Wednesday 15 January 2014

Titanium Dropship 2014 - 15mm sci fi painting competition

What's this all about? Exactly what it says on the lid. A 15mm. Sci fi. Painting. Competition. Together with the rest of the Dropship crew we wanted to kick off 2014 with a very loud supersonic band! So we contacted a few manufacturers and begged them to offer prizes, found a couple of talented painters to act as judges and here we are: looking forward to make this a major event in any 15mm sci fi gamer calendar!
 
Blower Tank - Miniature by Khurasan Miniatures, painting by Dwartist
Right, but practically?
  • The competition will run from January 15 till February 15 (midnight UTC).  
  • Send up to 3 pictures of each entry to titaniumdropship@gmail.com. Be sure to include:
    • The pictures: although this isn't a photography competition, good quality pictures will help judges give you the recognition you deserve. If there's doubt that a given default is due to the picture or the painting, we'll have to assume it's the painting. Also, please give them a cool and practical name like "153th Drop Infantry Squad - Picture 1/3.jpg", not "img354878541210568794641.jpg"; and make them jpeg and decent sized (Godlilock sized: not too small so that no detail can be seen, nor too big so that the mailbox can't swallow them). No photoshopping or any fancy effect: plain raw pics.
    • Your real name and complete address (if you win something, we have to send it to you)
    • The nickname you want to be referred by on the Dropship when we talk about your entry 
    • Optionally, a blog/site/profile, you'd like us to link to when presenting your entry
  • Entries have to fit one of the following three categories:
    • Squad Leader: a matching group of 4 to 12 miniatures. They don't have to be a squad in the military sense of the term: irregular units and assorted group of heroes might fit the bill too. We will be looking for a certain sense of unity among the group though, no throwing 4 random figures together and call it a group. Power armour up to 30ish mm high, cavalry and bikers fall into this bag too.
"Alien Legion" Squad - Miniatures by Khurasan Miniatures, painting by Steve Dean
    • Vehicle Commander: a single vehicle, anything from car to dropship sized will find a home to. Mechs, Gear and giant robots are obviously welcome here. Miniatures presented in this category have to be playable unit: if your giant dropship is only useful as a terrain or objective enter it in...
VTOL - Miniature by Ground Zero Game, painting by Robin Fitton
    • Combat Engineer: a single terrain piece or building ranging from 10x10 to 20x20 cm (that's between 4x4 and 8x8 inches for those of you still measuring shit with their body parts) or a group of scatter terrain/objectives amounting to the same surface.
Table by Robbin Fitton - And no, it wouldn't be a valid entry for this competition!
We realize not matter how detailed the guidelines we write, they will be some holes left: miniatures fitting in two categories, and miniatures fitting in none. When in doubt contact us: we'll figure out where you land and make sure you and everyone else is treated fairly.
  • Only one entry per category and per person (yes, that means you can send three entries, one in each category)
  •  Miniatures from any manufacturer are welcome. In fact scratchbuilt items, repurposed toys and even miniatures from other scales (GW Tau drones, Infinity remotes or smaller scale space ships used as grav drones or vehicles are a fairly common sight on 15mm tables) are all welcome. The jury will be looking out for the "15mm-ness" and "scifiness" of the entries though. Your Infinity remote might make a perfect giant robot and fit nicely on any 15mm table without causing a single eyebrow to raise, but in the context of this competition, you'll have to go the extra mile to make it "15mm-ish": we don't want someone grabbing a random mini from another scale, calling it 15mm and winning, our goal it to promote 15mm gaming! Along the same line: your Arab village or pine trees forest might certainly be said to be on an alien word and thus sci fi, but again unless you go the extra mile (sci fi accessories on your buildings, alien colours on your vegetation) you're entry will be dismissed as "unscifi"
Nice, but what's there to win? Beyond recognition and fame you mean? We'll go over the details various prizes in the course of the following weeks, but we have enough sponsors to offer a significant prize to the three best entries in each category! The prizes are miniatures (obviously), including in some cases yet to be released items, but also (rule)books. Sponsors include (in no particular order): ClearHorizon Miniatures, Ground Zero Games, Darkest  Star Games, ZombieSmith, Mad Mecha Guy, Brigade Models, Two Hours Wargames, Critical Mass Games, Black Hat Miniatures, Gruntz, The Ion Age, 15mm.co.uk, Assault Publishing and Eureka Miniatures (the later being conditioned by the number of participants in one category).

I'm not into 15mm sci fi, can I still participate? By all mean! For one, there is no reliable test of your involvement in 15mm sci fi. And for two, the goal of this competition (and of Dropship Horizon as a whole) is precisely to promote our hobby to the larger gaming community. So whatever your background and motivation go and buy a couple of 15mm sci fi miniatures, paint them and send us pictures. If you're at loss on where to start, and without prejudice to any of or other sponsors (or any other manufacturer for that matter): have a look at Ground Zero Games, he has a impressive assortment of infantry, vehicles, buildings and both a record and a reputation of sending stuff at FTL speed, including across the Pond, so you're sure to get them in time to participate! Stop wasting time. Go. Buy. And. Paint. 15mm. Sci fi. Minis.

