This year's themes are 60 years of Chevy Impalas for the cars, and Poke the Bear (communist revolution to cold war era) for military models.
Every year, the San Diego IPMS chapter, and the San Diego Model Car Club put on a model contest and swap meet at the San Diego Air and Space Museum's restoration hangar at Gillespie field. This year's model Expo will take place on Saturday, June 9th from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM with awards presentation at 3:00 PM. There will be vendors with kits, hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch, and a raffle. The restoration hangar is located at 335 Kenney Street in El Cajon. Just look for the building with an Atlas Rocket as a lawn ornament.
Once again, there will be a separate category for Gunpla, and Mecha models.
For registration information, please read the flyer and category list below.
Judging will be IPMS national rules, including the no sweeps rule.* The model car club supervises judging for autos, and the IPMS club judges everything else. If a category is too large, we will split the category and issue multiple awards.
If you don't want to enter the contest, there will be a display only area. Please, come and share your builds.
Categories:
Junior
All scales and categories, except automotive
Aircraft
1/72 & smaller-Prop
1/72 & smaller-Jet
1/73 to 1/33 - Prop
1/73 to 1/33 - Jet
1/32 & larger - Prop
1/32 & larger - Jet
Rotary Wing - All scales & types
Military vehicles
Armor-1/72 & smaller, all types
Armor-1/48, all types
Armor-1/47 & larger - Fully tracked
Armor-1/47 & larger - Wheeled, semi-tracked
Softskin - 1/47 & larger, all types
Dioramas
Small composition (fewer than 5 models or figures)
Large composition (more than 5 models or figures)
Ships
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Sci-Fi & Real Space Vehicles: all scales & types
Gunpla, Gundam and Mecha: all scales & types
Hypothetical: all scales & types
Others: all scales & types
Out-of-the-Box: all scales & types (non-automotive)
Automotive
Juniors
Production/Replica
Hot Rods, Street Rods and Street Machines
Custom
Competition – Non-Drag Racing
Competition - Dragsters
Large
Low Riders
Motorcycles
Out-of-the-Box
There are special awards for:
Best Aircraft
Best Military Vehicle
Best Diorama • Best Ship
Best Figure
Best Space, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Best Automotive
Best Irish Subject
Best Tamiya Model
Best 1:48 Stearman Biplane
Best of theme for both autos and military
Judges Grand Prize - Best of Show
* The no sweeps rule says that a builder may win no more than one award in a category. This ensures that one builder doesn't flood a category and win all the awards. We also do not allow previous Model Expo, IPMS Nationals, or Region 8 winners to recieve awards.
