AWARD WINNERS

This year’s assembly of models produced some of the best examples of the craft of plastic-kit aircraft modelling we’ve seen yet. The trend towards the larger scales continues with a growing number of entries in those categories. Seen here is a selection of a few of the best of the models seen this time around. The exceptional quality of these entries made the judges’ task of selecting the Best of Category awards all that more difficult, and the allotting of Excellence Awards only a little less so.

The organisers, including the clubs, are already making plans for further attractions, innovations and refinements that will make WINGS 2006 an increasingly important event in the modelling world calendar.

 

 

John Xigalatas not only won Best of Category in the 1/32-scale Out-of-box with this superb F/A-18C Hornet of the RAAF’s No. 77 Squadron, it went on to win two of the four special awards, Best Australian Aircraft and Best of Show.  His F-16 Fighting Falcon of the Bahrain Amiri Air Force in the same category also picked up one of the ten Excellence Awards.

 

Tod Gobledale won Best of Category with this diorama of an F9F-5 and an F9F-5P Panther on the flight deck of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Bennington in 1952 during the Korean War. The rendering of the flight deck surface and other details showed great expertise.

 

Lukasz Kedzierski won Best of Category in the 1/32-scale Enhanced with this meticulous World War Two F4U-1A Corsair of the RNZAF. He also entered an Albatros D.V in 1/48-scale out-of-box that won Best of Category, and on top of that, an Excellence Award and the People’s Choice for his 1/32-scale Enhanced Fokker DR.I.

 

 

Azrael Ravan won the Museum’s Choice award for this 1/24-scale Enhanced A6M2 Zero-Sen as it would have appeared early in its service with the Japanese Imperial Navy, circa 1942. The museum’s judges were particularly impressed by the refinement and accuracy evident in the mechanical details and the cockpit.

Tom Scott scored an Excellence Award for this Fw180F-8 in the Senior 1/32-scale and larger Enhanced category. The model showed a very authentic treatment of the spray-painting on the fuselage. 

 

Don Brandenburg, a regular Wings entrant, often comes up with something a bit different, this time a very nicely finished Antonov An-2 that won Best of Category in the Senior 1/72-scale out-of-box.

 

Lukasz Kedzierski also entered this Albatros D.III, and a D.III OEF variant in Polish markings, in the Senior 1/48- scale Enhanced category. Both deservedly won an Excellence Award for the craftsmanship evident in every detail.

 

Vin Wragg won an Excellence Award for this finely crafted Messerschmitt Bf110-C. An entry in Senior 1/48 out-of-box category, the attention to detail could hardly have been bettered.

 

Graeme Molineux’s delightful Bell 47 in 1/72-scale - and with Australian registration markings - was the Best of Category in the helicopters. The extremely light nature of the Bell’s structure at this scale required exceptional skill.

 

Tod Gobledale won Best of Category in the Senior 1/48 scale Enhanced with this meticulous RAF Gloster Gladiator amidst some very tough competition: three of the available ten Excellence Awards went to models in this category.

 

Michael Mitchell won Best of Category in the Junior 1/72 and smaller scale for this Lancaster. The consistently high quality of all the entries in this category indicates these youngsters show a lot of promise in models yet to come.       

The Excellence Awards explained

To recognise excellence more equitably, we have dispensed with second and third prizes as the number of entries worthy of special commendation may vary widely from one category to another. Instead, we have created the Excellence Awards which are awarded without regard to category and are limited to ten in number, therefore there may be no Excellence Awards in some categories and several in another. Virtually all of the models that gain an Excellence Award are of a ‘first prize’ standard in their own right, but of course there can only be one Best of Category.

All awards are in the form of a framed certificate containing a photograph of the model, and winners of the four special awards also receive an individually engraved trophy.