Ma.K Competition 2021 Details with Lincoln Wright Winners-2.jpg

Hello friends, we have successfully completed our second Paint on Plastic Maschinen Krieger Competition and WOW it’s another good one.

First of all, you have my sincere thanks for making this feel even bigger than the first one we did in 2019. Please check out the hashtag, you can see all the different entires, WIP updates and more.

We also experimented running it across multiple platforms to make it easy for you to share. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook were all popular. Thank you for participating with this and yes I did try to keep up and comment along the way but wow it just exploded didn’t it!?!

Now for the toughest part… choosing our Winners and Top Gallery. We had a top 4 last time but with the volume and super high quality of entries, that was just not going to be enough so I aimed for a Top 10.

I failed! Once I came down to these entries, they ALL had to be included so I present to you our Paint on Plastic Maschinen Krieger Competition 2021 Gallery. Winners and Feedback. All winners have been personally invited to participate in upcoming projects. More to be announced soon!

May I also mentioned that our Sponsors this year were… you and I! Yes, this year we were sponsored by our wonderful supporters on the Paint on Plastic Patreon (click me!) crowdfunding platform and I donated my time and expertise for the community and for my love of Maschinen Krieger and to repay the kindness shown to me by the owner and creator of the property, Kow Yokoyama Sensei.

Thank you again for entering and I hope your enjoy these galleries and they inspire you to create as well.

Linc

Join Us!

Would you like to join us? Tutorial videos, Discord Community, Ask Questions and Feedback from Linc and the Team. It’s all here!

Top 14 Gallery

Yes it’s always been 14….

Kevin’s Falke.

@littleplasticpeople

A classic beauty. Tastefully arranged, true to canon. Kow Yokoyama Sensei Yokoyama Sensei very much likes this one, especially how it’s depicted in flight. Kevin has worked diligently for the past couple of years since discovering Maschinen Krieger and with each build I feel he has developed a deeper understanding for the aesthetic and reasons behind it. Kevin has been with me for some time and the results are clear. Here he followed through with my Falke Step by Step Tutorial series, with a different colorway and just look at this!

I am sincerely amazed, duly impressed and most happy and proud of his progress with us. Well done Kevin!

Kevin has also been a fantastic community member, joining in a great number of competitions and I see him edging higher and higher. The hard work and diligence is really paying off for him.

Thank you very much Kevin for your support and for creating this wonderful model for our community comp.

Stephen’s Kangaroo.

@RawNaldRayGun

Clearly Stephen has put a great deal of thought and effort into this. I remember him sharing this with our Paint on Plastic Discord Community from the beginning and first thought, “Ouch, this will be a tough kit for someone that seems new to make work” but our small community was extremely supportive and always ready to answer questions and give suggestions and with each step, I was amazed at Stephen’s progress. He actually LISTENED and implemented advice! That’s crazy but my goodness, look at these results!!

I am sincerely amazed, duly impressed and most happy and proud of his progress with us. Stephen has already moved on to new work and it’s also an interesting kit, please do go check it out and follow him on @RawNaldRayGun

Thank you very much Stephen for your support and for creating this wonderful model for our community comp.

Lucas B’s Gladiator.

@lblackmodels

Bonus points for the inclusion of a studio shot and a very Maschinen Krieger appropriate outdoor, natural lighting shot! Lucas joined us at the end of 2019 and has put in a great deal of effort, I am super proud of him. He clearly already had some experience but was very open minded, asked fantastic questions in our PoP Discord and wait for it, tried out our crazy suggestions. Now just look at his results! I know this project contains many firsts for him, the camo and ID band colors, the groundwork and so on. Isn’t it amazingly cool!? I quite enjoyed this “money shot” in natural lighting too, it’s just brilliant. Congratulations!! See more of Lucas’ work and follow him on @lblackmodels

Thank you very much Lucas for your support and for creating this wonderful model for our community comp.

Jim’s Jerry. Oh and Jim’s Kauz. Jim’s Falke. Plus Jim’s Neuspotter.

