Golden Boring Tom - Competition?

I have been hinting around in sidenotes and people have apparently started taking more interest in it (can't blame them!), so let's just get my latest brain child out in the open.

I am planing a Mordheim painting and modelling CONTEST.

I have done some work on the planing already (such as the marking system), however I have yet to decide:
- a defenitive title for the competition
- a defenitive title for the trophy (VERY important!)
- how to cast the trophies at reasonable cost
- exact terms and conditions

I have openend this thread so that you can let me hear about any suggestions and ideas you might have. I have also added a poll to this topic to see how many of you would actually really be interested in taking part in such a contest.

Please note: I will read all of your suggestions with great interest but I cannot guarantee that they will all be used in the final run

Whether the contest actually takes place, will depend on 2 factors:
- General interest
- My ability to (finally) find a good way of casting trophies (I have casted before, but i am all out of silicone rubber, and that stuff is bloody expensive!)

Thanks and have fun!

Here is something like a Slayer Sword winning monkey, but I forgot to draw his tail with a pencil..



more is coming soon

i'm thinking it'd be most fair if every one who joins should like, send 2 euro orsomething to tom, so he could buy some prices, and then send them to the winners.
but from the other side, this might not work that good :/

it works good, like on the other forums, just make a donation section so everybody can make a donation, I came up with the idea to, but you posted it well I think it should work, because the competitions on the other forums are sponsored the same way.

or everyone sends some bits or something (nice ones!) like there is a real awesome price of alot of bits :3

On the trophy...

Nutz... I'm trying to find that image of tom demonstrating the "center mass" of a model. The circle diagram thing that shows what a shooter needs to see to not get a -1 modifier to their to hit. If I remember that correctly, that image of tom is priceless.

Or honestly, I think that model on the TBMB is 100% bad ass:

http://boringmordheimblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/antreten-zur-schuhputzkontrolle-und.html

I'll write more on my thoughts on the competition when I have some more time.

talk soon,

or like something with AT's head on it, it will be hard but it would be nice, or like a painter EG; Rembrandt, Picasso, Angelo etc..

Actually I thought about having a Golden Monkey too. A Golden Brush would also be nice. Donating money will not work. Sending in some bits might work. But a varying prize might mean that some contests are more attractive than others, which really shouldn't be the case.

shall we make a poll when there are some more ideas, so we can vote which idea is the best?

I think whatever tom chooses to be the trophy will be sweet

As for competition ideas: Here are my thoughts:

I think each competition should have a theme (and be different each time). For example: "Ripped/muscular model", "Heroic Leader", "Female", etc. It really could be anything.
Each competition should go for at lease a month (maybe more depending on the theme)
I would definitely not oppose "donating" 2$ to enter a competition if there was an actual trophy involved

More to come

Hi guys!

Thanks for you input! I read through your ideas and it really helped me. Please keep it coming.

Entry fee

If possible I would like to avoid entry fees. I think it is more user friendly to have a contest where entering submissions is free of charge.

Cathergories/Themes

Although i like Ashton's idea of giving each competition a special theme, I am afraid that might be too restrictive.
However, there should of course not be too many cathegories!
As a start, I was thinking of making just one cathegory: SINGLE MINIATURE.
We MIGHT enlarge this by having a second cathegory for WARBAND (6+ models).
This allows people to choose from a variety of races and themes, and makes the entries more interesting... I would not want to look through 45 entries of "muscular barbarians"... seems a little dull. Diverstiy and originality is the way to go.

Trophies

Making trophies and posting them is actually quite expensive. And I am really pleased that you guys would actually want to chip in on that. Thanks!

However, as I said, I don't want to have any compulsory payments. I want too keep everything free of charge ideally. I will think about maybe asking the winners to help me out with the postage fee of their trophy if the costs turn out to be too high, but we'll think about that once we actually HAVE a trophy

My original idea for a trophy (6 months ago) was actually T-shirts. But making 3 t-shirts costs arond €45 (if you find a good deal) and that is still VERY expensive (franquly I don't have that sort of money to just give away...)

Marks

My idea is to award marks not only for artistic qualities but also for well realised originality. I would probably give the highest mark to a miniature that succeeded in making me frown and think "awesome!".

I will also try not to be the only judge to get a little more objectivity into the matter.
I have 2 other persons in mind that could help me as a jury... but they don't know it yet I will contact them to ask if they want to participate in due time.
I will also design a marking grid that the "judges" can fill out independently and that we can average out for total scores.

Duration of competition

Please do not worry about deadlines. If necessary we will run the comp for 4 months
I am a student and have a lot of work like all of you and I am doing this as a hobby. So i can perfectly understand that we need a double helping of time to finish our minis and bring them to a high standard. Time should not be an issue.


Again, thanks for all you ideas, I'd love to read some more! And it would be great if you could help me find some Silicone Rubber and plastic/resin/whateverfor molding at reasonable cost.

Best regards to all!
Admin Tom

Tom, is it possible to work a little sign into the user's profile/name/whatever so that you can see that a member has won a contest?

Alternatively we could make a new smiley and allow winners to put a number of those smilies equal to their won contest in their signature. Actually I like this.

EDIT
Additional contest suggestions:

While single miniature (e.g. "gory fighter") is probably the standard one I would like see something else now and then like "diorama" or "Fighting scene" (any number of models + scenery) as well "self-made buidling".

