SCGMC 2018 come and gone!

I’m still recovering from the event, but it was a damn fun time. I met a ton of new folks and got to see lots of familiar faces. For those that want to skip to all 240 entries.. yes, there were 240 ENTRIES by 116 entrants, the gallery link is here: SCGMC 2018 Gallery This is a pretty signification jump from last year’s number of 186 entries by 113 entrants. Our attendance numbers jumped from 264 to 358, which is a very signification push of almost 100 more people at our little show. We doubled our number of vendors this year and added in an artist selling their Gundam related artwork. We are expanding on all fronts. This is a good thing. We thought we had the room for everyone which is bigger than last years, but we’re definitely outgrown this ballroom this year. We are currently shopping some potential new venues and also considering just getting two ballrooms at the place we were at this year. So more to come as that develops. You guys will learn soon after we learn!

Lots of familiar faces, some folks have been coming the entire time and I saw one father and son tell me that they’d been coming since he was 17 or so, he’s now 25. It is awesome to see so many families that build together and also win together. We opened up our demo spaces to folks outside our group and I think that was a resounding success. We had Tim from Child of Mecha do a very intimate scratch building session. Session for diorama building, a session for panel line scribing, and we had a very well received talk about how to apply lessons learned in art into our projects. I think this will definitely open up the door much wider to our audience that want to show off some of their skills and teach their fellow builders a thing or two about a thing or two.

The show was a damn good time and a very long day for some of the staffers but it was worth it to see all the smiling faces, maybe some of the frowny faces, but see all the new people screaming that they are now all energized and inspired to start up projects for next year’s competition. So if you missed this year and was wondering what you missed, here’s a quick look:

That said and done, here’s what kits won in which categorires!

Winners for the Junior category which is for our modelers that are 12 and under. All entries can be seen here: Junior Entries. There was a tie for 1st place, so the pictures are 3rd to 1st left to right in the below set.

The beginner category is for modelers that are VERY new to building gunpla so their skills are not at the level of some advanced builders. However, there are several builders, while new, do actually have those skills of advanced builders so those entries are moved to the advanced categories. All the beginner entries are here: Beginners Entries

Winners are as follows:

This year we had a split in the 1/100 UC. We almost always have a split in the 1/100 UC, so for next year, I believe we are planning on presplitting the category into 1/100 UC Feddys and 1/100 UC Zeon. All the entries fro 1/100 and larger UC are here: Advanced 1/100 and Larger Universal Century Entries And the winners:

1/144 and smaller Universal Century entries are here: Advanced 1/144 and Smaller Universal Century entries. Winners:

The 1/100 Alternate Universe category combines all the other Gundam series outside of the Universal Century. All the entries are here: Advanced 1/100 and Larger Alternate Universe entries A little side note about the winners. Earlier I mentioned that we have a tendency to move entries based on the skills we see in the kit builds. The 1st place winner was entered into the Beginner’s category because the builder had only been building for 6 months and this was his first competition. The judges made the call to move his entries to the Advanced category and on that level, he managed to take first place.
Here are the rest of the winners:

The 1/144 ALternate Universe entries: Advanced 1/144 and Smaller Alternate Universes entries And the winners are:

This year’s theme was the Bearguy so a majority of the entries for the theme was in 1/144 AU since the bearguy kits are all 1/144 in scale. But the theme isn’t usually a specific category and entries can span across all categories at SCGMC and still fit for the theme. So long as the builder makes a good case for being part of the year’s theme, they have free reign on if they want to be part of the theme judging or not.

Anime figures is starting to grow and I know there was some confusion on where some kits should be placed. I’m starting to understand how IPMS feels about our kits sometimes when we randomly put them all over the place. This year’s entries: Anime Figures And the winners:

Last year we had only 3 entries in the Star Wars category so some staff members were looking at maybe folding this category back into the Mecha General. I’m glad we didn’t. In my experience with IPMS, there are some years where the category is ignore and others when the category explodes and we need to split. This was a good year for Star Wars kits. All the entries are here: Star Wars. Winners are as follows:

Mecha general is where we put all our other entries that don’t quite fit in anything else. It is a catch all from where we usually grow new categories. I believe after this year, we will see about adding a “gaming miniatures” category to the list and keep a keen eye out for how this particular category grows so we can split off more standalone categories. I’d love to see an FSS category, Macross/Robotech, or a Mak SF3D category. For now, here are all the entries: Mecha General And here are the winners:

The super deformed category always has a special place in my heart. They are relatively simple kits, but for a builder’s standpoint, they are fairly difficult. There are usually some horrific seams and tons of masking involved in these kits. Modifications adding to these kits as well as scratch building potential is very high. These are fun little kits and require a HUGE amount of work to look this good. All the entries are here: Super Deformed And the winners are here:

The diorama category should tell a story. We need to look more at this when folks are entering. The idea for the diorama is that there is a story being told. We usually want more than 1 main subject. A kit on a fancy base is just a vignette; and doesn’t necessarily tell a story. Some of the entries missed that, and we are also at fault for missing that. The entries are here: Diorama. Winners are here:

This last category gets very little love as most modelers do not feel they are good enough. For any participant that has won in 1st in any advanced category and especially those that have won Best of Show at SCGMC or any other competition; those are the folks that should be dedicating their best kit to this category. At the level, it isn’t about getting more awards, it’s about competing on that level where awards do not matter, but just being the best. I hope that next year has more entries, it is definitely cool to see folks starting to step up to the plate here. This year’s Expert enteries: Expert And the winner:

The bestest Bearguy award:

And Best of Show went to this:

This was a great show and we owe everything to our wonderful and overworked staff.