I spoiled myself this weekend. To the extent that I now have serious doubts about whether I’ll ever be able to stomach a 1-2-3 IPMS show again.

The TLDR

This might turn into a long post and if you don’t have the time/inclination for that, I’m not going to make you wade through my fevered ramblings. Here’s the skinny.

This weekend, I attended the inaugural Rocky Mountain Hobby Expo in Salt Lake. It’s a new show that embraces the open system (and specifically, the flavor similar to that used at MMSI). And it was wonderful. The most rewarding time I’m have at any model show-like event.

After years of straining against the stifling IPMS way, it was invigorating in a way that I did not expect, and I’m now more fired up about the hobby than I have been in years.

Putting Up and Shutting Up

I’ve been annoyed at the way IPMS operates for years. I’ve advocated for small and large changes, I’ve supported innovative ideas (that never go anywhere). I’ve hoped for any spark of curiosity or creativity.

And instead every year it’s just a rinse and repeat of the same tired shit. Hope that change might finally be in the air. Hey Nats is fun, you get to hang out with friends! And then there’s some inevitable judging shitshow and a lot of big feelings all over the place before…nothing changes. The deck chairs on the Titanic get rearranged and the band keeps playing.

After the last year and “liftgate” and the rolling revelations and controversies of the fall, it’s become clear that change isn’t coming.

So I guess I’d better go to where the change is.

So Many Ways to Suck

What annoys me about IPMS 1-2-3 contests? I’ll try to keep this brief and as high-level as I can.

Categories are nobody’s friend. They lump a bunch of kinda similar things together. Okay. But then you have a table of German tanks. Or a table of gray jets. It becomes eye-glazing. There are always entries I don’t see because you can only look at so many Spitfires right next to each other before your mind goes blank. Even if they’re really well done.

Categories also don’t hold room for edge cases. See dioramas and vignettes for the dumbest form of this. Categories can be split six ways from Sunday in ridiculous ways that leave a goofy ass red tank free and clear to walk away with a 1st at Nats.

And categories scatter a modeler’s work all across the contest floor, which increases chances of damage, makes it difficult to “show off” one’s work to those who are curious, and even makes figuring out where to deposit transport containers a conundrum.

The flaw hunt is a shitty way to look at modeling. Most of us aren’t involved in modeling to make sure landing gear are perfectly aligned. When you hunt for and triage on flaws you aren’t really taking into account the entire model. The one time I judged 1-2-3, I found myself falling into that flaw hunt thing and I hated it. I wanted to go take a shower.

Competition doesn’t sit well with everyone. Why can’t a show be a celebration instead? I hate that everything in this country has to be reduced to some kind of quantifiable contest. The person every modeler competes with the most is themselves.

Hidden identities and scattered builds stifle community. I’m not too interested in auto modeling, so at IPMS shows I tend to just run out of time and attention to walk the auto tables. It’s easy to silo. It’s easy to just talk to the people you know. It’s hostile to newcomers.

How Things Went at RMHE

So what’s the deal with RMHE then? It’s literally the antithesis of an IPMS contest. Or that’s how it seemed to me.

Judges are selected. No cattle call for volunteers. And, because judging took place in shifts, and throughout the day, there was never a feeling that it dominated your time. I go to shows primarily to see friends and geek out about models. This format allowed me to do that AND judge.

There are no categories. You know how nice it is not having to give even an ounce of thought to which category a piece goes into? Or hear bitching and moaning about what is or is not an open-top AFV? Or what counts as a large jet versus a small jet? Or what cockamamie scheme the head judge had to come up with for category splits to inflate the award count?

A modeler’s works stay together. As a side benefit of no categories, all of a modeler’s entries stay together. This gives a great focus on the modeler, it encourages wandering the tables, keeps eyes from glazing. And it puts you in competition with yourself, since the triage team selects the model of yours they feel most likely to do well.

It also creates the opportunity for a modeler to go a bit beyond with presentation, swag, and information.

Only one of a modeler’s entries goes through full judging. A triage judging team looks at all of your entries and flags the one they think will nab the best result – and that’s the one that gets judged. I do wish it were possible to judge more, but this way also allowed a certain consideration that may not have been as possible with more entries to wade through in the judging room. And I have to say, it was curious to see what got selected for judging. I’m not sure I would’ve picked my medieval soldier bust of the pieces I brought, but we aren’t always the best impartial judges of our own stuff.

And it’s critical to note here that even though only one piece is subjected to the full spotlight of judging, the rest are carefully evaluated by the triage judges. I would argue that they get more consideration than an entry eliminated in the 1-2-3 flaw hunt due to, say, landing gear alignment.

Open system judging looks at the entry holistically. Yes, flaws matter. But they aren’t used in an eliminative fashion. Instead, they’re kind of in tension with strengths. A gold-level paintjob may be dragged back to a silver by visible glue marks or a cracked canopy. A level of effort can be rewarded even if it opens a build up to additional potential dings. Honestly, judging was a lot of fun because for the most part it was an open discussion among judges about the merits of each build that came to our table.

It was also quite nice to be able to write down comments on each entry so the modeler can get some feedback. The system for distributing that feedback is a work in progress, but even knowing it’s in process is a nice change.

The result? The most connecting, invigorating show experience I’ve ever had. I’m coming away from it fired up in ways I haven’t been in years. And not to build *a* certain kit. But in ways that have me rethinking my approach to modeling in general. Like a lot of the stuff that’s been rattling in my head for the last year and more just kinda snapped into focus.

Check It Out Yourself

The turnout and overall outcome for an inaugural event just blow me away. I really hope as many people as possible make a point to get to Salt Lake for year two next summer.

If you want to experience modeling community outside the IPMS iron curtain…

In the meantime, here are some pics I managed to snag at the show. Wish I’d gotten more of the people (and more the entries) but photos were very much a side focus today. You can see the full album here.