In a recent issue, MR announced a diesel kitbashing contest, with a deadline of June 2009. I was wondering if anyone is working on a submission? I gave it some thought, but the few projects that I could work on don't have suitable prototype photos that I could include. Also one kitbash that I started quite some time ago but set aside will have some prototype features/details missing because they are just way too much effort to do; I would have been satisfied to complete the model as I intended, but since these details won't be correct, the model would not be a candidate for the contest.
Not much time left - 5 months!
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
I thought about it, as I'm working on a couple of kitbashes now, but there are three main problems:
I would need to really pick up the pace of the work painting, decaling, photographing, and writing to get either project done in time. While I think it would be fun to get published, I don't think I'll have a worthy project by the deadline.
Gary
I agree that there's too little time between the announcement and the deadline. I had a project in mind that I could jump into, but with all my other time constraints, there's no way I could be done and have the project written up by the deadline.
What I think will happen is that the bulk of the entries MR receives will be from the small group of modelers that have already had similar articles published in MR before, and were already working on their next project for possible publication when the contest was announced. They'll just keep going with that project and submit it in time.
Meanwhile, the first-time authors that MR tries to attract with these contests will be unable to start a new project in time and won't even try for it. Of course, that's assuming they have the same time limitations as I do. If they're single and/or retired, then maybe they'll be able to go from start to finish in the time allotted. If they can, more power to them.
Frankly, I'm looking forward to seeing the winning articles no matter who the authors are. These are exactly the type of articles that I feel have been largely missing from MR for a long time.
Tom