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Post by John Tapsell on Jan 10, 2015 11:52:15 GMT
Steve, That's correct. You have to be a Facebook member before you can access Facebook.
I know a lot of people are wary of Facebook (count me as one of those), but with a bit of care you can lock down you personal data so it can't be viewed by anyone other than those you want to see it.
You don't have to make anyone a 'friend' if you don't wish to and can still apply to join 'groups' (such as the IPMS page). I've been using FB for just over a year now have yet to make anyone a 'friend' (or ask to become a 'friend' to anyone else). It hasn't stopped me taking a full part in the IPMS facebook page (or indeed a couple of local model club 'groups').
I appreciate FB isn't for everyone but getting involved in a group is probably one of the best ways to dip your toe in the water. There has been a definite shift in the past 2-3 years with the manufacturers increasingly concentrating their publicity through FB and it is likely to develop into one of the primary online routes to learn about the industry and the hobby.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Nov 12, 2014 19:51:48 GMT
Paul,
A big thank you to you and Woo for all your hard work and continuing enthusiasm for the Rolemodels project. Hopefully it will continue to grow as word spreads.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Oct 16, 2014 21:20:39 GMT
The next IPMS (UK) Magazine should be hitting Members' doormats within the next 10 days in the UK. If you have any interest in the Red Arrows, then I think you'll like what we've included with the magazine to celebrate their 50th Anniversary Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Oct 5, 2014 18:38:44 GMT
Tickets are available on the door only. We don't sell advance tickets at the present time. We have tried it on several occasions in the past and the take-up was so small as to be not viable.
It's something we may revisit at some point, but it will depend in part on whether we have the volunteers to coordinate ticket sales. The entire event is organised by volunteers in our spare time, so much of what we do relies on having sufficient resources available to carry out each task.
I do however take your point that the information on the website does tend to assume that you know that advance tickets are not available and I will look at that again.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Oct 4, 2014 22:42:48 GMT
Links to accommodation options are provided on the following page of the SMW website: smwshow.com/venue.phpIf you scroll down to the bottom of the page you'll find them. I would point out that it is unlikely that the Holiday Inn has any space left. The International may do and it might also be worth contacting the new Premier Inn that opened in May/June, just up from the Exhibition Centre. Hotels close to the venue tend to book up very quickly so it may be necessary to stay a bit further out. Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Jul 19, 2014 9:49:34 GMT
Yes - Paul Regan is still operating the Decal Bank. However, I'm aware that he has ongoing issues with his email account which he is trying to resolve - he can see incoming traffic but outgoing traffic isn't getting where it's supposed to.
I will contact him for you.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Apr 26, 2014 22:24:25 GMT
Hi Keith - the SMW2014 Board is now open for business Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Jan 22, 2014 22:31:53 GMT
That's a really good question - If you create an IPMS Branch north of the Border then it should officially be a Branch of IPMS (UK) - if it was south of the border, then officially it should be an IPMS Ireland Branch.
There is no restriction on where your club members originate from - but to call yourself a UK Branch then at least five of your guys must be UK members (the rest of the club members can be IPMS UK, IPMS Ireland or non-IPMS modellers, although we would always encourage branches to have as a higher proportion of IPMS Members as possible). The one thing that neither we, nor the IPMS Ireland guys want to be seen to be doing is poaching members from each other.
Another option might be to create a broader 'independent' model club that incorporates an IPMS (UK) Branch. As an independent club, your catchment area can be whatever you want it to be, but it could still provide a 'home' to a group of UK Members who wanted to form a Branch. There are several mainland UK Branches that exist within a larger independent club. It seems to work well for them and I see no reason why it wouldn't work for you.
As an IPMS (UK) Exec Committee Member I'd love to see a new IPMS (UK) Branch in North West Ireland, but ultimately I'd rather see a vibrant and successful model club, operating in a manner that best suits the environment in which it exists.
If you want to bounce some ideas around, drop me an email and we'll work out who the best people to speak with might be.
Regards, John Tapsell IPMS (UK) Publicity Officer publicity@ipms-uk.co.uk
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Post by John Tapsell on Jan 14, 2014 18:34:04 GMT
Peter,
Magazines are normally shipped in one batch from the distributor - they are a commercial company specialising in small-scale distribution and packaging (a 'fulfillment company' to use the industry terminology) so a job like this is a half day effort for them. They will be batched by post code/sorting office code - member name and number don't enter into it.
The quantities aren't viable for an automated process, so the company employs staff on a casual basis to manually 'stuff' the plastic mailing bags (they do many similar small jobs so it's not as ad-hoc as that sounds). Royal Mail then picks it up from the company depot and off it goes into Royal Mail-land. There are so many variables present in the distribution system that it's not unlikely that there are variations in the arrival dates (administrative error, human error etc).
