Archive for Just For Fun!
2010 Nats Scrapbook Vol I
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The Vendor Room
I’ll be posting more pics as I sort and process through them. Between my trip to the Nats and a week at AirVenture I have thousands of images to process.
Steel Beach
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Many of you out there are familiar with the aftermarket line from Steel Beach. Darren Roberts has found a niche in this hobby producing the little things that make our projects easier. For example I have in my possession a set of air intake covers for a 1:48 F-4 Phantom project I am working on that came from Steel Beach via Sprue Brothers Models.
Darren will be contributing an article in the near future about his business and how it works. For those of you who are thinking about starting up an company that produces niche products for this market, his insights might provide useful.
Look! Hasegawa Kits
Posted by: | CommentsIPMS Nationals-Day 2
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We rose before the dawn to get ready to head south to Tucson to visit the Pima Air Museum and AMARG…Boneyard. The tour was good, spent some time with a couple of visitors from Australia who were at AirVenture last week and on their way to Seattle next.
As the day progressed so did the temperature upward. By the time we had returned from Tucson around 2pm the temps were already at 114F!
Upon our return we headed straight into the convention center to roam the vendors room and model room. More models on display and the density of visitors to the vendor room had also increased.
Finished off the evening atop the Hyatt in the orbiting restaurant Compass chatting with Gordon Kwan and Scott Hackney (pointman for the 2012 Nats in Omaha). Great food and good company made for an enjoyable evening.
Let The IPMS Nats Begin
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I’m posting this from Phoenix while at the IPMS Nationals. Even though it is hot in Phoenix, things are a bit cool in the convention center. Several vendors have canceled leaving a far number of empty tables in the vendor room. 
Not very many models fill the tables of the contest room but this is just the first day…a partial one at that. Hopefully more entrants will arrive with their contest entries tomorrow and Friday.
I toured the model room to find a large exhibit by some of my fellow members of What If Modeling. Always good to others who aren’t confined to the kits instruction sheet and references who build.
Today I met up with some old friends and met a few new ones too. My bedtime reading material got a new addition from Tommy Thomason, his new book about the Vought F8U-3 Crusader III…aka Super Crusader. Tommy’s books are always a good read, the two I picked up last year were fantastic.
Spotted a couple of long out of production kits that I’d love to build again. These kits have a price tag that is far out of my modeling budget. Oh well, I can always hope for a rerelease in the near future.
Tomorrow we’re going to get up early to hit the road for a side trip to Tucson to visit the Pima Air Museum and AMARC. Then buzz back here for more of the convention.
New kit! Minicraft has in the works a new 1:144 KC-135E, which will blaze the path for future releases of other -135 variants! GOOD NEWS INDEED! They are also working on a series of Convair twin series too…T-29/C-131 and the civilian counterparts.
