2025 Mik Build Challenge Winners

[Dave_Taylor]

AND THE WINNERS ARE

This years Challenge of Rolls On Rails was the long awaited rolling stock Challenge everyone wanted, and finally got, And WOW did it bring out the impressive builds… Todd took on the challenge to build the biggest rolling thing in the 15 year history of the MIK, and lots of stuff all the way down to a pump Hand Cart, and the in-betweens kept getting better as the challenge rolled on…

Great job everyone that entered!!!

The most prestigious annual award is presented

in the honor of the build challenges founder,

Mik just Mik.

Is proudly presented to:

In the true Spirit of “The Mik”, Devon took a bit of used lumber and turned it into a Memory Maker for his Grandson, With his First MIK award…!!

The voting for this years builds was down from last year with 34 voters.

The top spot was a run away win over second place, And third was just a 3 point lead over 4th.

The rest of the field had only a few points separating the next 5 entries.

Each vote was assigned a value of:

3 points for 1st place vote

2 points for 2nd place vote

1 point for 3rd place vote

And the winners are:

Todd’s Biggest car ever entered Squeezed into the winners bracket…

KidZilla teamed up with his Sister to keep the Mueller Clan winning streak alive…

First to finish Vic continued his winning ways with his Railbus…

AND THE RUN AWAY 2025 MIK BUILD CHALLENGER WINNER…

The WOW factor pushed this loco build over the top…

The close runner-ups were: Eric Mueller’s Loco, Dan Hiller’s Loco, Dave’s Lime car, Bill Hines Hand car and Dans Coil Car.

Congrats to all those that keep the Spirit of Mik alive.

And we will do it again next year!!!

PS: If the winners would like a PDF copy of their award e-mail me and I will forward a printable file…

[Rooster]

That’s awesome!

+ 2 because I’m short on characters

[VicSmith]

I knew Rick’s would.win hands down when I saw the final pics. Congrats to all. This year my greatest prize was learning if I want something I have the skills to make it. For a longtime self described chainsaw modeler like me thats a big push. Thank you to everyone who participated and thanks to everyone who voted. What’s next for MIK 2026?

[Dave_Taylor]

I’m 95% certain as to what the MIK 2026 will be…

Hummmmmm… since I all ready know… maybe a MIK 2025 1/2…

[VicSmith]

Maybe a Mid-Summer MIK???

[Hines (Bill)]

Vic, if you head due south, you’ll find Paraguay is your closest mid-summer Mik locality.

Congratulations Everybody!

[Korm (Korm Kormsen)]

been woken up by the use of the “P” word, an MSMIK (midsummer MIK) would be a nice idea.
i could participate without breaking my word, not to participate in the MIK again, before i finished my 2011 MIK project.

[Sawburner (Mark Lockburner)]

Congratulations every body it was a fun time. Glad I participated, having never built a car was not sure how it would turn out. I think for my first one it was good. Went on to build a snow plow. Probably make more. Thanks Dave for all that you do.

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

Well done everyone and Congratulations to the top 3, your builds were really good and inspiring.
I was kinda hoping to pull off a 3 peat with my Big Bold Behemoth but like Kansas City in the Stuporbowl it was not meant to be

Thanks to Dave for putting on this fun challenge and to the participants that shared their work.

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

First and foremost, a huge thank you to @Dave_Taylor for continuing to manage this contest year after year. Next , congratulations to the winners, but everyone deserves a participation trophy, including those who only voted!

It’s always great fun for me, regardless of whether I am building or just watching. I’ve learned a huge lesson over the years: Don’t overestimate what you can get done in the allotted time! I’ve had several DNF’s that to this day remain unfinished, however the models that I have completed are some of my best efforts to date!

Great contest. Thanks all !!!

[Todd_Brody]

Everyone did a great job!

[Rick_Marty]

Was out of town for the weekend and just now catching up.

First I would like to thank all the little people that made this possible, woops,
wait a minute, I don’t have any little people they are all hard at work on Eric and Tod’s
railroads

Seriously, thank each and every one of you that liked and voted for my loco build. These votes coming from the caliber of model builders on this forum mean a lot.

Oh, by the way several have miss labeled this build as a diesel locomotive. It is not, the engine is a Cat 60 engine that operated on gasoline. I hope this doesn’t disqualify my entry

Thank you all for participating and thank Dave for herding cats each year and giving us direction.
Not to overlook Bob for providing the platform that we all enjoy so much.

A special thank you to Alan for creating and kick starting this great tradition.

Damn, this is starting to sound like an Academy Awards acceptance speech
I better quit now.

Thanks to all for the great learning experience, I picked up something from every entry, one thing I picked up for sure, I’m not going to attempt to build a Schnabel .

[smcgill (Sean McGillicuddy)]

The work was awesome
Really hard to pick
Congratulations to all who participated
In the now life I live thru this forum and others
Great job all

[rmccown-admin (Bob McCown (Admin))]

What a great year, congratulations to everyone. Every year the builds gets better and better. I’m quite sure Mik would be honored that we have kept this going all these years.