Tag: contests
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Sit Up

Beg. Roll over. Die for the Queen. Good modeller; here’s your trophy. Now go lie on your mat and chew it. Perhaps it’s not really like that. Maybe the scale modelling contest is an instrument of culture and craftsmanship that rewards excellence and encourages the development of skills and good moral tone. Perhaps the committee…
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Open Form Modelling

You might think that individuality and enterprise would be rewarded enough in scale modelling when we choose one of the options on the kit instructions. Or when we go the whole hog and get a packet of aftermarket resin or brass. Past that, there are the heady heights of what-iffery and enthusiast sci-fi to absorb…
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You Lose Points…

Whenever I see a contest that starts with the premise that you have a certain number of points to lose – and the winner will be the one who loses least – I lose interest. If I want to be belittled, I have a family at home. No need to do it in a drafty…
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Legal Redress For Scale Modellers

Are you a scale modeller? Have you entered a modelling contest? Have you been denied a major award? Now is the time to join the class action instituted to bring justice to your cause. Thousands of your fellow hobbyists have called for redress and fair compensation for their injuries. You can have a piece of…
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Will You Take Soup?

I note from a website that there will be a number of categories of competition in our Big Local Scale Model Exhibition 67 in fact. These are major divisions and subdivisions therefrom. No-one need feel unwelcome, and there is a good chance that they will go home with a prize. Who could complain? Well, not…
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Who Judges The Fantasy Model?

And how do they do it? Okay, if you are tasked with reproducing a model of a Willy Ley space ship as seen on a 1950’s Disneyland show, it is still fantasy – but the responsibility for the imagination has been taken out of your hands. Ley and Disney are the ones setting the pace…
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AI And The Contest Judge – Part Four – You Lose Points

The scale modeller who seeks love by looking in the wrong places – ie a scale model contest – will be particularly ill-served by AI. The ordinary run of contest modelling is hard enough: A. The business of conceiving a new model based upon the bias of the judges – analysing what they rewarded in…
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Is Out Of The Box Too Humble For You?

Go to a fancy restaurant. Order an expensive meal – prepared by a Michelin-starred chef. Ask for tomato sauce; see what happens… To their great credit and lasting fame, the people who organise our Big Local Scale Model Exhibition always leave a section of the entry form for people who wish to build their model…
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The Big Local Scale Model Exhibition – Part Four – The Mysterious Models

I use the term ” mysterious ” here in a purely personal sense. The subjects that are covered by many modellers and gamers are out of my experience, and I can only gaze upon them with wonder. I hope they will do the same for me – even if it is just wondering if I…
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The Admiration Of Our Peers

There is no greater joy than receiving the genuine admiration of peers – no bitterer gall than perceiving their contempt. And you should be worried about yourself for realising how true this is. I know I’m ashamed of me. I hasten to add that I am speaking only of the scale modelling world. A pastime.…