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Jan 12, 2014 11:21:34 GMT
Peter,
The magazines were posted a few days before Christmas.
We (IPMS) don't post out the magazine directly. We employ a distribution company to do that. The magazine is sent to print and it then takes 7-10 days for the printer to produce it and send it to the distributor. The distributor then mails it out within 2-3 days of receipt using Royal Mail's bulk distribution system (Mailsort). That - in theory - offers a 7 day delivery, but in practice we know it can take 7-14 days, dependent on where you are in the country and which sorting office your mail goes through (or any other random delay that occurs).
Add to that the limited time available between Scale ModelWorld and Christmas for us to put the magazine together and we're bound to run into the Christmas postal rush which will delay matters even further. The normal production cycle is two months - with the SMW edition we have to squeeze that into less than one month.
We publish the 'copy date' for the next few magazines in each edition. That's the deadline for submissions to the next magazine. If you allow two months from that date, you'll have a good idea of when each magazine should be falling onto your doormat. It's not exact, but gives a fairly accurate guide.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Dec 13, 2013 22:59:21 GMT
Fastcat,
I have to disagree with your comments about the hobby being in decline.
We currently have more manufacturers (with more popping up all the time), producing more kits, of a higher quality, of more diverse subjects and with an aftermarket industry running to keep up with all those new releases - that's across the board on all subject areas.
Those manufacturers would not exist (and continue to release new products) if the market wasn't there.
Coupled with that, IPMS (UK) has seen it's membership increase by 50% in the past five years. We're now hovering round the 3000 mark, a far cry from the 1800 we had 6-7 years ago.
That to me says that the hobby is vibrant, growing and healthy.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Dec 10, 2013 18:31:17 GMT
Thanks Frederico - those will be really helpful!
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Dec 6, 2013 23:19:30 GMT
Noel,
I said we operate under the 'IPMS (UK) - the Society for Scale Modellers' banner - I didn't say that was how we are registered. I believe we are formally registered at Companies House as 'The International Plastic Modellers Society' trading as 'IPMS (UK)'
IPMS (UK) is our title, whilst 'The Society for Scale Modellers' is our strap line.
Remember also that the competition is only open to IPMS Members and since most of those members still build in plastic, you'd need to persuade existing IPMS Members that there is sufficient (and quantifiable) demand from within the Society to justify a significant rule change. Alienating the existing membership in order to encourage a different type of modeller to join isn't the way forward.
The vast majority of IPMS Members have no objection to multi-media kits containing elements of resin, metal and occasionally other materials. However, that is a far cry from asking them to accept completely non-plastic kits to compete against.
As I said in an earlier post, in my view the way to approach this is to make gradual changes that keep pace with the hobby - as the hobby grows and changes, so IPMS should grow and change with it.
The competition rules should reflect the preferences of the wider membership, not be used as a means to define which preferences are acceptable. If the competition rules don't reflect those wider membership preferences, the competition will lose its relevance to most of us.
The reason I prefer Fastcat's approach is that it provides an incremental change that takes into account the growth and of multi-media kits and the materials that can be found within them.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Dec 5, 2013 22:51:47 GMT
For what it's worth, whilst I'd like to see a relaxation of the rules to allow for die-cast metal parts to be allowed - i.e. broadening the definition of a multi-media kit - (as per Fastcat's suggestion), I don't believe that we should abandon the fundamental tenet of what we are.
For the vast majority of the current membership, plastic is still considered the primary material. To force a fundamental change upon them could have unfortunate consequences.
Scale Modelling has developed over the years and continues to do so. Better (in my view) to allow a gradual change that reflects changes in the hobby as a whole. I don't see how we could judge a plastic sailing ship against a wooden one for example and say which was 'better'. The skill sets required for both are equally relevant but very different. Neither can we afford to introduce lots more classes to accommodate different materials.
'Small steps' would be my preference rather than 'huge leaps'.
Regards, John
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Post by John Tapsell on Dec 2, 2013 21:25:28 GMT
Noel (and fastcat),
Die-cast chassis/hulls have also been making an appearance in AFV kits in the past few years - several of Tamiya's 1/48 scale tanks have die-cast lower hulls as does their 1/35 scale 4x4 'Light Armoured Vehicle' (don't understand why, as the metal hulls are generally less well defined than their plastic equivalents). Armour judges have generally taken a pragmatic view on the issue and judged those models (if they are entered) along with everything else. It boils down to knowing the kits and knowing what's supplied in them (and what significance those parts have in the overall scheme of things).
It also raises a more fundamental point. The competition rules need to be applicable across all the categories - we don't want a situation where there are separate rules for cars, for tanks, for aircraft and so on.
The rules do need to keep abreast of what is appearing in the kits we are buying - we just need to be careful that we don't solve a problem in one category and inadvertently create a new one in one of the others.
Regards, John
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