The 2015 rendition of the IPMS USA National Convention, hosted this year by IPMS Eddie Rickenbacker (IPMS Columbus Chapter), was held at the The Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. The convention ran from Wednesday, July 22 to Saturday, July 25. I do not have an exact total of contest entries, but I have heard rumours of over 2,700.

As usual the show Small scale armour was well represented. A count of the entries totalled in the neighbourhood of 155, probably more, as I'm sure some were missed during the head count. Quality was excellent overall showing that there are a passel of great builders out there, rivalling anything that can be found in the larger scales of "the Dark Side"!

As for the venue, the Columbus Convention Center was more than acceptable except for the contest room, which suffered from some not so stellar lighting. Many of the photographs I took were a bit too dark or suffered from deep shadows when I did find a subject with enough lighting - which explains the relative paucity of model pictures in this report.

Once again the highlight of my convention was the Small Scale Armour Rendezvous, hosted by yours truly. Originally scheduled for 5pm on the last day (Saturday), I was surprised to see that the convention handout had it listed at 4pm. After a few emails were exchanged with the organizer of the room the 5pm date was confirmed as correct. I was worried that the two differing times would affect the turnout. In the end I needn't have worried and the meeting went as scheduled with a record number of 23 participants.

The biggest disappointment came with the lack of small scale items on the vendor tables. I was hoping that an eastern venue, which I have been told by some almost always draws a larger number of contestants when compared to western venues, would bring out a respective larger number of vendors with small scale armour - but that was not the case. So most of my purchases were for a few accessories (like the excellent metal chain from Hawk Graphics which I have reviewed here) and tools, with the end result that my wallet was a tad thicker with unspent cash than it usually is at the end of a convention.

IPMS USA Nationals Braille Armour Meeting

Front row (left to right): Hugh Gilliland, Harvey Low, Peter Sisung, ???*, Glen Broman Middle row (left to right): Jim Stephens, Lorenzo Vitali, Mark Deliduka, Mark Clegg, Iain Fraser, Dana Smith, Jim Pearsall, Mike Hinderliter, Chuck Burkett, Tim Treadway Back row (left to right): John Shimek, Will Alcott, Jim Terry, Patrick Santacroce, Al Magnus, Frank Kranick missing: Bill Powers, David Wood * - Alas, my plan to get every attendee's name by photographing them with their name tag and also having them sign the attendance sheet failed, for I did not plan for the circumstance of late arrivals once the rendezvous had commenced. So if anyone knows the name of the unknown (???*) attendee please contact me via the contact page.

A shot of one of the small scale armour tables

(left to right): Lorenzo Vitali, Will Alcott, Dave Bailey

Another shot of one of the small scale armour tables