"Legal Disclaimer"
  • This is my first time organizing such a thing, so their will be unforeseen problems showing up. I'll do my very best to sort them out rapidly and to keep this fair and fun for everyone involved. By participating to this competition you agree to remain civil, to use common sense and to be sportsmanlike.
  • By submitting an entry, you allow Dropship Horizon and its sponsors to use the pictures you provide, with due credit of course.
  • All decisions of the organisation or judges will be final.
  • That's all I have for now, but then again I'm no GW patent lawyer so I may add things as problems come up!
Stay tuned for more!

42 comments:

  1. This sounds like a great idea. I know I'll make at least one entry for this contest. Just have to decide what I want to paint up.

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    1. Good think you don't have to choose between categories! Good luck!

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  2. Excellent! I wish everyone the best of luck and The Ion Age and 15mm.co.uk will be offering prizes.

    GBS
    www.theionage.com
    www.15mm.co.uk

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  3. Great idea! I'll consider this a motivational measure to paint up some 15mm stuff :-).
    Wish you the minimum of hassle in pulling this through!

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    1. Yeah... Certainly hope so! Thanks and good luck!

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  4. I would like add a copy of PMC 2640 to the prize pool. :)

    Regards,
    Marcin
    Assault Publishing

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    1. You've been added to the sponsors. Please contact me for practical détails: trojanpoints@gmail.com

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  5. Good Luck Everyone! Can't wait to see the entries!

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  6. This will be exciting. Hopefully we'll see some fresh entries and perhaps even some new faces among the list.

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  7. Do the entries need to be painted up specifically for the contest, or can I submit pics of something I have done previously?

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    1. Good question! I'm wondering this too. Since the contest may link to entrants' blogs, the entries won't be "blind" which is one common reason to rule out previously presented work.

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    2. We considered it and figured we have no way to reliably figure out if something as been painted specifically for this, so yes previous work is acceptable.

      And we'll still do this somewhat blind: the entries will be published after 15FEB so the judges get a chance to make their call before everyone see the entries!

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    3. I, personally, would like to encourage contestants to try to do something new, in the spirit of growing and expanding the hobby both for ourselves and others out there.

      -Eli

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    4. Fair enough, I'm all with Eli on this: try to do something new, grow and expand... Yet, I won't bar people entering old stuff, because I feel that having no way of ascertaining if something is actually new, that bar would be unfair to people actually following it while others could ignore it... Anyway, we've called old stuff OK, too late to change our mind; food for though for edition 2015!

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  8. Great contest idea! Its the first 15mm painting contest I've heard of, for sure! But a month isn't a lot of time when you have to order figures, especially across a border. Could the deadline be extended a until the end of February?

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    1. No I'm afraid... We tough about it and a month should be enough while keeping the event a bit focused. So 15FEB it is!

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  9. this new year just got heaps better! hope to be able to take part, but even if not, the promise of all that imminent eye candy brings a smile to my face :D
    words of support our dearest, the DSH Team; i've ran an Infinity painting competition a couple of years back and, a few flaws aside, it was a great experience. wish you all the best with this and all the other projects

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement! Hope you get a chance to participate!

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  10. Gosh, I'll actually need to try and finish some of the 20 or 30 projects I have on the go!

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    1. Can I suggest some focus (look who's talking)?

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    2. Before I finish sculpting extra detail on and going cross-eyed trying to paint the tiny details, can I check whether my Red Shadows will count as Sci-Fi? They're converted Peter Pig late war German...
      http://www.minimetalmayhem.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/red-shadows.html

      Only 1 finished as a trial run but the rest are waiting in the wings!

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    3. Super Heroes and GI-Joeish teams are valid entries and will be submitted to the judges. But remember that sci-finess is a criteria that will be considered along sheer awesomeness of the paintjob!

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  11. Two questions:
    1. Is there a height limit on the terrain piece? Or is it just the base size?
    2. Do superhero teams count as S-F?

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    1. What do you have in mind? The Needle? The Eiffel Tower? Or are you just trying to push my envelope? In the interest of avoiding silliness I'll call the maximal height 20cm/4" too, unless you have something specific and reasonable in mind. No minimal height though.

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    2. Not a big specialist on supeheroes (nothing like your baseline US kid anyway), but IMO some of them fall clearly in the realm of Sci Fi (e.g. Iron Man), others not at all (e.g. Thor)... I'd say if their powers are technology or alien based they're sci fi. But then again a case could be made that Thor is some kind of ET... So yeah, if I was the judge (which I'm not), I'd say "depends, to be seen on case by case basis"... What do you have in mind? Characters out of existing comics? Or something homebrewed?

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    3. Thanks for the answers! I thought about making an apartment block that could go a bit beyond the 20cm mark, but that was just an idea.
      As for the superheroes - I have some Batman characters on my workbench and started converting some miniatures to make The Avengers in 15mm.

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    4. Having to draw the line somewhere: I'll stick to the 20x20x20 rule, so you'll have to restrict yourself to a 5 or 6 stories block...

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    5. And again, in the interest of providing a clear cut answer: super heroes are OK. But remember that both 15mm-ness and sci-finess will be used as criteria by the judges!

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  12. Yeah, you definitely take to pull you thumbs out of it... Unless you're so good you can paint with a brush in between your lips!

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  13. I'm in, love these things, thank DH.

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  14. Where are the entries so far?

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  15. They're already trickling through... But won't be showed after 15FEB! I'm working on a series of posts on the judges and sponsors (and prizes!) to pass the time till then ;)

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    1. No problem. I wasn't sure if the competition was one the public voted on or not.

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