The Airfix Cup website and competition system

Background

Since 2017, the National Airfix Aeronautical Model Engineering Competition has been managed using a custom-built web-based software.

The aim was to reduce the manual paperwork and spreadsheet wrangling involved with judging and scoring of the entries.

Being a software developer by trade, I was able to employ my day-job skill set into solving this problem.

Originally hosted on the SprueCutters.com servers, the System was relocated into its own home when the airfixcup.com domain was registered in 2018.

The System was well-received by Participants and Judges alike.

System Features

• Online registration of entries
  • participants are able to register their model entries to the Competition without need to fill in paper forms
  • all entries are “captured” within the database, for easy processing
• Gallery
  • photographs of the entries are uploaded and linked to each Entry
  • a slideshow of winning entries is automatically generated to be used during the Award Ceremony
• Judging and Scoring
  • judges use their mobile phones to enter the scores
  • results are automatically tabulated
  • anonymity of Entries is enforced, with each Entry identified only with an entry number

Judges simply drag sliders to capture the score.

Events in 2020

In 2020, the Event was held Online due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Hobby Bounties also organised many smaller events, all of which were hosted on Facebook.

• Feb - Mini-Airfix Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) Competition 2020
• Apr - Online mini-Airfix Battle Of Britain fighters competition
• May - 48 hours Airfix 1:48 North American P-51 Mustang Group Build
• Jul - Mini Airfix Battle of Britain Bomber competition
• Nov - Mini-Airfix Cup 2020

Events in 2021

• Feb - Mini-Airfix Hawker aircraft model competition
• Apr - Mini-Airfix De Havilland competition 2021
• May - Phabulous Phantom Covid 19 build competition
• Jun - Mini-Airfix AFV diorama competition
• Aug - Mini-Airfix cars and figures competition 2021
• Nov - Airfix Cup 2021

Whilst convenient, there were some drawbacks to hosting these events on Facebook.

Not every modeller has (or wants) a Facebook account.

Judging the entries became a tedious task because all entries were lumped together under the “discussions” tab of the event page; with no categorisation.

Additionally, the judges had no place to note the scores under each judging-criteria. Therefore, I decided to revamp the System to handle multiple online events.

Thankfully, I was able to get some time off work, and after 36 hours of coding (over one week), I was able to update the System with these enhancements :

1. Multiple events can be created and managed by Administrators.
2. Participants will now have a “dashboard”, where they can see all their entries submitted in all Events.
3. Participants register their entries to a specific Event.
4. Participants upload up to 6 photographs per Entry, for judging.
5. Judges can judge all entries in a specific Event and Category.
6. Judges can see full-resolution photographs of each entry.
7. Judges will record their scores for each entry, in each of the 6 criteria.

I trust that this System will continue to facilitate the running of future events, including ones conducted in-real-life, once the restrictions are lifted.

I am glad and honoured to be able to contribute to this hobby and to the community.

This system can be easily adapted to other events.