Leaderboard

When you say "Category winners", I take it you actually mean GENRE winners, such as Best Aircraft, Best Armor, etc.....as a category winner is actually whoever gets a 1rst place, but that the judges put down a generic "nationals winner' card beside the 3 models that placed in each category so people can see what won, but not necessarily know their order of placement...right? Personally, I have no problems with your basic proposal....It solves the problem of having to take a lot of extra pics and then also get them ordered correctly for the presentation at the banquet, as well as shortening the awards program itself. However, I can HEAR the screaming from some because you're robbing them of their recognition and 15 minutes of fame! After all, this is the IPMSUSA NATIONALS, and as winners in the BIG time, they deserve BIG TIME recognition! Keep in mind (in case you didn't know) that we evolved to where we are today. There was a time when there were NO pics of any winners, just the reading of the winner's names. But then a club took slides of the 1rst place winners, got them developed, and showed pics of them. The next evolution was taking slides of ALL the winners. And thus we got to where we are now....only digital photography has at least made the picture taking SO much easier! Your attitude on attending the show and the banquet are spot on...as any of us who have regularly attended the Nats knows. But, "we" are only probably a 3rd at most of those attending the Nats. Almost 2/3rds are people who only make it when they can drive to it, and thus don't as readily see the benefits of staying as long as you can, or paying a bit extra for a meal so you can mingle with your friends and make new ones. In my experience, you cannot convince that other 2/3rds to join us. I'll put a counter-proposal in another reply below.... Gil

I have the kit. Got a good deal at my local shop for about $60. I plan on starting it tonight, so we will know soon how well it goes together. Good or bad, I will have another article for the Journal. Dak