After going to a model contest today, I've kinda been giving the thought about helping to sponsor some sort of "What If" award/prize for a What If model catagory for future contests. I always see lots of awards (1st, 2nd, 3rd, Best in Show) for regular stuff like prop aircraft, sci-fi, aircraft carriers, etc., etc., etc. at contests that I go to. But not much or never anything for really imaginative and creative stuff that has never been seen or done before, or even for humorous subjects too.
But the question is this: What defines a "What If"?
Any Hypothetical non SF subject as far as I am concerned.
Some count SF subjects as whiffs (technically accurate) but SF already has a category of it's own.
This can be broken down to Hard Whiffery and Soft Whiffery.
Soft Whiffery is building an otherwise normal subject but using different markings.
Hard Whiffery involves creating a completely new subject.
Naturally there are plenty of shades of grey between.
Here at IPMS Fremont Hornets and IPMS Silicon Valley Scale Modelers, we are about to come to grips with that question. I just wrote a primer on whiffing for the IPMS SVSM newsletter for November. It will surely be "cussed and discussed" by the club. However the seeds have been planted. There is a possibility for the idea to go "national"....It will depend on the results of the reading of the article.
:cheers:
I think a good "What-If" award would be "most realistic art-work" (which could be sub-divided into "most realistic profiles" and "most realistic photo-manipulations") and "most realistic concepts" (From an shape and technical standpoint).
Many US IPMS contests include What If under the Hypothetical category (and this year that category at the Nats was pretty much all what if). They also have a Humor category. It would be nice to see these in all contests but many just wouldn't have enough entries. It really depends on the show and, like Dragon, how much we can influence the local population to do more of these. We have corrupted more than a few so far as evidenced by the number of what if builds that show up on other sites and at contests. Some clubs embrace the idea like the Seattle club in Washington.
A lot of shows do allow individuals to sponsor awards so if that is what it takes to get it started, go for it.