"It's a party for Shanghai's zhainan (young men who prefer to stay at home rather than socializing)," laughed Shi Wei as he welcomed hundreds of guests to the Shanghai Mass Art Center on January 1. The center was the venue for the popular annual Shanghai New Year Model Contest. Shi Wei, who sells air conditioners by day, is one of the movers behind a club for model makers, the ModelZ Studio, which is now regarded as one of the most skilled model making centers in China. And the competition has become the largest of its kind in East China, attracting about 2,500 visitors on the day, twice as many as last year.

Intricately detailed

Inside the center visitors checked out the 117 models that had been entered in the competition by the 105 creators, most from the Yangtze River Delta. Spread out on the display tables were intricately detailed models of trucks, tanks, aircraft carriers, motorcycles, sports cars and animation and comic and games (ACG) characters.

The models have to be classified according to the type of model and the scale. For the competition models were split into six sections: Military Models Group 1 (1:50 and larger scale), Military Models Group 2 (1:100 to 1:50 scale), Military Models Group 3 (smaller than 1:100 scale), Sci-fi and ACG Models Group 1 (plastic models), Sci-fi and ACG Models Group 2 (resin models), and Civil Models (various sizes).

"The classifications were changed this year to take the contest to a higher skill level," said Shi, who was busy throughout the day checking the venue and participants to ensure the event went smoothly.

Model enthusiast Gao Zhendong was, in contrast, a lot more relaxed. Gao lives and works as a cook in Pudong and has been a regular exhibitor at the competition. This year he brought along a newly-created original sci-fi model, a warlike villainous creature with heavy armor, spines, weapons and an ugly bulging insect-like belly.

Other model makers asked about his creation, where he got his ideas from, how he built the creature and the story behind the character. "This event is a great platform for us model makers. We get together to appreciate each other's work, share different ideas and find more friends," the 29-year-old explained. In 2011 he set up his own model club, the A17 Garage Studio. This year his club had four sci-fi themed models on display.

For 22-year-old Zou Xiaomin the event was more onerous. Although he is comparatively young among the city's leading model makers, he has already gained a reputation as a leading creator especially of characters and themes from the Japanese comics The Five Star Stories.

Zou was there on the day to deliver a lecture to another 100 enthusiasts on building models from comic books. "It was the first time I had given a lecture like this but, fortunately, I wasn't too nervous," he told the Global Times.

Three times a winner

 The climax of the event arrived at 4 pm when the judges (most of them previous prize winners in international contests) delivered their assessments and awards. It was a great day out for model maker Wu Bayin whose name appeared three times on the prize lists.

Wu, a senior student from East China University of Science and Technology, collected prizes in Military Models Group 1 and Sci-fi and ACG Models Group 1 sections and a third prize in the Military Models Group 2 section, becoming the big winner on the day. This year the competition stipulated that unlike previous years contestants could only submit one entry in each section.

First-prize-winning works will be on display on the second floor of the Shanghai Mass Art Center until January 25.

Like most of the model makers who fell in love with their hobby when young, the Inner Mongolia native started making models of military vehicles 10 years ago.

"At the beginning I built very simple models behind my parents' backs - I was frightened they would not want me to do this and would stop me. But on the day my father saw me making a model, he bought me a commercial model kit instead of scolding me. Making these military models is a learning process, you have to know the function of the different parts and the history behind these vehicles," Wu told the Global Times.

One of Wu's prize-winning works was a 1:35 scale model M32B1 ARV (armored recovery vehicle) which was used by the US Army during World War II. Beside the model of the rusty vehicle stands a soldier figurine.

The small model, however, has almost every detail of its original. Models like this are often harder to create because they have to look aged and worn and be displayed in wartime settings, not like the gleaming sci-fi creations. This model alone took Wu two months to complete.

"To make it look as though it had rusted, you have to know which parts of the vehicle are likely to rust in war conditions and the patterns that the rust would assume naturally." Wu spent more than a month in the studio he rents outside the campus, painting the rust onto the vehicle using very fine brushes.

