<\/p>\n
Again, the focus for this competition are figures, mostly historical; but they do allow fictional figures as well as various models from different genres. I did notice that this year, the entry count was considerably smaller than previous years I’ve attended this competition. And from what I’ve heard, from fellow modelers of other clubs and overheard conversations, there was a dropping of a ball in terms of advertisement. Folks from a local model shop and from the local IPMS club were looking for information about the show a few weeks ago, and the first spot they found information about it was on my site. That’s not a good sign. Then Brandon was registering and when the folks running the registration table asked him where he had heard about the show, he told them it was from my site. From this, he overheard a little disgruntled discussion about the lack in advertisement for the event. <\/p>\n
I dropped by the show on Friday evening to drop off some of my kits, I brought the Cosette, the unfinished Saz, and the Gouf. Velvet was missing a bow that had broken off her shirt, the GM Sniper was missing all sorts of bits and pieces, and I just didn’t think the Jinx was good enough, so those were left at home. I talked a new guy to my forums that entered his PG MkII, <\/p>\n
I met another modeler that knows Gundam, but has moved on to scratch building sci fi kits. Here are some samples of his amazingly built pieces. <\/p>\n Here’s a very nicely done diorama.<\/p>\n The Falcon while sitting on the back of the Star Destroyer waiting to be released with the trash from Empire.<\/p>\n This was the largest diorama at the show. According to Brandon, the builder was hanging out around his project and excitedly explained little bits and pieces of his work to everyone that wandered by whom showed interest. Yuki got trapped by him a few times. She did find some interesting points and acknowledges the pride oozing out from the builder. Very nice piece of work for the scale and size. There are a few build issues I found, but looking at the overall kit from a distant perspective, it’s very impressive. And it did win a gold award.<\/p>\n I always love the little shadow box type builds. The audience is given a small square area as viewer and the audience’s imagination is brought into play to complete the metal image of what happens in the unseen areas of the piece. Very nicely done.<\/p>\n A small sampling of some really incredibly built and painted figures.<\/p>\n Dynamic story telling dioramas.<\/p>\n The painting abilities are just astounding.<\/p>\n It’s always good to see so many MaK kits too.<\/p>\n There was also a sampling of minis. Damn hard to photograph as they’re so bloody small and I was without my tripod, but here’s what I was able to get.<\/p>\n And here are a sampling of the non figure entries.<\/p>\n I like the competition style in that the works are not competing against one another, but are measured against a scale. A total of 12 points can be given for any piece. 11-12 for a gold, 8-10 for a silver, 4-7 for a bronze, and 1-3 for a certificate of merit. So essentially, if there are 20 pieces that score 11 or better, all 20 pieces receive gold awards. And I believe that this is similar to how the contest at Wonderfest in KY is run every year. The pieces are judged against a set scale. It’s nice to have a different style of competition. It’s far less subjective than contests against fellow modelers. There is however, a best of show and a few best of awards; so there is some level of modelers against modeler competition.<\/p>\n And additional stipulation is that all models entered into the same category by the same builder will only net the builder a single award for the single piece that is judged with the highest score amongst the entries.<\/p>\n This year, was Brandon’s first year attending this event. His Tiger I took home a Silver. He didn’t hear his name being called, due to some random guy chatting him up while he was attempting to place a bronze award he had gotten for his figure kit. My Cosette picked up a bronze and I got a gold for my “gunpla display”. I guess the judges couldn’t decided which was better between the Saz and the Gouf. This if my first gold award at this show. I’ve gotten a silver at a previous show. I guess that’s a pretty good sign that I’m improving. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n