[Archive] Artisan's Contest XVIII

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Admiral:

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"To the outside world, the Chaos Dwarfs is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Few know anything for certain about these infamous slavers and artisans, oppressors and sacrificers, Daemonforgers and torturers. Of those few scholars and madmen who possess some knowledge about the lords of the dark empire, most know vaguely about the ruling priesthood of Sorcerer-Prophets and the heinous corps of Daemonsmith Engineers, those fell craftsmen of nightmare artefacts. Perhaps these rare foreigners even have a sliver of knowledge about the sacred Taur’ruk, the Hobgoblin Khan lackeys and the Castellans of the dread Infernal Guard with their scorched faces and grinding shame.

Pivotal though they are, these are but a some of the myriad war leaders, siege experts, sorcerous acolytes and demented specialists of the Dawi Zharr. Indeed, within their convoluted society of competing sects and mysterious strains of tradition and invention, exists a bewildering array of ranks and titles for the higher vassals of the Sorcerer-Prophets, some of which details hazardous commands and offices tolerable only to the insane.

These are but some of the hidden masters of the Blacksmiths of Chaos."

Chaos Dwarfs Online Presents: Artisan’s Contest XVIII!

Hidden Masters of the Dark Empire

The goal here is to either create a new and unique character type, or to fill in a miniature-less character slot in a fan-made Chaos Dwarf army book. So, for example, if you’d like to enter some kind of Chaos Dwarf sorcerer or siege expert into the contest, you’d have to provide the character type with some distinct theme setting it apart from Daemonsmiths Engineers (such as a flayed skin cloak, Daemon mask or hat, bombs, a bizarre new weapon, a bull chariot or a unique armour design). The Staff will not nitpick about it, but please remember that we’re aiming for inventive creativity here, and votes are bound to reflect this!

This contest is unrestricted in terms of scope, so long as your entry keep to the rules. This is your chance to share your vision of one character type you’d like to see in the Chaos Dwarf range. Be welcome to go for the wild and exotic!

The sky is pretty much the limit, and to help provide you with some inspiration we have included the following possible entries to kindle the imagination:
Chaos Dwarf berzerker character; Chaos Dwarf dire brewmaster with Daemonic concoctions and forbidden elixirs; Chaos Dwarf Temple Acolyte dirge leader; Chaos Dwarf fleet master; Chaos Dwarf saboteur diver in Daemonforged diving suit with hull drill; Chaos Dwarf Necromancer or similar oddball sorcerer; Chaos Dwarf oathsworn blower of a Daemonforged horn of terror; animated petrified Sorcerer-Prophet; Chaos Dwarf siege master with Daemonic grenades; Chaos Dwarf mechanized caravan gunslinger; Chaos Dwarf master of sacrifices; Chaos Dwarf possessed by fire Daemon; mysterious Chaos Dwarf guardian hidden behind a bronze bull or Daemon mask; Chaos Dwarf magmawalker, melting into lava to sink into the ground and rise from lava somewhere else; Chaos Dwarf Daemonstalker, expert at hunting and breaking Daemons; Chaos Dwarf pantheist leader/follower of one of the Great Four Dark Gods, or other sect leader; Chaos Dwarf mutant, or freak of experiment or accident; Hobgoblin Sneakiest Git; Hobgoblin or Chaos Dwarf slave master or torturer; Bull Centaur flamelord, wielding fiery flails; Bull Centaur Idol Carrier, carrying an idol of Hashut or pushing it on a metal cart in front of himself; Hashut-worshipping Minotaur; or something else entirely!

Also, will your character walk on foot, ride or be carried into battle? Hobgoblins could ride Giant Wolves; Chaos Warhounds; three-headed canine beasts; or something else entirely. Chaos Dwarfs could stand at a sacrificial altar with flames and molten metal; or be carried on palanquins or stand atop platforms on the shoulders of strong slaves such as Minotaurs, Ogres or K’daai Daemons; or they could be locked in a mechanical contraption akin to Astragoth; or they could be mounted on flying objects, or Daemonforged metal bulls, or Lammasus, or Tauri; or have Daemonic jetpacks; or ride small steam vehicles or bull chariots; or even surf on rocks or lava waves. Or something else entirely!

Examples
Prize

Grimstonefire has been kind enough to donate this unpainted evil dwarf hero with a great axe as a prize for the gold winner!



Should you wish to donate a prize to the contest, please PM Admiral or Bloodbeard and they will sort it out with you and the Staff.

Deadline

The deadline for the submission of entries is December 6th 2015 at 11:59pm EST.

That gives you more than 5 weeks to come up with an entry. We want all members to have the time to order bits, do proper conversions and nice painting!

Rules of the Competition

Each member may only enter once.

