For the first time in my life, I took part in a painting competition! I’ve been going to Ropecon, Finland’s main gaming convention (well, I say gaming, but it’s just a big overall geek fest) yearly since the mid-90s, and finally decided to put in an entry in the painting competition, Cold North Open. We threw the idea around with some friends – mostly non-painters – last year, thinking that it might be fun to participate just because. We did!
I was going to go all-in, but then my initial plans didn’t work and time ran out, and I was going to call it quits as a result. In the end, I decided to go for it anyway; life is short and there was nothing to lose. Enter three days/evenings/nights of merciless painting and a very sore neck, and I had this:
Click for a larger version
The model, which I entered in the Trench Crusade theme category, is a lovely, lovely model from Lost Heresy Miniatures. I’d seen the model a while ago, but since I’m not particularly into Trench Crusade, I’d kind of passed on it. Now that I was painting for a competition, I figured it would be a good opportunity to paint something for the fun of it.
In the end, I didn’t have success in the competition (should’ve probably gone a bit more grimdark for the setting), but apart from a moment of disappointment, it didn’t really bother me all that much. I’m happy with how the model turned out, and received some great feedback from the judges to improve further – essentially, all the skills are there but I need to think things a little differently for competition painting. I listened to a couple of great lectures – given by excellent Finnish miniatures painters – on competition painting and colour theory, and rather than intimidated, I felt really inspired!
While I’m not thinking of going all-in on competition painting or becoming a stellar painter, it also did feel really nice to push my skills a bit. Actively learning new things and pushing your skills can be really fun if done without pressure, and to be honest, I’ve been painting for such a long time that a sort of stagnation and routine has set in. It’s not a bad thing as such, and I’m really happy with how I paint, but I also really enjoyed focusing intensely on making a single model really nice. Also, as I don’t play a lot of miniature games, painting and storytelling are my main ways of engaging with the hobby, so improving my painting can and hopefully will increase my enjoyment as a whole, I think!
Dawn of the Lead 