“The hats go marching 100 by 100 hurrah, hurrah”
@chitzkoi and @Nicodemus Present: The 45th Golden Hat competition on Chaos Dwarfs Online!
This year we are kicking off a special series of contests aimed at filling the year with fully painted Chaos Dwarf armies. And we’ll even spoil the themes up front so you can plan your army painting and enter as many contests as possible. Here’s what we have planned!
Prizes!
The Golden Hat winner will receive this Helsmiths book courtesy of @chitzkoi
The silver winner will receive 10 of these lovely custom dice so they can roll with Hashut in style! Not that pink and green Necron filth. Thanks to @Nicodemus for donating!
The bronze winner will receive a medal for their online persona and an honest pat on the back from the Council of Zharr’s least treacherous hobgoblin servant.
and lastly, one lucky random participant will receive these circled models courtesy of @Nicodemus made by Dirk Opper for the Black Dwarf Mordheim warband and the Bordertown Burning expansion.
Subject Matter: Infantry
In 2025, Zhanta provided you all with heaps of Chaos Dwarf plastics. Now.. the taskmasters of Hashut aim to collect on that grey debt. The ol ball and chain (brush and palette) know no mercy.
The focus of this contest is to paint melee or ranged infantry models for a Chaos Dwarf army. Every army needs a good sampling of core units and what better way to start the new year than cranking out a chunk of grey models. Optionally, you could elect to paint a single infantry model/ scheme tester if that better suits you finishing a model by the deadline. You may enter as many core/infantry units as you can finish by the deadline!
Entries can be intended for any game system featuring Chaos Dwarfs: Age of Sigmar, Old World, Warhammer Fantasy, WAP, Kings of War, Mordheim, etc. Hell, if you’re using all your nuhats for Warhammer 40k proxies, feel free to enter. The goal of this series of contests is to get as many Chaos Dwarf related armies to the table as we can.
Our backstabbing “friends” the hobgoblins or other chaff proxies are of course always welcome. Troop filler is allowed so feel free to use that as an opportunity to get creative with your composition. Who knows what backstabbery occurs in the rear ranks of a large block of gobbos.
There are plenty of inspiring creations posted in our image galleries for Chaos Dwarf Infantry and Hobgoblin Infantry. As per usual we hope to farm all of you painters for more image gallery content to feed Hashut’s infernal algorithm.
If you are unsure if your entry will fit the subject matter, please contact @Reaver and he’ll sort it out with the rest of the Staff.
Basing is unrestricted and up to your discretion. You may include plinths and display bases if you want. You may include fancy backgrounds. We want to encourage the creation of beautiful models and scenes, not hamper it.
Specifics:
Subject: Infantry
Bases: Up to your discretion.
The Due Date: 11:59 PM March the 12th 2026 EST (Eastern Time Zone)
Please read the full rules that apply to the Golden Hat competition before submitting your entry.
Submission:
All entries must be sent to the @GoldenHat account no later than the due date. (Entrants have approximately 10 weeks to complete entries). If for some reason you are having trouble with your submission, contact @Reaver since the @GoldenHat account has limited monitoring. In order to avoid problems, entrants should not wait until the last minute to submit their entries.
How to Enter:
Submissions should include up to 4 pictures of your miniature creation. Upload and send your entry images with this forum’s direct upload function (preferred) in a PM to @GoldenHat (a special user that all Staff have access to). Any images uploaded to the Internet, e.g. with Imgur will need to be inserted in image form into the Discourse PM anyway.
If you win:
- Walk across the backs of the cowed masses you have scorned and pushed aside, in order to take your place at the top in the vaunted Golden Hat Gallery .
- Receive the Golden Hat medal for your online persona.
- Win prizes! See above for details.
Go forth generals of the Dark Lands and amass your legions!
Once all entries are received a thread will be created for voting and determining the winners!
If there are any questions it is best to post them here so that everyone can benefit from any details or clarifications that may arise.
Good luck everyone!
The Staff
