Sure, I get what you are saying, but I still believe that if they paid to enter, and won, then they should get their prize, and do with it as they please, as opposed to someone telling them that they won last year....you get your 1st place...but no prize. You could do it once, but then those people likely wouldn't be back the following year!

LOL...all I did was build a couple Tamiya T-55 kits, one OOB to show off a set of resin road wheels, the other to show off a T-54 backdate set. No painting was required, just nice clean build with no visible glue marks. My payment, a couple of resin conversion kits/wheels of my choice. Wasn't really difficult (thanks to a superb kit to start with), something pretty much anyone could do, I was just lucky enough to be chosen.

Let me ask you this....if someone builds a model, takes pictures all the way through the building and painting process, and uses those pictures along with an article they wrote to be put in a magazine, they they would get paid for, does that make them a professional modeler? They are getting paid for their work. Heck if I submit a photo to FSM to go in their Reader's Gallery, you get paid for it. That hardly makes a person a professional modeler in my book.

Heck, I was accused of being a professional modeler, just because I own a hobby shop. Last time I checked...owning the business didn't all of a sudden over night make me a better modeler. Would be nice if it did....but lets be realistic shall we! LOL