This year IPMS held its National convention July 20th through July 23rd at the Cobb Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I and several other members of IPMS/Three Rivers made the 12 hour drive to Atlanta to attend. Since this was my first trip to IPMS Nationals I had no idea what to expect. What I saw and experienced blew my expectations away.

The Vendor room was HUGE! Every inch of available space was taken up with vendor tables. It took all 3 days I was there to explore the room and I’m sure I missed some things.

Right next door was the model room. This room was the same size as the vendor room and as equally filled with areas for the contest as well as display pieces. Sci-Fi was very well represented in the contest. In fact there were so many entries the category had to be split several times into Star Trek, Star Wars, Gundams and Mecha, Sci-Fi non-space, Scratchbuilds and conversions.

On Thursday afternoon I presented a seminar which I called “Lighting models for dummies” where I showed some basic techniques on how to use LED’s to light models. I had a great time presenting the seminar and it was also great to meet new people and to hang out with other members of Starship Modeler.

Included in admission to the Nationals was admission to Dragon Expo. This separate event showcased new models from Japan and many other products.

This IPMS National Convention set several records. There were 450 vendor tables. There were over 3500 models in the contest, and another 700 on display! It was a huge show. The time seemed to fly by and before I knew it I was in the model room on Saturday night packing up my models.

This was my first trip to the Nationals, but I don’t think it will be my last.

As always, if you see a model here and you know who built it, please let us know so it can be properly credited.

Image: Astronaut & egg

Image: D-7

Image: Movie-era Klingon

Image: Vorcha

Image: 23rd Century RomBoP

Image: Pimped D-7

Image: Maquis fighter

Image: Galaxy-class

Image: Ambassador-class

Image: Classic Constitution-class ....

Image: ... and her most famous sister ship

Image: USS Defiant

Image: Steamrunner

Image: KBoP

Image: USS Revere

Image: Another scout, USS Columbia

Image: Neg'vhar

Image: Another Vor'cha

Image: X-Wings

Image: Fine Molds' TIE

Image: Another

Image: ERTL TIEs

Image: X-Wing

Image: AT-AT

Image: Jango's Slave One

Image: Millenium Falcon

Image: Trade Fed Tank

Image: AT-AT on scenic base

Image: TIE/Bomber

Image: Another tank

Image: Another FM TIE Fighter

Image: Another X-Wing

Image: Walker

Image: Airborne

Image: Hovertruck

Image: Recovery truck

Image: Robby

Image: Robot

Image: Driver has seen better days

Image: Dougram mech

Image: Winged Gundam

Image: Nausicaa's Gunship

Image: Caped Crusaders

Image: J-2

Image: J-2 from ground level

Image: Narcissus

Image: Scrathbuilt

Image: Y-Wing

Image: Starfleet dazzle

Image: Travel Pod

Image:Alien ship

Image: Scratchbuilt

Image: USS Saratoga

Image: Z-95

Image: Chap'ai

Image: Flight deck

Image: Space cruiser

Image: Doomsday machine

Image: Farscape One, free and flyin'

Image: Space racer

Image: The future of NASCAR

Image: Battletech space fighter

Image: AMS Ironhead

Image: Closer look

Image: Batjet

Image: Starfleet kitbash

Image: Another view

Image: Ovoids

Image: Escape pod

Image: Spiny

Image: Basher

Image: Matrix ship

Image: Another look

Image: Moonbus

Image: Liveried Orion

Image: Take me to your leader

Image: Aries 1B

Image: Another

Image: William Blackmore's Bab5 Maintenance ship

Image: Gundam ship

Image: Nostromo

Image: Leviathan

Image: Grrrrr!

Image: Gorignak

Image: Wattu

Image: Scary

Image: XB-70

Image: Cool display ....

Image: .... with some spectacular finishes

Image: Inside a huge Mercury capsule

Image: More

Image: Escape rocket

Image: Pioneers

Image: They always put V2's in the Space category....

Image: American heavy lift: John Duncan of ApolloSaturn.com built the three Saturn rockets.

Image: Little ones

Image: Apollo

Image: Titan 3C-Apollo by Mike Robel

Image: Gemeni Titan

Image: Mercury capsule

Image: Lots of models ....

Image: ... and lots of people

Image: Like a wanted poster ....BR>
Image: Nice-looking awards

Image: Scott won two

Image: Junkyard diorama

Image: Old-school Saturday Night Fever

Image: Back to the Future

Image: Heavy steps

Image: Battle Zone

Image: Too late

Image: Shoot, dammit!

Image: Overhead

Image: Voyager down

Image: Mad doctor

Image: Roswell, 1947

Image: J-2 on the planet of the week

Image: Space Jockey

Image: Nemo

Image: Pimped ride

Image: Eggserprise

Image: Side view

Image: Sleek

Image: Warp capable BUFF

Image: Wave of the Future

Image: TAS D-7

Image: AT-ST

Image: Krote

Image: Spock's Sled

Image: Phaser

Image: Triathalon

Image: Blimp

Image: Enterprise

Image: Shuttle

Image: NX-01

Image: She's too sexy for this show....

Image: Starfleet

Image: Ick

Image:Danger Will Robinson!

Image: Mr Data

Image: You should not have come back

Image: How 'wude!

Image: Uh-oh

Image: Kirk & Co.

Image: Han Solo

Image: Face Hugger

Image: Defiant

Image: Snow Speeder

Image: BIG Capsule