BAMM moving forward
The inaugural Build a Model Month (BAMM) is in the books. The virtual model contest garnered 3,811 photos with some coming in the last seconds before entries closed at 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 30.
In all, 209 modelers contributed more than 750 models. They came from all over the world, including Serbia, England, and the
Philippenes, and the quality of the work on display was outstanding. Fellow FSM editor Tim Kidwell and I looked at every model in the competition, and I can tell you that the pair of us, along with our fellow category judges, had a tough time narrowing the winners down to a single model in each genre. You can see the top entries on the website, and the grand prize winner will be featured in the May/June 2023 FSM.
But the real focus of the event was building a model or models with a person or persons who had not built a model before and share the fun. We heard from a bunch of you who were doing just that, and you should visit and read some of those stories at FineScale.com. Many clubs organized build sessions to bring in new blood and even a couple modeling podcasts got in on the action hosting group builds. Our hope is that once these events take off, they can keep going outside of November.
The FSM staff want to thank everyone who took time to enter the contest and vote for People’s Choice. Also, a big thank you to the people who took time out of their schedules to help judge the categories. They are in no particular order — Rick Lawler, George Seletas, Annya Shetinina, Jim Kampmann, Toni Levine, Spencer Pollard, and Kendra Bell.
Several modeling clubs and podcasts helped spread the word for both BAMM and the contest, including IPMS/USA, IPMS Toronto, Lakes Region Scale Modelers, Youth in Model Railroading, Model Geek’s Podcast, and Scale Model Podcast. In addition, Airfix, AK Interactive, Atlantis Models, Arma Hobby,
ICM, Revell, and Tamiya all donated products for the associated BAMM Sweepstakes.
At the beginning of this note, I referred to the 2022 event as the inaugural BAMM. We are already planning for November 2023 and hope to make it bigger and better. Watch the pages of the magazine and FineScale.com for announcements. In the meantime, keep building and spread the joy!