Episode 39: Marijn Van Gils Has Some Thoughts About Judging

When your hosts last spoke to Belgian modeler (and sometimes bassist) Marijn Van Gils on Episode 19, we focused on his modeling career and his always-inspiring thoughts on creativity. One of our favorite people and artists in this pursuit, as well as one of the deepest thinkers, when Marijn reached out and said he had some thoughts about judging at figure and modeling shows after our recent comments about IPMS Nationals—and, well, every other time we’ve broached the subject—we said, “Sure, you know we wanna hear anything you’ve got to say!” Hence, another illuminating chat with Marijn.

We also share some thoughts about what first-time attendees might expect at the upcoming MMSI Chicago Show on Oct. 20-21 (click the link to register your exhibits or book your room!), prompted by a voice mail from one of our loyal listeners, Grant Mayberry. Hope we helped, Grant! (And you know we love hearing from you; leave us a message here about anything, any time.)

Above: An example of using fabric and small cardboard-box risers to create an attractive display with numerous miniatures. This is the work of Christos Panagiotopoulos at MFCA 2023 (photo by Jim DeRogatis).

Above: A guide for how judges may weight various elements when scoring models or figures—and it’s ONLY a guide!—originally developed by Shep Paine when he began championing the Open System. The language explaining this system is a constant work in progress, and it’s ever-evolving and improving, but you can get a sense of the basics of the system in use at MMSI, MFCA, Atlanta, World Expo, and other shows as it’s laid out on this page of the MMSI’s web site.

Marijn mentioned in our earlier chat that the next ship diorama he’s working on is the Battle of Trafalgar. Above: Some of what he’s been up to of late. And you thought you needed a new OptiVISOR!