First, the panel of judges are more secret than MSD agents or CIA assets in Russia during the Cold War. The usual prime suspects are :-
1. Suresh - Singapore Famed figure painter - trust his judgment please, he is the only known hobbyist model maker in the panel
2. Robin of Robin Models - I know this chap for 30 years, he is in military mock up business and has yet to weather his first model. Strictly not a realism guy.
3. One sale rep from Tamiya unfortunately
4. Two other secret squirrels...unlike Hobby Japan which I have won a prize (last year I entered same Tamiya Con, my Hobby Japan Champion model won nothing! ) They have a panel of 12 judges all having their photos taken and shown to the public so that they can't become blameless by are accountable to their decisions. Such is called fairness.
Then, there is the unspoken 1 prize per person type of thing that carried forward from last year. From Last year's experience now re-occurring, confirms it.
When time came for redeeming the prizes, the prices are adjusted upwards so that your 25% gets you the same model you would at the dealers' places. For instance, the Challenger 2 Desertised is marked well over $70, while at Chin's you get it for $40++, the price discounted model costs more than the dealers. I redeemed one FAMO for $74 and was told that it was tag wrongly, I need to cut off $84 from the price money instead. I could have bought it for less than $55 at Chin's....such is not healthy
Not sure if this kind of behavior will sustain the dying hobby, looks set that it will end, especially people like me and Ee will bow out finally joining the ranks of Calvin Tan, Bernard Cher, Dinesh Ned etc....never to take part again on the local scene but keep our eyes peeled for Belgium.
Part one of today's coverage is on Aircraft.
Well congrats to the hard work done on the metal skin bro, this is one mean model. Deserve to win, he's got resin all over the inside and out and lots of hours scraping the metal skin on.....Kudos bro, people like you really promoted the standards of the hobby one notch. Love to see you more often.
The one who got away because of the 1 prize policy (unspoken). This top model in Prop Fest and article now published in Russia and soon in the UK was mocked at and not even mentioned. Sad case though. I am really proud of this model, my best yet, even by Brett Green and Brian Criner's standards. However, not good enough for our Tamiya distributors. After 35 years of support, alas, I am driven to support Dragon and Trumpeter.
One guy told me that he witness the judges laughing at the model....hmmm... well...everyone is entitled to their opinions, so long as the press and the greater European and AMerican community loves it, its what matters.
Other winners are:-
P51D by Viper
ME109 by Captain Rusher. Got free car parking some more across the road, how convenient!
Block 50 F16 CJ by new comer to me. Plain finishing, no weathering on this spanking new jet.
Don't know this guy too. Not bad his work.
But the spirit by our good friend who never fails to show up with huge support came running with an intruder with bombs, a flying Jap over water with shadows, great spot bros.