@adminjim

Yes, our Jim was able to deliver 4 entries and at this high standard, each model deserving it’s own spot in the top spots. I thought it might be better to include Jim’s works together as one so that you can look over each and understand that they all came from the one artist in this given timeframe. The comp has never been about quantity but they don’t look like quantity builds do they? Each has it’s own character and concept. Jim has been a student from Oct. 2019 and came to our community with a high level of western, AFV finish skill. Nice flat armour, advanced chipping and so on. Jim immediately stood out as someone who sincerely wanted feedback and to learn new things and that he’s done. His keen awareness and attention to colour has stood out to me as has his willingness to add to and adjust his methodologies.

Take his Jerry, it’s a wonderful expression of the box art brought to life yet Jim has been quite restrained with his use of additive chipping. Yet the piece still reads as worn and appropriately “weathered”. This is a thoughtful and artistic application of “less is more” and perhaps my favourite of Jim’s work so far. The Kauz is also an example of listening and “making it happen” as the ringed octopus inspired camouflage are all hand painted. When I mentioned to Jim that I remembered that Kow Yokoyama Sensei “simply” hand painted his for the box art and sample of the 2009 (I think?) WAVE + 3Q Models re-lease of the Melusine kit, Jim did just that. No fuss, no over complication, he figured it out and made it work. Bravo Jim!

See more of Jim’s work and follow him on @adminjim

Thank you very much Jim for your support and for creating this wonderful model for our community comp.

Chris “Tsangy”’s “Great Shot Hana” Vignette.

@tsangypaints

Please click here for a Community Spotlight post I shared a little while back, it reveals how I highly respect Chris, his work, his diligence and dedication. Yes Chris is also a student but I cannot take credit other than perhaps giving him some direction on occasion. Chris placed with us in our 2019 Comp and I gifted him this A.F.S. “Polar Bear” kit. They are difficult to bring to life, light on detail and literally quite retro having been designed back in the early 80s. Chris has been working on this look, bringing figure painting style to mecha and I’ve seen a Gunpla version and it was just amazing. So I asked if he would try it out with this kit and least to say, I was not disappointed at all. Composition, arrangement, interaction of figures along with the masterful paintwork and photography. This is a very worthy inclusion in out Top Gallery and we really appreciate you, your work and community support and involvement Chris. A sincere thank you!

See more of Chris’s work and follow him on @tsangypaints

Judging Criteria

Now this is extremely tough so I thought I might add some notes for those interested and who’d like to enter again next time.

Points were given for finishing on time, following instructions, supporting and engageing with the community, quality of project, quality of photopgraphy, theme, Maschinen “taste” and sense of fun. If you have misbehaved online, you will notice your entry has not been included.

David’s Großerhund, Whiteknight and Friedrich.

@plingboot

Yes another multi project finish here yet the work is of exceptionally high quality as is the photography. David joined our community and has supported us for over 5mths now. I hope I am able to inspire an artist of this level but clearly, he comes to us already quite accomplished. I believe he is new to plastic modelling but clearly not to art nor graphic design. To be able to envisage works like this takes a great deal of training & investment in oneself, not only in developing concepts & colorways but also putting them together into a build project and figuring out the steps to completion. This is above and beyond the basics of simply being able to see this in other’s work. David has clearly spent of a great deal of time and effort towards mastery of what we commonly refer to as “attention to detail”. As Vincent Van Goh was reputed to say, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” and I feel this is most applicable to David’s works so far.

Thank you very much David for your support and for creating these wonderful works for our community competition and congratulations on placing with your first entries with us!

Phill’s MK44 AMMOknight.

Phill is quite active in our Paint on Plastic Discord, occasionally on Facebook but not much at all on Instagram so I don’t have a place to point you to to see more of us his work other than our Discord channel. Please really look at this. Nice outdoor shots and using natural light like this is never a bad move for an online contest like this, especially for larger scale models like 1/20 in this case. Natural light just falls better on larger models and there is a precedent with Kow Yokoyama Sensei who takes his own shots outdoors in front of his home or simply on his workspace. So I consider these kinds of photos as legitimate as classy studio style shots in keeping with the genre. Phill’s work here is fantastic in blending in this extremely complex and challenging camouflage pattern at a resolution that does not break up the model too much and ruin the effect. This is particularly challenging to do and Phill nailed it here.

Please also note Phill’s custom colorway here and how he has used compatible intensities of color, first on the camouflage patter and how he has notched up the interior’s intensity and matched that with the blue ID band. Bravo Phill, very well played. The “branded” base is just one of the cool touches I know I would approach him about if this were an in person comp. “What was your inspiration for this and HOW did you do it!?!” and I am sure it would be the start of a very interesting reveal discussion.

