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.