Final Four-Plus One, Back from the Show!

Congrats on the medal Max!  The competition must have been really tough. Way to go with the raffle tickets too.

Jim  

WAY TO GO and congrats !!!!!  I knew you could do eeet.

Wow!, Thanks everyone! The competition was serious. Not an excuse, they deserved to win! I'm starting to get the message that a clean model is not going to win any serious competition but it was really fun to be there and talk to other modellers, even the Juniors who I always encourage and look at their work. I did have lots of comments and discussions. I'm always humbled by expert modellers who are steps above me! Inspirational but unreachable. LOL! A Great Adventure with icing on the cake with a win and a great pile of unbuilt models to bring home!

Max

Great job on getting Second Place Max. I picked your B-25 and the Stuka as my favorites.   I wish I could had been there to meet you.  I do not compete much anymore, for me, the real prizes at these shows is socializing and finding great bargins on the vendor tables. It looks like you made out really well.

Scott

Here's one of the first things I viewed at the show which worried me right off. These guys are serious! A 1/720 scale carrier with a fleet of 1/720 aircraft, a diorama in itself! 27 one-inch aircraft complete with decals, paint and clear rice grain sized canopies. The E-2 even had yellow tips on the props. Unbelievable! Way beyond this guy's skill! 

More to come, I've got to be responsible today my wife tells me. I'll dribble out the whole story eventually.

Max

Nice job Max,

All those models looked like contenders to me !

Congrats on the Mitchell !   Sparkly job on the canopy !

Chris

Way to go!

Congrats' on well deserved medal.

Nice job on the contest, and congrats on that 25! SHe looks sweet.

Also, great score on the kits. That F-104 is a nice kit. I snagged the Eduard version on sale, and it looks pretty sweet.

-BD-

Congrats and great job on all the ones you submitted!

Here's one from the Junior class. He was looking at my displays and I gave him a tour then asked what he brought to the show and I checked it out. I'd already shot pictures of it and I think he did well in the Junior class. Cool!

Max

Also check out this neat 1/48 diorama. What a project!

Congratulations!

I'm not surprised at least one of your entrants won something. Like I said before, I think they were all prize worthy.

One of my favorites was this 1/32 Heinkel 219. The light was really low and weird in the convention center. As a photographer we duz the best we can in adverse conditions.

Anyway, really well done, scary real!

Also check out this out-of-control diorama! Weird subject but well done.

And best aircraft, a  1/48 SU-17 Wow! 

lawdog114

Congrats Max. That B-25 is sweet and well deserving! Twin props is a good category to increase your odds of an award. It's best to avoid 1/48 single prop as there are too many entries. Unfortunately they usually give the prizes to the IPMS members who throw the shin-ding. I'm not particularly a conspiracy theorist, but I've personally seen it happen. Thanks for sharing your work.

 

Hey Lawdog, that was at least suspicious that the local members and even judges won stuff. Our local car/motorcycle show allows the members to show but not compete. Not pointing fingers here, just observing.

First, Thanks to all that commented. My self-esteem has risen thanks to the gang! LOL!

I have no complaints of any kind about this adventure and judging. All observations. I knew what I was getting into from the start. Here's a picture of what beat the B-25 in the class. I have mixed feelings when I see this. I've competed in too many motorcycle shows I guess, I cover all the details of the build, everything is clean and hopefully exceptional. I always think innovation and try to execute the innovation and design. All these things make me somewhat competitive. The last motorcycle show I did, my highly modified vintage Hodaka took best of show. It was clean, polished, detailed and innovative. It was almost perfect to me. I just did the best I could and the competition didn't. This was not about me, but about giving it your best shot. I did what was required.

The model show is always a long shot for me. I go to see what I need to do to make my work better. I'm building models for my little fun model museum and yes, they are clean, just like a real museum.

I once got to see the end of the Phantom assembly line in St. Louis. They were clean and beautiful at least for War machines. They were in multiple versions and for different services and countries. The close one was in desert camo with Israeli markings followed by a mix of other examples. Cool stuff.

