The Puyallup Did Me...

And it was a doozy...

Actually, it wasn't that bad.  I had four models in the static model contest at the Puyallup State Fair - an AMT 1/6th scale vinyl model of Mr. Spock, the 1/35th Trumpter MiL-8H Hip chopper, a Revell AG 1/72nd Sea Vixen with a custom paint job, and 1/24th Revell 1957 Chevy Bel Air.  I didn't expect the Bel Air to win anything - I didn't do a good job with it, really.  However, I wasn't prepared for the what else I saw...

You see, last weekend I was talking with a friend who had entered the contest in Puyallup a number of times - 10-15 years worth of entries.  He had some horror stories - first, almost all of his models came back broken in one way or another.  Second, the model that won the Best of Show award was always, always, always either a train or the biggest model there, regardless of the fact that his models are award winners in other judged contests.

Therefore, I was somewhat surprised to see a 1st place ribbon on the MiL-8H, a 2nd place for the Sea Vixen, and a Craftsmanship award for Spock - interesting.  I was not surprised to see that my MiL-8H was broken - the port side forward antenna was gone.  However, I was surprised to see that was the only damage visible.  One other positive and pleasant surpsie was that my Little Brother also won a 1st and 2nd for a Panzer tank and a stegosaurus, both by Tamiya.

On another note, while I was there, I asked about dropping off some flyers foe NWSM and IPMS Seattle, and was told both are welcome.  The lady I spoke with told me they were very interested in having more entries in their contest - my replay was simply that I knew a lot of reasons why there were less.  She followed up, and I told her:

1. A month-long transfer of models with numerous people handling them is absolutely unacceptable to most modellers.
2. The judging criteria was not well known, well publicized, or (it seemed to me) well applied.
3. There were only eight categories for adults and the same eight for juniors.

She took that feedback well, and also took my name and phone number, so we'll see if it comes to anything.  I told this to the folks at IPMS Seattle, to a rather cool reception - I may be in this alone, but here are my ideas about how to fix it:

1. Bring the models in one day, have them judged that same day, and placed in the display case by the modeler.  If I kne wmy model was where I put it and would be there for three weeks without being touched, I'd rest much easier leaving a delicate model there.
2. Use well defined and publicized judging criteria, preferably inline with the IPMS USA criteria.
3. Increase the number of categories.

Like I said, we'll see how this works - I'll report here as I learn more.