Judging at the Reaper MSP Open - Diorama Division

2015 MSP Open - Gold

This is the third in a series of four posts each concentrating on a different entry category. You can find information about the scoring system itself in the Painter Division post. From here forward I will just concentrate on how the component guidelines apply to the other three divisions

Diorama Division
The Diorama Division does not exist in the MMSI structure. At MMSI a diorama goes into the Open Division as it encompasses the same set of skills. I, however, felt the Open Division ignored or down played the story and what is a diorama without a story?  This is the division that lets you show off the same skills that the Open Division does and wrap it around a story. Again if you have just a single entry then the judges can just go ahead and score your entry, no discussion is necessary. If you have multiple entries, then there will be a discussion between the judges on which entry they want to score. That conversation is typically the only conversation although these discussions tend to be longer than they might be in the Painter Division.  However, when selecting the scoring entry the conversation is still based on “I can score this one higher than the others” or words to that affect, till they come to a decision just as it would be for the Painter Division. 

Let’s take a quick look at the scoring guidelines the judges use (which is published as part of the MSP Open rules. One cautionary note’ these particular scoring guidelines may change slightly):
Difficulty: 10%
Creativity: 20%
Workmanship: 15%
Painting Skill: 30%
Presentation: 25%

What does this mean for the Diorama Division? In this division we are really want to see all your hobby skills as well as your story telling ability. While the components remain the same the emphasis has obviously changed a great deal.

Difficulty: This is a tough one for the Diorama category, since most dioramas are difficult to begin with. We reduced the emphasis here because we feel that you should not take a hit for a good story that is comparatively simple to tell.  

Creativity: Creativity steps up a bit here.  While painting is still factor this is the portion that shows us the story you are telling. Now painting is combined with your ability to convert, sculpt and tell a story to your audience. The entrant’s imagination comes into play here, you are looking to tell a story to your viewers. You are striving for the audience to understand your story without commentary from you. It can be subtle or in your face but if you have to explain it then you have not succeeded.

Workmanship: This remains a pretty straightforward component but in the Diorama Division there is a higher emphasis on it. It reflects how well constructed the entire piece is. Any type of non-painting effort is represented here. This is includes your ability to do conversions and/or scratch sculpt or at least be able to blend your miniatures in with the scene you have constructed. A missed mold line, poor assembly or a poorly executed conversion could easily drop you a while numeric value in the scoring.

Painting Skill: Everything that was said about painting still applies in the Diorama Division but there is less emphasis. At this point workmanship and creativity components exceed the painting component. While we don’t expect your abilities to be exactly equal in those areas you cannot count on your ability to paint alone to carry you over the top.

Presentation:  There is more emphasis on the is component as well. You are building the entire entry, essentially from scratch, and the presentation of everything you do affects the story. From the miniatures to the setting, this is where it all comes together. How you present it can be the difference between gold and silver.

Judging at the Reaper MSP Open - Painter Division

Best of Show Tacticon (Denver CO)
Silver Medal, Painter Division, Reaper Con (Denton TX)
Red Box Games; Myrianna of Aelfheim

Breaking out the scoring or How your models are judged at the Reaper Con MSP Open

This will be a series of four posts each concentrating on a different entry category. These scoring “rules” are based on the MMSI painting competition in Chicago and variants of this system are used on an international basis. Michael Proctor and I took a good hard look at the rules a number of years ago and introduced a few tweaks to the system to better represent what we, as judges, are looking for when scoring your entry at Reaper Con. The basis for all of these is still the MMSI rules and there is not a whole lot of difference between the emphasis of the components in each division. One thing to keep in mind is that manufacturer awards do not necessarily use the MSP Open system. Those winners are, typically, chosen by the manufacturer (including Reaper for the Sophies) or their representative on site using their own criteria.

The scoring is quite simple. A judge assigns an entry one of five numerical values based on their opinion of what the entrant has earned for their entry:

0 – No award

1 – Certificate of Merit

2 – Bronze Medal

3 – Silver Medal

4 – Gold Medal

The Reaper Con judging teams are made up of three judges (There are options to use 4 or 5 judges but regardless of how many judges are used only three scores are tallied). Each judge assigns one of these 5 values to each miniature assigned to their team. The three scores are tallied which gets a value somewhere between 0 and 12. That final tally gives a number that tells the team what award to give to the entrant for that entry. Judging is typically not done by committee, each judge assigns the score they feel the piece deserves and moves on to the next. Most discussion takes place around which piece to score when there are multiple entries. Judges do consult with each other when they have difficulty assigning a score to an entry.

0 – 1 No Award

2 – 4 Certificate of Merit

5 – 7 Bronze Medal

8 – 10 Silver Medal

11 – 12 Gold Medal

So that’s the basics, now let’s take a look at how a judge uses the five components to decide what score they are going to give you.

Painter Division

The Painter Division is for stock models, those that come straight from the package or are assembled as shown by the manufacturer (it can include minor conversions). The Painter Division is the largest category at the MSP Open, often encompassing hundreds of entries at each show. There is no limit to the number of entries that an individual can enter in this category. I personally would limit yourself to your three best, but if you intend to be considered for other manufacturer or theme awards then it would not be out of place to see six or more entries from an individual.

