The competition is basically a way to motivate folks to get their miniatures painted. The contest consists of 10 rounds of painting. For each round, participants paint one "team" of at least 5 miniatures. Points are awarded for certain criteria being met, and teams are judged against each other by members of the forum. At the end, the painter with the highest number of points is declared the "winner." Really, though, everyone who participates gets some of their unpainted stock off their desks, so it's a win for everyone.
The first round this year includes a "gothic" challenge. Anyone who paints a team which fits into the gothic genre receives extra points. Not having anything like that on hand, I ordered some figures a few weeks ago, when I first found out about the competition, but so far only one of them has arrived in the mail. With the deadline for entry coming up this week, it looks like I'll need to find a backup plan.
On the positive side, I've finished two teams at this point (to be posted later, so as to not post them before the competition), so I'm off to a good start. I have four or five more teams worked out, one in primer, so I think I'll be able to keep up, even though I'm a fairly slow (read: unmotivated) painter.
