Thursday 12 July 2012

Oldhammer Painting Competition? The Golden Goblins?




Last night, as I sat there feeding my hungry daughter, my mind wandered over the many trials of the day. How best to change a nappy full of chicken korma pooh, strategies for winding and how best to hold a bottle to reduce the amount of winding that will be required.

I also mulled over my miniatures and the events on the blogosphere over that last twenty four hours. We have discussed what 'we' are, or indeed, might one day be. A 'scene' and 'movement' or just a bunch of 30+ young fathers who really should know better. It was very interesting to read other blogger's views published via the comments option and read the blog posts too.

What I read got me thinking...

We have to progress beyond me 'talking/collecting old lead' and start doing something original. It seems the most popular suggestion that I read would to hold some sort of online painting competition amongst those bloggers interested. The competition would have to link to Oldhammer in some way, after all that is our philosophy, but would have to be flexible enough not to be 'just another restrictive exercise in GW related miniature painting', for example 'you cannot win a prize with that Space Wolf because they don't use that type of weapon and the chapter markings are incorrect' etc etc.

So what was I thinking?

I propose an idea for a easy painting competition, run by ourselves, painted by ourselves and, ultimately, for ourselves, that is fairly easy going and would get blogger's creative juices (and paints, hopefully) flowing in excitement; The Golden Goblins!

So what form would this competition take? How would it be organised? How would we select a winner? Would there be a prize? One thing that was obvious to me was simplicity. It had to be fairly easy to run so that the only complex part is the actual painting. I doubt at this stage we could offer anything more than 'bragging rights' but as is often the case in competitions of this kind, its the contributing that is the most fun.


Here is a quick run down of my ideas, tell me what you think, offer suggestions, and let's see if we can get something going, even if its just five painters.


1) It would need to be slightly different that 'just a painting competition', after all Oldhammer is as much about wargaming as it is character lead narratives. Therefore, characters are important. Subsequently, I am going to suggest that each entry would be a character model with full background and stats/equipment. 


2) The miniatures themselves needn't just be by Citadel. It should be more open than that but I am sure that we would not want historical miniatures included, as 80's inspired fantasy/sci fi is the theme of Oldhammer. I would propose that the models entered would celebrate the worlds of Warhammer without being restricted by it. 


3) Conversions would be welcomed as would detailed, characterful bases. Here, for the sake of simplicity, I would suggest that the first time around (after all, if its successful, we can always do it again) we limit the models entered to those that would usually have a 20mm or 25mm base. 


4) Once complete, simply photograph your models, provide stats and background and post them on a blog. This could be down by myself as part of my blog, or those bloggers willing to contribute could post on a separate blog in a similar way to we do on The Enemy Within. Each entry then would have a chance to vote once (or we could open it up to the public, again with one vote) using the comments section or specially designed post. In the interest of sportsmanship I would suggest that you CANNOT vote for you own entry. 


That is about as far as I got last night. 


What do you guys think? Is the model workable? 


Can you suggest any further ideas of tweaks and finally, and perhaps most importantly, WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO ENTER?


Orlygg.






21 comments:

  1. It sounds fun!

    I still keep up on what happens in Warhammer, though it's been a few editions since I've actually played, and my fondest thoughts are for 3rd edition- I've even started to collect some recently with thoughts of making 'skirmish forces' of some of the old lead minis I like so much, so the short of it: yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd jump into this.

    I like the idea of limiting it to a mini that would have been on a 20 or 25mm base, so that it wouldn't end up with a character on foot competing against a dragon. Hope it wouldn't prevent a round base instead of square though- I plan to use round bases for the fantasy skirmish project ;)

    Writing up the background stats & equipment for an old edition is a great idea too

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  2. Great idea! Love that it needs stats and background. Maybe ask Kevin "goblinmaster" Adams or someone to be the judge.

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  3. Great idea. I would love to take part in such competition:)

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  4. I'd be interested in this too, you've recently forced me to make some eBay purchases so I have plenty on the lead pile that I could submit :) I'd echo LF's comments regarding the basing too, as I'm using the Warmachine-style "lipped" bases for my fantasy warbands project.

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  5. Sounds like a perfect idea I'm in, on the basing front like deserter I'm using 30mm lipped warmachine bases so hopefully there can be some flexibility on the base.

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  6. Sounds great - if needed I could create a new gallery page on my collecting site and host the images there?

    Also, as a 30+ (errr...40+) father myself I'd ask that the competition is opne for a bit of time to do the painting especially given the figure would need some background too (which is a great idea by the way). A few weeks..?

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  7. Some fantastic ideas and suggestions so far...

    Steve : That sounds like a very good idea indeed. The more professional the look of the page the more attention we may grab from the miniatures world in general. Thanks for the offer, if its okay with other bloggers I'd say go for it.

    Headnhalf, Deserter and Laughing Ferret: I suggested a smaller base to encourage the use of the infantry model, rather then monsters etc first time around. Keep things simple to start with, so round bases would be fine. I don't use them myself, but I'd be very interested to see what others do with them.

    Zhu: If we could attract the weighty name then all the better- do you have contact details for the Great Goblinmaster to ask him?

    I have another suggestion about how long to run the competition. I thought that once we agreed on the criteria we should give interested parties some time to complete their entry, after all, we all have jobs, families etc to concentrate on too. I was thinking a month, maybe two, before closing the competition.

    Any other suggestions? I'll leave this post for a few days and then post a final list of requirements that we can all agree on.

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    1. I could possibly ask John Blanche if he'd judge it? There might be an issue though given that he's still at GW (not sure what but there may be a conflict of interest or something). But it might be worth a try?

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  9. Sounds fun. Most of my minis that would fit into this category are on the other side of the Atlantic right now, but I'm overdue a visit, depending on your timescale, this would work out well for me.

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  10. I believe that there are quite a few ways to produce free online magazines / books (the previous mentions of fanzines got me thinking of this). As well as being a good way to produce a fanzine, it could also be a nice way to collate competition entries, in the vein of the Fantasy Miniatures publications. As long as all efforts are very carefully produced to not draw the legal wrath of GW.

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  11. I propose to offer a prize : one set of the 6 pirate goblins I'm currently having made by kev adams (you may saw them here : http://www.indiegogo.com/pirate-goblins ) either as a lot for the winner, or split between the winners !

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  12. All sounds great and I'd love to take part.

    How about taking the idea of providing the mini with stats and background a little further - is there any way we could have our entries literally battle against each other?

    Not sure the idea is workable but it would be great if competitors painted up a character that would carry on the story started by the first entry. We could draw lots to see what order we would paint in and the minis we painted could either aid or confront the ones that had come before - that way we would end up with a painting comp - to be judged at the end - as well as having a load of fleshed out characters and a narrative campaign to boot!

    Only problem I can see is the length of time it would take...

    Another idea might be to have our entries duke it out virtually somehow (anyone any good with photoshop to create the necessary images?) to gain bonus points to add to the vote total if they win their bouts?

    Or am I getting a bit complicated ;)

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  13. I'd be up for this. In fact I have a figure in mind already!

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  14. I'd certainly give it a go!

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  15. I'd be happy to be a part of this!

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  16. This sounds awesome!! I would love to participate in this.

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  17. Great idea, would love to participate. The judge should definitely be Mike McVey after 5-6 pints.

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  18. I'm in, just need to think of something to paint.

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