Iron Painter 2015 Competition.

Wyrd originally started as a painting and miniatures company. With the advent of Malifaux, it's moved into an overall gaming company, but the people at the heart of the company are still hobbyists. And one of the ways that Wyrd continued to push this was through painting contests. The kind that left your hand cramped and miniature paint bottles thrown against the wall in frustration. And Wyrd took pleasure in that pain.

The last Iron Painter we hosted was so grueling that too many Gremlins were lost in the process. Sure, we ended up with some fully charged Soulstones, but no one to use them on. Now... well, that has changed. Wyrd is burning a Stone for a Crow and summoning up the ceaseless advance that is the Iron Painter. We've got Supervike, the original host, to come back and MC for us. Nathan and Eric of Malifaux fame are going to be two of the judges, joined by Crissy from A Wyrd Place on Facebook. And most importantly, we've got you, the members of the community, ready to go at it.

We want you to get your paints and paintbrushes ready. We want you to pull out all those unpainted figures. And we want you to clear your schedule because there's no time to slack in the Iron Painter. Come April, we'll all embark on the journey together until there's only one left stand...err, painting.


The Iron Painter is a multi-round single elimination painting contest conducted by Wyrd Miniatures. It is a long, grueling competition where painters will be tasked with continuously producing a series of painted models within tight timelines. It is not a competition for the faint of heart (or brush).

If you think you have what it takes to paint until your fingers bleed (OK, we don’t want your fingers to bleed, but a little bit of a red stain from painting could be appropriate), then you should sign up for this competition. The full rules are detailed below, please read them carefully.

Keep in mind that this contest is designed for painters (and non-painters) to have fun. Although each round will have a winner, Iron Painter is as much about finishing every round as it is winning. It’s a chance for you to get motivated and paint your minis!


Sign Up
In order to sign up for this painting contest, you must post in this thread saying “I’m in!” by March 31st. This will add your name to the list of participants, which we will then use to determine the Round’s pairings.

Please do not sign up for this contest unless you intend to follow through. Each Round of the competition will match painters against each other, and we want to limit the number of drop-outs (especially during the first Round).


Rounds
Each Round of the Iron Painter will last 2 weeks. During this time, each contestant will prepare and paint a new miniature. You may not use any miniature that you’ve already begun any work on (let alone completed). That miniature may be produced by any company, and it must be uploaded to the appropriate location by the deadline.

Every Round will be announced with its own thread on Friday, which will detail all the information needed for that Round: the start date, end date, theme, and pairings. The start date will always be the Monday following the announcement of the Round, which will allow the contestants time to acquire and plan out their miniature. Participants may not start assembly or painting work until the start date.

The number of Rounds in the Iron Painter will be determined by the number of participants, but it will not exceed 5 Rounds. At the end of each Round, the results will be posted in the original thread that began that Round on the Thursday after the Round ends.


Winning
The Iron Painter is a single elimination painting contest. This means that each pairing in a Round will have a winner, and, at the end, the individual who won every Round will be crowned the overall winner: the Iron Painter.

The competition will have 3 Judges who will assign points to every miniature. The miniatures will be judged on 3 criteria: Theme, Technical Skill, and Aesthetic. 
Theme (0 to 5 points) – Does the submission meet the current Round’s theme? How closely does it match that theme?
Technical Skill (0 to 5 points) – What is the overall quality of the painting? What is the difficulty of the painting?
Aesthetic (0 to 10 points) – How does the mini look, overall?
The total points for each miniature will be compiled and the submission with the most total points will be that pairing’s winner. The judging (but not the Judges) will be anonymous, but each submission’s final score will be posted publicly.

The painter of each losing submission in a pairing be eliminated from the competition.


Prizes
There will be prizes awarded for the Iron Painter:
Overall Winner – $400 cash (payable by check) and $100 store credit to the last painter standing.
Second Place – $200 cash (payable by check) and $100 store credit to whoever lost in the final Round.
High Score – $50 cash (payable by check) and $50 store credit to whichever entry, in any Round, got the highest score.
Underdog – $50 store credit to the entry which scored the lowest and still advanced (though tie breakers apply as normal).
I Survived! – Any participant who goes through every Round without a DNF (see below) will receive a special forum badge (until the next Iron Painter) indicating their participation. Additionally, one of these participants will be chosen at random to win $50 in store credit.
My Voice Is Heard – Anyone who comments on every entry throughout the course of the entire Iron Painter will be entered into a raffle to win one of three $50 prizes in store credit. These comments must be made before the next Round begins. The winners of these prizes do not need to be participants in the competition.
Top Comment – $50 store credit to the ‘top comment’. The “top comment” will be the favorite comment posted on one of the submissions in the competition, as judged by an internal vote of Wyrd staff. The winner of this prize does not need to be a participant in the competition.
All prizes will be given out at the end of the competition. No one may win more than 1 prize.


