Pendraken Sculpting Competition 2011!

[Leon]

As mentioned in this month's newsletter, after the huge success of the Painting Competition, we have decided to follow it up with the very first Pendraken Sculpting Competition!




This Competition is open from May 1st through to July 31st, so plenty of time to plan your entry!

The theme for this contest is to design a new Dungeon Monster to fit in with our Dungeon range.  It can be absolutely anything you wish, from a scurrying little grub, to an all-powerful Demon Lord!  Your entries will be judged on the quality of the sculpting firstly, but also on originality and imagination, so you'll need to give your Monster a name, and tell us what it is and how it lives!

The winning entry will firstly receive a £30 Pendraken credit voucher, but more importantly, their winning sculpt will be added to the Pendraken range, to cause mayhem in the Dungeon's of all our customers!    

The runner-up will receive a £15 Pendraken voucher, and will also be offered the opportunity to add their Monster to the ranges.

This contest is all about having a bit of fun and seeing what you can come up with!  

The full rules can be found here: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2776.0

And the Judges can be found here: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2777.0

[Leon]

We're wanting this competition to be a lot of fun for everyone involved, but of course there do have to be some rules!  If there are any questions, please ask.

- The Competition is open to anyone, professional or amateur, but you must be a Forum member to post your entry.

- The Competition is open from May 1st, through to July 31st.  Any entries received outside of these dates won't be eligible.

- You may enter as many different sculpts as you wish.

- Sculpts must be your own work.  They can not be conversions of third-party company's figures, as this would consitute a breach of copyright.  You may use any of the Pendraken figures as a 'dolly' if you wish.  By entering, you are agreeing that any work is your own.

- The winner will receive a £30 Pendraken voucher, and the winning sculpt will be entered into the Pendraken ranges.  The winning sculpt will then become the property of Pendraken.  The winner will also receive several castings of their figure, once it has been moulded.  The runner-up will receive a £15 voucher, and will be offered the opportunity to have their figure put into the Pendraken range as well, on the same terms as the winner.

- You can post WIP photo's if you wish, and you can also post extra photo's of your work elsewhere on the Forum.  These will not count towards your competition entry.

- When making your entry, you may include as many photo's as you wish.  It's best to include at least a front and back shot.  If you have any difficulty posting pictures, please contact me, Matt or Nik, and we'll help you out with that.

- The winner and runner-up will be decided by a team of highly skilled judges!  You will be judged not just on the quality of the sculpting, but the imagination involved, the name of your creature, and it's background!

- All non-winning entries will remain the property of the sculptor, and they may do with them as they wish.  We reserve the right to contact other entries in private about adding them to the range as well.


I've probably forgotten something in there somewhere, so let me know if there's any questions.

[Leon]

We've rounded up 3 highly skilled judges to help us out with the Judging of this contest, each of them strongly linked to Pendraken and the Dungeon range!

First up, and the most logical choice, is the creator of the Dungeons himself, Germy!

Back in the mists of time (well 2001) as part of a college course (mature student you understand) I was tasked with creating a website for a business. I approached Dave suggesting I could create a website for Pendraken Miniatures. Dave said yes, which was to set the tone for many of my hair-brained suggestions over the years! These included agreeing to produce one of my first ever miniatures - a set of 10mm scale tripod fighting machines. Shortly after, I hit on the idea of getting my Dungeons & Dragons role play group to abandon 28mm miniatures and use Pendraken's 10mm fantasy miniatures instead. Obviously they would need convincing so I embarked on creating monsters, furniture and the dungeon itself. Again after pitching the idea to Dave (incredibly) he said yes. The rest as they say is history!

Initially I think the dungeon proved to be too radical, it certainly marked me out as a very unconventional sculptor! But around 2008, thanks to Matt and Leon, Pendraken finally got the professional website and Forum it deserved and with it a renewed interest in the 10mm dungeon. I'm extremely honoured to be judging this competition to see yet more sculpts added to the Dungeon range.


Our second judge has also been instrumental in the success of the Dungeon Packs, as he wrote the Dungeon World rules, it's SixSidedDice!

I guess I started gaming when I was about 5 (Airix figures and Matchbox plastic kits), and was playing games with them long before I knew Wargaming as a proper hobby even existed. I used my trusty six sided die - stolen from the Monopoly box, and made up simple little rules in my head, and measured movement and even shell scatter and machine gun spread using my wide spread fingers and thumb. I`m now 48 and an aging Peter Pan.

