IPMS Philippines Bert Anido, going on its 41st year held the 7th National Scale Modeling Competition at SM Megamall last November 16 to 21. The theme for this year’s event is “Funtastic Plastic” and the entire week turned out to be fantastic (or funtastic) indeed.
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Ingress for the members began November 8 at the Club Headquarters in Pasig. Members of the Registration and Screening Committees buckled down to work which lasted until Saturday evening to lessen the backlog on the actual day of Ingress. On Sunday, Ingress Day, entries from non-members started coming in around the afternoon of mall hours (it is speculated majority were watching the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight in the morning). The Club joined forces with their friends from MechaPinoy who were also holding their internal contest. In the spirit of “Bayanihan,” both clubs helped each other out in setting up the exhibit area which covered the lobby facing EDSA and the Atrium until the wee hours of the morning.
The next day saw the official launch of the Nationals in a ribbon cutting ceremony with renowned media personality Tina Monzon-Palma doing the honors along with Ms. Lily Libi Uy of Lil’s Hobby Center. The exhibit area began to fill up with models as more and more entries kept coming in until Tuesday evening. Our friends from Open Acxss once more took the cudgels for electronically registering the entries.
The exhibit showcased a mix of old and new centerpieces beginning with the Kido Butai diorama of Frank “Chopper” Ching featuring the Imperial Japanese Strike Fleet on its way to Pearl Harbor. Two new exhibits were put up, in the form of a 1/8 scale of an SE.5 British fighter of World War I courtesy of Titus “Surefire” Zapanta and the equally impressive 1/44 scale Baoa Qu diorama by MechaPinoy. This year’s Nationals also saw more big scale aircraft on display proving the popularity of the scale.
The show brought together friends who have known each other in the forum boards. Personalities like Jessie Arias (yolk24) from the beautiful island of Boracay and Anthony De Leon of IPMS Baguio traveled a long way to grace the event and get to meet the people behind the codenames in the boards. The event was also covered by Net 25 for the show Tribe who interviewed several of the participants. The Nationals was also graced by our friend Mr. Jackson Xiao, the Personnel Relations Manager of Trumpeter who likewise brought in the latest test shots that gave everybody a taste of what is to come off Trumpeter’s assembly lines.
There were also special events in the Nationals besides MechaPinoy’s Formula 144 contest. The Club hosted a mini model workshop for the children of Bantay Mr. Xiao was on hand to donate kits for these children and several Club members played big brother to these kids as they built their kits with such gusto and they left smiling. In addition, Perry “Chuckie” Javier and his friends at the Buhay Na Kasaysayan reenactment society did a display of early Philippine military uniforms and conducted a lecture on the topic, making corrections on the errors on the depiction of Philippine soldiers in art, film and even in museums. They gamely posed with visitors for photos during and at the end of the lecture.
As in previous Nationals, the high quality of the models meant the judges had their work cut out as they tried to determine the best among the best entries. The awarding ceremonies saw perennial winners once again showing everyone why they are still the best such as Jim “Bigman” Gonzales, “Super” Mario Prado and Michael “Tikhboy” Avendano (aircraft); Joseph “Bubbles” Carunungan and Oliver “Twisty” Sia (military vehicles); Jon “Junior” Bersabal and Jojo “Morpheuz” Janolo (ships); and Ed “Sweetooth” Porciuncula (cars). At the same time, newer faces began to emerge such as Tim “Buccaneer” Maceren, Andre “Scandyflick” Palma, Nonoy “Mr. Clean” Servanez and “Monchit” Campos and Raphy “Panzerjaeger” Marbella also showed they are rising stars. Karl “Fritz” Nualla, a perennial winner in the armor and figures category “graduated” to Mecha and it showed when he won First Place in the Mecha division proving he is a SEAL (for the complete list of winners, click here).
The awarding ceremonies were also made memorable with an intermission number from up and coming singer Monique Luwalhati and “security” provided by Philippine Outpost of the 501st (Imperial Stormtrooper) Legion. After the ceremonies, everybody eagerly had their pictures taken with these troopers.
As the 7th Nationals came to a close, the enthusiasm has not died down among the Club members. Lessons learned will be carried forward for the 8th Nationals, and memories to be cherished were made and hoped to be repeated again. It was a truly “funtastic” week!
See you at the 8th Nationals!