Other
Below are some additional rules and clarifications.

Well, That’s Wyrd…
Submissions for the Iron Painter do not need to be Wyrd products.

Did Not Finish (DNF)
Some participants will not finish their painting in time. It happens! It’s a tough competition. Anyone who does not finish automatically loses their Round and is therefore eliminated from the competition. 

If you are choosing to drop out, please attempt to post this after the current Round’s submissions are due but before the next Round begins. This allows time for the pairings to be set accordingly. Please do not announce you are dropping out in the middle of a Round.

Easy Way Out
Any submission that is up against a DNF may be disqualified if it gets a total score of less than 12 points. This counts as a loss. This is to stop people who see that their opponent will be a DNF from taking the easy way out and submitting a “meh” piece of work.

This is a Competition!
If there are multiple DNFs in a Round, their opponents who did finish will be randomly matched up against each other. Iron Painter is a competition and if your opponent couldn’t handle the pressure, we’re going to go ahead and get you another one.

It is possible that this will still result in someone without an opponent, in which case that participant will automatically win (assuming they don’t meet the Easy Way Out restriction).

Continued Entries
Any participant that is eliminated may continue submitting entries, and in fact they are encouraged to do so! They will no longer be eligible to win, but we will give out special forum badges at the end to participants who finished every Round. When uploading your pictures after you have been eliminated, please preface them with “ELIM” to show that you have been eliminated from the competition.

Cheat Fate
If there are an odd number of participants in a Round, the highest scoring non-winning entry from the previous Round will be able to Cheat Fate. This means they will progress to the next Round regardless of their loss.

If there are an odd number of players in the first round, one of the pairings may consist of more painters. The losing participants will be eliminated as normal, but if it is determined that a painter will need to Cheat Fate in the second round, that painter will automatically come from this pairing.

Ties
In the event that scores within a pairing are tied, the tie breaker will be whichever model is a Wyrd miniature (it’s our contest, we can play favorites). If they both are, then the winner is determined by highest score in Theme. If this is still a tie, the higher scoring Technical Skill will win. In the event of a continued tie, a special guest Judge (a Wyrd employee) will be brought in to determine the winner.

Challenge the Crowd
We may, on certain Rounds, have the pairings include more than 2 participants. This helps cut down the number of Rounds in the contest so it is a little less brutal. These work exactly like any other Round, where the highest score in the pairing wins.

To The Victor…
In the past, the Iron Painter required the loser of a Round send the victor a miniature from their collection. This is not a requirement in this competition, but can still be a fun addition to the contest for some participants. If you want to send a miniature to the painter who bested you, just send the victor a private message.

Ya Call That a Paintjob?
The Iron Painter has a long and storied history of smack talk. We do not discourage this, however, it can easily go too far. Any smack talk should be good natured and in the spirit of competition. The forum moderators will take action against any aggressive or hostile posts.


Judges
Here are your Judges (who are not eligible to win any of the above): Nathan Caroland, Crissy DuBois, and Eric Johns.


Host, MC, Organizer Extraordinaire
Your host will be Supervike, who will announce the rounds and handle the logistics. It’s a big job, so you best respect his authority!


Schedule
This is the schedule, assuming that the competition goes the full possible 5 Rounds. It is possible that there will be some minor discrepancies during the event (bad things happen), so this should be considered a rough guideline, rather than anything that is set in stone.
March 31 – Sign Up Ends
April 3 – Round 1 Announced
April 6 – Round 1 Begins
April 20 – Round 1 Ends
April 23 – Round 1 Results
April 24 – Round 2 Announced
April 27 – Round 2 Begins
May 11 – Round 2 Ends
May 14 – Round 2 Results
May 15 – Round 3 Announced
May 18 – Round 3 Begins
June 1 – Round 3 Ends
June 4 – Round 3 Results
June 5 – Round 4 Announced
June 8 – Round 4 Begins
June 22 – Round 4 Ends
June 25 – Round 4 Results
June 26 – Round 5 Announced
June 29 – Round 5 Begins
July 13 – Round 5 Ends
July 16 – Round 5 Results

Please allow some delay after the competition’s end for the distribution of prizes.

More info Here.