If this were the Olympics there would be hundredths of a point separating the top four or five builds, and just to think we lost two or three of our better modellers to illnesses…every year this Challenge gets better, to the point now where it’s gotten impossible to find a favorite (and to think I emailed one of the fellas concerned the Challenge wouldn’t get off the ground this year after a slow start; boy was I wrong.)
Here’s where I’m at after changing my mind a dozen times.
1st. I can’t get past the multi-skills, the detailed craftsmanship, and realism of Eric Schade’s turntable, not to mention the perfect coloring. This guy’s down to complaining about how the turnbuckle threads aren’t exactly right. Okay, then. Well done.
2nd. Joe Bussing. What put me over the top was this man made, from scratch, the winch for the bailer and the bull wheel so faithful to detail that I’m amazed. The scope and size of this build alone is awesome, then you have all these patiently hand-crafted finishing details. Awesome.
3rd. Todd Haskins’s coal tipple is perfect. Couldn’t possibly be improved on. And he said, “…the coal chute mechanism. It is totally fudged from odd parts and non working but I think it conveys the idea of what it is supposed to do.” Yeah, no kidding. Aside from the finish level, the red was a brilliant touch.
There has to be a creativity award, I mean, c’mon now, Gregory Hile built a perfectly acceptable building and burned it down. We all know John Allen had a burnt building on his layout and did his mirror trick thing on it, and a lot of public layouts have a “burning” forest or building, but no one in the Challenge ever set fire to his Challenge build!
First-Timer Award (I think we are still awarding that, aren’t we, Dave?) goes to Jim Rowson. His build has the most character and visual interest of any of the builds, I think. Even one of the old Soviet figure skating judges couldn’t come up with enough points to knock Jim’s build out of best build by a first-timer.
And finally, I’m giving myself an Honorary Mention! Yes, I am! I set out to make progress with some good work on one of the areas of my layout, and I did. So there.