Jantrix

I'll agree Jarius is a great artist, But I also think you are not giving yourself nearly enough credit. Those are fantastic drawings. I'd kill to be able to draw like that.

Oh nice. I much prefer the Pontiac rally wheels to the honeycomb style. Nice work.

I'm looking forward to it.

I'm not sure what the spindles had to look like to get them out that far, but seeing one on the side of the road sitting on three wheels was a pretty common occurance when I was living in VA and IL in the 90's.

Wow. Most impressive work. I love it.!

How about a slingshot dragster from the recent AMT Double Dragster re-release. I would think they would be pretty narrow. Here's a current thread on one. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=48243&hl=&fromsearch=1 Maybe someone who has built one can furnish some measurements (length/width/wheelbase/etc) so that you can finish the hauler without having something to on it yet. Or a salt flats belly tanker?

John, hwodid you do the sparkled gauge crystals? And the radio numbers whoa................such detail.

I'm totaly in love with this build. MORE!

Yeah, I mentioned this in my first post in this thread. Was there ever a name for this ridiculousness?

No idea....................yet.

For me thats the beauty of it. It's so very different. This is what I love as an artist. If it's been done................I'm not interested in building it, so give me different every time. For crying out loud, the only 57 Chevy that I have ever built is a 4x4 death machine. And very soon, you will see more customized Hudsons than you can shake a stick at. As for me, I'll wait until the 48 Ford is released and buy them together. And like the Revell 49 Merc, it will sit on my shelf for a few years until an idea pops into my head. And it WILL be unique.

Hmmmmmmm. This is going to be interesting.

Sorry you had a bad experience Ed, but don't judge all IPMS clubs by that one. I really dislike it when I see IPMS bashing on the forums because it might stop someone from joining one or participating in their shows because of someones bad experience in Seattle, when they live in Virginia.

Now there's something you don't see every day.

Okay, I smell what yer steppin' in. And I agree. If the catagory requires photo-documentation of the vehicle you are replicating then of course accuracy is important because the rules state that it will be judged by this comparison. But for the most part judges should be judging on build quality. You bet. I chatted up a guy in the parking lot of Jaxcon, while helping him unload, and he was really upbeat about his chances although it was his first big show. He'd won a trophy or two at a couple of little hobby shop contests where there were 6 or 7 cars to compete against. He went in, registered and started setting his builds in place on the table. As he started really looking around at his competition and the quality therof, his face fell and he left shortly there-after.

You have my attention sir!

