Judgement Day

Yesterday was the local IPMS show here in Buckeye capital of the universe.  Every year they put on a great show and draw lots of models and modelers.  They had 525 entries this year which was a little down from previous years due to the weather.  Our club goes every year and we take lots of awards in both the adult and master categories, several guys have tables in the vendor area, and a few of us judge.  I am usually asked to judge the automotive categories and I usually decline and judge tanks or more appropriately, the armor category.  Since there are judging "teams" of 3 guys my lack of specific knowledge of tanks is really not a factor, but my knowledge of good modeling is welcome.  I find it really great to look at other styles of models with a critical eye and see what the other side of modeling is up to.  The tank and plane guys tend to look at car modelers as "just playing with toys" not as serious modelers while the car guys think the military guys are "rivet counters".  Both statements are true to some extent and both are foolish generalizations to some extent.  It is fun to see what the other half is up to and I always learn something when I judge tanks.
This year, I had to judge the cars.  They didn't really have enough car guys to judge the automotive stuff so another club member and I hopped in to help out, since both of us had cars in the master categories, we judged the adult classes.  Other club members had cars in the adult class so I had to judge cars that I had seen being built and in some cases, had offered advice on how to fix flaws.  This is the exact reason I don't like to judge cars, I'm pretty sure I'm way too hard on the cars I have seen and know from the guys in our club.  The guys in the IPMS always want a car guy to judge the automotive area but it is really hard since I usually know the car guys and their cars, it's hard to be objective.  I try to encourage the military guys to judge cars and the car guys to judge military not only to minimize bias, but to let modeling skills be judged on a level plane.  A good model shows up in the skill of the builder, not in the subject.  I prefer to judge and be judged on my modeling skill, rather than what kit I chose to build, I think most modelers are the same way.
So make sue when you go to a contest that you hop in and help with the judging, you may learn something and you may find out that the other side ain't so bad.
"Rat Fink" Ron