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| Subject: | US Armor WW2 Contest - The Final Results |  |
| Date: | Jul 15, 2007 |
| From: | Tim Streeter | |
Wow! Judging this contest was really difficult because of the high quality of the 78 models entered.
Some well-done entries were eliminated strictly because they were not WWII US AFVs. Some Shermans were under the Soviet flag and were also eliminated. A couple entries had US figures but no US AFVs, so they too were eliminated.
That still left about 70 models to pare down to a first and second place winner. And the high quality made it difficult for any particular model to stand out above the rest.
So, what were my criteria? Probably not as strict as if I’d been judging for a “live” contest. After all, submitted photos can be as subjective as any human judge. I did not apply IPMS or AMPS rules. I did not consult my reference books for each and every detail and marking, but I did look for obvious errors and omissions. I took note of improvements on the kits, either with aftermarket parts or scratchbuilding. But out-of-the-box entries were not necessarily disadvantaged because I’ll take a good OOTB over a poorly done project with all the bells and whistles. Because this is not a diorama or figure contest, I gave much more weighting to the AFVs than figures or groundwork.
Before announcing the winners, I’d like to bestow “honorable mention” to several modelers who had strong entries and show good strengths as US AFV modelers: David Budd, Michael Danko, Mike Eary, Evgeny Grechaniy, Mike Griffin, Jari Hemila, Gaylan Morris, Matthew Mifsud, Marcos Augustus Serra, and Mike Taylor. In this group, Eary’s M4A38 Sherman, Serra’s M4A1 Dozer, Morris’s Harley-Davidson, and Griffin’s M32B1 really stood out.
If there were enough awards to hand out, I’d certainly include Antonio Martin Tello’s impressive reworking of the M24 Chaffee and Tomasz Gronczewski’s 1/48 version of Creighton Abram’s Thunderbolt V with homemade decals. And the beautifully detailed diorama “Rent a Lanz” from Andre Bolton certainly would have figured in a tie for third place. But alas, I have only two prizes to give.
There were numerous multiple entries. As bodies of work, the submissions from Miloslav Hraben, Gerhard Strobl, James Wechsler stood out. Strobl demonstrated the widest range in subject matter: an M31 TRV, a CA1 Airborne Dozer, a T19 HMC, a T26E3 Pershing, and an excellent reworking of Tamiya’s M5A1 Stuart. Hraben’s entries focused on his Real Models product line of US utility vehicles and showed vast command of detailing and finishing. Wechsler’s expertise with Shermans was on display and I was particularly impressed with the Normandy and Pacific invasion settings, along with the unique T6 floatation system.
After the first place winner became clear to me, second place became even more difficult. In spite of the excellent entries, I kept going back to look at one particular model. Thus it happens that I award second place to Tomasz Gronczewski, who clearly demonstrates that 1/48 scale can be everything that 1/35 is. First place goes to Gerhard Strobl for excellent work across a wide variety of subjects.
Congratulations to the winners and to all the other entrants who made this so challenging. I trust that the ensuing riots will be less severe than those following a typical World Cup match!
Cheers,
Tim |
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