Who belongs to IPMS?

[Panzermacher]

I was a member of IMPS and an Area Model club....I found BOTH to be somewhat of a pain. THe IMPS boys made a "certain person" at the other site look like a beginner rivet counter! (These boys ACTUALLY brought out tech sheets on some models and matched the sheets to models!!!) Funny thing was, I actually was a better modeller than anyone in their group and won most of the competitions. Their answer was to "Make me a permanent Judge" at all Peoria IMPS meets. I grudgingly took it, but I made SURE to ALWAYS display my work at contests!

The club was just as bad. We had Car guys and military guys mixed. The car guys HATED the military guys and vice versa. It created alot of friction at events, and meetings. (Each group wanted THEIR work featured over the others. And the same group of rivet counters and perfectionists existed there as well.

Both groups had a level of infighting and cliqueishness that I just faded out of both. Probably made them happy I went away. They didn't like having me around anyway when it came to competitions!

[Whiterook]

Hee heeeeee, I know what you mean, PM! Thanks for your input. I'm not sure I want to join IPMS right now, as I'm still kinda "new" in the medium, after having been out of the loop for so long. I'm going to the club's model show this Sunday, and I'll see what the fellas are like.

I went to a local model railroaders meeting and show a few years ago, and you could have stood a spoon up in the boredom!

[Geek44]

We have car, tank, aircraft and ship builders in our club and we all enjoy each other's work and we all learn from one another. I'm not really interested in the car models myself...no weathering, but the guy who mainly builds cars is the decal master so he has plenty of interest to me. One other guy has built a diorama of two native Americans shooting some rapids in a canoe. Not my thing, but it's pretty cool.

[Whiterook]

Hey G44...you following me around tonight? Evertime I turn around, you just answered one of my posts! Rock on, man...you're awesome! Yeah, I'm looking forward to meeting some of the modelers in the club, but will reserve judgement on joining until then. If the show proves stimulating, I'll hit a couple of their meetings to see what those are like. They don't start their year until June for new enrollments, so I imagine, they'll be happy to see new blood checking them out.

[Geek44]

Sorry mate... I just love your work.

[Whiterook]

As us Yanks say: "Awhhhhh, shucks!"

(Gratuitous praise always accepted!)

[Geek44]

[Whiterook]

I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow at the show

[TRDG]

What happened at the show W.R.??

Cheers

TOMMY

[Whiterook]

Glad you asked Tommy! I've been thinking, I'd promise I'd do that!

The show was actually quite fun! It took place at a Knights of Columbus hall about 30 minutes from my house. The basement level had the models displayed on 12-15 large long tables. Had everything from military, to cars, to comic heroes...out of box, dioramas, scratchbuilt. All levels of difficulty, and I picked up on a lot of details I probably wouldn't have had I not been following along on the model forums! My favorite was actually a 1/35 Commonwealth Quad, which I ended up buying a model of after seeing it! The armor pieces captured most of my attention.

The funny thing is, I spent most of my time in the dealers room on the first floor...it had tons of models, new and old, and I must have spent a good couple hours browsing! I picked up 8 models! A new Dragon 1/35 Pz. Kpfw. IV Ausf. G "LAH Division" tank that I had planned on picking up anyway ($35); an Italeri 1/35 M24 Chaffee tank ($12); a Tamiya 1/35 GE 8 Ton Semi Truck Sd.kfz. 7 ($15); a Tamiya 1/35 6X4 Truck Krupp Protze ($18); a Tamiya 1/35 Commonwealth Quad Gun Tractor ($13); a FORT 1/35 ZIS 42 Soviet Half-Truck ($8); a Tomy 1/35 Bedford QL Gun Portee ($10), and a Toko 1/72 WWI Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter biplane ($6). Lot's to build for awhile!

I was starving byt the time I got out of there, though...if they sold food, I didbn't see it. Luckily, I brought a snack bar with me, and I headed straight for a hamburger on my way out of town!

The people were pretty nice, for the most part. Some very "interesting" birds, as well though. I couldn't tell how many were club members, and I've decided to give their meeting a go next month (their April meeting was last Wednesday, but I figured it wouldn't be the best time to see them at their usual, as they'd probably spend a lot of time talking about how their show went.

So, I walked away hungry, broke, and a tad inspired!