Thank you very much Phill for your support and for creating this inspiring piece. Somehow this one speaks to me in a quiet voice and I want to learn from it. It has secrets for us! ongratulations on placing with your first entry with us!

Andy Butcher’s “Hunted” Diorama.

@abc_mecha

Perhaps “Hounded”? Featuring a WAVE Superball and the Hasegawa “Vega” Großerhund. You might know Andy from our Facebook group as the Admin and he gives so much of his knowledge and help to us there, we sincerely appreciate you Andy. Andy’s work here is both impressive and surprising. We’ve seen smaller works as he built up to something like this and he had shared hints in our Discord channel but I did not expect something of this epic magnitude. The concept, layout and composition, color choices and finish are fantastic and top shelf. Multiple themes are expressed in this work, my favourite being “Hunted” if we take the human piloted Superball as our subject. Perhaps that’s why Andy did not include a title as he wanted us to think about and do beg his forgiveness for adding this to his work if it doesn’t work.

This piece fit’s into what I would consider movie-esque diorama’s, they are bold to go outside the normal considerations of a vignette and play with space and form and like this example, are very powerful when well executed.

You might be surprised that Andy first came to me as a student back in 2017 for Gunpla and whilst also making great improvements there, his work and dedication to improve with the difficult Maschinene Krieger aesthetic is evident in this work. A well deserved top placement Andy!

See more of Andy’s work on his Instagram @abc_mecha and his Facebook Page ABC Mecha .

Dominc Teoh’s “Spaceman”.

@dominicteoh

When Dom explained his vision for this project, I felt he was quite clear about it but then when these photos came in, just wow. Absolutely nailed it! With the background so dark and brooding yet the Kauz suit is so bright and sharply defined, the artistry is quite high here. The background was an interesting experiment with a poured acrylic medium and the suit is very high level of finish brought over from Gunpla and applied perfectly to a Ma.K space suit. Look at the lovely and soft shading, blueing of the nozzles and limited colorway. It’s a perfect example of how to bring a monotone “white” finish to life with blueish undertones matching with the nozzles and one simple details of dark red that matches perfectly with the waterslides. Yellow for contrast. Love it!

Dom is a private student and I am so impressed with his work ethic, dedication and progress.

See more of Dom’s work on his Instagram @dominicteoh

Leonard’s Gladiator Vignette

@first_rule_of_model_building

Custom Gladiator here in an Anti-Aircraft configuration, figures are also custom pilot and cold weather upgrades. Custom made, “heavy suit” opening. There’s a great deal of work been done here yet it still appears perfectly within the Ma.K aesthetic. Beautifully applied lozenge camouflage. lastly the presentation with tasteful outdoor shots impart a great deal of realism. Kow Yokoyama Sensei loves this one, one of his top picks. Of course, I humbly agree. A masterpiece and I will include more shots of this in a publication for you soon. I would not be so bold as to call Leonard a student, he’s more a supporter of the community and we sincerely appreciate you and your contributions to Maschinen Krieger. Thank you very much entering again, that’s 2 podiums for you now!

Stuart’s Dora

@doctor_sleepless

See, you can win a podium finish with a rare and expensive kit! Kidding but it’s true and I know Stuart also has a dry sense of humour and I hope he enjoys the joke! I believe this is a Dora kit released by Modelkasten and if Scalemates is correct, way back in 2002. The box art of which is perhaps of the most iconic paintings by Kow Yokoyama Sensei. It’s difficult to explain in text how much this project means to me. Not only has Stuart brought one of my favourite artworks to life, it’s saved a fantastic kit from languishing indefinitely in a box and allowed it to reach a wonderfully full potential. The outdoor photography with the well chosen background is magnificent, see how it perfectly works for the camouflage scheme?

The weathering choices with tone and depth, location are perfect. It has a life and quality that I feel demonstrates a deep level of understanding of the Ma.K aesthetic and nuance.

Stuart has been with me since 2018 and I am not sure I am a teacher so much as someone whom inspires him along his own part to excellence. Then again, this is also the role of a teacher. To inspire and offer insight and emotional context and for this, I am sincerely grateful to Stuart for producing this piece, I’m most proud of you. Well done!

