'DA GOLDEN GOBBOS' : The very easy going Oldhammer painting competition: Entry Regulations and stuff!

I have been humbled by the amount of support for 'Da Golden Gobbos' the first Oldhammer related painting competition. Thank you to everyone who has contributed an idea or offered their services. Before I move on to the nitty gritty of the competition/festival/whatever you want to call it, there are a number of people that need mentioning.

Big thanks need to go to Steve over at thecitadelcollector for offering to showcase the entries on his website. I am sure that you agree, that a website is a little more 'upmarket' that a blog and suits a competition of this type really well. He has already done some stirling work building up galleries of John Blanche's work as well as classic models from the legend of lead himself, Bryan Ansell.

Big thanks must also wind their way on leathery wings to Erny who has located a superb little goblin that he is prepared to tinker with to act as a trophy to be awarded by the proud winner of our little competition. Even as I type, Erny is busy working away at the trophy and we should get to see it in the coming days.

Thanks of chaotic proportions must tremble the warp and reach the ears and mind of  Bruno Galice who has offered six outstanding miniatures sculpted by the awesome hand of Kev 'The Goblinmaster' Adams himself to act as further prize to the winner of our little competition. Check out some early greens of these beauties here.

Headnhalf also needs to be thanked for his willingness to produce graphics to support the competition. I am sure that all you bloggers will agree that the excellent Oldhammer images that we are using to promote our growing community can be supplemented further. In the coming days he will produce an 'official' Oldhammer Golden Goblins banner that we can post on our blogs and sites as appropriate.

Stef needs thanks for offering to become the 'face', 'PR Girl' or whatever its called of the competition and community. She is already trying to find the time to do a test 'photoshoot' to help promote the movement and the competition. After this, we'll get the more professional cameras out (Thank you in advance Bobby) and get some tongue in cheek 80s style banners prepared.

Phew! And these guys are just the start!

Anyway, on to the competition. Written below are the regulations for entry to the competition as well as some indication about how things will be organised and judged. Be aware, this is the first time we have done anything like this so please bear with us if things go a little 'wobbly' at times.

Regulations for Entry

1) Miniatures entered into the competition can be from any manufacturer or even private sculpts but need to be in spirit of the 'citadelesque' nature of Warhammer and Rogue Trader mythos. Original Citadel, Marauder, Ral Partha, Grenadier etc miniatures are, obviously, the main focus of these blogs but don't be afraid to enter something else if your really passionate about it. 

Considering that we are drawing on the 1980s and early 90s as inspiration that gives you a great deal of freedom. One thing that is important in Oldhammer is the freedom to do what YOU want with no restrictions about paint schemes or army lists etc to interfere with your imagination. Try exploring these publications if you are unsure of what we mean as the reflect the style of the times Fantasy-Miniatures-1988 Fantasy-Miniatures-1989 Fantasy-Miniatures-1990.

2) Miniatures are to infantry classed, so no mounted models, monsters etc this time around. Try and keep your bases between 20-30mm in width though, as requested by many, many people, there is no restriction on the shape of the base. 

This competition is focusing on character, hence why we want just a single character model. Thantsants has suggested in the further we may well be able to devise a way of fighting battles with these models but that needs further discussion and development.

3) Miniatures need to be accompanied with full stats, equipment and background.

As we are concentrating on the character model for this competition, we need further information about them. Obviously the stats and equipment are pretty straight forwards, but as Warhammer 3rd edition is the main focus of Oldhammer, 3rd edition stats are preferred but are not necessary. Feel free to use 1st, 2nd or even WFRP stats if you prefer. Rogue Trader stats are also very welcomed. As for the background, there is no need to write Lord of the Rings. I would suggest a word limit of about 300 words to make reading backgrounds easier for us all but to give a little bit of space for development if you so wish. Obviously, the theme of your background is up to you but existence in, relevance to the worlds of Warhammer 3rd and Rogue Trader are preferred.

4) The winner is to be judged by us all. 


Upon entry you will be given a reference number with which you can vote for your favourite entry once the competition is complete and the images are all online. In the spirit of sportsmanship, entries are UNABLE to vote for their own entries. Voting will be carried out through a poll or on the comments page depending on numbers. We are a community that draws its inspiration from its members, therefore it is only right that those members choose the winner.

5) Have fun! 


Get out there and hunt through that mountain of lead and find that figure you have been meaning to paint for years but haven't because it doesn't fit in with the army or armies you are currently working on. The emphasis is on creativity here rather than straight up flash painting, after all, there are other competitions out there for being anal about your skills. DON'T FEEL INTIMIDATED TO ENTER!

6) KEEP THINGS SECRET! In the spirit of competition, don't post WIP on blogs or forums.


