attendee.

Hey, Doug - could you write a little description of the changes and the process used to determine what they would be? It would be great to run it in the Journal to let people see how much thought goes into these things.

I can play the bass if needed. 🙂

If you read my previous, I DID call them. No joy. They've worked very hard not to collect $850 from me.

Actually, it does not: IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME. We're sorry, something went wrong. For customer service or reservations, please call one of these numbers.

...Aaaaaand, the Holiday Inn wants to charge you for a day's stay if you have to cancel. Sorry. Final straw.

....Aaaaaaand, trying to register at the Holiday Inn Express, I get this message: The Group Code you provided does not exist at this hotel. Check the code and try again. If it still does not work, please click here for assistance. I think someone's trying to tell me something...

Link didn't work for me; given phone number gave me an agent who didn't know what I was talking about, couldn't raise someone at the Embassy Suites in San Marcos, and suggested I call the property in the morning. Well, I guess I can skip this one...

There may well be chapters investigating the possibility of hosting, but rising costs and a good economy make that difficult. In 1998 we hosted the nationals in Santa Clara - the heart of booming Silicon Valley! - but our bid was put together in 1996, after a sharp economic slowdown in late 1995, when the convention center was eager to book space. By 1998, the economy had come roaring back and the convention center people would have loved for us to cancel so they could get some real, paying business! Right now, the economy is on the rebound, corporate live events are booming back and we may be forced to compete with two years of pent-up demand from other organizations. Having watched the ebb and flow of these things since 1995, this is just part of the broader pattern for the event.

I finished this baby January 2, after staring it in... 2002? It's a Hasegawa/Mister Kit mashup in 1:72 to depict a Serie VIII Macchi-built machine; the cockpit is Mister Kit and True Details resin with a Pavla seat with Eduard belts, and the wheel wells are mostly scratch-built. Mister Kit's photoetched gear doors were a pain to work with but ended up looking good. Missing details inside and outside the radiator were made with mesh, styrene strip and sheet and a lot of patience. The plane was painted with True North Africa mustard and light grey (matches for the Italian colors) and the camouflage was made with Mike Grant's "smoke ring" decals, which performed great (although they can be fragile). The markings for "Dai Banana!" came from a Sky Decals sheet and they were more persnickety than the smoke rings - Solvaset was my friend. The real secret weapon was the Valiant Wings monograph on the C.202, which answered many questions (questions that led it to go to the Shelf of Doom, perhaps?).

I use .1mm nickel-silver wire from Albion Alloys. I measure the length carefully, and install it with tiny beads of scenic glue. For runs of less than 4 inches, it stays rigid - perfect for 1:72 scale. A package lasts two or three fighters; if you're building an F.2A or a Gotha, get a couple packages. 🙂