I suggest creating a new sub-forum for the competition with a sticky thread about the general rules for the contests and an FAQ maybe. We could then create a thread for each contest and have people post their contributions (ie, photos) in there.

cianty wrote:

Tom, is it possible to work a little sign into the user's profile/name so that you can see that a member has won a contest?

Yes, that is possible, and a good idea on top of that. This can be done just like the "Warband Icon" (only not modifiable by user).

cianty wrote:

I would like see something else now and then like "diorama" or "Fighting scene" (any number of models + scenery) as well "self-made buidling"

Of course, there more cathegories there are the cooler it gets. However we must reach a critical mass of contestants in each cathegory otherwise there is no point in opening one.
I took part in a comp where there were only 2 people in my cathegory (I was one of them). So awarding first and second place was a little awkward... you were BOUND to win something So we will decide the number of cathegories based on the number of contestants willing to enter it. Let's say that at least 4 entries are needed for a cathegory to be opened.

cianty wrote:

I suggest creating a new sub-forum for the competition with a sticky thread about the general rules for the contests and an FAQ maybe.

I will do that as soon as I can safely say that the project stands. I might also need volountaries amongst you to help me in "advertising" the comp on the web (on your websites, on other forums etc...)

PLEASE DO NOT START TO ADVERTISE NOW! WAIT FOR ME TO GIVE YOU THE "GO"!

cianty wrote:

[...]create a thread for each contest and have people post their contributions (ie, photos) in there.

No, I prefer not to handle it that way. Entry pics will be sent to an email adress, and I will only "publish" them alll at once when the results are final.
Contestants should not be able to see their peer's work while they are creating their own. Just a matter of fairness.

Cheers and thanks for the good ideas!

Important note to everyone.

The competition will unfortunately NOT start before we do have trophies. So it is unlikely to happen before summer 2008.

Please bear that in mind. I will need a lot of time to get the trophies ready. That is my major problem right now!

So please don't get all worked up yet. I will keep you up to date for everything

In the meantime, please keep helping me brainstorming and please do post all your ideas in this thread. You have all been a great help so far and I would really like to read more from you!

Thanks a lot!
Admin Tom

quick on promotion: Advertising the competitions in the Letters of the Damned would be a good thing. I think the winner should (if he wants to) write an article about his entry, include some work-in-progress pics. All wrapped up in some lines written by one of the judges with 2nd and 3rd that would make for a sweet article for LOD that would surely raise the interest in the next competition.

I have a few other places to go advertising since we're going to promote BTB all over the Mordheim community and later I could inform them about these competitions.

Anyways, we're waiting for what you come up with as a prize. I appreciate it a lot that you're - once again - trying to make this 100% perfect. We shouldn't expect anything less.

EDIT: I just have so say that I really like the thought of having a sign for the winners. That will look very cool and impressive. I didn't think of the warband choices (otherwise I would have already expected that it is possible). So yeah, looking forward to what you come up with.

The one "NO" vote, that was YOU Tortiou. I know it

wooow ! how did you guess?

On The Trophy Thingy: I've got The Perfect Mini for a GOLDEN TOM THE BORING AWARD.It's an old Hobby Products mini from the Asterix range; the mini is a Blacksmith replete with hammer posturing; other than the hammer being somewhat smaller than the one in Tom's Avatar Photo, it could be a cartoon of The Man.

Another & somewhat less daunting/expensive alternative to an actual trophy might be to set up a new catagory in the gallery section: The Hall of Heros or some such thingy with photos of the winning entries enshrined to inspire & instill a sense of awe in future generations.

Alternate #3: in lieu of a trophy, how about a Certificate of Merit? A nicely done up & suitable for framing card with possibly a photo of the above mentioned mini, the winner's, name, & THE DEED ACCOMPLISHED A comination of Alternatives #2 & #3 would be cool.

I'm torn as to how to vote. There's no "Maybe" & I'm still dealing with The Demon Camera From Hell.

Ok so the thing is we still need a trophy?

And will there be a entry fee or not?


greetz Axel

Or a cool forum title!!!!

What ever you decide, I am in!!!

I confess: I voted "NO" just now. I WOULD enter if I could be certain my previously mention Uncooperative Photographic Device of Infernal Contrariness would supply a suitable image & I could overcome my stupidity on things P.C. related.

Opinion: I think our forum title is COOL already. So there!

DeafNala wrote:

set up a new catagory in the gallery section: The Hall of Heros or some such thingy with photos of the winning entries enshrined to inspire & instill a sense of awe in future generations.

Noted. Good idea.

on the tshirts side of things which you suggested Tom, have you thought about the iron on transfers? you buy them in packs of 3-5 A4 sheets, print the design from a normal printer and iron them on a tshirt. they're usually available in department or graphics supply stores.

although, this would depend on you being able to iron... you don't have a missus do you?

The sheet itself could be mailed to the winners [certainly easier than mailing a tshirt, and you don't have to worry about sizes either] and they can iron it on themselves.

alternatively, you may be able to add little medals to our profile names/avatars. On one warhammer forum, there used to be a row of mdeals which were added to for various things... no. of posts, tournaments attended, etc. With a different medal for each competition, it would create an additional bit of individuality to someones profile, and raise awareness or interest in the competition [hey! how do i get one of those cool medla in my profile?]

perhaps a forum subscription could be an alternative means of fundraising for prizes. A small fee would be charged for membership, and any money raised would be used to make the site cooler [if that is possible ]

just a few ideas that i've seen elsewhere.

cheers, Adam

i think that less people would join if they have to pay, but maybe that's just me. it's up to tom to deside