 Let's keep things nice and secretive before the big day. I am sure you will agree with me when I say the thing that excites me the most about this little competition is having a good look at what other collectors and painters enter.

If you are interested in entering a miniature in Oldhammer's Golden Gobbos then just email me at:

orlyggjafnakol@hotmail.com

Provide your name (real or nick), preferred email address and link to your blog/web page if you have one.

I'll send you your registration number and add your email address to the newsfeed. Your details will be kept on a database offline so no worries there. The closing date for the competition will be the 13th August 2012 which gives everyone a full month to get that figure painted.

Plenty of time to mull things over, I am sure that you will agree!

Contact me if you have any further questions.

Enjoy!

Orlygg.

Oldhammer Painting Competition/Festival: Da Golden Gobbos

I have a confession.

The lovely image I posted the other day of the 'Golden Goblins' was nicked off another site. I was just looking for something quick to attract interest in the idea. It was there and I pinched it!

I feel guilty now...

Why? Because its not ours. Its from some other group of people's work. Due to this, I was wondering if any graphics minded bloggers out there could whip up an image for us to help advertise the competition/festival so that entries can post the image on their blog pages much like we do with Oldhammer itself.

After all, we need to build a BRAND!

So what am I looking for?

1) A rectangular or square image which contains the text 'Da Golden Gobbos' at the top and 'Oldhammer's Easy Going Painting Competition' at the bottom.

2) A nice brightly colour image (of a goblin, or goblinoid looking creature) holding, well, an old hammer. If this image could ape the style of graphics from late 80s early 90s WD then all the better, though this is not essential.

3) If you have any other ideas of your own feel free to add them.

So, can anyone help?

Orlygg.

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.

Oldhammer: Are we a 'movement' now? Or are we a 'scene'?

Check out this link. Its in Spanish but you can run a quick Google translate to get the gist of things.

http://frikidiario.blogspot.com.es/2012/07/oldhammer-warhammer-retro.html

It seems that other miniature fans out there, unconnected to our little 'leadhead world' are spreading the message that OLDHAMMER is the way forwards, for them anyway.

This got me thinking. Can you call Oldhammer a movement now? Is there a retro Warhammer scene?

What does Wikipedia say about these two key words I wonder?

Scene
"A group of people producing a style of art or music with similar goals or styles/"

Movement
"An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years. Art movements were especially important in modern art, when each consecutive movement was considered as a new avant-garde."

What with Oldhammer Opponent Finder that Skarsnik has put into motion, as well as regular updates, thoughts, miniatures, rules, battle reports and rambles from Erny, Thantsants, Realm of Zhu, Gaj... and many others. We are clearly highly influenced by each other; what with Top 10 Wants Lists, painting advice, inspirational scans and discussions. 


It seems these rambles have inspired others in far off lands who speak unfathomable tongues, wear strange and unusual clothes and eat equally strange and unusual foods... but share the love of the lead. 


So, what do you think? Are we a movement? Is there as scene (however embryonic)?


Thoughts please!


Orlygg.

Blister Sisters: The Tenth Commandment of Collecting Citadel Miniatures

As some of you will be aware, I am a new father. As is dutiful for a husband, I offered to do the ever challenging 'night feeds'. My daughter feeds at about 10pm and then later at around 2am. My wife thinks that I am an angel for doing this, and to be honest, I love it. The days are largely the domain of the 'mother-in-law', or the 'sister-in-law' (I have two) or the 'baby friends', or the grandparents... I don't get much of a look in really. But at night time, its just me and her.

Lovely.

One side effect of keeping irregular hours is the extra time I find it creates. My son is usually asleep by 7:30 and the wife likes to be in bed around this time too (she does a feed at this time) which leaves me several hours to do whatever I want. 

Some may say, sleep man, sleep! 

I prefer to miniature paint into the night!

It is on one of those late night haunts that I had the thought for this post. I want to talk about blisters. Not the blisters you get on a toe or finger, but the glorious card and plastic beauties that used to captivate us back in the day. I am sure you remember the wondrous walls of blisters that used to hang in shops circa 1988? They seemed to go on for ever and had a range of eye-catching and colourful designs. The complete opposite to the depressing and uninspiring grey and reds for recent times. 

Though, blisters are getting fewer and far between these days.

This got me thinking, rather humorously, about what the Ten Commandments of collecting Citadel Miniatures would be (there is a link with blisters, just wait a see).

