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Tomcat Sunset Model Contest Winners and Other Details


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Well folks, after an exhausting weekend at the Tomcat Sunset, I finally made it home around 2am. I stuck around for an additional day because I had flight line time scheduled with VF-31 and VFA-103 Monday morning, and I wanted to spend time with friends I hadn't seen in a long time before they left for cruise next week.

All-in-all, this was one hell of an event. The model show/contest was a huge hit, and I was pleasently surprised to see we had 28 entries that officially made it into the contest, 13 of them being from models I took with me from the diffrent modelers that had sent in entries.

It was great to finally meet guys like Darren Roberts and Brian Plescia (Darren is a true wild man btw).

I can't thank everyone enough for their particiaption in helping make this event a success. I also want to thank Darren Roberts, Jeremy Houdsan, Jay Chladek, Brian Plescia, Craig Scaling, and Dan Teker for all their needed and appreciated help the morning of the show. I dragged these guys out of the rack at 0600 on Saturday morning and I couldn't have had the show set up without them. Jay was very instrumental in helping with last minute repairs.

So now for the contest results.

Before I announce the winners, hre's how things were done. The winners were broken down into 5 categories, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place and also best show bird and best line bird. The best of show category was cut because the judges didn't judge that category for some reason, and it turned out for the best anyway.

Anyway, here are the results with prizes included:

Ist Place: Mike Gibson VF-111 F-14A 1/32 Tam F-14

2nd Place: Ian Hollhan VF-154 F-14A 1/48 Has F-14B VF-103 (Box signed by Jolly Rogers aircrew)

3rd Place: Jim Bryan VF-31 F-14D 1/48 Has F-14D, BB pit

Best Show Bird: Jay Chladek VF-124 F-14A 1/32 Tam F-14

Best Line Bird: Ernest Childs 1/32 VF-2 F-14D 1/32 Tam F-14

Each modeler that was present rec'd their Tomcat pieces and prizes that Day.

As for the rest of you who submitted entries to me, I will have details on how to get your tomcat pieces in another post. I'm taking the day off to recoup and spend time with my wife who I haven't seen in 3 weeks.

I'll post more details later.

Thanks again for helping make this part of the Tomcat Sunset a great success.

Brian

Edited by VF-103guy
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There are admittedly some deserving birds there. Definitely.

Not to quibble, but I'm surprised the 1/32 was allowed; I thought it was there as a sort of showpiece! Kinda expected it to be a 1/48 only thing.

I would have to agree with Andrew, but oh well, they all were beautiful models and each one of them is special to its builder and that's all that matters!!!!!

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Yes, it was a bit odd seeing a 1/32 jet. But, the amount of work that went into that model, it was CLEARLY the best line bird by far. The VF-2 markings on it were custom done as no decal was available for it yet and it looked like it had ALL the proper mods done to it to turn it into a correct F-14D. Every time I looked at it, I could see something new. It literally was a show stopper and would have continued to be one even if it was built in 1/48 scale instead of 1/32 (although the VF-111 bird would have given it a run for its money I think). Part of the reason was that Ernest was a crew chief on F-14s for many years, so he knew that plane inside and out.

Edited by Jay Chladek
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Congrats to all the winners, and it's nice to see Jay rewarded for his incredible dedication and commitment. 'Can't get it done in time to ship it? No problem--I'll get in my car and drive 2/3 of the way across the country!' Seriously, dude: :bandhead2:

Daniel

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It really was amazing to be a part of something like this. It didn't really hit me until all the models were on the table lined up. Just about every major age group was represented, and all brought excellent results to the table.

100_2430.jpg

Folks, I don't care who you are... THAT'S a lot of tomcats... ;)

Edited by Skull Leader
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Yep, that's a lot of Tomcats! What a wonderful thing!

Now, my next question is, how many of us, besides Brian Plescia, have more in their stash than what is shown on the table? :D:P

I'd had this dream of one day (after many years of work) having a 1/48 collection of every Tomcat squadron--and in some cases, 2 per, when I couldn't pick just one paint scheme I liked better than another. But after seeing these photos... God, how much space would that take up? :blink: Even if you parked them nose-to-tail like on a carrier deck, and crammed them in as tight as you could, that's still, what--10, 12, 14 shelves full of Tomcats? At least? Egad... :o

Daniel

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It was also a pretty good representation of most Tomcat kits in 1/48 scale. The majority were Monogram kits, but Hasegawa was well represented as well and there were also at least two Minicraft kits on the table. Heck, the Freelancers bird I believe was a Fujimi kit as well. I think the only brands not represented were Italeri (no great loss) and the old Revell mold. Some were built close to OOB, others were done with aftermarket bits.

Heck, looking at the picture of all those birds lined up like that, I am still amazed we got that many! It would have been funny to enter all those cats at an IPMS event to see if we could force a Tomcats only category split (and there are so many that they would still have to split it even further).

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Wonder what the breakdown in decals used is...ie: Twobobs, CAM, Superscale, VF, etc......

I think it was overall a pretty even score across the board.

There were 2 entries with VF-Decals used for sure, and I saw 2 with 2Bobs. There were also CAM, Aeromaster/Eagle Strike, and a few Super Scale decals used.

All in all, it was a phenominal turn out. Just to see 28 1/48 F-14's all in one setting was surreal. The crowd was more than responsive. As Darren said, we could have made over $3000 if we were to have sold the collection.

I can tell you, one thing Darren and I kept saying to each other was, "we should have brought business cards". He and I alone handed out more than 50 contact sheets to guys asking for custom models all throughout the day and into the evening.

I think the most amazing part of the trip was the fact I finally got to see old squadron friends I hadn't seen in years, friends I hadn't seen in a while (i.e. CRASCA), and I finally got to meet Darren Roberts, Jeremy, Jay, Jim Bryan, Art Zopa, Martin Warsowski (sorry if I got your last name wrong Martin!), and the Polish "Tomcatsky" group, who in my opinion were the best dressed modelers at the entire event! :cheers:

A great time was had by all. I know I consumed more beer at the Key West night than I care to remember.. :crying:

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Yep, that's a lot of Tomcats! What a wonderful thing!

Now, my next question is, how many of us, besides Brian Plescia, have more in their stash than what is shown on the table? :crying::P

Well.......I have (Hasegawa 1/48) 15 on display, 6 in the stash ,4 gone to the boneyard of little girls with pink paint and 1 at the sunset.

Thats not counting the built 1/32 and at least 20 in 1/72 that I can't get myself to give away just yet.

SCARY part.......Tomcats are my THIRD most built model. :cheers:

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Congratulations to the winners and all who took the time out of their lives to participate!

It took me a minute to find where the forum went and I saw another thread with a bunch of images of the event and it looks like everyone did a superb job on their builds. Most of you donated some real museum quality stuff!

To answer the decal question, the ones for my VF-1 bird were actually custom created by a friend of mine and generously printed by Mag1 Decals who posts here on occasion. (I still can't say enough that I wish I had more time for that build but by the end I had to throw the thing together to complete it.) I'm trying to convince my friend to create more artwork and it seems he's entertaining the thought. I think he'll mostly do USN stuff and probably 60's to 90's.

I bet that was some display and I'm guessing photos do not do it any justice. I hope the vets and active personal enjoyed seeing it.

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