Getting Ready for the QMHE

[GazzaS]

I'm packing for our one big show this year, the Queensland Model Hobbies Expo.

Last year I only took one model.   A tank which sat on a flat base.  Not much effort required to stabilize it.  But this year I'm going to show two tanks and four planes.  And packing the planes is a lot of work.

I'm most worried about the 110...   it has all kinds of bits to break off in transit.  I hope they all make it in one piece.

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Good luck at the show and your packing seems as a safe as it can be done. 🤞

 

[DocRob]

I wish you all the best Gary, for the transport and for the show. I never had anything shown, other places than here, but would really like the feeling of anticipation and nervousness before a show, maybe one day...

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

6 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Good luck at the show and your packing seems as a safe as it can be done. 🤞

 

Thank you, Peter.  These 110's have so many aerials and horn balances.  It makes handling them a chore.  The drag they must have caused...

[GazzaS]

21 minutes ago, DocRob said:

I wish you all the best Gary, for the transport and for the show. I never had anything shown, other places than here, but would really like the feeling of anticipation and nervousness before a show, maybe one day...

Cheers Rob

Thank you, Rob.  You should try to do it some day.  It inspires you to spend more time on a short weekend away from the house and give your significant-other some alone-time.  Also you will spend more time looking at the competition as well as shopping...aka talking yourself into buying something.

[Bomber_County]

Good luck with the show Gaz, like Rob, here is my only showcase. As I’m not a member of IPMS not sure where I could enter a comp. I did join IPMS for a year but the magazine IMHO was dreadful and got very little from the experience. Great if you wanted to mess around with 50 year old kits in braille scale and smaller in my humble and personal opinion……..

[GazzaS]

11 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Good luck with the show Gaz, like Rob, here is my only showcase. As I’m not a member of IPMS not sure where I could enter a comp. I did join IPMS for a year but the magazine IMHO was dreadful and got very little from the experience. Great if you wanted to mess around with 50 year old kits in braille scale and smaller in my humble and personal opinion……..

Thank you Phil.  I'm not really super competitive unless we're board gaming or playing cards.  I cringe when I looked at the competition after I had set up my stuff.  Mainly...   it's time with guys like me.  But what to do with a huge portion of two days, eh?  I'm helping judge tonite.  But having something in the competition gives me more reason to be there.  

Lots of guys aren't very sociable.  They drop off their entries friday night.  Come in looking for a bargain where people are selling early saturday...   and then disappear again until the award ceremony happens sunday afternoon.  Can't pick up your models until after the awards.  I need a bit more than that.

I'm actually a member of two clubs.  One meets on the first saturday of the month.  The other meets on the second.  One I can drive to in less than ten minutes...   the other in 45 minutes.

[GazzaS]

Judging is over....   I find out tomorrow whether I got any awards or not.

[GazzaS]

HI fellas...   and other-than-fellas...

     Well...   here's how I went.  Sorry for the small number of photos.  I just couldn't make myself take pictures of the 500 or so entries.  

Here is how I went:

In the 1/32 un-enhanced category I got silver...   Losing out to the Mig.  

In the 1/48 un-enhanced category my Tamiya 109 lost out to the Jug. 

 

 

Somehow...   my faultless Fokker D.VII...  the pride of my fleet, as it were lost out to the Striped albatros and an-unseen... and un-weathered...  Gloster Gladiator.  Maybe they thought I had it too easy using Wing decals...

I put my 110 into a diorama category so that I wouldn't be competing with myself in the 1/48 un-enhanced category.  And I wanted some credit for all the work I did on those figures.  I was told by one of the judges who judged the category that while technically faultless....   there wasn't enough of a story to classify as a diorama.  Last time I enter that category.  The disassembled MIG got gold while the bronze winner...  while scratchbuilt...  looked like shit.

 

Apparently my Panzerjager meets Panzerjager diorama wasn't enough of a story either.  The orange thing at the bottom right got the bronze.

And finally the Winter Sturmgeschutz.  I don't know who judged it.  But the armor category always has a lot of entries and the competition is stiff.  

 

Oh well...   time to prepare for next year.

[DocRob]

Hey, some silver and bronce medals, not too shabby Gary. I can understand your disappointment, but the judging is not judgable, there are criteria you don't even know about.
That's why I prefer to be my own juror, I can tell best, if I met my expectations or not. When I want competition, I do sports, but  even then, I prefer to battle with myself.

