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Cake Box - The next generation


Phil Parker
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After the success of the first year of the BRM Cake Box Challenge, the team have been pondering over several cups of tea on how we build on this with a future competition.

 

Our plan is a series of 3-month long competition - 4 separate competitions each year.

 

The rules will remain the same as before, except with the addition of a Theme for the entries.

 

The first theme will be announced on 1st January via RMweb, Facebook and BRM Express. After that, the information will also be in BRM. 

 

So, tune in at the start of 2019...

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After the success of the first year of the BRM Cake Box Challenge, the team have been pondering over several cups of tea on how we build on this with a future competition.

 

Our plan is a series of 3-month long competition - 4 separate competitions each year.

 

The rules will remain the same as before, except with the addition of a Theme for the entries.

 

OK - perhaps not the sort of challenge I'd been hoping for - but I'll see how this develops.

 

Without giving anything away at this stage about exactly what themes we're likely to get, are the themes likely to be prescriptive (with exactly what's wanted nailed down), or kept open-ended and open to interpretation (within reason - such as the word "train" being allowed to mean anything that runs on rails {and at any stage in its "life"})?

 

 

The first theme will be announced on 1st January

 

Are we going with the fully-working scale cakebox in a scale cakebox in a scale cakebox in a cakebox? :D

 

I cannot foretell to you the actions of some people here - but that question sounds like a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma ... .

 

All I know is that any cakebox I use will definitely be empty before I build anything to go in it - I'll personally make sure of that.

 

 

Huw.

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I like this idea - presumably the first deadline will be in March/April so I may find it tricky to build anything for that but should get something done. Will there still be prizes and voting? Also after the small amount of controversy this year will there be any more clarification about boards that fold to fit etc?

 

Yes, there will be prizes and voting. No, we aren't going to get into discussions over weird baseboards. It's interesting that no-one who entered tried anything odd as far as this went.

 

The best part of all this is that every 3 months you get another Theme to have a go at. The worst part is that it means a lot more for Andy and me. 

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Without giving anything away at this stage about exactly what themes we're likely to get, are the themes likely to be prescriptive (with exactly what's wanted nailed down), or kept open-ended and open to interpretation (within reason - such as the word "train" being allowed to mean anything that runs on rails {and at any stage in its "life"})?

 

Open-ended and sometimes obtuse. There's no fun in prescriptive. Cake Box is all about imagination.

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The best part of all this is that every 3 months you get another Theme to have a go at. The worst part is that it means a lot more for Andy and me. 

 

I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question - but does this mean a lot more work - or a lot more cake?

 

OK - so it probably is a stupid question - hat - coat - on my way!

 

 

Huw.

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Has anyone here read "The Glass Bead Game"?

 

Leaving out all the philosophy, the Announcing of Themes sounds perturbingly like the progress of a Glass Bead Game. The game then "proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics". This, of course, sounds like a typical RMWeb thread.....

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... the Announcing of Themes sounds perturbingly like the progress of a Glass Bead Game. The game then "proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics".

 

Well, I guess it's either that or twisting official challenge themes to suit the entrants' purposes adapting ideas to fit in with the official challenge themes.

 

Of course, nobody here would ever dream of pulling any stunts in order to achieve this - not a chance ... .

 

 

Huw.

Edited by Huw Griffiths
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Following moonlight's suggestion re modules, that's given me an idea. How about, as an alternative to us submitting individual entry(s) as we did for the previous cakebox competition, we can, if we so wish, submit a "modular layout", make up of individual cakebox dioramas, say maybe to a maximum of 6/8/10? Just a bit of food for thought, for this may just add a bit more interest/a fresh dimension to the competition :)

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I could do a loco grave yard scene with all the left over Andrew Barclay bits I've ended up with :laugh:

 

Thomas Muir's scrapyard then. 

 

https://bestieboy.smugmug.com/Trains/Miscellaneous-Steam-Locos/i-c3drZkc/A

 

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/12a_kingmoor_klickr/6372952885

 

 

 

Jason

Edited by Steamport Southport
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Also after the small amount of controversy this year will there be any more clarification about boards that fold to fit etc?

 

 

It's interesting that no-one who entered tried anything odd as far as this went.

It somehow, as yet I still have no idea how, seemed to cause a great deal of upset to another forum member. As they were so agitated and distressed by my being silly which caused them not to want to take part themselves, I decided to leave the cakebox challenge alone. If your actions are upsetting someone, no matter whether you understand why, you stop doing it.
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Following moonlight's suggestion re modules, that's given me an idea. How about, as an alternative to us submitting individual entry(s) as we did for the previous cakebox competition, we can, if we so wish, submit a "modular layout", make up of individual cakebox dioramas, say maybe to a maximum of 6/8/10? Just a bit of food for thought, for this may just add a bit more interest/a fresh dimension to the competition :)

Alternatively we could all make modules and link them together, possibly with slightly looser standards than some modular guidelines (I shouldn’t think, for example, that we’ll need to have a power bus given the short length involved, maybe having a power feed available every few cake boxes would be OK). Somebody could do a set of cake box boards forming a circle and we could put them at each end to give two sides. :)

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Just a thought, I know quite a few of our non modelling wives/partners have enjoyed watching the Model Railway Challenge on TV, so why not have a cakebox challenge for them? If nothing else, they would enjoy the cake.

 

This also suggests a junior cakebox challenge.

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