Im just starting to build armor kits, for my first one I plan on taking the Tamiya JGSDF Light Armored Vehicle and painting it to look like its from anime Mobile Suit Gundam.

Do IPMS judges care if the kit is accurate outside of the build quality?

Not if it is a "what if".

Having judged in a fair number of IPMS shows, I can only say that's one of those difficult questions...

SOMETIMES one or another judge knows some real stuff about the specific vehicle being considered- and this knowledge may surface in an adverse way (as in "no real .... ever had THAT (some added detail bit) on it") - but I think in general as long as the overall picture is pretty correct, you don't see too much of this harping on detail accuracy issues. Having said that, I DO know of one or 2 rivet-counters who become 800 pound apes in a show...

Bob

It depends on what category you put it in. I think it would fit in well with the Hard Graph stuff, just enter in the Sci Fi category.

Looking at each of the IPMS shows that I've been to or are planning on going, there's no What If catagory for armor.

Right now the plan is if the first LAV goes together well I'll be getting another one and putting the Tamiya M242 Bushmaster on it.

It really depends on the show. It could be entered in Sci-fi or Miscellaneous categories. I had some parts left over from a couple of conversions and used them to build a hypothetical Russian gunboat. At the urging of some fellow members I entered it in our club show. There was some discussion among the judges as to which category it should be placed in. They decided that it could be entered in the ships category, because there was no rule that said it had to be a 'real' ship. The AMPSEast show has a Sci-fi category for 'what ifs' such as the so-called 'Paper Panzers', or for Sci-fi armor such as that 'Star Wars' Tank. Al

Most judges don't know what accuracy is except in their own very limited fields of interest.

I did a Maquette 38t about a decade ago. It got trashed because the so-called judges thought the flag hatch was an ejection pin mark.

If the judges are using IPMS guidlines, accuracy should have very little influence on the scoring. The primary judging factors in an IPMS show are to be based on build quality and workmanship, per IPMS judging guidlines. When I have judged at contests, the first things that take out the vast majority of the entants are things like: are there seams visible, glue smears on clear parts, gaps in structures and assemblies, dust/dirt/hair in the paint, is the assembly square and true (crooked wheels or gun assemblies or suspensions). It's amazing how modelers get way too carried away with adding PE and resin bits, and ignore the basics.
Norm Samuelson

What Norm said.

What Norm said is all pretty much true and, in the ideal world, the way things should and would go. So, I gladly "third" Norm!

Kevin has hit the sad but real counter-point: judges - even those very committed to the IPMS principles and rules/criteria - are human, and their mis-information, coupled with focus on finding "errors", can and often does lead to making such mistakes about small details.

In fact, there may be a sort of paradox here: we seek and add more and more tinier and more subtle and specific-to-mark details to kits and builds, but many of these small details are ever easier to mistake for flaws and errors in building!

Having been burned this way, I now carefully examine the builds I plan to show for details that may become "mistaken-ID" issues... Basically, the "rule" is - if the detail looks like it could be mistaken for a basic error, either remove it, or alter and enhance it to clearly say "this is intentional". It's Hobb's choice, but there it is!

When judging, I try to examine suspect details in light of "OK, is it likely that this bit just somehow got over-looked in an otherwise great job, or could it in fact be some intentional detail?", and I'll always ask someone else, if I can.

Cheers!

Bob