Plastic geekery redux and a pilgrimage

So I convinced Merujo to come with me to Richmond on Saturday for the IPMS Old Dominion Open. She was a good sport last year, too. This year the event was held at the Richmond International Raceway, which was much better than previous years. There was a lot more space and it wasn't nearly as hot.

"Welcome to the raceway.
As a public service, the modelers are being kept out of sight..."

It was simultaneously inspirational and depressing. There was even a ten-year-old competing in the adult category with his Panzer IV. I've been doing this for nearly ten years and still wouldn't dare to enter any of my models in a contest. So, like I said, it was inspirational and depressing.

LVT from the Pacific theater. The detail on this was outstanding.

The Webelo's Panzer IV

I was able to find a few resource materials I'd been after for a while, as well as MiG Productions thinner and some resin British Mark II helmets (with liners). I also found a great Bersagliere figure to go with a planned Semovente M40-75 diorama.

A Soviet BT-5 light tank

A Sherman M4A1—note the excellent use of weathering powders

A Soviet KV-1 heavy tank

A BF-109 with an incredible natural metal finish (if you've ever tried to create a convincing natural metal finish, then you understand how good this one looks)

I love this hobby, because I usually only get to work in two dimensions. Combining a love of history, detail orientation, and surprisingly uncoordinated fingers, I'm able to do something I enjoy immensely. I get to do research, work with paint, and occasionally even finish a model (which, I'm given to understand, is fairly commonplace among modelers). Seeing a three-dimensional representation of history wrought by one's own hands is really pretty satisfying. The main drawback of building models, though, is actually *telling* people that I build models. The initial response tends to range from polite bemusement to outright disdain. I find I'm somewhat judicious in revealing this particular hobby to some people. Paintball tends to garner the same responses that modeling does, so I find that it's usually safest to stick with golf. On the plus side, I've never been called a barbarian for building models, which makes it slight different than paintball... (Atomic Editor, I know I still owe you a model; I haven't forgotten you.)

An SBD Dauntless. Merujo's uncle flew one of these in the Pacific

A herd of F3Fs

Up close and personal with an F3F. Check out that rigging!

All in all, the IPMS event was a great success. Merujo even ended up purchasing a Flight magazine from 1943 that was chock-full of all sorts of interesting articles, photographs, and advertisements. I'm sure she'll have her own recap of the day, so you should visit her blog and learn about women and the US Air Transport Command.

Once we left Richmond, we headed up I-95. We deviated from our course, however, and ended up following Stonewall Jackson Road to the Stonewall Jackson Shrine.

Can't beat free admission

The house where Stonewall Jackson died

Put succinctly, the National Park Service maintains the house where Stonewall Jackson died, and we went to see it. It was very simple and quite touching, really. The area is still very rural and quiet, and the house is open for touring. We saw the waiting room where his staff officers conferred, and the room where he died. The bed he used was there, and the clock put there by the house's owner is still there, keeping time just as it did in 1863. I found the clock's ticking to be very soothing, and it reminded me of sleeping in the living room at my great aunt's house in Iowa.

Stonewall Jackson' deathbed

The clock

We also went upstairs to see the room where Jackson's servant Jim Lewis slept, as well as the room where Jackson's aides-de-camp slept. Original pieces from the owners' house were there, along with dozens of ladybugs on the windowsill.

The window in the officers' quarters

"They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs/
And fire insurance for ladybugs"

The ranger working there knew absolutely everything there was to know. I got the impression that he would have wanted to be there whether or not there were people coming to visit.

Sasquatch gets artsy near the I-95 corridor

Merujo and I took a few more photographs, and then we hopped back in the car to finish our trek northward. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we made excellent time. Now if I can just get back to the modeling table...