I am sitting here writing this instead of putting the finishing touches on my “Pike Size Passenger Train” contest entry like I should be. Despite three months intensive research, design, and construction I have to just say, “Uncle”.
I hadn’t even really considered the contest seriously until I was running a train at an exhibition operating session. I was explaining the train that I was exhibiting and one of my fellow exhibitors said, “If that is true, you should enter it into the MR contest.”
With that as a catalyst, I sat down and actually read what the contest was all about and really got interested. Then I read the rules and found they wanted a picture of the prototype. The only place I had seen a picture of this train was on a video. I didn’t think this was a problem until I read the instructions for photographs. Eee gads. I began a frantic search for a publishable photo of this train. In desperation I even wrote the producers of the video. They were very nice and agreed to make a photo from it as long I as provided the counter location. I pulled up my copy and ran through it several times until I found five potential magazine shots. They sent the photos to me about two weeks later and horror of horrors apparently their counter was not the same as mine. Not one of the shots was good enough.
During the same time period I posted a few notes begging for help and got some excellent references. Looking them up I found only one of them was still being published and the others had become “collectors” items getting up to $400 per copy on the used market. I scrambled around and found two of them for not quite too outrageous of a price.
This is one reason why I’m not so quick to criticize the work that’s published in MR – doing a good article is a lot of work – and often not cheap, as you have found out.
Still, it’s very gratifying to finally get published, and there are those of us who very much appreciate those who make the effort to get published so the rest of us can benefit.
Hang in there, Tex. I’d say finish the article and send it in, even if you don’t make the deadline. Or send it to one of the other magazines if MR says they don’t want it. You’re 90% of the way there, and you ought to make all that effort pay you back at least in some measure.
You got it brother!..It’s a lot of work trying to create a quality prototype model of anything. It’s even harder to win one of those contests. I remember the HO gauge EMD E-7 A/ B unit that took first place in the 1987 NMRA convention held in Houston that year. The guy that won must have put at least a couple of years into the model to make it look as good as it did. I remember working long hours into the night for a couple of months trying to made an entry in the “favorite train” catagory that consisted of an Athearn SW1500, a few tank cars, and a couple of maintenance of way cars. The judges took one look at my set up, laughed, and moved on to the next item. It was heart breaking and I never made another entry in a contest ever again. What I learned about modeling contests is that the judges are nothing more than a bunch of rivet counters with magnifying glasses and you’d better be a great politician too to woo the judges. At least I took 3rd place in the switching contest that year. That was some convention. It was held during a hurricane.
Don’t give up though. Who knows?..It may be a winner before it’s all said and done…chuck
You’ve gone this far and put so much into it, even if you don’t win you will still have the knowledge and experience under your belt and that you did it and gave it your best shot!
I reviewed the rules and really did not even try to come up with a plan of action, it is a really neat contest, but it seemed like too much for me right now. My focus is currently on other sections of my layout, and the contest would have taken too much away from that project.
Actually I would have moved forward by using what I had at hand.If that was a Athearn FP7 and 3 coaches I would have entered the contest…
Why? I enter contests for fun and I don’t take a contest all that seriously.After all I figure a contest shouldn’t be anything less then personal enjoyment…I have won several detailing contest simply by adding modest and common details minus the minute details that one doesn’t see under normal observation…
A contest isn’t like writing a detailing article for a magazine either.
I feel your pain man. As a professional fabircator working on 4x4’s, I have had to fight against the deadline many times and it sucks. Never ceases to amaze me when there is a deadline how paint dries slower, fallen tools roll farther away, you always end up one short out the 12 bolts you needed, the right tool is always left on the other side of the shop…I could go on, but you get the point.
If anything, take your time, finish them and you will have a set to be very proud of. Run them at the big club meets and enjoy the look sand gawks. When the club “know-it-all” asks you were you get them, reply quietly from “Walther’s”, and you will giggle to thought that guy is home clawing his way though the catelog trying to find them.
Heck, do a write up and take pictures anyway, maybe they will run it later.
Take care man, and good luck with that either way you go.
i have to agree with Joe and others , you’ve done way too much work and spent too much money on this project to stop and give up . finish the cars , write the article . worst case you can save the article for the next time MR has one of these contests [:)]
So do you suppose everyone who enters a contest for the first time wins? You find out where your model did not measure up, and try again to do better. That’s what the hobby is all about - learning new methods and skills, and improving your modeling.
What would you expect from judges as being “a bunch of rivet counters with magnifying glasses”? To judge models you need to have a fair knowledge of the prototype and modeling, and I imagine this would qualify one as a “rivet counter”. Is this bad? Perhaps they should judge models otherwise? “This one is nice and shiney, it is a winner”?
And I can’t see where your comment on being a politician and wooing a judge fits in. Do you think you need to convince the judges that your model is a good one? Or should it stand on it’s own and be judged by what is presented? Judges usually work in private, and in (NMRA events) more than one judge does his work, usually three. Then their scores are combined and averaged out. How would you politic three judges in this method?
If the judges in your case did laugh at your entry, it is certainly something they never should have done.
Let MR know you got a project in the works. If you can’t make the deadline send it anyways.
Theres one thing about contests and deadlines, sometimes I hate them. Making a good design can take longer than the deadline.
You’ve gone thru dire trouble to make this work, may as well carry on.
I recall a story from computers and college, some software team had deadlines to turn work in, well, this one guy always turned his work in late. Point is, his work, ALWAYS WORKED. Likely the deadline makers had all kinds of buggers in their work and off to the debuggers their work went.
Don’t give up, maybe you will make the Model of the Month award.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and suggestions. Actually that is sort of what I had planned to do. I’m going to finish the work, at my leasure, and send it in anyway as a normal article. One of the people in my operating group has a layout that really needs one of these cars anyway, so the “extras” won’t go to waste.
While I agree a contest is for fun, I still take it seriously and won’t make a glib entry. While I still don’t quite know what they are judging on, it would be wasting all the judges time to submit something that didn’t have a chance. For example take their Santa Fe “Grand Canyon Limited” train. Anyone can pickup two Alco PAs (PCM, Proto-2000, or even Athearn BB), Walthers baggage car(wo skirts) and two coaches throw it on a layout and take a picture. Even if the picture is fabulous, I just can’t imagine that winning this contest.
There is also the the learn factor involved with such a project that one cannot ignore. I have learned many things I would not have otherwise with this project. I’ve always held that if you really want to learn something, teach a class on the subject. I have learned much more teaching than I ever did being a student. Writing an article is sort of like teaching.