I've been preoccupied with other things, and we've had computer problems in the last few weeks, but now it's time to get updated. First of all, here's the third member of the Corellian Freighters collection.

This one was also designed by the same brother, and it's called the Quagmire. It's slightly larger than the Falcon, 27 cm. However, it was built several years before the Magistrate. It was my first effort at building interior detail, so it has the cockpit and gunports visible (upper and lower,similar to the Falcon). The Magistrate has only one gunport, but shows some crew spaces inside through the boarding ramp.

The Quagmire also has shock-absorbing landing gear. It's removable, like the Falcon's, but I lost the 'gear-up' body panels a while back.

One of the reasons this entry is so late is because I've been prepping for IPMS competitions in this area. The Star Destroyer and the Corellian Collection were entered in the IPMS NOVA Model Classic, and in the Virginia Shootout competition held by the Roanoke Valley IPMS group. The Collection did well, and the Star Destroyer was awarded Best of Show at each. If you have any interest in modelling, I suggest you check for an IPMS chapter in your area. The shows they do are great for kids and families, and not expensive to attend. They also cover a nice spectrum, including figures and sometimes paper models. (And the paper ones can be shockingly well detailed.)

For the future, I'm planning to attend several more IPMS shows this year; Penncon 2010 in Mechanicsburg, the Region II convention in Fredericksburg, and Maraudercon in Baltimore. I'm also working on another member for the Collection. Like the Quagmire and Magistrate it was designed by one of my brothers about 30 years ago, but none of them remember doing the drawing. So, it's officially a mystery, but I'm giving credit to a different brother. The styles are different enough. It's taking a while because it's going to be a bit of a leap in how much detail it'll show. More on it as soon as a camera can be borrowed.

Hey, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

This is a Corellian scout that my brother designed back when we were teenagers. I finally finished it in '07. It's scale to the Falcon, and is 19 cm long. I gave it the name 'Arrogant Magistrate.'

One more in this series, in a week or so.

Since finishing the Foray I've been looking at getting back into models, and have visited a few local chapters of the IPMS. (If you don't know, check it out.) The nearest group, Washington DC, has a good group of guys who've been very helpful with some of the residual problems of the model. Anyway, that occupied a lot of free thought, which is why I've been neglectful here.

So, two things to mention to start getting up-to-date:

First; I took the Foray to a model competition in Richmond VA at the end of February, and was pleased that the model was well-received. It even won a couple of awards. Check out the IPMS Richmond web page, on their Contest tab.

Second; I thought it might be helpful to share some of my previous efforts. This one should be recognizable. It was finished ~1980, and is 23 cm long. More to follow...