If you have just a single entry then the judges can just go ahead and score your entry, no discussion is necessary. If you have multiple entries, then there will be a discussion between the judges on which entry they want to score. That conversation is typically the only conversation that needs to occur for any given entrant. When selecting the scoring entry the conversation is based on “I can score this one higher than the others” or words to that affect, till they come to a decision which is usually pretty quickly done. If the entries are visually very thematic the judges may decide to judge them together as a single entry.

Let’s take a quick look at the scoring guidelines the judges use (which is published as part of the MSP Open Rules):

Difficulty: 5%

Creativity: 10%

Workmanship: 10%

Painting Skill: 70%

Presentation: 5%

So what does that really mean? In a nutshell we want to see how well you can paint! Did you really execute the different techniques to the best of your ability? Hence why painting skill is the predominant component that a judge is going to look at. Let’s look at a breakdown of those components and how they relate to a miniature in the Painters Division.

Difficulty: This is definitely not an intuitive concept in the Painter Division. The judge is not looking at the techniques (including freehand) you used on the miniature. They are looking at how difficult is the miniature itself to paint. While how difficult a miniature is also subjective, subtle shading on flat or nearly flat surfaces are much more difficult to pull off than shading on a surface with more surface texture. Often difficulty is going to come into play when a judge is on the fence between two scores.

Creativity: This component looks at use of color, color schemes and the use of freehand designs in other words things that aren’t part of the sculpt itself. This is also where painted effects first come into play, like OSL (Object Source Lighting). This is the component that really addresses your freedom of expression on your entry and how well you bring that across to the audience.

Workmanship: This is a pretty straightforward component. It reflects how well you prepared your model for painting. Any type of non-painting effort is represented here. In the Painter division this includes finding the elusive mold line and eliminating it but it also includes assembling a multi piece miniatures or executing minor conversions. A well done conversion or well assembled miniature means that the judge can’t tell that anything has been converted or that it had multiple pieces. A missed mold line, poor assembly or a poorly executed conversion could easily drop you a while numeric value in the scoring.

Painting Skill: This is the whole key to the Painter Division entry, how well you apply paint to the miniature. These is where you are evaluated on the techniques you used how well you executed them. Tying everything together is really important as well. Everything you do must come together as a whole composition. It is an area where judges need to be aware of everything that is going on and how it is fitting together. While this is the predominate component of the Painter Division it is also the most subjective.

Judges must overcome their prejudices about which techniques they prefer. As an example there is nothing wrong with drybrushing as long as you executed it properly regardless of how the judge feels about that technique.

Here is an example of how a judge needs to be aware of many different styles and techniques. Blending doesn’t always have to be a smooth transition from light to dark, there are multiple different types of blending, it is how well you executed the technique or style you opted for. Do you blend like Jen Haley or like Alfonso “Banshee” Giraldes? They both achieve marvelous blends but their techniques are markedly different in achieving those blends.

Presentation: While not the most important component in the Painter Division it is another example of getting the little things right. A nice, well executed base will set the “scene” for your miniature. It can be the simple base that the miniature came on or with or it can be more elaborate, although I would save the effort on a really elaborate base for a miniature going into the Open or Diorama divisions. This component is another that one that a judge will often use when making that final decision between scores, a tie breaker as it were.

If you made it through that wall of text, congratulations! Hopefully that helped explain away some of the magic behind the scoring in the Painter Division.

Acquisitions - Reaper Con Loot Delivered

I count the package that arrived yesterday as more loot from Reaper Con since it really was a result of being at the show. Not much to show off and of course it includes a component for another wild idea that is not likely to get very far the Sledgehammer BFG.

The extent of my miniature purchase. All I really ordered was the two Reaper Con Sophies for this year. The Kobolds were included for free, one pack for every $40 I think. I have no idea what I'm going to do with those.

Some more paint, filling in some blanks in my color ranges, just to save time from mixing.

The Sledgehammer BFG created in conjunction with Victoria Miniatures.

That's a lot of pieces

A look at the crew. Apparently these are available from Victoria Lamb in resin. I'm contemplating getting that set along with some extra bits and pieces. She also produces three add on kits to the Sledgehammer, including replacing the wheels with tracks, adding a gun shield, or shortening the whole barrel up for more of an assault howitzer look.

So You Want to Enter the ReaperCon Painting Competition

Sorry about that, I just realized that all the text came through in black or blue and was virtually unreadable.