The article below was written and posted by me about two years ago. I recently found this again on my hard drive and since this subject has been brought up again recently, I figured it my be useful to someone. Anything in italics I have added today. Contest judging - lessons learned It’s been a couple of years, but due to the benevolence of my wife (it was on Valentines Day) I was able to attend IPMS Jaxcon this year. I’m an on-again, off-again member of one of the clubs putting on the show and I was asked again to help out with the judging. Usually I end up judging the sci-fi or figurines or something, but this year I got to judge the automotive categories that I wasn’t entered in. I got partnered up with two other members that are doing national level work and have been judging for a long time. Needless to say, I learned an awful lot. I was approached afterward by several people who wanted to know the whys and wherefores of the judging criteria, so that they could improve their work for next year. After chatting a long while I figured I might write this to help out any folks with plans on competing someday. First Impressions - this step usually eliminates about 25% of the cars in the catagory. A gleaming paint finish. It is the hands down the first thing that draws the eye and will make or break you. A gleaming paint job with a clean build and no extra detailing will beat a super-detailed car with dull flawed paint nearly every time. Also glue marks, scratches, haze, orange peel and miss-matched paint on separate panels will kill you. If you are a matte/satin/suede enthusiast like me this part is going to be tough. The flat paint better be flawless to get noticed next to a similar quality car with a great gloss finish. So far in my experience, if the contest doesn't have a beater/rat rod catagory, your rat rods will not do well against the glossy hot rods. Cleanliness. If you took an uncased model off the shelf, dusted it off a bit and brought it to the show, you just shot yourself in the foot. Dust gets everywhere, and we will see it on the inside of the model if not outside. Display cases are $4.50 with a 40% off coupon at Michael’s. Get some. Decals. Yellowed, badly placed, peeling or covering a bad spot in the paint will get noticed. Using a setting solution is highly recommended. Also clearing over your decals will certainly help here. Pitfalls and no-nos Once we are passed the first impression stage and get on to the in-depth examination, we get down to brass tacks. Here is some stuff that will get you knocked back a spot or two. Mold lines, and injection pin marks. These two are the big unforgivable sins. Paint or chrome missing where a part was cut from sprue. A lot of folks paint parts right on the sprue, snip them off when dry, and touch up paint after. That can bite you later if you miss one. Missing or broken parts. Usually gets a ??? look from the judges and a “That’s a shame.” Road weary. Some folks do a lot of these shows and after a while the cars start to show it no matter how well they are done. The BMF will start to wear off at the roof edge from getting handled so much. Same with wear marks in the chrome bumpers from its time in storage containers. Also grills, bumpers, rear views and spoilers that have been re-glued multiple times may be noticeable. Poorly done detailing. This includes BMF, wiring, detail painting, aftermarket goodies etc. Please don’t wire the distributor with thread. BMF bunched up or wrinkled in the window trim corners is very obvious. 3-Wheeling. Unless your model is supposed to be on only three wheels, all four better be on terra firma. Wheels rubbing the fenders. I’m sure this one would vary from judge to judge, but for the guys that I was judging with, the wheels better look like they could spin/ front wheels turn unimpeded. These are models of cars after all. Paint chips. Lacquers especially dry hard and tend to chip if your not careful. Too much glue or SA glue haze on parts. Nuff said. Scratched windshields and other windows. Now I’m not saying that if you have any of these issues, don’t bring the model. By all means do bring it. If for nothing else than the fun and experience of competing, and socializing with your peers. Besides a third place trophy is still better than no trophy. Things not to worry about This is a pretty short list. Accuracy. The judges don’t care if that isn’t a factory color for that year car. Or that the rally wheels for that car should be aluminum and not chrome. They don’t care that Rusty Wallace didn’t have a Champion Spark Plugs sponsorship that year. They just care how well you did it. Making judging difficult. Those super duper revolving, mirrored display stands with the strobe lights and the disco ball are all great for getting your car noticed. But it makes it darn hard to closely examine the work. So do yourself a favor and either get rid of it prior to judging or use a stand that has no back and does not revolve so that the judges can turn the stand 360 and be able to clearly see the whole model. NOTE: Judges do not care about the following. How much aftermarket billet, photo etched, resin cast goodies you bought and used. They do not care how many parts you scratchbuilt/modified. They do not care that you have 500+ hours invested in the model. All they care about is how well you did the work. A flawless box stock model WILL (or should) beat a super scratched, highly aftermarketed build with a flaw or two EVERY TIME. It's not the quantity of work, but the quality of work. This past February an older fella showed up with a handful of cars with the most perfect paint and painted detailing I have ever seen. No one had seen him before. After speaking to him for a while (a great approachable guy) he has been doing this and 1:1 stuff for 50 years. He painted using a detail gun for 1:1 painting and was shooting automotive paint he'd had for 40 years. He had some mild customizing done to the bodies, but had nearly NO added detailing beyond paint. He kicked everyones butt. We were glad he'd come but even happier that he hadn't brought more models or we would all have gone home empty handed. I hope he shows again this coming February. That's all I got. If anyone has anything to add feel free.

Very nice! Perfect color and great imagineering.

I did this with some Tamiya clear yellow. I was looking for a bronze so i did three coats. the single coat looked very gold to me.

Nice work Joe. They might not understand the sentiment as kids, but I'm sure they will when they get older.

Okay lets not forget mini-trucks. Since the Chevy Luv, we've been customizing them. I have to say they have never been my cup of tea, and when they are cut up to the point where the utility nature of the bed is lost, then they become ridiculous to me. But people love them. Also back iin the mid 90's there was a trend on the east coast where folks were building up small 4-doors and extending spindles/axles to push lil 14 inch wheels OUTSIDE the wheel wells. I've never known what they were called. But I used to see them often on the side of the road resting on three wheels.

Quickie build? What is this strange thing you are speaking of? Seriously though. Very cool idea. Looking forward to seeing this take shape.

I hit this wall a few years back. I had about six builds in progress, and man I just wasn't into any of them. I had some scratchbuilding/bodywork/aesthetic/styling issues, that were just getting me real down. And I'm the kinda guy that just doesn't like stress with my rexalation, so I just avoided the hobby table for six months straight. Even the thought of starting a new one would get me down with those builds waiting in the wings. Until one evening my son comes in saying he needs a new kit, he'd finished his last, and I had an epiphany! "Son, you are now the proud owner of a collection of dad's screw ups. Congratulations!" After I told him he was free to do whatever he wants with them, he was ecstatic and I was FREE!

So far good work. I see a lot of flush cut tubing trying to butt up to the sides of other tubes. If you file an arc into the end of the intersecting piece with a round needle file, you can make those joints look much smoother.

Oooooo. I love that shade of green. Very nice.