In an earlier Rusty Spike, I talked about why anyone might want to enter a model contest. I would like to share a little more about that and also share about what judges look for in the area of construction and detail to a model. In some contest environments the ultimate goal is to be, "number one." or to be better than the other guy. My experience in model contests has been more of an opportunity to discover if a person's modeling skills are developing or rising to the level of other people who have inspired other hobbyists in modeling projects.
At the January Meet in Indianapolis, there were only a few
entries, but those of us who entered had a great time talking
with each other. Mark A. Quinn entered a superbly painted and
nicely detailed SD38 locomotive with DM&IR markings. His work
showed some of the best paint work that I have seen. He has
done painting jobs for others in the past and I am sure that
people from the south side of Indianapolis have seen his work.
His son Bryan also entered an Illinois Terminal 50' box car
which he had painted and decaled. It was Bryan's first contest
and he was a winner! Leon Walker entered a scratch built O scale
CB&Q Combination Waycar (passenger car, baggage car and caboose
all in one). Several people commented on the nice work and detail
on this car. I had entered two flat cars, a TTX container flat car
and a 50' flat car with trailer. I thought about which car I
liked best, but the judge commented that he rated the other
car higher as it really had more detail parts in part of it's
construction. So.... lets talk about model construction.
Model Construction:
I'm sure most everyone has taken a typical Athearn boxcar and put
it together in five minutes or less! A contest model is more than
likely the product of several weeks of work or more. If the
model is a complex model with many parts, it will be judged on
how well the parts fit together or if problems like visible glue
are noticed. The types of materials used in the building of a model
might affect the scoring as some materials such as individual strips
or pieces of wood to represent boards on a model would indicate much
more work than simply gluing styrene molded parts together. A judge
is also more likely to add points when they can see that the
hobbyist has taken a model and gone beyond the basic components of that
kit.
Thomas H. Cain
[Rusty Spike - Vol. 27 No. 2, March-April 1997]
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