Some time ago his shared dorm room became far too small to accommodate his kits, tools and completed models. In his studio he keeps his tools, knives, drills, air brushes, paint brushes, cutting mats, paints, cleaners, masking tape as well as a variety of water color and oil paints. His equipment comes in a variety of sizes to suit whichever model he is creating.

Wu said there was no way he was a zhainan and he had always been active in campus activities. He joined the campus radio station in his freshman year, and has often hosted campus events.

In November last year, Wu took part in a Hong Kong model competition where he chatted with professional model makers from Europe. Over the years he has contributed articles on model making to magazines not just in China but also in Europe, including the prestigious Model World.

Making a hobby a career

While it is several years since Sun Hefeng was a contestant at the Shanghai New Year Model Contest, nowadays he is one of the prime organizers, something he adds to a list of credits that already includes being a national-level athlete, a member of Shanghai's model ship building team, a prize-winning ship model maker and co-founder, with Shi Wei, of the ModelZ Studio.

Unlike the models with ACG themes, which are usually backed by companies involved in animation or comics, models of ships have been promoted by the government in sports programs. The Military Sports Club of Shanghai, a body established in 1980, merged a city's ship model making school and an aeronautics model school.

In 1996, 10-year-old Sun built models for the first time in the Huangpu District Youth Palace (now the Huangpu Youngsters' Activity Centre). The following year, Sun showed his talent with a 1:550 scale model of Titanic which garnered the third prize in a contest staged by the city's oldest model store Yifeng (which closed in April, 2011).

Sun's career in professional contests began in 2001 when he took part in the 12th World Championship organized by NAVIGA (a world organization for model ship building and model ship sport) in Poland. He won the teenage section with a model ship he not only built but guided remotely through a contest route.

 After graduating from college in 2008, Sun decided to make his hobby his career and joined the Shanghai Navigation (ships) Model Team which is part of the Military Sports Club of Shanghai.

Each year a team of the professional and amateur members will contest national and international ship model making competitions.

Last year, Sun won third prize in the 16th NAVIGA World Championship in Croatia. His winning entry, a 1:350 scale model of the Japanese battleship Nagato from World War II, will be on display at the first floor of the Shanghai Mass Art Center till January 15.

As well as the contests Sun and his colleagues construct models for airline companies, museums and hi-tech businesses. Some of the craftsmen who specialize in remote control ship models work with young people and school students who are interested in the hobby.

 "The life of a professional model ship builder is what I more or less expected," Sun said. "The Military Sports Club of Shanghai provided the space for the Shanghai New Year Model Contest in the early years until we moved to Shanghai Mass Art Center. This helped our competition develop in a way I never expected."

Not for profit

Finally this year Sun and Shi and other members of ModelZ will have a celebration dinner with the little profit they have made through the entry fees they charge - 20 yuan ($3.21) for each contestant.

This has been the first time they have made a profit with the number of contestants reaching a new high. Though possibly it might be a humble dinner with not much in the way of profit yet.

"Having financial struggles is nothing new for model clubs," Shi said. "Usually the older members donate money to maintain the club." At the end of 2012, Shi's club published a book featuring the works of the ModelZ Studio. The 12 core members of the club contributed the contents for the 150-page book along with the funds to print 1,000 copies. Some 200 copies have been sold to date.

However, student model making clubs seem to be thriving. Nineteen-year-old Zhu Weiqi recently heard that his club, the Jiuling Innovative Club, established by Zhu at the Shanghai Information Technology College in 2009 and specializing in sci-fi models and T-shirt designs, was named one of the city's outstanding middle school clubs.

"The school has been very supportive by setting aside two rooms for our activities and helping us buy materials and tools," Zhu told the Global Times. One of the teachers in charge of student clubs in the college said the school spent about 80,000 yuan a year on student clubs.