NoVa IPMS Model Classic 2008

OK, because I was a slug and didn't get my photos up here from February's trip to Richmond for the Region II ModelCon, I thought I should atone a bit by posting my photos from yesterday's adventures in Fairfax.

I attended the NoVa IPMS Model Classic, which is a lot like Richmond's but not at a NASCAR track and not as big. Everyone running it was enthusiastic and friendly, though, which made it an enjoyable day all around. (They're friendly in Richmond, too. Don't get me wrong...)

Hopefully I will be able to attend the National Convention in Virginia Beach this summer. Then I can let you know if they're friendly, too.

Now on to the photos... (CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)

Holy crap! Look at the size of that 1/16 Panzer! How much paint do you think that thing needed?

An excellent diorama of an 88 emplacement

A little more detail...

A Churchill Crocodile — it's tank that pulls a trailer full of fuel and nitrogen propellant, thus turning it into a highly-armored flamethrower

The Crocodile as seen from above

A StuG III--nice job on the airbrushed camo

A Soviet KV1-E--note the attention paid to the toolbox

A Panzer IVD--good weathering and interesting display

A Japanese Type 3 Medium Tank Chi-Nu. It was supposed to contend with American M4 Shermans. Right.

Another Panzer IV

An excellent example of the Lend-Lease Act in action...

An excellent natural-metal finish P-47 in 1/32 scale--that's a lot of plane to model

An He-111 Zwilling in 1/48 scale

A B-26 that (in my opinion) has been a bit over-weathered. If it were Japanese it would be another story...

A view of the 1/48 scale bomber. Note how the Enola Gay B-29 dominates the competition (in size, anyway)

The 1/48 scale single-engine entries

Racial profiling at Subway?

I went to lunch with two of my colleagues. One is Latino, the other African-American.

I ordered my sandwich, got the meal deal, and then waited for my colleagues to get theirs. We took our meal deals back to the office, where I was surprised to find I only received two napkins. I complained to my Latino colleague, whereupon he produced three napkins. He and I began to formulate a theory of napkin-based racial profiling (the guy manning the cash register was African-American). When my other colleague finally entered the room and then opened up his meal deal, he found that he had received *four* napkins. Without any prompting, he said that we had been victims of napkin-based racial profiling. I tried to save face by telling him that he probably needed that many, but overall we just thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

The sandwich was good, though.

And now for something completely different

According to certain readers, my content has grown stale.

Sorry. I'll be posting some better stuff shortly.

Keep the faith.