2011 IPMS-Seattle Spring Show

There hasn’t been much going on in the modelling dungeon lately, since the evil wild raspberry vines in the back yard have awoken from their winter hibernation and I’ve again embarked on the Never-ending Battle to keep the backyard from resembling the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

However, this was one of the red-letter days in the great Northwest. The largest local model show, IPMS-Seattle’s Spring Show, is normally held in the first half of April. We’ve had everything from snow to 80 degrees for one year or another (and to be honest, neither extreme is very good for model show attendance). But today was dry, partly cloudy, and the mid-50s.

The show is held in the Renton community center, in their two-basketball court gymnasium. They put a thick rug over the wood surface. The competition tables are in two rows down the center, and the vendors are arranged against the walls. I don’t yet have the “official” numbers, but it certainly seemed that the numbers of entered models and walk-ins was up over our last couple of years. That’s always a good sign.

If I had to spot a weakness in my scale, it might have been single prop. Just in terms of numbers, not model quality. I mean, it wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t what you’d expect at a large show. But multi-prop was in full flower, with a very nice Pe-8, Piaggio P-108, and B-25. Biplanes were also outstanding. Not much in helicopters or collections.

In other scales, 1:32 was full, as you would expect after all the releases in the last 3 years. Mostly Trumpeter and Revell. Armor wasn’t overwhelming, but again, a lot of recent releases were on the table.

Besides local vendors like Skyway, and many people selling off second-hand kits, we had a nice group of internet sellers. Draw Decals was there, as was KCC, the new Anigrand importers. They’re probably still wiping my drool off the Anigrand box for the Boeing Clipper, but at $180 I just couldn’t justify the expense at my current income (ie, none). Besides, had I bought it I would just have to sell it again to afford the divorce lawyer. The molding on the Clipper looked rather better than many of the Anigrand kits I have in my stash. Hopefully that means that they have improved the process that gave us so many short-shots and warped bits in earlier iterations of their kits. They also had the C-5 and VC-10 in kit form to marvel at.

I left while the judging was going on, but the results should be posted on IPMS-Seattle’s home page before too long. Here is the URL: http://www.ipms-seattle.org/

And here is a link to the Photobucket album with pictures of the 1:72 models from the show: http://s958.photobucket.com/albums/ae67/a172ndguy/IPMS%20Seattle%20Spring%20Show%202011/

As a taster, I’ll leave you with shots of the Pe-8 and Piaggio P-108.