Nationals Diary, Thursday Contest Room
Here are some of the models I randomly picked out as I walked through the Contest Room on Thursday afternoon. Lots of stuff still coming in, and I’ll be spending all afternoon on Friday and probably part of Saturday morning trying to photograph everything I can, so stay tuned.
Nationals Diary #1
Well, Earl and I are in Columbia, SC for the IPMS Nationals. We actually left early on Monday morning, and stopped in Savannah, GA to visit the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum. I had been a few times, but this was Earl’s first visit. No matter how many times I stop there, I always see or learn something new, and it’s great to see the ongoing progress of the City of Savannah B-17G.
After staying overnight in Savannah, we continued north on Tuesday morning and stopped in Charleston, SC to visit Patriot’s Point, where we spent almost the entire day touring the USS Laffey DD-724 (a Sumner-class Destroyer) and the USS Yorktown CV-10 (an Essex-class Carrier). After going up and down (and up and down) ladders and stairs in both ships, we concluded that life on these ships would definitely be a game for people younger (and in better shape) than us.
You can see some photos taken previously at both of these sites in the galleries, and I’ll add some photos taken during our visit to the bottom of this post.
After a great dinner at the Charleston Crab House we continued on to Columbia, checking into our hotel Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning after breakfast we stopped at Staples to get some Pelicon 2017 flyers printed, then went over to the convention center and waited in line for the event to start. At about quarter to 1 PM they finally opened up registration and we were able to pick up or pre-registered convention packets, which included some decals (a combo sheet including an F-100D Super Sabre, F-51D Mustang, S-2E Tracker, 1957 Chevy race car, M42A1 Duster, and M151A2 Jeep and Trailer), a schedule, and the convention pin. A bit sparse, but the pin is pretty nice.
Vendor Room
Since I had left my models in the car, the first stop was the vendor room. There was a pretty decent turnout this year, with Zoukei-mura, Freetime Hobbies, and Squadron being the larger vendors, along with many, many smaller ones. The Z-M booth was busy as usual, with heavy emphasis on their new 1/32 Do335A-0 Pfeil and some excitement over the upcoming release of a 1/48 F-4J Phantom II. Upon inspection, the Phantom is a very nice kit, with wonderfully fine detail and looks to be a great representation of the breed. I picked up one of their 1/32 Raiden’s, along with all the add-on goodies. Earl and I had a long, interesting discussion with all they guys from Z-M, and they gave us a hint that an upcoming subject (after the Phantom) will be another Japanese aircraft. They naturally wouldn’t say any more since it’s in pre-production. I’m crossing my fingers for a 1/32 Dinah!
New Tamiya Release!
Other highlights of the day was Tamiya’s release of their new 1/32 F-14 Tomcat, which has a few interesting bells and whistles in line with the last few releases. Blue Ridge Models released a very nice, licensed model of the French liner SS Normandie, in 1/700 scale complete with all the resin and PE needed to build up a very nice replica. They also had a few copies left of the limited-edition USS Halibut submarine.
For the car guys American Racing Miniatures had their wonderful resin Indy cars, and if you like the cars from the ’20’s and ’30’s they’re the ones to see. Their latest release is a 1/25 scale version of the Indy-winning Monroe/Frontenac from 1920. It’s a full-detail kit, in resin and white metal.
Moving into the contest room, it was naturally a bit sparse on a Wednesday afternoon. I dropped off my entries and we spent some time looking around and reacquainting ourselves with old friends. Looks like it’s going to be a good show.
Contest Room, Wednesday Afternoon
My stash so far, and it’s only the first day!!!!
Well, that’s it for day one. I’ll get some photos taken tomorrow and will be updating the web site every evening, so stay tuned!
See below for some photos from our visits to the Mighty 8th Museum and Patriot’s Point.
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JaxCon 2016 Photos
We decided at the last minute to drive over to Jacksonville for the show. There was a great turnout at JaxCon this year, and there were plenty of nice models on display. We were even able to get a couple good deals in the vendor area. Not in any particular order, and really tried to get as many shots as I could in a limited amount of time – they closed the model display area at 1:00 for judging.
Tampa Bay ComicCon 2015
Some select photos from this year’s ComicCon, held at the Tampa Convention Center. Amazing place for people-watching, and as usual there were some great cosplay on display.
Pelicon 2015 Image Gallery
Many thanks to Ed Brut for providing a large cache of images he took at Pelicon 2015. All images here are used with his permission.
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