What is/was your most shining moment?

Well, I don't know about a shining moment, but I'll relate the most surprising moment I've had in scale modelling....
I've been building since I was a kid, and got serious about it in the early 80's after a tour in the Armored Cavalry. No bragging, but except for the first contest(San Antonio, where I had my eyes brutally yanked open) I have won some type of award in some category or another. Just this last Squadron Scalefest I was floored when I won a 2p for an out of the box Tam Mustang III, and 1p for a 120mm WW1 German Trench Raider(by Kirin, no less). I built the figure ten years ago, and left it in the display case.
The big surprise was that I was trying to finish at least one of two biplanes, and although I worked right up to showtime(thank God there's a hotel right at the show) I couldn't get even one ready. I usually take different types of models just in case the show is light, and it's a little more money in the club coffer too.
Anyway, I always hang out to the bitter end to applaud the winners, and catch that last desparate kit deal(always is one somewhere), and I had absolutely no idea that my two entries would do so well against some truly awesome stuff.
Best of all I wasn't humiliated in the Armor category. The Texas area is VERY armor oriented and many of the areas' modellers are World Class.

Hey, Eric....
I'm confused...

Let's see: (1) This is the ARMOR forum.
(2) The question is prefaced by "When building ARMOUR..."

How did a P-47 find its way into this thread?

Gip "Doesn't-have-a-clue" Winecoff

When I got my first first-place award at the 1993 IPMS Nationals for a T-72M-1 (Tamiya).

Gip Winecoff

Proudest moment, When my diorama took 1st place in a model show.

During Trucks 'n' Tracks 1997, when the then owner of SHQ Miniatures asked me to work, i.e. design patterns, for him...

Basking as I was in the afterglow, it took me over 7 months to get the first pattern ready..! Now I can do that in 2 to 3 days... Long, steep learning curve! Sometimes I wish I had broken my arm in the morning of that fateful day!

For me, my proudest moment was when I was just beginning. I completed a P-47 Thunderbolt Razorback warbird (complete with every single weapon on the under wing pylons) I remember it took me forever to complete.I hand painted the whole thing too

It flew many successful missions, supporting troops of the little, green, plastic Army men I had scattered all over the floor. Alas, on it's last mission, it fell helplessly out of my hands, onto the sidewalk outside my house. I was devistated

As for my best build, that's easy...It's each and every box I open, after completing a kit (at least that's what I tell myself)