Pics from IPMS Show in Fairmont MN

[StevenGuthmiller]

A few pics from a very small local IPMS show in south central Minnesota.

 

I won a couple of category golds, but I'm a little bit disappointed in the judging criteria, (as I remember being the case the last time I was at this show possibly 5 years ago) 

So that, coupled with some other reasons, means that I won't be likely to be returning to this show.

 

But, that aside, here are a few pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

 

 

Edited March 17 by StevenGuthmiller

[Paul Payne]

Great pix and a lot of beautiful models! Thanks for sharing!

[Claude Thibodeau]

Thanks for the pics, Steven!

CT

[Kah puts]

Love seeing show pictures, thanks ?

[espo]

Thank you for sharing your photos and congratulations on the awards. While not a big show, what it may have lacked in quantity it made up for it in quality of those entered. 

[slusher]

Congratulations Steve, well deserved with the work you put in your models…. Thanks for the pictures..

[Bugatti Fan]

What were your gripes about the show Steve?  You said you would not be going back, but it looked ok to me going by the photographs and you got a couple of awards from it.

[StevenGuthmiller]

19 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

What were your gripes about the show Steve?  You said you would not be going back, but it looked ok to me going by the photographs and you got a couple of awards from it.

Part of it is just the "good old boy" mentality, which I was somewhat aware of from my last visit there some years ago.

But the biggest problem was the fact that it was quite obvious that some of the judging was done on pure emotion rather than the overall quality, or complexity of the models.

By that I mean that as is the standard practice in any contest, judging is done using a number of factors to determine which models are "the best", whether that be per category, or overall.

It appeared to me that the judging (in some cases), was essentially done on a single appearance feature rather than the technical ingenuity required to complete the model to the highest overall quality possible.

 

I never enter a contest with the expectation of winning any awards, but I do expect that the judges will be professional in their approach to picking "The Best" models to receive whatever awards are being given.

I get the feeling that the judges in this circumstance were either not aware of what was required to build each model, or were just not very good at judging in general.

Forgive me, but I don't think that they really knew what they were looking at.

At least I like to think that that was the case.

Otherwise, there were more nefarious reasons for some of their decisions.

 

Another turn off came at the end of the show as I was packing up to leave when I heard one of the area club leaders/judges discussing gleefully with a patron about how they "recycled" their awards from year to year, by collecting medals and trophies won by, I assume club members, and reissuing them again at the following year's show.

I suppose that you could call that being frugal, but I found the practice of recycling awards to be quite tacky.

And, if they were able to collect and recycle awards among club members from year to year, that speaks to the "good old boy" issue that I opened with.

 

Anyway, the whole situation just seemed a bit "seedy" in my estimation.

 

I believe that in the future, I'll just stick with the shows where I know that the organizers, and when applicable, the judges, have the utmost integrity, which is the rule rather than the exception.

 

 

 

 

Steve

Edited April 4 by StevenGuthmiller

[GLMFAA1]

I agree with you that IPMS judges do not know what they are looking at when comes to automotive models. I have found that in my area IPMS contests are judged by near by IPMS clubs and there is an inborn knowledge of who's model is who's. I entered a contest many years ago where a judge said of both my scratch built Sutphen tower and Mack Aerialscope were kits (Do I wish). Nice collection of auto models. At the end of the contest that I entered there was dispute between the winning F4 Phantom and another entrant because the battery box in the winning F4 was upside down. Go figure

greg

[Bugatti Fan]

Interesting feedback guys.  At local level it seems that there is much to be desired judging automotive model wise as IPMS is a general modelling society and most of their membership are into aircraft and military stuff. At local shows sometimes people get roped into judging and therein lies one of the problems. At their Nationals of course the situation is different having more experienced judges in each subject, automotive included.

Auto modelling is better followed in the USA with dedicated clubs and shows. I wish we had similar here in the UK.

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

On 4/4/2024 at 4:13 PM, GLMFAA1 said:

I agree with you that IPMS judges do not know what they are looking at when comes to automotive models. I have found that in my area IPMS contests are judged by near by IPMS clubs and there is an inborn knowledge of who's model is who's. I entered a contest many years ago where a judge said of both my scratch built Sutphen tower and Mack Aerialscope were kits (Do I wish). Nice collection of auto models. At the end of the contest that I entered there was dispute between the winning F4 Phantom and another entrant because the battery box in the winning F4 was upside down. Go figure

greg

I routinely attend a larger IPMS sponsored show in the fall, and I have attended a fairly good sized one in the spring as well, and have always felt confident that the judges were competent.

Of course, for both of these shows, a local model car club's members are employed to do the judging for the automotive categories, and I have complete confidence in them.

This speaks to the integrity of the IPMS chapters that are organizing these shows, as it's clear to them that they are not experienced with model cars, so they're bringing in the "experts" to do the judging of those particular categories for them.

 

Unfortunately, with a small local show such as this one, it becomes pretty obvious quite quickly that the judges have no expertise in anything per say and are just going off of pure emotion.

I suppose that can probably only be expected for a small show in an area such as this, but it's become apparent to me that I no longer have any interest in participating in such endeavors.

 

My suggestion to many of these small IPMS shows would be to drop the "contest" aspect, and operate it as something akin to an NNL type show where there are basically no judges.

Create top 5 or 10 "people's choice" awards and allow the participants to make the decisions.

I can't see how the adjudication would be any less reliable by having the people in attendance make the decisions rather than a few inadequate judges.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Repstock]

I scratchbuilt an International cowled school bus in 1/25. I entered it in a rather large IPMS show In Columbus, Ohio. There were only a few cars, but the military models were absolutely outstanding. Somehow, the bus won Best in Show. Considering the high quality of the competing models, and that mine was not military, I was stunned. To this day that trophy is my favorite. I guess you never know...