Discovery and a lesson in humility

[davelant]

I didn't want to wake up a dead thread, but I had a thread here when I started Uhu's Discovery in 2009. After crafting a bunch of paper hex nuts I stalled out. Still, the decorated dowel mocked me from my model room, and this April I set to it with a will, assembling cargo pods, and then cursing the transitional shroud at the front of the engine compartment, and finally completing the front sphere (that part was easier than I expected). All this driven by my desire to take the model to the Wonderfest model show in Louisville a few days ago.

As you can see, I was quite happy to be finished.

My joy was short-lived, when I saw the model next to it, which arrived after mine.

Although this Sulaco style ship is based on Jan Rukr's studio scale paper model, it was in fact realized from rigid pink foam, sheet styrene, and other things, with full running lights.

This is a great show, and I recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of stuff.

 

[davelant]

If there's any mods listening, sorry, I think I got this in the wrong category.

Moved to "Off Topic" section.

 

[zathros]

First, that Sulaco does not look as good as Jan Ruk's, as in the photos, you can see the detailing that this model is missing, and for those who greeble Jan Rukr's Sulaco, they end up looking like studio models.. The Sulaco there looks O.K., but more like something to be launched from a ESTES rocket.

You may have been the only person there who knew how to get UHU's models!

The problem here is the way the models were displayed. It's nonsensical. There wasn't much thought. There should have been more thought done into the display.

You model came out excellent. I never entered a contest. There always seems to be a "hardcore" group, maybe the ones who started it, in too much control. You have yours set up for a desktop, or shelf display. Setting up for contests requires a little prior knowledge so you can know how to display yours. Unfortunately, that info may not be hard to come by, as it may be done ad hoc, with them putting them in position as they arrive. I find that table layout chaotic, with no order as to scale, subject, etc., it's a mess.

Your model is great, you know it, and so do we, and there are exponentially more of us here, than there are there. "USS Ripley", kind of tacky.

Feel free to post more models with many different angles in this thread. You can now post really big pictures and up to 10 per post (not thread, post!)! I'd like to see some detail shots too.

 

[davelant]

Uhu is well known to the modelers I spoke to there, as well as the new LM-17, despite the fact that these same people generally favored resin or plastic as their medium of choice. Some of these fellows design, fabricate, and sell plastic model kits, and they recognize a kindred spirit there.

I help run a local model show with my fellow club members. The thing about contests is not to take prizes seriously. Model judging, movie criticism, and the annual evaluations you get from your boss are all more or less arbitrary. Our all volunteer staff arranges the models on the table the best they can on show day, and move them later if needed. We take complaints seriously, but in the end "The decision of the judges is final." If it wasn't, they wouldn't be judges.

So why go to a contest? First, "The excitement is building," to borrow a slogan from Wonderfest. Second, the chance to meet and talk to guys who like the same stuff you do, and for you and your work to be seen. Like zealot.com, but you can go out to dinner together. Third, if you get a prize, that's just gravy, and it feels good.

Last year I was getting ready to leave the same show, when a middle-aged woman accosted me. That weekend, we shared the hotel with a convention of Papillon fanciers. (Papillon's are silly little yip-yap dogs with huge ears.) She asked me if I had been part of the model show (perhaps my "Forbidden Planet" crewman's cap and "Army of Darkness" T-shirt gave me away). She had an open mind, and had decided to attend the model show while she was there, and she was amazed that modelers GIVE AWAY ALL THEIR SECRETS TO EACH OTHER. Not so in the dog show world.

If you find yourself at a model show that's like a dog show, or just run by dogs, you might want to try another.

 

[micahrogers]

I have never had a "Bad" experience at a model show, the last local modeling club i was a member of had some hard core WWII modelers and a couple pilots, they treated me and my Sci-Fi kits as a second class modeler, but at the contest sponsored by the club the judging was down right fair. All the seems filled and sanded, any detail lost to sanding re done, painting done to good standards, colors matched with available references. I took home several 1st in class and even a best in show once.

 

[spaceagent-9]

well yeah! that discovery looks fantastic! great job and thanks for rep'ing sci fi modelers with that great model!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

You did a FANTASTIC JOB on the Discovery! You did an EXCELLENT JOB on it!!!
As for the competitions (and EXPOS) , I have entered a few of my models in such (and yes, I even walked away with an award). I rather enjoy the EXPOS. I am able to get ideas on different ways to display my models or to make different dioramas. Not only that, but talk to others about my work & interests as well as theirs.
I too am a member of a local paper modeling club. Although, I am (somewhat) the odd-man out here. As I am (for the most part) the only member who specializes is SCI-FI. All off the other members specialise in WW-II militaria.