IPMS Las Vegas Best of The West 2018

This past weekend I attended the IPMS Las Vegas Best of the West model show held at the East Side Cannery. There were hundreds of models on display varying in subject from rotary aircraft, to Sci-Fi figures, to WWII armor. I entered models into the Sci-Fi Figure, Sci-Fi Vehicle, Sci-Fi Diorama, and Collections categories. 

There were impressive works featuring the best in paint, construction, and engineering. Perhaps the most wow factor came from Hero Endo who, among other models, created the below floating grav-tank.

This is just one of the dozens of tables filling the hall.

There were a great number of war game models on display.

While this titan diorama was impressive, and came away with an award, it pains me to see so much resin tied down to a diorama!

There were many other impressive entries in the Sci-Fi and Figure categories:

 

 

 

 

 

An ever growing subject, there was no shortage of Gundam and Mechs on display!

 

One outstanding entry was this lot of gaming terrain which was entered as a collection. These are for use with WWII tabletop games and featured both intact and damaged versions.

 

As always many fantastic vendors were on hand and I picked up a few good sci-fi kits to add to my collection. War Room Games was on hand selling their wares and displaying product like these well painted Tau and Space Marine armies:

 

In the end I placed second in three categories: Sci-Fi Vehicles, Collections, and Sci-Fi Dioramas

Now I'm back at the hobby table and working on getting ready for this year's IPMS National Convention which will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center August 1st-4th.

Grombrindal

In 2017, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of White Dwarf magazine, Games Workshop released a model of the magazine's mascot Grombrindal. He stands adorned in a suit of power armor, surrounded by presents, a cake, various booze, with a cask on his back and a stein in his hand. As soon as I saw this model I knew I had to have it in my collection.

I painted the model exclusively with Vallejo acrylics. By far the most detailed part of this kit is the base. The colorful presents and cake were a joy to paint and allowed me a great deal of practice in blending colors. I used Vallejo washes and made glazes by thinning down paints with Vallejo airbrush thinner and glaze mediums.

I'm not the greatest at color theory so I used the box art as a guide to paint the model.

Overall I'm pretty ecstatic about how the base turned out. I'm fairly happy with how Grombrindal turned out. His armor came out well, I love the jewels, but I'm less satisfied with his face. The eyes are a little off and that's after four or five attempts. Eventually you just have to stop messing with it.

Overall I'm happy to place Grombrindal in my cabinet. On to the next project!

2018 Hobby Progress

Well I'm off to a rough start. My work schedule and other obligations have prohibited me from attending an model shows or IPMS meetings so far and I have yet to complete a single model. Who knew raising an infant would be so time consuming right?!

To make matters worse we returned home from a brief vacation to find that one of my model display cases had torn loose from it's anchors and crashed to the floor, smashing nearly every model in it and damaging my new hobby desk in the process. So it's not that I haven't spent any time modeling, just that the time I did spend earlier last month was dedicated to rebuilding and repairing.

Since rebuilding my collection I have made some model progress. I've nearly completed Grombrindal, he's been a joy to paint but I'm finding the finecast face a bit of a pain at the moment.

I've completed additional prep work on a trio of Star Trek models, my Colonial Viper, Valkyrie Drop Ship, and Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar.

I've also delved into the Meng World War Toons tanks building 5 of them and converting one for Warhammer 40k. I also think I'm finished with another looted tank I made for 40K.

I picked up some 3D printed squad movement trays from Etsy which I've been finishing and will be molding and casting for my armies.

I'll be producing more detailed posts for many of the above projects I mentioned as they are completed. In the mean time I have to pack in as much hobby progress as I can late at night and during the little guy's all too infrequent naps.

At the end of this month there is a local model contest I plan to enter a few kits into and the Las Vegas Best of the West show is the first weekend of May. So far I'm on track to finish a few new things for that show.

IPMS Las Vegas Best of the West - VegasCon 2018

It's right around the corner! 2018's IPMS Las Vegas Best of the West VegasCon at the

East Side Cannery  Resort & Casino 

(5255 Boulder Highway,  Las Vegas, NV.  89122)

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Reservations:

For Weekend Room Rate call 1-866-999-4899

Discount Reservation Code -EIPMS

Contest & Show Admission:

  $10 entry for first 3 models, $2 for ea. additional

General Admission (non contest attendees)

$3 Individual, $5 family, Children under 12 free

Active Military & First Responders are Free

This is always a great show and in the heart of Las Vegas there couldn't be more to see and do! I hope to see some of you there! This year's show will even include a table to get direct feedback on your models for the upcoming IPMS Nationals this August in Phoenix.