Model and paint one character miniature representing a new Chaos Dwarf character type not covered by the official miniature ranges released by Games Workshop and Forgeworld for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. This character could be Chaos Dwarf, Bull Centaur, Minotaur, Hobgoblin or whatever you fancy is suitable. It may ride chariots, be mounted, sit in a palanquin carried by slaves or warriors etc. Its weaponry and theme is entirely up to you.

If you plan to field a large entry involving several lesser henchmen, please ask Admiral, Bloodbeard or any other Staff member first, just to check everything is in order before you start.

Square or round bases is up to you. Base size is up to your discretion, but please do not include a large diorama style base or a unit filler, since the focus should lie on the new unit itself.

Submissions should include four pictures. No overlaid words of explanation or photoshop effects in your submitted photos please. Submissions should include four pictures. No overlaid words of explanation or photoshop effects in your submitted photos please. However, in this round of Artisan’s Contest you should include in your PM not only pictures, but text with a name for your new character type (not a personal name, but a title or rank description such as “Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith Engineer” found in Tamurkhan) and a short description of up to 25 words. This is to better help convey what your new character type is, in a possible army list which would include it.

The background of the pictures should be bland and neutral to keep everyone on an equal footing, so please do not include landscape paintings or scenery in your entry pictures.

You may not submit pictures of a model that have been entered into other online competitions.

Don’t post your entries in the forum before the contest is over.

See also the General Rules & Guidelines.

How to Enter?

Submit your entry by sending a PM to Staff (a special user that all Staff have access to) with four photos of your entry. Please do not send an e-mail to any of the admin or staff accounts as this is a sure fire way to have your entry missed.

Please note that your entry will benefit if the photos are all clearly composed, since voters will base their judgement upon what they can see in the pictures on their computer screens.

How will this be judged?

Sometime after December 6th we will post all entries to a new thread and voting can commence!

Good luck everyone!
The Staff

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Abecedar:

Nasty people.  You are forcing to make me think hard…and that hurts.

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Dînadan:

Already have a couple of ideas I can use for this, just need to decide on which one to do. Might do them both and then choose which to enter when I’m done. :slight_smile:

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Zanko:

I have no idea currently … :~

I have to think about it, nonetheless great idea guys! :hat off

                        :hashut

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The_Penguin:

Great idea, indeed! :cheers

That is just the contest theme I was looking forward to. Thank you, guys!

I have several questions about the contest entry, but perhaps I should address them privately to admins, right?

Good day, ladies and gentlemen! ) :hat off

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Admiral:

Thanks! I hope you come up with something you’d like to do, everyone!

Also, as a slight clarification on the display base part:

Having an infantry character on foot mounted on a 20mm or 25mm base is what you’d expect, since that’s what GW would release such a model with.

However, putting it on, say a cavalry base to fit in more stuff can be fine if said things include something like an altar in front of the character to be worshipped at and conjure up sorcery from, or a swivel gun or similar possible army list option. In this case, the larger base is clearly justified by equipment.

But putting a character on foot on a cavalry base to fit in, say, a pile of bricks, a slain enemy or just an altar for him to stand on for the looks of it, isn’t good for contests aiming to create some even ground among entries by putting focus on the miniatures themselves. Here, the larger base isn’t justified by the equipment of the miniature, but used for display. You can of course put the infantry character on top of rubble, altar or whatever on a 20mm or 25mm base and still enter the contest. You’re by no means discouraged from making a larger display base separately and glue on the character once the contest is over!

We love to see excessively large scenic bases, but not in contests.

Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! :slight_smile:

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Abecedar:

Well, that rules out one idea.  (No unit filler sized bases).  To express the model I had in mind it needs a scene around it.

A question Maestro’s.    

In the past something that is obvious to me (in my mind)  has not been obvious to the rest of the world.
As this is about making a model fit into new category of unit, unless it has a label or title with its set of photos. It is more than likely that I will have no clue as to what the individual creators had in mind and were trying to achieve.

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Abecedar:

second question.

Wouldn’t a pallanquin be technically a unit filler?

We’ve all seen / heard of units carrying “something” and they take up more space than the individual models.

Width wise the two front bearers would need a minimum of 50mm to work.

60mm would be better due to multiples of 20 needed to be in a standard unit.

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Admiral:

Good questions Abecedar! Thank you for bringing them up. I’ll attempt to clarify below, and embolden parts of the text for others wondering about the same things.

First question: A draft for this contest originally included an exception to the normal “no text included” rule, since a new character or unit’s name is a part of the new creation. However, it was removed for three reasons: Consistency with previous competition rules, avoidance of potential voting advantages for coming up with cool names (this is about models after all) and a belief that the pictures will speak for themselves. It is likely that some voters will award entries with a visibly distinct character theme requiring extensive conversions, such as pirate or lava diver - thereby awarding creativity. After the contest, entrants will be encouraged to present their new character type with name and even rules and background should they wish to, here and in their logs, or even rules development.

