Why I was pissed off about Winterfest

[u18b]

Yes, welcome to popular vote.  I share your pain.  And it brings back memories too.

In the summer of 1989, this heavily kitbashed U30C won 2nd place in NMRA grading.  I was beaten out only by Tom Knapp who had built a scratchbuilt shay.  That little loco not only won 1st place in N scale, but also won best of show.  Never was I prouder to have won 2nd place-- hey if you're going to lose, lose to the best right?


.
.

Then the next year, I went to the N scale convention in Louisville.  That contest was popular vote.  I entered this heavily kitbashed U28C with a detailed description of how it was made.



The guy that won that year simply repainted an Atlas GP7 in L&N colors- that's it... that's all he did.  So a local hometown guy in the local club won with a custom painted (not detailed, not kitbashed) loco of the local guys' favorite road.

I was so upset I sold the U28C to Gary Riccio -- the president of the ACL historical society.  He was so glad to get it.

Anyway, sorry if any of you guys are part of the Louisville club.  That's just the nature of popular vote.
That's how they work.

(I like independent judges better.)

But I also learned something about popular vote contest from that.  Common people (average attenders who get to vote)  may not appreciate what you do.  You need a project that the local people will LIKE.    Think like THEY do.

[wcfn100]

One of the nice things about the NMRA contests (at least the one's in MN in the 90's) is you had to have been a contestant in order to qualify as a judge.  The only wildcard for N scalers were the HO judges.  They came in two types; either they discounted N scale because it was so small and they really couldn't see everything, or they praised you for being able to do something so detailed in half the size of HO.

But even then there is a lot of inconsistency.  My dad's still pissed after 20 years that my super detailed F7 got a higher score than his kitbashed Nn3 mogul.  ;D


Jason

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Thanks Ron. I'm glad I'm not the first this has happened to. I think I may give up the whole N-Trak/Winterfest thing. I think next year I'll be hanging with the CRHS or maybe the New England Proto Modelers. Maybe the Railwire should get our own tabel. Heh Heh

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hang with the CRHS crew. I might finally go... nah, I have a streak to keep up on now.

[Robbman]

You should have told me about that Dan... we could have made another video

[James Costello]

You should have told me about that Dan... we could have made another video

^ James Costello like this.

[kalbert]

I'll admit that at first glance the SW didn't look like anything special. On second look though it looks great, I wish I could see it in person. The F is also great looking, I wish I could get those kinds of results! Having not seen the other models I can't say for sure you should have won, but I would expect yours should have been strong contenders!

But the other thing? Well. Remember your first repaint or weathering job? I do. I was 10, and all but destroyed a hand full of Bachman hoppers with craft store yellow paint and CNW heralds printed on plain paper in a 1990's injet printer. They were awful, but I was proud as hell and would have shown them in a contest if I could. I kept at it and slowly got better, although it's been really slow progress and I'm still not any good at it.

I don't mean this to be disrespectful in any way or to imply that this modelers skill is that of a child or that yours is not superb. I do agree that this was not a winning quality model. I guess I just feel that some implying that it's total crap isn't fair, we don't know anything about this person or the circumstances. They could be a regular reader here for all we know. If this person is reading, I appreciate the effort and encourage you to keep at it. Remember that less is usually more when it comes to weathering. When you think you've done enough, usually you've done too much.

[DrifterNL]

Anybody have a link to the 1:1 scale version?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Of the BNSF engine? there isn't one. The cab number is incorrect.

[jnevis]

It looks like someone tried to recreate the engine used in the Kalmbach "Done in a Day" book by Pelle Soeborg, including teh orange boxes behind the cab and rust on the sides.  Difference is he used chalk and paint instead of just paint, and didn't paint over the windows.

[noblerot]

I was typing this at the same time as the previous post  but i'll leave it here for the road#.

The BNSF looks like he may have copied it from Pelle Soeborg's book "Done In A Day". Pelle did the same orange AC unit and heavy weathering in one of the chapters. It still has a different road # though. Pelle copied BNSF Warbonnet #838 for his article. He also did a better job of it.

[Bruce Bird]

Hey, if you want to stick it to this guy at a future popular vote, do up a Thomas the Tank Engine with a new look on his face.  Or weather him with treacle.  Beat him at his own game.  Something tells me that he would really hate that.

Bruce

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Or i could put "graffiti" on a random BNSF Dash 9 saying "A***** sucks" (name have been redacted to protect the prima donna).

[Rossford Yard]

This reminds me of an old cartoon where the guy goes home after seeing nothing entered in the MOW category, and comes back with an out of the box MOW piece, just to win the contest.  I did the same thing in high school track, entering the hurdles after seeing no one else in the race, and thus bringing home my only first place ribbon!

Sorry to hear you didn't win with a worthy effort.  I think that it just happened that some guys on the panel just like weathering jobs best, but there were no guarantees you were going to win anyway.  Sometimes, that is just how it falls.

[delamaize]

Or i could put "graffiti" on a random BNSF Dash 9 saying "A***** sucks" (name have been redacted to protect the prima donna).

I was thinking more along the lines of "F*$% A***** " lol, but thats me, I can be a vengefull SOB.