Salutations fellow glue sniffers. Yours truly has been shanghaied into penning a small column by our very own Uncle Bobby. Apparently my semi-incoherent babblings amuse him. So I’m going to give this thing a try. Be forewarned however, you may not always agree with what you might read in the coming columns. What will likely appear here will mostly be my opinion and therefore, will always be correct. I will try to touch on various subjects. From kit releases, to the state of the hobby, to contests, and even some real 1:1 car stuff will be covered here. Hopefully we can start a little spirited debate and have some fun along the way.

Since the last club project "TRUCKS" was successful we have to get together and discuss a future club project? So, let’s jump into this mess and see how much trouble I can get into. I guess we should begin with that favorite old whipping post…Contests.

Maybe it all boils down to the question…Why do you build models? Do you build for competition, or do you build for the enjoyment of building. If you build for competition then you had better expect to be disappointed. As with all competitions there are winners and there are LOSERS. That’s why they call it a competition or contest. No one ever said that you will win all the time. That’s why we keep score. Unless of course we’re talking about some feel good, liberal, “we don’t keep score because we don’t want to scar little Johnny/Susie’s self esteem.” B.S.! I can’t wait to see that therapy bill. I mean when you grow up no one will just hand you anything, you have to work for it. Whoa, sorry about the tangent. The bottom line is that there is always someone better than you out there. Deal with it!

That being said, I like to address the subject of Contests in general. Belonging to this club has afforded me the opportunity to attend quite a few different contests, with different judging styles, peoples choice(NNL), point system (MFCA & AMPS) and judged (IPMS, etc.). Of these styles I prefer the point system and people’s choice over judged. The point system (MFCA) judges each model on its own merits and judges it against a standard. The upside is that more modelers receive awards. The downside is that the standard can be highly subjective. People’s choice is nice because there seems to be less bitching about getting screwed. The cream rising to the top sort of thing. The down side to this is that at a small show, the deck can be stacked if enough of a modelers fellow club member stuff the box as it were. This can be combated to some extent by not allowing the modelers name to be displayed with the piece.

That brings us to a judged event. This debacle causes a boat load of complaints. This is because the judging can be extremely subjective and bias. A judge may pick another piece over yours simply because they like that subject better. (i.e. Chevy over Ford). Don’t laugh, it has happened. I also believe that no matter what type of show you put on, the host club should not compete, especially in a judged show. Let’s face it, the host club also does the judging. DUH!! Kudos to the Tristate Model Car Club in this respect. Tristate members are absolutely forbidden to compete in their own contest, NNL East. They may display, but not compete.

For myself, I build because I like to build models period. I want to improve my skills with each kit I build. Unfortunately, the only way to get a, hopefully, unbiased measurement of your progress is to compete. Oh well…Say lavie

Luckily belonging to this club I get to go to the various contests with a whole host of fellow degenerate modelers. We travel the nation’s highways in the “Prison Van”. This experience has allowed me to enjoy contests no matter whether I win, or I get screwed by some brain dead, pen light Nazi, who wouldn’t know a decent build if it jumped up a beat him with a 2x4. Morons!!
So I guess, for me, the best part of any contest is the time I get to spend with good, no, GREAT friends. Thanks guys for all the good times.

In closing, I like to remind everyone that, after all, this is JUST A FREAKIN’ HOBBY DAMN IT!! If your life revolves around a model contest, then…. Move out of your mom’s basement, get a real job, take off your flamed elf shoes and leave the internet alone, and GET A LIFE, YOU SICK FREAK!!!

That’s all for this month. See ya next time. Now go forth and build something!

El’ Tanque (a.k.a. Tommy K.)