Great contest !!! The Richmond club(s) have done wonderfully since they moved from the pig shed (or whatever it was) to the larger building. Plenty of room, plenty of light, and clean latrines !!! Probably the only shortfall was the lack of a PA system.

I missed last year, their inaugural year in the new building and also their inaugural joint IPMS/AMPS show. I wasn't about to miss this one, although it was touch-and-go because of some family health issues. Rough stats are over 600 models, over 150 entrants, over 120 vendor tables -- in short a big show !! I saw folks from up and down the east coast here -- everyone knows this is the best way to break out of winter. Weather folks have the groundhog, we have ODO !!! Brian Vinciguerra, Willie Lanier, and I attended from ECPM. Brian took a 3rd in Miscellaneous for his "Monsters Alive" collection, a 3rd in Figures for his Blackbeard bust, and a 2nd in Small Dioramas for his "Assaulting the Hinterlands" Sturmboat diorama. I took a 3rd in a Ship split for the CSS Ram Albemarle and an Intermediate Gold for my Humber Scout Car, which now throws me into Advanced class. I don't have a model count for Armor, but they kept 7 teams of four judges busy all day. The RC2, Glen Martin, was pinned to the registration desk all day (see lead photo) -- not much wandering and glad-handing this time. One of the problems with an "AMPS system" is that the models are held off the floor until judged. Richmond puts the queue in a row along the judges area so we can walk along and at look at them, albiet not all that closely. -- still better than the set-up at HdG. While not recommending a shift to AMPS-style judging, I like it for the feedback. My Humber didn't do well in a couple IPMS contests and I had no clue why. Got my score sheets back and slammed my forehead nto a wall -- I had two water cans with no handles !!! I had been so focused on the vehicle itself, I just kept looking right past the the little stuff. I even remember painting them, but they must have gotten lost in the end-build rush. "Normal" judging seemed to go fine, we finished aircraft in a couple hours. But then it took over an hour to get to announcing the awards - not sure what went on, but the natives were getting a bit restless. Lots of vendors, lots of raffle items. I, as usual, came up dry in the raffle. I didn't spend much with vendors -- not really anything I needed -- but I saw lots of money changing hands. Well, here's a few pix -- since I saw a lot of the entries in Va Beach, I didn't take many pix.

A bit heavy on auto engine compartments, I've got something in the stash I want to work on and need some hints. I've got this kit in the stash -- it'll never look this good. I liked this. I took these pix because I have the kit, but also I was curious why the crew is loading a gun that is out of battery ??? And more ...

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