Again, just observations. No sour grapes here. Part of the requirements to win at the show was wear and tear, which I didn't get any points for. I did notice in the auto judging there weren't junkers there. LOL!

I must say those who won deserved to win, all way above me in patience and talent. Incredible work at the show and our Forum. I'm just along for the ride.

Max

Great pics of the show Max.  I competed in 1/700 scale ships, and its quite crazy, a ship may look fantastic to the eye, but if one railing is out of alignement, showing a little brass, or the rigging is not taugnt, then it could be a deciding factor in winning or losing.  I was generally on the losing side but never let it get to me, it just showed me what level of build quality I needed to achieve.  At one time, I built to compete to the point I burned out. Now I build to my preference and just have fun.  Trophies and ribbons are just another thing to collect dust and takes up room on the shelf that could be used for more models.

Many of us learn a lot about competing and building competetive models by judging.  I judged at both my local IPMS level and at nationals and its quite an experience.

Then there was the good ol boy factor you discussed, which was why I kinda stopped competing.  Saw it far too often in both local shows and at the national level while being on judging panels, really had to bite my lip at times when a group of locals would all cast their vote based on the person and not the model.  I still love going to shows, entering usually to show only, rubbing elbows with other modelers, attending workshops and learning new techniques, and then enjoy looking at all the entries, especially the juniors.  

Again, great report from the show and we are glad you did well.  There is a lot a great talent there.

Scott

Max, that B-26 looks awesome, I can see why it won.  Also, that junior entry MIG, HOLY COW!!!  Awesome work for a junior.  He just needs to clean up his seams a little to compete in any section.  That must have been quite a show.  Attached below are a few pictures from a diarama that appeared at the Butch O'Hare show a couple of years ago.  One of the guys in the club built it.

John

I see something like that and I pack my builds and go home. I would have 0 chance.

Yikes! I just shake my head when I see something like that railroad diorama or a monster ship. You would not only have to be talented but committed, not like asylum, LOL!, but committed to the project. It's good that there are such people because I don't pass either the talent or committed part, LOL again!

Max

Right after I set up my builds at a show, I take a quick pass around the room checking out the competition, determine that I haven't a snowballs chance in H*** and head for the vendors room. The best part, after the vendors room, is going back to the tables and striking up conversations with other builders and picking their brains. As Johnny 5 would say, "Input, Input". 

Jim  

Here's a few more from the show. I should have went to the car for the tripod as it was  really low lighting. I used to be able to hold 1/8 second exposure and hand stripe canopies. No more. We duz the best we can! LOL! Check 'em out.

Max

I like that BV-141 and T-bolt

A few more, all winners in the their class including the Bismark and PT boat. Being the motorcycle guy, I really liked the Zundapp. Wow again!

Max

Great looking bike.

Here's the last of the Model Show experience pix. Quite fun. I did notice that attendence was down from the last time I went a few years ago. I need to research finding a different show within range for a change of view.

Also big fun posting pictures and telling stories which is another fun hobby as you can probably tell, LOL!

Many thanks again for your support and comments, you really did soothe the agony of defeat and improved my self-esteem, LOL! again.

Sincere thanks all!

Max

When I was kid the biggest model show around was at the Puyallup Fair. There was an entire hall, the "Hobby" hall, dedicated to models. Winning a big fat blue ribbon at the Fair was a big deal.

Now as an adult, you're lucky of you see one display case sparsely inhabited by one or two modeller's work.

The bulk of the Hobby Hall being taken up with displays of someone's Pokemon, or Salt and Pepper shaker collections and stuff like that.

So seeing these pictures, Max, just reminds me of the decline of our hobby. I really want to go to a show! You've got memories to treasure!

Some people have a lot of talent.  The guy who made the train diarama brought in the front gate of Auswitch last year, just a couple of years later.  I asked him if he was going to put Magneto in the scene, but he declined. 

For whatever reason, Butch O'Hare has a pool of very talented modelers.  I am humbled by what they can produce. 

John