Anyway, I think it's an interesting experience and raises some nervousness ahead of the votings and that's not a bad thing, but a un-weathered Gladiator,...

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Congratulations on your two winning entries and all your entries looked more then competitive and equal to the winners in your photographs. That's just the way these competitions seem to go.

Just glad you had a good time, enjoyed the vendors and bought home some awards.

 

[KevinM]

The couple I've been to in Mobile it seemed the local guys have the upper hand.I think the 110 line was BS(does it need to fly) and the VII definitely looked better from that angle.

[GazzaS]

15 hours ago, DocRob said:

Hey, some silver and bronce medals, not too shabby Gary. I can understand your disappointment, but the judging is not judgable, there are criteria you don't even know about.
That's why I prefer to be my own juror, I can tell best, if I met my expectations or not. When I want competition, I do sports, but  even then, I prefer to battle with myself.

Anyway, I think it's an interesting experience and raises some nervousness ahead of the votings and that's not a bad thing, but a un-weathered Gladiator,...

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob.  The judges were 3 or my club mates.  I always thought them to be tough but fair.  So, I asked why and they gave me the “not enough story” BS.  Later there was an observation made on FB about the judging…. And a photo of my 110 was posted with the thread among a few others.  

[GazzaS]

13 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Congratulations on your two winning entries and all your entries looked more then competitive and equal to the winners in your photographs. That's just the way these competitions seem to go.

Just glad you had a good time, enjoyed the vendors and bought home some awards.

 

Thank you, Peter.  It would have been better if  I hadn’t known who the judges were.  
 

Anyway….  Time to get back to building.

[GazzaS]

11 hours ago, KevinM said:

The couple I've been to in Mobile it seemed the local guys have the upper hand.I think the 110 line was BS(does it need to fly) and the VII definitely looked better from that angle.

Thanks for the support Kevin.  I heard about 1 guy who may have that kind of support.  But he frequents the 1/32 aircraft with lots of AM. So I’ll stick to oob.  
I’m pretty new to the competition scene.  But everybody else seems to either know each other or know of each other.

[Bomber_County]

On 8/21/2022 at 10:51 AM, GazzaS said:

HI fellas...   and other-than-fellas...

     Well...   here's how I went.  Sorry for the small number of photos.  I just couldn't make myself take pictures of the 500 or so entries.  

First off congrats on the medals, IMHO knowing your work there must have been other factors at play there. The dumb comment about back story with your dioramas was ……………. fill as appropriately………I think I’ll just build for my own enjoyment and share with you guys on here. You have reinforced my conviction of not entering any competitions and becoming embroiled in the “ clique politics “………

[Martinnfb]

Thank you for sharing Gary and congratulations to the awards. Just a few questions. What is that 1/48 An-2 doing in 1/32 scale category. Why is that Mig-17 sporting 1/48 size decals? And what on earth is that “ orange thing”?

ok, I should stop now.  Understandably ,  judging is not as easy as it meets the eye, but my own judgy little eye is raising eyebrow anyway.

one last thing, the story comes with an imagination and knowledge. 
 

[GazzaS]

8 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Thank you for sharing Gary and congratulations to the awards. Just a few questions. What is that 1/48 An-2 doing in 1/32 scale category. Why is that Mig-17 sporting 1/48 size decals? And what on earth is that “ orange thing”?

ok, I should stop now.  Understandably ,  judging is not as easy as it meets the eye, but my own judgy little eye is raising eyebrow anyway.

one last thing, the story comes with an imagination and knowledge. 
 

Thank you, Martin.  There are no professional judges.  Just 18 guys who model across various genres volunteering their time.  And a few of them were on their first go at it.

 The orange thing is a scratch built Tesla.  You’ll have to point out the AN 22…i don’t know what it is.  And I didn’t even realise the MiG decals were the wrong size.  This is just another consequence of judges not knowing the subject matter.

[mark31]

congrats with your medals.

that are more then i ever won.

Just remember we build for fun and what we like not to make other people happy.

Also lessons learnd for the next time.

And yes judges not a easy task to do to know all about the subjects

You can be proud on your models

 

Mark

[GazzaS]

6 hours ago, mark31 said:

congrats with your medals.

that are more then i ever won.

Just remember we build for fun and what we like not to make other people happy.

Also lessons learnd for the next time.

And yes judges not a easy task to do to know all about the subjects

You can be proud on your models

 

Mark

Thank you, Mark!

