*Cox Engine of The Month* Submit your pictures! -December 2016- *ENGINE GIVEAWAY*

Exhaust-throttled Three-Dee 0.149

Black Widow-Wido Satan

Ever get the feeling you are being watched



(That's my TeeDee .010)

1960's BABY BEE  

Space Bug and it's Golden Hawk:

Medallion .049, Competition Models FF Tank, and Midwest Lil' T sailplane  Kraft KPS 10 servos, Heathkit receiver

Nice, I love the covering/finish!

I think that that is the 10 entries and another difficult choice to make.

Mark Boesen wrote:Nice, I love the covering/finish!

Thanks Mark, silkspan, dope, preceded by lots of sanding. From pictures of your ships, I think you know the drill

lol, yep...i'll never forget my second trip to the Nats, flying intermediate. Don't know how may hours i spent on the plane, sanding, sanding, sanding, turned out really nice, but when it came to the  appearance judging, it was well back from where i thought it should be. Later i caught up with the 'legendary' judge and told him what plane i had and ask him what i needed to do to become better, he replied "don't use Monokote" ...I was stunned for a second and replied that it was painted, to which he said "oh, it was?" as he walked away!
At first i was kinda PO'd, but then realized he probably didn't look that close and mistook it for plastic covering, which made me feel pretty good...sorta.

Mark, subjectivity of appearance judging reminds me of the young female beauty pageants. Oft, not the most pretty girl is selected. I remember some time back reading in a model magazine, an opinion article on CL that described the strange subjectivity of CL judging. One flyer had gone through the trouble of decorating his WW2 aircraft in non-gloss drab paint and various simulated worn paint areas exposing aluminum caused by panel removal and installation, personnel walking along wing areas, flight paint erosion, weathering, exhaust soot after engine exhaust stacks and carbon soot around gun ports. It was a beautiful job, but was downgraded because it did not have the glossy finish preferred by the judges.

I thought it odd they would consider your job as Monokoted. I gather that the winners know what the judges expect, and build to the judges liking versus best quality.

Yep, it was very odd, i can only guess that they didn't really looked at it and likely assumed since it was 'Intermediate' class that it was plastic. I thought it was an interesting story.
And yes, i've heard it from several that as a rule a shinny finish is better than dull and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and nobody is perfect.