Advantages?

Well, the membership packet showed up today, so I'm officially a member, which made me think of a joke:  How can you tell you're a real IPMS member?  Your membership card is cut out with a #11 blade.

Yeah, I'll keep my retirement going.....

I sure don't want to grave dance, but I must say this :

while the sessions themselves were a bit hard as I could easily feel that the nasty comments some said to others were very far from the "joke" zone,

but you should have seen the online forum ... many people were putting long and insulting posts to each other that EVERYONE could read ! That was the breaking point.

Just like you DUSTER I have a LHS that is beyond friendly, people go there and spend hours talking while sipping a coffee, in a very relaxing and fun ambience. Sadly it is located at almost an hour drive from where I live.

When I rejoined the model building after my 40 year "vacation", I joined IPMS National to support the hobby (and to get the magazine). But at the same time, I  got a lot of good "bench building"  and info at my LHS, so, didn't feel the need to join the local IPMS club. Also "the word' at my LHS, was as, JAYF mentioned

JayF

 ...put off by all the bickering and internal politics of many members, with very little modeling discussion during each session...

But, very sadly the LHS closed and the other model stores in the area are retailers, and ya just don't find a group of guys standing around talkin' modeling.

So, thanks, to  this thread. Maybe I should rethink the club and give it a try- can't hurt and I may learn something. 

This thread made me thinking about joining again my IPMS club.

When I first joined a while ago, I was seriously put off by all the bickering and internal politics of many members, with very little modeling discussion during each session.

So I decided not to go anymore.

But now I heard that the rotten apples have gone, so maybe I could give them another try ...

I would say it would be unusual for an IPMS club to be more car than planes, though I suppose it could happen.  By charter IPMS chapters are supposed to be open to all genres of models, but most IPMS clubs I know of are most heavily into aircraft, with armor maybe second.

In our local area, there is a car club as well as the original IPMS club that is mostly aircraft, with a ship and an armor club in the area also.  Now the car club has joined IPMS.

I think one of the advantages of being around IPMS clubs is the encouragement to try other genres of modeling.

Well, I went ahead and joined the national, and looked at the locals web site.  Looks like they're more into motorcycles and cars rather than planes and ships, but I'll give it all a shot.

Thanks for the answers, guys....

I looked at IPMS once, and somehow missed that I have a local chapter just a little over an hour away.

Might just give this try.

Thanks for posting the question, Veijo. And to Stik, Wayne and Dawg for your insight.

I've never had an opportunity to so much as meet a fellow modeler in person, not even as a kid. Sounds like fun. The national convention next summer are even reasonably close to me. Cool.

You get a darned good magazine, too, with many, many articles written by the members. You will definitely learn a lot just from that magazine. I have, and still do. Don't ever think that your models will never be good enough - they will, if you're serious about modeling. It's almost impossible to build models and not get better with each successive build.

everything stik said.

not only will you get modeling tips but you will find folks with common interests. the VP of my club and i (i edit the newsletter) are taking an origins of WW1 class together. we have a weekly saturday breakfast club with 8-16 folks. there can be 4 different conversations going on; F-1, how to, geopolitical, sports. sometimes some club business as the pres, VP correspondence, newsletter editor, and head ipms nationals judge are usually there as well as a couple of former officers.at 1000 we go next store to the LHS and hang for an hour or so. 

and we get a 15% discount which takes most kits into the within $5 of online prices and we can support our LHS. for example today we were discussing nationals, m y mortar platoon experience in germany, club business, compressors and i bought 2 1/72 kiits since i just got into that scale.and one guy bought some vellejo AV paint so i ask him to do a quick article on how they work.

If you join a local chapter, the interaction with other modelers will help your skills improve. It did for me. Yes, you can learn a lot online from websites like this, and various video tutorials. But nothing beats face to face actual talking with other modelers in person to ask about things that they did and how they did them. Then going back next meeting with your work for them to critique. There is always a top dog or two in any club chapter and usually they are happy to talk and help other modelers improve their skills.