Takumi’s Pink Kangaroo

Takumi san is a dear friend and I will update if he shares his Instagram for you to see more of his work. Yes he was also a podium finisher in 2019. I don’t see him online a great deal, other than to occasionally drop off masterpieces like this in our Paint on Plastic Community Media. With regards to this particular finish, I first want to offer a sincere “bravo sir, well played!. I consider this near perfection. Color choice and customising though shade and light. The weathering is heavy, oily and sooty, just as Kow Yokoyama Sensei describes the genre in his own words. This is a fantastic rendition of the Kangaroo kit released by Saito san not long ago and the classy pose and photography adds to the finish.

Takumi-san is another wonderful and humble artist that calls me ‘Sensei” but I am not sure I am worthy of the title from his perspective. Yet, perhaps I am to blame for his obsession with Maschinen Krieger and we laugh about this as is so often the case, it was Gundam and Gunpla that allowed us to find each other. I was a panel guest at the 2017 GBWC (Gunpla Builders World Cup” in Sydney, Australia. Out of respect my demonstration was of course with a Gunpla model but I also brought along some of my recent finishes including a Ma.K S.A.F.S. “Seapig”. Takumi-san came up after my show and his eyes were on the Seapig and it seems he has not turned back. 3 and a half years of dedication has produced this.

Congratulations Takumi san, I am so very proud and inspired by you!

Dimitris’ Custom S.A.F.S.

Dimitris is another is another dear friend, sometimes active in our community platforms and I will update if he shares his Instagram for you to see more of his work.

Yes, it’s true. Dimitris is the reason the community received an extension for this group build. He simply asked! Seriously though, I could see that a few of our friends were struggling and it’s understandable, these are challenging times. 3 of the top finishes were completed in the extra time and I feel this made it worth it. Both for us and for them.

Dimitris’ work here is first class. His roots as an AFV modeller are apparent with the custom contraction done to a fine scale and the wonderful heaviness of the suit. Contrast that with the fact that it was done in a relatively short time as the poor guy was suffering a hand injury. The varied colors and effects are done to a fine level, they are carefully and thoughtfully applied. Dimitris has also worked on his figure painting game, this face is extremely well done and he claims it’s a happy accident that the pilot loosely resembles himself.

Wonderful work here Dimitris and I feel you deserve a place in the top gallery due to this being a very inspiring piece, thank you for your dedication and perseverance. Very well done!

Henrik’s Winter Malamute Diorama

How good is this!?! Henrik is new to our Community but certainly not modelling as you can see with his masterful rendition here of of WAVE’s Gladiator kit in its winter version, repurposed to Desert Pink - I love it! Henrik is a new friend, so I don’t have a backstory to share but instead a new one about meeting the coolest people through the hobby.

Clearly, I am not experienced with running competitions. I made some mistakes with this one, there seems to have been a small amount of confusion about emailing the photos in to submit them for publication here on my website. Yes, there were a couple of complaints and I’ve offered to update the gallery all through April to help make it up to people and so that nobody misses out after all their hard work. However, Henrik did not complain at all. He realised that he hadn’t followed the instructions, fixed it and promptly followed up with me. Plus wait for it, he even… apologised! On the interwebz, that’s just crazy!!

So far, none of the complainers have followed up yet the one person that realised that getting their photos in was their personal responsibility has followed up and been totally awesome about it too. So of course, he has earned a top spot in the gallery and a new fan and friend. You are awesome sauce Henrik, thank you. ^^

Henrik is not active on social media but I have good feeling you will see him involved with collaborations with me. Very good feeling!

Full Gallery

A finished model within a time frame is a win, so thank you very much for all the fantastic entries this year. I’ve added your photos here and sorted by “name” of file. That way your photos should run together and it helps to randomise the order.

It’s most pleasing to have some of you back from our last competition and I can see that you have improved a great deal. It’s also wonderful to have many of you with us for the first time, contraptions on your first Ma.K models!'

If you come across this gallery afterwards yet entered and would like your works added and haven’t yet done so, please just send me your 2 photos cropped to a square 1920 pixels to Lincoln at paintonplastic dot com and I will add them for you. I’ll leave that open until the end of April and then…. let’s do something new!