My trip to the 2007 Nationals in Anaheim California

General Discussion Scale Model Events
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Here are a couple of photos and memories from yesterday. I ran into several Model magazine people that I really wanted to meet, but I won’t post the pics of those meetings so as not to upset Matt Usher…

The 2007 IPMS Nats were a lot of fun. Many of you know I was taking the family down to LA for the Nats and for our family vacation. My daughter came down with a nasty case of the flu so we had to cancel our vacation. My awesome wife however insisted that I fly down so I wouldn’t miss out this year, so I flew down just for the day on Saturday. Thanks honey! The trip turned out to be quite the fun adventure and it all started out with meeting Kevin Dillon on the plane on the way down.

I couldn’t believe how many thousands of models were entered at the contest. There was row after row after row of tables with so many great builds. I went through everything several times during the day so I wouldn’t miss anything.

The Vendor area was fantastic too. I picked up the new Eduard 1/48 BF110E (very nice, comes with a ton of photo etch goodies and canopy masks!), Hasegawa’s 1/32 P-47D and the new Dragon 1/35 King Tiger with pre-molded zimmerit. It comes with lots of photo etch, wire tow cables, magic tracks, aluminum barrel… very nice kit! I also picked up some German decal sets for my Classic Airframes 1/48 Do 17Z, Lynn Ritger’s new book on the early Bf109 series (excellent book, very well done, highly recommended to fans of the early 109). The shirts from the Nat’s were pretty cool. The front says “Why yes, I have done some modeling” [(-D]

I tried to hunt down Duke and I think I spotted him a couple of times, but everytime I saw him the tables he was at were swarming with people during the raffle so I could never make it up to him. Sorry Duke.

I met Kevin Dillon on the flight down to LA. Here is a pic of Kevin and me at the LAX airport just after we got off the plane. He is really a laid back, down to earth guy. He plays the character “Johnny Drama” on the HBO Show “Entourage”. My wife and I DVR the show and have the first season on DVD, very cool show. It was great talking with him, even if it was just for a few minutes. He liked my Bf109 shirt so we started talking about Wings of the Luftwaffe on the Military Channel on the way out of the airport… way cool. [8D]

Here is a picture of me meeting DrewH and someone else who shall remain nameless to protect me from being banned… [sigh] I shouldn’t even have to do this, but oh well, we can thank the management for this.

I’ll post a link to my photobucked album once I get all the pics edited and uploaded to photobucket from the contest.

Here are a few shots of some of the goodies I picked up yesterday. [:D]

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Thanks for posting the pics, Scott! It’s like I was there! [tup]

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Here is a link to all my photos from the Nats. It’s only a fraction of the models that were there so these are the ones that happened to catch my eye.

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y106/Zushia/2007%20IPMS%20Nationals/

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Oh, I almost forgot, I also ran into Chris aka Mokulele at the show, very nice guy. He saw the back of my Bf109 shirt and then realized it was me, very cool.

Very nice to meet you Chris, give me a ring next time you’re in Reno and you have some time to meet me at the High Sierra Hobbies and maybe grab some lunch. [:)]

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Hey Scott! I was there again on Saturday, but only for a couple of hours. I was keeping an eye out for you but missed spotting you. Anyway, I’m glad you had a good time. I also tried to find Duke but I didn’t even know what he looked like and didn’t realize he spent most of his time in the aircraft section. The only people I recognized were Tom Cockle and Steve De Beveren who wrote books for Osprey, and the FSF guys.

I also took a boatload of photos, but haven’t had time to upload them all to photobucket. Looks like you scored on the vendor side! Since I’m an armor guy I picked up that same Dragon KT w/zim, also Dragon’s Pz 38(T) Ausf G. and Cyber Hobby’s new Pz II Ausf F! Add to that an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS airbrush and a ton of other AM goodies and I’m one happy modeller!![party]

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Hey Ernest, too bad I missed you at the Nats. I was looking at the Pz II and Pz 38 kits, but there was only so much I could bring back on the plane with me as carry on. As it was I was hauling around my backpack and a big plastic bag full of loot all day. [(-D] There were some great deals, especially at the Great Models booth. They were selling the new Eduard Bf110E for $45, or $40 each if you bought two or more. I kinda wish I had bought two of those but that would have just encumbered me even more. [:O]

I’m so glad I went, and it was nice to be able to take everything in at my own pace as it was all about me all day. heh heh [8D] My wife and kids could have handled maybe an hour or two there and then they would have been getting very antsy.

What a great time though eh? Was that your first trip to the Nats?

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Scott,

It was an absolute pleasure finally meeting you! I saw your awesome Bf 109 shirt, took a chance and called out “Scott?”…I’m glad I did. As you all know, Scott is a great guy, and I wish I could’ve hung out with him more. Maybe next time.

For those of you I missed at the Nats, I look forward to meeting you at future events! Until then a warm “Aloha” to you all!

Aloha,

Chris

P.S. Scott, I hope your daughter is feeling better. Take care, buddy!

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hey espin1 (aka Scott) thank you for taking me to the’07 nats vicariuoly,i’ve got a long way to go before i’m ready to compete at that level.some of the fellas from my club up here in Spokane went also but i wont see them til september meeting,anyway thanks again for the trip,i enjoyed the pix. armornut.

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Thanks Chris, Lexy is doing better and started her first day as a Junior in High School yesterday, man they grow up fast!!! [:O]

Armornut, the Nats were a lot of fun, hopefully you’ll get a chance to go sometime, heck it was almost worth it for the vendors alone! [(-D]