"National Level" is somewhat mis-leading in our case. These models did not have to win a preliminary event to get into the national contest. Any IPMS member can enter whatever he has built, beginner or expert. It is hoped that those beginners learn by seeing the accomplishments of the experts and are inspired to do better. That's also why we have the "What judges look for" seminar and have national judges in the contest room on Sat. AM to whom you can show your model and ask them to "judge" it so you know how to improve. It's also why we ask people not to be openly critical out loud as the modeler may be standing right there and he may be a novice who just did his best and here you are saying how bad it is.