1. Thou Shalt Collect No Other Lead But Me.

2. Thou Shalt Make Carved Images Out Of Green Stuff When Necessary. 

3. Thou Shalt Not Covet Another Man's Lead.

4. Thou Shalt Not Steal Another Man's Lead.

5. Thou Shalt Keep The Books Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned Holy.

6. Thou Shalt Always Search Ebay for 'Warhammer 80s'.

7. Thou Shalt Keep Sabbath Days Free To Trawl The Internet For 'Bargains'.

8. Thou Shalt Soak The Miniatures in Dettol And Nitro Moors.

9. Thou Shalt Collect Great Piles Of Lead And Tell Spouse Its An Investment.

10. Thou Shalt Not Open Original Blister Packs.

Would you do it? Tear open the dusty cardboard of an old blister pack? I have been tempted (and in the distant past, been guilty of doing so) but have resolved myself never to do so again. The way I see it, the blister pack you hold in your hand may be the ONLY sealed pack of those miniatures in existence. How could you possible destroy that!? I am going to make a prediction now; in the future, 20 or 30 years, these babies are going to go for BIG money on the miniatures scene. After all, we leadheads will all be retired and have nothing better to do than spend our pensions on beauties like I've posted below.

I love the luminous green of the Orc and Goblin range. In this case, labelled 'Gobbo's' Very apt considering the way they were painted back then. This was my first ever blister I bought on eBay with a view of never opening it. 

Another cheap buy. These two thugs are missing from my painting collection. I think I spent a couple of quid on these. The artwork is really striking don't you think? Blue and white cheques would make a perfect design to beautify a human fighter one day. 

These archers really tempt me. I am desperate to build a unit of skeleton archers and have six loose. Obviously, I've Iiftear open this package I'll have enough for a unit but I just cannot bring myself to do so. These cost me a fiver as a 'Buy it Now' a while back. 

Some ghouls, including the Death on the Reik version, which set me back a fiver from the same seller as the archers. I have no ghouls in my loose collection at all. Something I need to rectify soon for my undead!

My prize blister. Realm of Chaos. I still get as excited about this stuff as I did back in the late 80s when it was released. RoC is what makes Warhammer 3rd so, so special to me as a collector. Such a fantastic range of models were released, some of which still stand up against the most modern of miniatures. Bizarrely, I bid on this but never won. A week or so later, without having paid any money, this blister turned up on my door mat! Must have been the work of the dark gods some how, eh?

Apparently, by the mid 80s the Citadel Miniatures Factory was selling over a million miniatures a month. There was a group of ladies who worked in the packaging department who used the packing machines to put these blisters together. They were named 'The Blister Sisters' by the rest of the staff and this post is dedicated to the wonderful job that they did.

Now, how many blisters have you got unopened stashed away in your collection? And would you break the Tenth Commandment of Citadel Collecting and open them?

Orlygg.

Warhammer 3rd Edition Opponent Finder! Terrible Plug!

I am sure that Skarsnik the lazy, as I now dub him, will not mind me plugging his excellent idea for an online map and opponent locator thingy on his blog.

It a really good idea actually. A simple map. Some virtual pins and you can quickly gauge where the nearest leadhead to you resides. I was rather surprised to find that Erny, erstwhile Games Master and thoroughly good egg, only lives about an hour up the road from me!

As for Orlygg? I have spent the last few days at the hospital with my wife. On Friday she gave birth to a daughter; Alys Ellen! She was admitted for several days, so I have done little but drive up and down the A131 to visit her and look after the B.O.J. Still managed to get some paint on lead though, as I've been working away on my Rogue Trader Orks, in between nappy changes and feeds that is.

Anyway, here's the link to Skarsnik's excellent resource!

http://skarsnikandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/p/wfb-3rd-edition-opponent-finder.html

Who's living near you then?

Orlygg!

Skeleton Chariot: progress update number 2

Big brushes indeed!

That was the advice and that is what I followed. Thing is, I have long been an advocate of the detail and fine detail brush. Generally, they are all I have used over the last 20+ years (perhaps that is why its taken me so long to paint anything!) apart from a larger brush to mix paint and water.

Rummaging through the bric-a-brac of gaming and painting that is my draw I located a large, flat brush and endeavoured to drybrush with it. Very quickly the chariot and horses were undercoated in 80s Bestial Brown. This has long been my base colour for bone though very little shows through when I'm done. An orange, red and brown mix for the leather on the mount's backs and the base of the chariot and a dark ink was (black and brown respectively) on the mount's hair and the preliminary work is finished.

They have an earthy, just dragged from the soil feel about them that I feel is very indicative of 80s undead.

 Obviously the chariot is minus its driver at the moment. I'll be painting him up as a single miniature for ease later on. One thing that I am currently pondering is what to do with the supports that attach the slottabase to the hooves of the undead horses; keep them on (painted black) or snip them off. The latter worries me as I have had my fair share of bent miniatures in the past. Hmmm, just have to wait a see!

I am going to start on these horses first. I am particularly pleased with the horrible brown leather for their rotten barding. I have recently started mixing three colours together to create base shades and have found this produces different shades than what I usually work with. I have always found brown a hard colour to get right. 

Orlygg.