 

[Jeff]

I get judging is tough, ( I did it a few times at Corvette shows ) and it is beyond easy to piss folks off, BUT with that said, the 'not enough story' ?? WTF... an airplane sitting all by itself in a field has a 'story'.... and for the record, the 110 did have a 'story', I could here those guys talking about the last or next op.... imagination should play a part... JMHO  outstanding work Gary, and congrats on the wins....

[Landlubber Mike]

I get being disappointed, but I think you should really be proud of those models.  Excellent work, and many of us wish we could model that well.

I'm not sure that I'd ever submit an entry to a show.  Seems like there is always so much drama around them.  Looked like for your show, flashy models with shark mouths and loud color schemes were favored by the judges.  For what it's worth, I would think that any model presented with a base that includes the ground, carrier top, etc. and/or with figures should qualify as a "diorama" but what do i know?  Actually, I do know that I really enjoyed your 110, and felt like I was there in the discussion with the airmen.

This atmosphere in model shows is not unique.  Another hobby of mine is bonsai, and I've seen pictures of trees that were winners that were real headscratchers, and in some cases even, winners were those affiliated with the judges.  It is what is though.  There naturally is a level of personal taste and subjectivity that comes into play with shows, but it's the non-subjective biases that really are disheartening.

[GazzaS]

5 hours ago, Jeff said:

I get judging is tough, ( I did it a few times at Corvette shows ) and it is beyond easy to piss folks off, BUT with that said, the 'not enough story' ?? WTF... an airplane sitting all by itself in a field has a 'story'.... and for the record, the 110 did have a 'story', I could here those guys talking about the last or next op.... imagination should play a part... JMHO  outstanding work Gary, and congrats on the wins....

Thank you, Jeff! 

[GazzaS]

4 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I get being disappointed, but I think you should really be proud of those models.  Excellent work, and many of us wish we could model that well.

I'm not sure that I'd ever submit an entry to a show.  Seems like there is always so much drama around them.  Looked like for your show, flashy models with shark mouths and loud color schemes were favored by the judges.  For what it's worth, I would think that any model presented with a base that includes the ground, carrier top, etc. and/or with figures should qualify as a "diorama" but what do i know?  Actually, I do know that I really enjoyed your 110, and felt like I was there in the discussion with the airmen.

This atmosphere in model shows is not unique.  Another hobby of mine is bonsai, and I've seen pictures of trees that were winners that were real headscratchers, and in some cases even, winners were those affiliated with the judges.  It is what is though.  There naturally is a level of personal taste and subjectivity that comes into play with shows, but it's the non-subjective biases that really are disheartening.

Thank you, Mike!  I'm glad that you enjoyed the build.  Thank you for your thoughts.  I can be pretty competitive...   so getting over it isn't coming easy.  But I don't think I will stop competing.  

I didn't even know there were bonsai competitions.   Have you posted any pictures in the "my other hobby" thread?   I think it would be interesting to see. 

[Landlubber Mike]

5 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

I didn't even know there were bonsai competitions.   Have you posted any pictures in the "my other hobby" thread?   I think it would be interesting to see. 

I haven't posted any.  It really takes a number of years to get a tree looking great, at least to what I'd like to achieve, especially with deciduous trees.  You can buy ones that have already been worked on for years, if not decades, but those can run into the thousands easy.  Plus, you need good skills which can mean hiring professionals, taking courses, being an apprentice, etc.  I have young kids and frankly, even if I didn't, I am not that into the hobby to do all that.  

People new to bonsai think you just clip here and there and you have bonsai.  To a certain extent that's true, but you have to work with the tree's natural growth to essentially "grow" a tree into a bonsai.  Seems counterintuitive, but that's how you develop taper, ramification of branches, etc.  You reduce the rate of growth using pots, different soil particle size, different fertilization, etc.  Then you have to worry about pests and diseases, as you have a living thing you are working on.  It can be excruciatingly frustrating when a tree you've worked on for years dies.   At the same time, it's fascinating really, but I just don't have the time these days with my kids playing travel sports.  I'm trying to figure out whether I want to stay in the hobby for the next ten years so I have something to do when the kids are in college, or do I want to just drop out of the hobby and restart later.

Instead of posting my trees, here are some pictures from Japan's Kokufu-Ten show (the top show in the world), and last year's US national show:

https://bonsaitonight.com/2020/02/21/prize-winning-trees-from-the-94th-kokufu-bonsai-exhibition/

https://bonsaitonight.com/2021/09/24/u-s-national-exhibition-critique/