Brazilian IPMS Nationals, 2004
By Rogerio "Rato" Marczak
Brazilian IPMS National Convention June 5-6 2004, PAMA Facilities São Paulo, Brazil
As promised, here´s a short report on this year´s Brazilian IPMS Nats, held during June 5-6 at São Paulo. Our Nats are always held in São Paulo since its first edition (1981 I guess).
First off, it was a great, well organized convention. The organizing comitee must be congratulated again for keeping the same convention format of the last year, helding the exposition at of the PAMA (Aircraft Maintenance Park - a division of Brazilian Air Force) hangars directed to aircraft maintenance and overhauling. Currently is it full with many BAF versions of the Northrop F-5, but other types can be found as well. This year the exposition area was not so crowded with 1:1 items (race cars, motorcycles, military vehicles, and other stuff) like in 2003, but the former Brazilian Navy´s Grumman S-2 Tracker at PAMA´s main gate is becoming a landmark for modelers coming from all places of Brazil and South America.
As usual, many hobby shops attended the convention, where you could find interesting goodies from new releases to collectors items. Another high point is the good number of beginners attending the conference (not necessarily young people).
Large scales never was a strong point of our Nats, and this year was not an exception, although much better than 2003, in quality and number. Another interesting point was the surprisingly low number of 1/72 aircraft entries.
I apologize for some color changes due to camera flash, and for focusing on large scale planes (what did you expect?). I, however, added some intersting pics at the end.
Friday, June 4
This year I attended the convention with a large delegation of modelers from Southern Brazil. Just like every year, we arrived one day before the convention to visit hobby shops and clubs.
On Friday, we visited a local club. By the way, a very organized one. They have two modeling rooms fully equiped with compressors, airbrushes, paints and everything else for common use. Many members do their models there from the start to completation. I found the idea very interesting, and some guys told me that they can´t work at home due to space limitations or kids, and the club facilities is the best solution. Another member confessed to me that his wife doesn´t bother him about how many kits he get, since he stocks them all at the club!!! There are display cases, too, so a permanent exposition is always in sight for visitors. All in all, a nice example to be followed.
Saturday & Sunday, June 5-6
OK, now let´s see a bit of the convention. Everything is 1/32 unless noted.
More pics...
And to prove that I have walked by the other tables, here are some interesting, non aircraft related pics.
Conclusions
I had opportunity to talk many modelers, magazine editors and cottage industry managers. Most of them I met there for the first time, and I heard nothing but good comments about LSP website.
It was wonderful event. Congratulations to the IPMS/São Paulo staff for a great job. I left São Paulo convinced that the number of large scale aircraft models entries are gradually increasing every year, as well as the level of craftsmanship. Can´t wait for the next year...
© Rato Marczak 2004
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016