When we have our contest we have teams of 3 judges.Most of the time it is 1 member from our club and 2 members from 2 other clubs.That way there should be no bias in the judging.We do enter our own contest but we do not judge any cat.that we are in.We have been told that our contest is judged fairly.Thats why we always have a very good number of models on the tables.As TxRat said i mainly build out of the box because i don't have a lot to spend on photo etch etc.My biggest win came this year when my out of the box 49 merc.took best in show at an IPMS contest.Was i shocked HELL yes.I thought there were some better models on the tables.I guess you never know until you try.I to have seen the bias at contests.I will never enter a certian contest in a major city near me due to the bias.