ScaleACT-26

ScaleACT-26 will be held on 7th & 8th November, 2026, at the fabulous Thoroughbred Park in Canberra. 

Special Annual Competitions

• The Kittyhawk Cup: The ARMA Hobby 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.I or Mk.II. Note, also eligible are the Eduard and RedRoo boxing of the ARMA Hobby kits.

• The Sentinel Shield: The Tamiya 1/48 M5A1 light tank or M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage. Note: you may use the new CMK Stuart VI conversion set to build a late M5A1 tank as used by the US and Commonwealth armies during WW2, and by many nations post-war.

• 'The Grail' subject:  Is “Aviation in Canberra”. Enter any aircraft or helicopter, civilian or military, that has operated from Canberra Airport (built up from an old airstrip that was first laid down in the 1920s) and RAAF Base/Defence Establishment Fairbairn (established 1940). Special mention goes to the aircraft of No.34 Sqn, the RAAF VIP transport squadron. Also eligible are any known and specific aircraft or helicopters that have visited or been temporarily based at Canberra (think Air Force One, Antonov AN-124 and water bombers to name but a few!). To whet your appetite, here’s a link to illustrate some of our interesting visitors.

• Special Cars award: Best roadster or convertible. Enter any model, from any manufacturer and in any scale, which depicts an open-topped car with two or more seats. This covers things like sports cars, convertibles, spyders, and cabriolets, with plenty of variety out there in kit form from the venerable Model T to the modern Ferrari, Corvette, AC/Shelby Cobra, and Porsche.

The ScaleACT Competition

The ScaleACT competition uses a form of the International Open judging & assessment system which awards Gold, Silver or Bronze awards to the best entries in a category. Using this judging system, each model is assessed individually against set criteria (not compared to others in the competition) and the highest quality, best presented models recieve awards.

A feature of the Open judging system is the Experience and/or Skill levels for Entrants. Entrants indicate how experienced a modeller they believe themselves to be, either a Rookie, Standard & Master level modeller.

The level of modelling standards required to be awarded a medal increases at each skill level. The standards required to achieve a Gold award at the Master level must demonstrate the very highest expression of the art; showing perfect construction, a flawless finish and an overall presentation that really stands out and catches the eye. Only the very best Master level entries achieve a Gold medal. The judging team are less stringent when assessing entries at the Standard level, and more generous again when assessing Rookie entries.

Achieving Gold at Master level is rare occurrence and is reserved for flawless models. Achieving a Gold at Rookie level is a fabulous result that means you have got the basics right and can move up to Standard level next time! Remember, not all entries receive an award, so winning any award means your entry is among the very best!

A lot more detail on the competition, categories and skill levels is available here, and here are the nitty-gritty details of our judging rubric ScaleACT Judging Criteria.

Model Competition management system

We are proud to be users of HobbyShow.org, a fabulous Australian owned and developed software system which makes competition management a breeze. If you are looking for a modern, cloud-based software system to help you run a competition, give it a try.

Previous / Earlier ScaleACT Results

ps: If you are looking for the results of previous ScaleACT competitions - you'll find them over here!