Artevelde Challenge 2015

I'm member of the local IPMS chapter (Ghent), which organizes it's own convention every two years. For me, it's the second time, and the first time helping out and being part of the jury.

LOOT!!

(As avid D&D player and dungeon master, I can't let the opportunity pass to yell this out loud :-))

I'm on a tight budget, so I'm a sucker for second-hand tables. If you're early (easy, if you're helping with setting up), you can find nice things among the admittedly high amount of crap.
I usually buy once a year, at conventions, from people or clubs that I already know, so I'm sure that the kit is still in good condition, even though the box might have some dents.

Left to right, top to bottom, we have :

• AFV Club's 1/35 leFK18 10.5cm Howitser
  Second-hand from the chairman of our club. Trustworthy fellow with an eye for quality, who tends to buy too many kits. Yay!
• Lindberg's 1/35 T-55 Main Battle tank
  Second-hand from a fellow member, who's just never gonna build it.
• Heller's 1/72 M4 Sherman "D-day"
  I decided to get a few smaller models. 1/35 takes a lot of my time and I want to give smaller scales a try. Cheaper, faster to build and paint, not necessarily lacking detail.
• Revell's 1/72 Leopard 2A5
  Same scale, same reason to buy. It's in Belgian service and officially licensed by the builder of the tank.
• Airfix 1/72 Lunar module
  Second-hand from the owner of a hobby shop I used to frequent, but sadly no longer exists. It's one of 2 models I once made that got crushed during a move, so I'm building it more for nostalgic value.
• Esci's 1/72 Merkava
  Second-hand. LOVE the Merkava. €5. Nuf said.
• A set of 10 drills
  I was lacking a few sizes and some of my older drills are getting worn and don't actually drill anymore. (Okay, I admit, I ruined them drilling tiny holes in plaster)
• Vallejo's new metal colours.
  I already indicated I wanted to give these a try. 2 vendors had them at the convetion, but aluminium was already sold out.
  I'm guessing few people will point out the difference between aluminium and duraluminium, so I bought that instead, along with the gloss black primer and the metal varnish. (if that last one is even any different from the regular gloss varnish).

Jury duty

For the first time in my life, I was asked to be a judge in the scale mdel competition. My own models wouldn't stand long under the scrutinous eye of any jury, but that doesn't mean I don't know what to appreciate or look for in other models.

It was fun, but in some categories very difficult. Knowing all modellers spent many days, weeks or even months on their (often awesome) creations, it wasn't easy to pick one over the other.

Below, I few of the more interesting entries. The first one is scratch-build, the second one 3D-printed (in pieces of course). The last one wasn't a contest-entry, but too good not to share.