Modelling competitions - you have to laugh...

The local modelling competition was held at my town this week. I entered the Crocodile Audi R8. Showed up today to see the results and was told that the Club President wanted to see me. Turns out that they had disqualified my Audi from the comp because they believed it was a diecast! Can you believe it! They thought the decal and paint work was too good or something so it couldn't be a hand built model :screwy: Don't know whether to feel complimented or insulted. I guess the only thing to do was laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

Anyway I set them straight and I got a trophy and certificate for best enclosed wheel competition vehicle. The certificate has some other guys name crossed out and mine written above it. :lol: In fact the guy who finished second to my car in the category won an even bigger trophy for best paint or something. Dunno if my "disqualification" took me out of the running for those kind of trophies :dunno: Anyway just goes to show that competitions are a load of crap, the results are a lottery!

Well i dont know wether to say sorry for getting disqaulifyed or say congrats because of your win. I agree with you its a "i like this i dont like that" kinda thing i dont really care if they like it or not i still want the people to see! :)

LoL!! This shows that your work is too good for their competition! You should have shown them your progress thread for them to believe!

jeez. I guess your work is seriously too good for them to believe it's not die-cast. Good work there!

Were they too stupid to take a closer look, or even touch the car to see if it was plastic or die-cast.

I had written much more, and deleted it, just to say:

Being too good can only bring you one thing: loneliness.

:lol:

Well, you know the place you have in our modeler's hearts can't be taken! (isn't that kind? :D ) Isn't it worth all the trophies of the world?...

(edit: hep! P-man! It's resin!...:grinyes:)

I'm sure that the R8 would have blown away all the other entrants. Its a shame really but almost a compliment to your work.

I don't understand where this common perception that diecasts are better than plastic/resin models comes from. In my experience a well-built kit beats a prebuilt diecast every time. :dunno:

Don't feel bad Phil, although I have yet to figure the comparison out too, my models have had that same comment thrown at them about the die-cast.

I guess certain people have never seen a well finished model and just don't believe it's possible so they immediatley think 'die-cast'.

That is why you bring progress pictures. :lol:

dont they have a detail look at the r8? tap the body maybe?

metal and plastic are different. the hell..

man those guys are moron.. they can't reconise a good resine kit from a crappy metal diecast

I would say also that you should make an album of your in progress pictures to prove you built it! lol

I've heard the same 'it looks as good as a die-cast' comment. I just say, 'No - its ten times better than a diecast'.

If a local model club put on the contest, I suggest bringing a few of your models to their meeting and give them boys an education!

Were they too stupid to take a closer look, or even touch the car to see if it was plastic or die-cast.

That's what I'm screaming about. Perhaps they didn't want to touch your model (I tell you, I crawl the walls when people manipulate my models), but couldn't they have asked you before disqualifying you? I'm sure "There has been some questions about your entry, and I was wondering if we could touch or pick up your model to settle it," would go over a whole lot better than "You entered a diecast so we've disqualified you." Ignorance, lack of tact, a generally poor effort on the show coordinators' parts.

haha
that doesnt show that ALL modeling competitions are stupid though

I have seen some die-cast which have a very high level of detail and finish quality, Exoto and Auto Art's models are fantastic, it would be tough to build a model as good as those are.

true. I have an autoart R34, and its detail is unbelievable.

congrats on your would-be win. you don't need no stinkin trophy!

Yeah the allusion to a diecast finish confused me. I've never seen one that was better than a proper hand built effort. Or maybe they thought the finish was crap like most diecasts! :p I guess the judges had never heard of resin kit manufacturers like LMM. It was just lucky I asked another question and the issue was (partly) resolved before the presentations. What probably confused them was the smooth finish because of the many layers of lacquer and time spent sanding it flat. They didn’t believe it was decals and must have been some kind of printing/painting process. Also the kit is held together by three screws on the bottom, that apparently clinched it for them. :rolleyes: They did believe me when I told them it was a kit, so I didn’t need to show them progress pictures or anything.

As I said before I did get a little trophy so I'm happy with that. However it is bizarre that the model that finished second to mine in the closed wheel competition car category was awarded an even bigger trophy for something else! On reflection I think it was best “other” nationality, not Australian or American, which have their own awards. So my Audi, being European should have been considered - I suspect it wasn’t. :screwy:

I think they just wanted to give everybody a chance at winning, so they made up some cockeyed story to D/Q a wonderful, award winning model.

Phil,
Which comp was it? Most of them over here are run by Military modellers thus the reason they have so few Auto categories and a lack of respect, or understanding, for our craft!
Not putting down Military modelling it's just that you are good at what you are interested in!
I'd better stop raving before my well known opinions on model competitions in Australia gets me in trouble.
Well done anyway on the first place!

I'm glad that you got satisfaction on the end! :-)
I can image his face when you told them that it's model. They must be very shame.

Absurd! Just another example of how model show organisers know f**k all about models, well, car models anyway. Phil, if you had entered some obsure vac formed plane kit then perhaps you would not have had the same problem.

