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Bytom 2011

Posted: 28 Feb 2011, o 10:53
by Nameless
26-27 February 2011, VIII Modellers Festival in Bytom, Poland

Quite a big event, with 280 participants and 930 entries (unofficial data), with guests coming from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia.
It's aimed at historical modellers mainly, majority of entries are military models. There were about 40 categories - separate for planes, helicopters, ships, figures, dioramas, vignettes, wheel vehicles, track vehicles, civil vehicles, racing vehicles, motorcycles... Categories were also divided to cover different scales...Then there were separate categories for winter theme entries (again - figures with winter paintjob, winter dios...). Furthermore, lots of additional prizes like "Best German Plane from the WWII" - not sure if there actually was such prize, I just want to present the principle :) Finally - every category was judged separately for Seniors and Juniors (under 18?). In every category judged selected up to 3 winners, no 1st, 2nd, 3rd place.

The event was held in this big sport center:

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Main hall view:

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I was surprised to see that all entries are not protected anyhow. Participants placed them on tables by themselves (in appropriate categories, ofcourse). Visitors were allowed to come as close as they wanted, make pics. oh well, there were warning notes "Don't touch", but I can hardly deem this to be a protection, especially considering amount of kids there.
Here's an example of such table:

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I was even more surprised and dissapointed (disgusted even?) when I came next day to pick my entries. Noone was checking what stuff I'm taking from tables. Noone. In one case I asked someone from the stuff if he can pass me my entry - I got it, no questions asked. well, I do hope that all participants got their stuff back.

Apart from the showcase and competition there were quite a few shops (plastic models mainly) and some additional surprises for men:

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and for men:

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Below you will find a short selection of entries. You can also view FULL GALLERY. If you're surprised with some of the pics I've taken, it's most probably because my son asked me to ;)

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Re: Bytom 2011

Posted: 28 Feb 2011, o 11:13
by Pandadosmares
Thanks for the pictures, lots of cool works

Re: Bytom 2011

Posted: 28 Feb 2011, o 12:05
by mahon
what you say sounds totally different than any miniature painting contest I knew ^^

if it was a mini painting contest I would say the organizers were totally reckless risk-takers...
but the number of entries/entrants is quite impressive. we can only aspire to this with Polish miniature painting competitions... I mean the ones which are focused on painting minis more than on models.

Re: Bytom 2011

Posted: 28 Feb 2011, o 12:09
by Nameless
it was the 8th edition, I suppose they didn't have any problems with damaged or stolen models.
personally I wouldn't take such chances if I was an organiser and I didn't like that as a participant.

Re: Bytom 2011

Posted: 28 Feb 2011, o 13:57
by Corvus
at least they could span a ribbon around the table to prevent people from getting to the models

most contest I've been to have display cases, a distance between the table and the public or they are so small there are only a few tables under the watchful eye of the organizers or painters themselves

nonetheless it's a impressive collection of models