The Little World

The task of judging models at a scale model contest is far more difficult than similar events for model trains or R/C aircraft.

With these, the criteria for success are so much more evident. In the case of the former exhibition all an exhibitor has to do for a medal is keep the layout going without finger poking. With the flying models, they are winners if they can land on their wheels twice in a row. No judges need to strain to separate the contestants…gravity does that.

With scale models there are so many rules to be followed to decide what is a good model in which category… An ambitious exhibition will have as many separate classes of entry as there are contestants and everyone can go home with a medal, trophy, and certificate. But further down the scale there has to be some approving and disapproving, and if there are a lot of keen modellers there will be controversy. The judges will be working very hard to go through all the checkpoints for each entry. The Modest Proposal will make their life easier.

Briefly, what we must do is make everyone a judge. All the modellers entering a piece in the competition will be given one vote – it is to be bestowed upon the model they think best deserves it. Naturally, most people will vote for their own, so that you can expect the contest to be a tie in all directions. But here is where human nature will be brought into it. People always make friends and enemies in a hobby. And people always want more money than they have. This means that some amongst the voters may be inclined to vote for a friend or against an enemy…or to sell their vote for money.

All it needs in a 150-way tie is for one vote to be given or sold away and a two-vote winner emerges. Then the judges need not break a sweat about lists of judging points or complex criteria…