Phil,
Which comp was it? Most of them over here are run by Military modellers thus the reason they have so few Auto categories and a lack of respect, or understanding, for our craft!
Not putting down Military modelling it's just that you are good at what you are interested in!
I'd better stop raving before my well known opinions on model competitions in Australia gets me in trouble.
Well done anyway on the first place!

i totaly agree with rob the comps are not alway's judged to the best quality, he should know i was one of the judges in his box stock class
in which he had a porsche gt the car was fantastic no other car on the table was even close but rob left of the side blinker.and the other judges (military which can be very picky) would not give him first in which i still believe he should have gotten instead of 3rd but when out voted 2 to 1. I have even seen judges look at a kit and say thats the winner and it was shit compared to the others which is wrong.And what is with judges that they cannot pick between plastic and die cast come on

Han han... I knew that Phil was a robot... your finish is just too cool to be made by a human... sorry to blow the truth out !!

I agree with willimo. Several times I have found sweaty or greasy fingerprints on my models after being judged. Once at a GSL, a mirror was torn off the door taking a chunk of the clearcoat with it. Someone tried to put it back on and left it looking like there was a blob of glue holding it on, (it was just the clearcoat). Of course it did not place well. I even had one "judge" at another show push my model to see if the wheels rolled, severely damaging the wire wheels. I display my models on mirrors so they can move them and see without touching the car.
Sadly the accompanying literature often goes unnoticed by the judges. I have seen it happen all to often. - Mark

take some progress pics along with the entry next time.

Rob, the comp was run by the Wagga Model Club. They are primarily into trucks and muscle cars, so they should have had some idea of how good finishes can be achieved (although great paint finishes were few and far between at this particular comp). I guess I've been a bit spoilt since the first comp I ever attended was the IPMS run Australian Model Expo in Melbourne last year. It was expertly run and well judged, with clearly stated criteria and a brief "report card" on each entry. After that I kind of thought all model shows would be the same :p

They SHOULD be the same!

Report card? That would be great! I would love for judges to point out my mistakes, so I know better what questions to ask. I LOVE that idea. Sounds like I might have to do a contest some day in the future, just so I can make happen all the things I want to see happen.

Where do I start about poorly run shows? :banghead:

First and foremost, bad judging is the worst part. As the original poster discovered, other people's thought processes can be totally different than what you might expect, especially when the Club hosting the contest is primarily a milirary club. In the case of the R8 being DQed at first, at least they discovered it and let you back in.


The way judges are chosen at any contest needs to be carefully watched, but the main problem is finding IMPARTIAL Judges, who can look at a piece fairly and work with other judges to find the best models on the table.

The system my club uses, is 3 judges per category. We first look at all the models to determine if any one builder has more than one entry, as we have a "no sweeps" policy, and determine, if there are any "doubles" or more, which moddel of that builder's is the best, and then judge only that model. I've seen this cause problems though, but it's the most logical way to deal with multiple entries.

Then each judge individually picks his own choices for 1st thru 3rd, only then do we put our heads together to compare notes. If our choices match, we are done, if not we debate and discuss until we mutually agree on awards, if not democracy takes over and we vote.

After we fill out the judging form, we turn it over to the line judge, who is well respected judge with many years of experience in whatever field(Cars, Armor, Aircraft) the models were in. He or she checks the results and if satisfied, turns the sheet over to the head judge, who also checks the results.

This system isn't perfect, but it's about as close as you can get to it.

I think the most important thing is to get good judges, which is sometimes difficult because they are volunteers. You need to watch for people that I like to call, "little Napoleons", that are volunteering for all the wrong reasons.

Judged contests are passe, long live the NNL!

Hey Veyron, good to see you.

I couldn't disagree more about the NNL type show.

It's a popularity contest, nothing more.

All contests do is open the door for a lot of bickering and hurt feeliings, seen it happen hundreds of times.

Too many trophy hunters show up EXPECTING to win and win they don't they do their best to slam the contest and give it a bad reputation.

NNL's go much smoother and the trophies won are much more satisfying, besides who needs another trophy anyway.

Bunch of politics, especially in larger or Club run Competitions. Idiots!

All contests do is open the door for a lot of bickering and hurt feeliings, seen it happen hundreds of times.

Too many trophy hunters show up EXPECTING to win and win they don't they do their best to slam the contest and give it a bad reputation.

NNL's go much smoother and the trophies won are much more satisfying, besides who needs another trophy anyway.

I agree with you about the "who needs another trophy part" :grinno:

I could panel my workshop walls. :smokin: I use some of the older ones for bases for my current projects. :biggrin:

NNL shows are just as prone to bad feelings as regular shows, if you ask me.

The internet has virtually squelched all the old badmouthing of shows just because some idiot who thought he should win didn't. You're always going to have a "complainer" at each and every show, so taking steps to minimize that by certifying judges is the right step to take.

After all, these are model CONTESTS, so someone has to lose. :)
No one can argue when the best model on the table wins, as long as the judging is done well.

The NNL contests are too "Hot Rod" specific for my tastes, with Willy's Gassers and 42 Fords always placing over other stuff that is better.
The most popular just goes down to which Model Club has the most members there. :lol:

Long live the contests you go to just to hang out with friends and acquaintances and check out their modles while sharing your own with them. Everything else is just icing on the cake. Report cards would be nice though....