Second question: Palanquins are technically mounts for our purposes, with the bearers being an integral part of the character’s equipment/options, as can be seen in models like Thorgrim Grudgebearer, Greasus Goldtooth, Epidemius and the 8th edition rules for WoC Nurgle palanquins, as well as shieldbearers for Dwarf Lords. As such, being carried into battle by your underlings is no different than riding chariots or monsters.

As for taking up space, the larger the model, the looser the base expectations, as can be seen in GW monsters who may stand on everything from 50x50mm bases to virtual tablets holding Terrorgheists. Having a single infantry character on a cavalry base without obvious equipment reasons, is clearly to put it on a display base, but where is the line drawn for palanquins and similar large mounts? That’s up to the maker of it to decide, though obviously practicality with ranking up should positively help to decide base size.

I hope that clear things up. Don’t hesitate to ask should you wonder anything more. :slight_smile:

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Abecedar:

Size and base queries all sorted out, Thank you.

And “cool names” have never been my strongpoint. But I still think an entry will need a descriptive title at least to distinquish what they are, their rank, role etc.

You suggested a “Lava Diver”. But what is a Lava Diver? Part of the criteria is to create a new Character type but we won’t be able to tell just by looking at a model. Its setting will help somewhat but without a title I’m sure I won’t be able to distinquish what the character is beyond a broad guess.

If a model is in a lava puddle.

Is he a CD miner searching for special minerals?, Is he Daemonsmith who has been taken over by a Fire Daemon?,

Is he a CD shaped K’Daii emerging from the lava?, Has he been thrown in as a sacrifice?.

I know I’m not explaining myself very well here at all.

I think having a basic name will help me understand what has been created better, rather than going Yep that’s great work, good paint job but what is it?

To get away from cool names, maybe a description edited by the admin staff, not visible on the photos?

Maybe you (the admins) would put the name next to the entry number. IE

"Daemonsmith - Beastmaster / Daemon Hunter / Magmawalker /

“Warlord - possesed”; "Sorcerer - ? chaos god of your choice"

Sorry for being so dense about this.

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Admiral:

Not dense at all, it’s a valid point! I also thought about it before deciding against it, but that can easily be changed back, since we’re not afraid to tinker to reach the best ways to run competitions. Especially since several ACs to come will follow this formula, so better sort it out now.

We can ask for a description or title (cool or not - I think we can allow people to come up with any kind of titles they want if we’re to have text) to be included as text in the PM with the entry pictures. That way the Staff member who edits the photos can insert the text in a similar size, font and manner for all entrants. This wouldn’t be a problem, if more members wish this. This is a hobbyist site run by hobbyists for hobbyists. So let’s ask.

Do you think entrants should include an army list title (akin to “Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith Engineer” from Tamurkhan) for their new character type? See arguments for and against in the two posts above. :slight_smile:

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The_Penguin:

I’ve been watching the discussion with considerable interest, guys, and I think a description should still be added.

The way I picture it: entrants give the name of the unit (not a personal name, but more like a name that shows the main occupation of the character) and a short description (1-2 sentences) about the fig. But no backstory, no personal characteristics, etc.

I suppose we can expect a lot of interesting and unusual miniatures entries, so I guess description will be most useful.

Just my two golden bulls to the discussion! :hat off

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Admiral:

Very good proposal! What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Should we have both a character title and short description, or just a character title, or none at all? I’m happy with whatever you’ll agree upon. :slight_smile:

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Dînadan:

Sounds reasonable to me :slight_smile:

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Zanko:

Sounds fine! :wink:

                         :hashut

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Admiral:

Very good! Rules updated:

Submissions should include four pictures. No overlaid words of explanation or photoshop effects in your submitted photos please. However, in this round of Artisan’s Contest you should include in your PM not only pictures, but text with a name for your new character type (not a personal name, but a rank description such as “Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith Engineer” found in Tamurkhan) and a short description of up to 25 words. This is to better help convey what your new character type is, in a possible army list which would include it.
Will this work?

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Abecedar:

I think so. Not that it is going to help me with the entry I had thought of though.

Maybe I’ll decide on another nice character and work backwards instead.

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Dînadan:

I think so.   Not that it is going to help me with the entry I had thought of though.
Maybe I'll decide on another nice character and work backwards instead.

Abecedar
Just make a named character but use his job title rather than his name, that's what I plan on doing ;)
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Dînadan:

Is it bad that I’ve got four ideas for this comp? :o

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Zanko:

I ordered some stuff in the Ukraine … hopefully it arrives in time! :wink:

                        :hashut