IPMS Regionals - 2013 - Best of Show!

I had the pleasure of attending an IPMS Regionals event, and came home with my first "Best of Show" award -- along with 5 gold, and 2 bronze awards. One of the judges let me know that one of the bronze would have been a gold, but for a very, painfully obvious seam... which I had, of course, totally overlooked. Alas. Still, you won't catch me complaining as I hadn't expected that model (Castle in the Sky - Diorama) to even make the first cut.

Best of Show - Marder III M (Artillery)
GOLD - Ruby (Figurines)
GOLD - "Fresh Meat" (Cars - Custom)
GOLD - 1966 Oldsmobile 442 Junker (Cars - Stock)
GOLD - Alien Bust (Sci-Fi)
BRONZE - "Castle in the Sky" (Diorama)
BRONZE - VW Chicken Coop (Cars - Custom)

I got some great feedback from the judges on several of my entries, and I'll make some improvements before the next show on those models that didn't place this time.

I have to admit that I was totally taken by surprise by the "Best of Show" award. I had already handed out the "Best Weathering" award (sponsored by Secret Weapon - so I got to hand it out) and figured my job was done for the day. They actually had to call my name three times to get me back up there. When I finally got to the stage we had a discussion that went something like this:

Me: Sorry, what's up?
Head Judge: Best of Show
Me: Sure, what did you need me to do?
HJ: You won.
Me: What?
HJ: Best of Show, you won it. For your Marder.
Me: Really?

There was a fair big of laughter at this point as much of that was picked up by the live mic. Oops!

And now it's time to get on to the next projects, and keep right on painting.