Click here for IPMS National Competition 2007 Pictures
It’s 1:43 AM right now. Gtetra is in my workshop priming his GP04 conversion kit. CWModels is outside sitting with Acon chatting about anime, figures, shops, history, etc; Bhop is in the dining room working on gluing parts of his resin figure together; while I’m here uploading the hundreds of pictures I took and posting a report on the event…. Another successful model build night. Gtetra has had one beer, I’ve had one, and Bhop is on to his second or third… I haven’t really be paying much attention.
The organization and running of the event was fairly rough from my perspective. I did some last minute volunteer work to help out where one of our more established members ran into some personal issues. I helped out with the registration section. From my understanding, after the computers were brought up, we were never given the database of pre-registered folks. We did not have the proper forms for folks registering at the event. It was a complete cluster f. I spent most of day 1 and day 2 placating angry mobs of grumpy old modelers. The registration and other issues with the event are way beyond my level of involvement in the event, and I’m a fairly new member to the club. I heard quite a few people scream “I’m resigning my IPMS membership”. Hellp Mr Douchbag, it’s only plastic. So enough about the troubles that I saw. I at the very least tried helping out. Many folks from the club and other clubs stood up to help out, very cool things to see happen.
As a result of my experience in with the registration; I was able to meet a very lovely couple from Arizona. In an attempt to entertain the mass of disgruntled plastic geeks, I bought out my MG Gyan nad started to make it dance a little. The couple immediately in front of me asked, “so, is that some kind of toy?” *sigh* I then go on to take the thing apart and show the couple that it is in fact, a model. I then tell the couple that I will be giving three seminars on gunpla and resin figure building through the next three days. They came to every presentation. Much more than this is that I have made some great new friends in the model building community. Funny enough, after the initial presentation (where I showed the crowd my newly purchased 1/20 Brutishdog by Bandai from HLJ) I saw the couple browsing the Gundam section of HLJ. They asked for some recommendation and I suggested the new Zaku II 2.0; however, then ended up buying a Brutishdog. There is a disturbance in the force…. we just might be able to turn another one towards the dark side….
There were some incredible models at the event. Some I have seen at previous local IPMS shows, some dating back to the very first IPMS show that I entered… you can probably look back at the thumbnails from the previous years’ and pick them out. One modeler even brought in a total of 133 kits built by him alone. There was a ship that took the builder 20 years to complete. It required the builder to rent a uhal just to transport the kit (yes, he is a local member as well).
I got to spend time with like minded modelers. Help some modelers open up a greater understanding of gunpla models. And I met some great new friends that I hope will stay in contact. And I believe that this is the sole reason one should attend such events.
As an afterthought. Bhop (Brandon) won first place for his F1 in small scale
He also won a second place in the Fantasy Figure’s (anime split) for his Quattro
CWModels(chi) won a third place in the SciFi Vehicles (mecha split) for his VF-19 Macross Battroid
And I got to win a first in the Fantasy Figure’s (Anime split) for my dark elf
(which is a surprise since I figure’d Salya Mass would have taken it…)
And I took second for the SciFi dioramas for my newest work “Always watch your six Mischa” dio
This is the lovely (not loving) couple from Arizona (Ahwatukee to be specific)reporting. Shari and I had a great time with all the folks at the event. Especially the sci-fi group. That includes you Clem! Of course we will never forget Brandon and Chi. Should there be a need for some english vernacular vocabulary building, you know where to go! All in all, I think we found another modeling genre to explore…to infinity and beyond…oh that’s what Buzz Lightyear would say! Ciao, Bob. p.s.- I don’t have a fancy or special email name, remember I’m over 50 and use the old language (some Latin required).