Small Air Forces Contest

UPDATE 15 December: It is tough to come up with what exactly a small air force might be, but what I basically don't want is a bunch of aircraft from modern NATO, Japan, Russia, Israel, Egypt, China, India and the like that are obviously NOT small Air Forces. I'm looking for stuff like Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ecuador, Slovenia, and the like for modern forces. You can do Hungary, Sweden, Egypt, India and such if doing a WWII or earlier period as they generally did not have the force size they have now.

Mike Grant Decals has promised some of his fine decals to the winner. Thanks for your support

Fred Krause has been kind enough to offer an AA models 1/48 Chinese A-5. Appreciate your kindness, Fred.

Aztec Decals has offered several of their new sheets. Thank you for your kindness.

John Vitkus has most kindly offered a one year membership in the Small Air Forces Clearing House.

1.	No more than three entries per person.
2.	ANY modification or updating can be done to the kit. No fictitious air forces. Markings must be historically accurate. Get your pictures or profiles ready!
3.	No entry can have placed (i.e. a 1st, 2nd or 3rd) at a Regional contest or higher
4.	No entry can have been published in any magazine or website as a review, gallery item or featured article. This includes being published while the contest is on-going. Doing so will result in removal from the contest.
5.	Entry cannot be part of a diorama. Only a base is allowed with 2 crew figures max.
6.	Only one image is allowed per entry and will be shrunk to 640 pixels if too large. Smaller images will not be upsized. All must be in .jpg format. 640 x 480 max size. If you send in more than one image of a specific model, I will use the first one.
7.	Entries will not be accepted until 1 December. Last day for entries is 1 February, 2002
8.	Awards are fully dependent on what is received. Overseas winners will have awards sent via surface mail. Upgrading of this at winner's expense.
9.	Model will stand on its own merits. No description of work done will be included. Only send one image per model. It is not my job to choose which shot is the best.
10.	Send all entries and correspondence for this contest to m2cntst@aol.com. Only e-mails to that address will be considered or get a reply.
11.	No entrant can have won awards in an M2 contest in the last 6 months. (This is to give others a chance.)

The image of your model is all you have to show it off. That being the case, if you have a great model, but a poor picture, you probably won't do as well as you would like to.

Generally speaking, a digital camera will take the best model photo. There is no quality lost during the conversion from print to digital image through the scanner. If you must scan an image, do so at a relatively high resolution to get the best quality.

If shooting prints, make sure they are in focus and are printed on glossy paper. The matte paper gives a substandard image as the person operating the developer doesn't have to focus the images so sharply.

When taking your own photos, makes sure you use maximum depth of field to keep the image nice and sharp. If you aren't very good at the process, have a friend help you or take the photo for you. If you have no access to a scanner, contact me, and I'll scan your print for you.

In my experience, the best angle for photographing models is from ground level up to about 35 degrees. Anything higher is too much. Most models look good if photographed at about a 45 degree angle in azimuth (as in a compass) from the nose or tail. Side on shots (90 degrees) are not too bad either, but it really depends on the plane. Some practice will show you which is more pleasing.