Welcome to the home of The South Carolina Scale Model Mega Show

Welcome to the South Carolina Scale Model Mega Show!

Hello, and welcome to our model show.  We hope you enjoy our event dedicated to our shared hobby of scale modeling!

You may have noticed that our show’s contest format is a bit different than what you might be used to.  We hope that you will enjoy it, and we feel that you will like it once you experience it.  There are several reasons for the new show format:

• We found other contest and judging formats lacking when it comes to helping a modeler improve their modeling skills.
• We wanted to make the event more of a social gathering and model exhibition and less of a head-to-head competition.

The members of the show committee are all veterans of IPMS and AMPS shows, including both organizations’ national/international events.  We are all experienced modelers and contest judges.  We wanted our show to be more than a head-to-head, winner takes all competition.

In an effort to remedy the shortcomings we saw in other formats, we created the Mega Show format.  What you are about to experience is the result of that work.  It is a combination of several existing model show formats—we took what we saw as the best aspects of each and combined them.

Our show is first and foremost a model exhibition.  You can display your work without the stress and bother of worrying about how it will fare in a contest.  You will have a seat behind your exhibit, so you can answer questions and share your experiences with other modelers.  After all, there are no secrets in this hobby, so why not share?

One of your display models may be entered for judging.  Unlike some model competitions, our judges do not compare one model to another to determine which one is better than the others merely because it has fewer flaws.  Our judges use a 10-point scoring system and four-person teams to make an assessment of your model as it is presented.  The system is designed to evaluate how successful you were in transforming the kit (or kits) you list on the entry form into the completed model you have presented for scoring.

During their evaluation, the judges also provide written feedback, comments you can use when you build your next model.  They won’t deduct points without telling you why they did so.  Conversely, they won’t heap glowing praise over a model unless it scores a perfect 10 points on all four score sheets, either.  They will always point out things you may have missed in an attempt at making you a better modeler. 

At the end of the day, we want to help each other become better modelers. The easiest way we know of is to create an atmosphere where modelers can share what each other knows, and encourage each other to build better models, without an artificial “winners vs. losers” atmosphere.