Sounds good, i'm in on it! There's 2 things i'm not happy with to be honest.
First, the exclussion of 19 year olds. Screw the 'teen' technicality, they will miss out otherwise. But it seems you've changed your mind on this already so that's cool
Second, the progress report thing with newspapers is not such a good idea IMO. I see what you're getting at but i would just find this hassle! I would probably struggle to make a regimented progress thread coz i may not be working on it constantly. Personally i have several projects on the go and i'm really poor at remembering to take pics as i go, it may also be that the model will have more time spent on it towards the end as we get close to the deadline. I'm certain that some weeks i may have nothing to report on at all.
On a more general note, this rule isn't fair to those who don't have easy access to a camera. I have an idea that u all may feel is better! What your saying is that you would like everyone to start a new project for this contest and that your 'prove the date' rule is so that no one submits an already built model right!? Well how about everyone nominates their model to be entered now (next week or so), which can be still in its box or only just started. If so a pic could be required to show the nominated project along with 'proof of date' if necessary and a regularly progress report should be optional.
What do u think?