Later I discovered the joys of modelling. I vividly remember my first ever competition. I was about 15 and I went to my local model shop and saw there was a painting and modelling competition due to be judged later that week. So I bought a cheap Matchbox kit (a German Hanomag Sdkfz. 251 Half-track), took it home, made it up quickly, cut open the bonnet, stuck in an engine robbed from a small toy car... took a red hot needle borrowed from my Mother's sewing box, and pierced the bonnet and one side of the vehicle with pin pricks to represent bullet holes, crashed the contraption against the base diorama lamp-post, bent the bumper and knackered one of the front wheels... painted it all up as best I could, and ran back to the shop next morning. The following day the judges gave me 2nd place in the junior section... much to the disgust of many modellers who had worked on their own projects for weeks and months!

Years later, I ended up moving to Ireland, where I painted professionally for the Prince August Model Factory, and managed to combine my love for war gaming, role play gaming, modelling (and eventually writing) very nicely. In the end I discovered 10mm gaming when an on-line friend showed me an advert for Pendraken Miniatures. I was taken by the dungeon and the monsters immediately and... well that was the beginning of a life long passion for all things Pendraken. I ended up talking to Dave and his lovely wife on the phone for hours, and was tentatively asked (or did I offer - I can`t remember now?) to write some fantasy rules combining Germy's resin dungeon and the 10mm monsters; the end result was of course "Dungeon World".

I was eventually offered a position as Pendraken Forum Moderator for the Dungeon section... and... well....the rest is history :-)

I`m really looking forward to judging this competition. Good luck all... and may the best man (or woman) win.


And our third judge is someone who may not be that familiar to most of our members, but he has been involved with Pendraken for nearly 2 decades now, and is responsible for the majority of our Fantasy ranges, the most recent being the Samurai Apes.  Please welcome Mark Evans to the Forum!

I've been a freelance sculptor for almost 20 years. If it wasnt for Pendraken giving me my first break, I might have still been a private snoop, which I was doing when I first met Dave!  (None related reasons, we met at a show   )
I've worked for lots of different clients other than Pendraken, including Reaper Miniatures, Heartbreaker and Sony Entertainment.
I still live in Middlesbrough, I have a dog, two kids and a wife and I love nature!

So that's our 3 Judges!  Good luck to everyone!

[capthugeca]

Good stuff, Leon

Are you limited to one sculpt?

Should there be some guidance about materials used?

[nikharwood]

Good stuff, Leon

Are you limited to one sculpt?

Should there be some guidance about materials used?

- You may enter as many different sculpts as you wish.

I think you'll get guidance from this thread: http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2778.0

[agtfos]

Great stuff! But why only dungeon monsters? I quite fancy having a go at some sci fi myself.

[Techno]

Nik's right.

I'll certainly try and pop into the 'tips' folder as often as possible....I've put a quick note regarding materials in there already.
Let me know if it doesn't cover what's required.

Cheers - Phil.

[Leon]

Great stuff! But why only dungeon monsters? I quite fancy having a go at some sci fi myself.

We wanted a theme that people could get into, without having to worry about any historical accuracy.  The Dungeon's were a perfect fit, and I hope it inspires a load of people to have a go at knocking up something suitably 'gribbly' as Nik puts it!

Now the Sci-Fi range would also be a suitable theme, but we've got some plans for the Sci-Fi which would lead into a Sci-Fi sculpting comp next year. 

[james-ewing]

i'm quite new to the pendraken miniatures forum and i've noticed you do a lot of stuff in 10mm scale.

is the dungeon creature to be sculpted in 10mm scale or 28mm?

just wanted to be sure before i start work as i'm used to sculpting in 28mm

thanks

[barbarian]

10 mm for sure.

[Vermis]

Hullo!  The scale's 10mm, but are there any restrictions on the size of the sculpts?  What would be a reasonable upper limit for said demon lord (or possibly something more draconic)?  Height, footprint, etc?

[Leon]

Hullo!  The scale's 10mm, but are there any restrictions on the size of the sculpts?  What would be a reasonable upper limit for said demon lord (or possibly something more draconic)?  Height, footprint, etc?

The Dungeon floor tiles are 16mm square, so the footprint would need to fit within that.  Heightwise, anything within reason I suppose?  A demon or giant could feasibly be around the 20mm mark?  As long as it wouldn't look out of place within the Dungeon environment, then it's fine.

[Vermis]

Okay then, thanks. 

[Nico]

Hey - I was roaming the forums as a guest for a while now and just joined

However, I have question on the competition: Should we sculpt/design a base ?

cheers

[Leon]

Hey - I was roaming the forums as a guest for a while now and just joined

However, I have question on the competition: Should we sculpt/design a base ?

cheers

It can depend on what your sculpt is, but most figures would require some type of base yes.