These postings are all well and good, modelling is quite an insular past time and I agree that forums like this and also going to shows, contests etc. add that camaraderie and feedback that you might not get otherwise. It still doesn't detract from the fact that most shows, at least here in the UK, that have competitions are doing modellers an injustice, I can appreciate good workmanship in almost any subject, and yes there will always be personal bias, but competition shouldn't have that personal bias, it would be doing an injsutice to the modeller who has decided to build something that doesn't necessarily appeal to the judges. I have first hand knowledge of this, I recall some years ago a well known modeller here in the UK said to me that he had judged all the civilian transport sections and he was chuffed to bits and all misty eyed, that there were one or two models that really appealed to him as he can rememebr them from when he was a boy, guess what they got first and second and one of them best in category, were they deserving, undoubtedly they were well made, but not better than other models there, I suspect that their placing had a lot to do with their appeal, rather than the actual quality.
My point is, is that yes, shows are all about the inter-action between people who share a passion about our hobby, but it is also about the competition, or else why would anybody enter one in the first place, it's good to pit yourself against others, how else can we improve if we do not always try and excell and competitions are about trying to excel and do better, did Michael Johnston ever think I know I'm fast but I won't bother going to the Olympics or World Championships, he went because he wanted to be the best in the world in his chosen field, and this is the important bit, he knew that it would be a level playing field (except for any cheats which you can't allow for those in any field) our competitions should be the same perhaps it's time for a univesal global procedure on how to classify, judge competitions, one should at least expect that if it gets Gold at Euro Militaire or the IPMS Nationals it should at least get placed or highly commended at Milton Keynes or Southern Expo, this just doesn't happen.
What that system should be, who knows, but a start would be to have the same judges, judging all categories and perhaps score for different areas of our hobby, such as finishing, painting, accuracy, both scale and historical, appeal of subject (this should take care of the personal judges bias to any given subject) and perhaps not carry so many marks, the totals of all the judges are tallied up and you would have an outcome. If there are any tied scores then perhaps you could look at counting back the scores, as to who has the most, much like they do in Formula 1, most 1st place finishes, 2nd place etc. Or rugby union, most tries, then penalties, then drop goals, then conversations.
This system could also be used to ascertain the best model in category, best in show etc. etc. As all entries would have been judged by the exact same people so any bias should be evened up, especially if you were to get judges who build in all different categories.
I want to know that if I enter a competition that it's a level contest and that who ever wins the category has the best model.
Judges notes should be given out to the contestant so that they can see where they need to improve specifically, quite often it is this lack of feed back that is the most irksome to contestants, as they do not know where they are going wrong.
I know most of us who belong to a club or go along to shows etc for the frienships that they have would get this from other members or people at the shows, but I know of some people who know no-one, turn up at a show, leave their entry and come back to pick it up, not having had any interaction with fellow modellers and therefore not get this friendly critique, pointers etc.
Sorry for this being such a long post, once I got going it just kept coming.
Once again only my opinions and they are not meant to offend anyway, except the judges
, but hey it might illicit some reactions.
Regards
Tim
