On Saturday, Feb 21, 2009, I took part in a competition run by the International Plastic Modelers Society. IPMS for short. One friend of mine joked that their title was either created by Hermione Granger or that it meant Intense PMS. If one of the symptoms of PMS includes severely impaired judgment, then I am inclined to agree with the latter!
although the place was closed off for judging, I could hear the judges discussing their input. What I heard was at best a joke! I had entered the kits of Yomiko Readman and Yoko from Gurren Lagann. One of them blew off one of the Yoko kit because the eyes were “too western”. Um…too western? Anime eyes are big to begin with! Along with that, the judges also felt that the kit was poorly constructed. Then, they canceled out a kit from one of my friends. It was of a comic book character called “Elastic Man”. To give you an idea about the character, he wears a red jumpsuit with the front done up in black lace work. They said he did a sloppy paint job with the laces. Apparently the black paint was “slopping over” the red suit. Now, if you ever look at the kit, you will notice that the laces are threading through eyelets in the suits. You could even see the sculpting of the kit showing the fabric stretching at the laces. Later on, I had discussed the results with a pair of people who work with a modeler's magazine. I told him what I had just stated here and even showed one of the magazine people the the kit I entered that was rejected. He was wondering where the poor construction was. I would like to know myself. I know that this may sound like the rantings of a sore loser, but the one thing I always feel is I don't mind losing as long as the competition is good, and the judging fair. Trust me, there is a rather hollow feeling when you win by default or winning over someone you know did a better job than yourself. This particular chapter of IPMS have a rabid love for military kits and anything else is considered second class, even cars. And I feel the workmanship on those kits can blow you away! All the judges do is do a quick scan of the other kits and then hoover over anything military for an extended amount of time. The best example of that was my first contest with this chapter. I had a kit of Davros, the Aliens Drop Ship and a Cyberman. When the judging was finished with, they gave out all of the awards, except the figure category! While everyone was filing out with their kits and trophies, the judges did a half assed critique and gave me a ribbon for my Davros kit! Now at that time, the kit was not put together or painted well (Seam lines and paint strokes were showing), and this won over some kits that deserved far better! I feel that if they have such a love for those kits, then simply hold a contest for military kits alone so the others don't waste their time hauling their kits over only to be treated as a second thought.