I made a huge post in the Reaper Forums this morning about entering miniatures in the painting competition at ReaperCon. I thought it would be worth while to post it here in the blog as well. One of the reasons that this is my favorite competition is that it uses the Open System which rewards you on the work you have done, not whether you managed to finish in the top three. I have judged enough competitions and gone through the pain of working through a category (typically  single figure fantasy and/or single figure Sci/Fi) where the top 6 or so entries all were candidates for that top spot. Then you have categories that there are barely enough entries to award 1st-3rd (and sometimes you wish you didn't have to).If you are heading to ReaperCon and you should be reading the rules which can be found at ReaperCon

Gold at Tacticon, Silver at ReaperCon - Painter

Bronze - Vehicle/Ordnance

Silver - Single/Painter

Silver - Dioramas

So you are coming to ReaperCon and its coming fast, especially for those of us still working away on our entries. ReaperCon is a rather unique convention and there is nothing else quite like it out there. Since the focus is on miniatures and painting this is a good convention to enter into the painting competition especially if its your first time. Now that sounds scary I know, you have heard that some of the "big" names are going to be entering why should you bother? ReaperCon's painting competition is in a much friendlier format than most (not all, but most) game convention painting competitions. Its a good place to get your feet wet. You can check out the rules on the ReaperCon.com website.But really what does all that mean?First let's take a look at the categories, there are only four of them. Why four? All the other shows seem to have a dozen categories. We have modeled this competition from the one used by MMSI, which is also used by a good chunk of the military/historical painting shows. The idea is that you don't need a dozen or so categories when we aren't going to award a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place (sometimes referred to as podium or trophy judging). Instead we want to reward you for the hard work you have put into your entry. Instead of 1st-3rd we award gold, silver, and bronze medals along with certificates of merit, this is known as the Open (or medal) system. Since we are going to reward you for your work we don't need a dozen categories to give people as many chances as possible to win an award. Instead we want you to focus your painting on what you do best and four categories is all we need. The titles can be a bit confusing so let's take a look at them.

Painter - The focus here is on a single stock miniature. While presentation (i.e. basing) is a factor an elaborate base isn't what the judges are focusing on. I use the term stock here because essentially you are using the mini right out the package. Conversion work whether it is elaborate or simple is not considered, although a poorly done conversion can hurt your score.

Open - The focus of this category at ReaperCon is a bit different than it is at an historical show so be aware of that if you go to MMSI in Chicago or Lone Star here in Texas. What is acceptable for ReaperCon may not qualify as Open there. Our Open category is primarily on the conversion of existing miniatures, scratch sculpts and elaborate basing. Painting is still a factor but its not weighed quite as heavily as it is in Painter. So if you have spent as much time on the base as the miniature and want it considered as part of your score then this is the category for you.

Dioramas/Vignettes  - While this category is pretty standard at game convention competitions, at MMSI and similar shows these typically go into the Open category. This category is focused on story telling through the use of miniatures and basing. There are different ways to define dioramas and vignettes. The simplest I have seen is that a diorama has more than 3 figures on the base and a vignette has 3 or fewer figures. Painting is still a component of this category but the emphasis is on presentation in the sense that you are trying to convey a story or message to the viewer. Keep it as simple as you can, while I have seen some wonderful complicated dioramas out there sometimes there is so much action they muddy the story. Keep this mind, if you have to explain your story to some one looking at your scene then you have failed to convey your message. A diorama or vignette needs to stand on its own and convey the story without explanation from its creator. Here is a clue, if you can't figure out a title for your diorama, then you many not know what your story really is.Vehicles/Ordnance - This category is for those things of a mechanical nature, subject to a bit of interpretation. A horse drawn wagon is a vehicle. In this case the wagon and its team of horses would be judged as they are the "vehicle", while the riders are not considered for the painting portion but would be considered as part of the presentation. It can get a little complex.

So what about this medal stuff and how do I know I won?You can think of the medals as a grade awarded by a team of judges. What the judges don't do is compare your work to the entry right next to you (which may actually be judged by a different team anyway). The judges will score your work without comparing to other entries. If they decide you have earned gold, then you will receive a gold medal for your entry. You can only win one medal in each category. It works like this; each piece is scored by each of the three judges on the team independently of each other (so you get 3 scores). If you have multiple entries in Painter they will discuss which piece they are going to judge. They do not discuss what score they are going to award a piece. After determining the piece to be judged each judge assigns a score from 0 (yes Zero) - 4. When they have finished working all the pieces on their list those sheets are handed in and one of the staff members totals everything up to determine the score. So not even the judges know what what the final score for a piece actually was until the awards ceremony. Those three scores for your piece are added up to determine what medal you receive: 0-1 no award, 2-4 Certificate of Merit, 5-7 Bronze, 8-10 Silver, 11-12 Gold. The Award Ceremony is Saturday Night.

Hey! The rules say I can enter as many miniatures as I want, why can I only get one medal per category?Yes, you can have as many entries as you want in each category. As mentioned above though the judges will only score one of those entries in that category. An initial conversation is held to determine which piece will be scored, its often along the lines of "I can score this miniature higher than that one". Judges will score the piece that they think is your best work (which may not be what you consider your best work, it happens). So while you can certainly enter all "20" single miniatures you painted this year in the competition you are only going to get a medal for one of them. The judges will go through this process for each category, hence why the maximum number of medals you can receive is 4. There are other awards as well, the Sophie Trophy, the Theme Award, and various manufacturer awards. These are judged separately and use the more traditional 1st - 3rd method (in essence that can be boiled down to this miniature has fewer painting flaws than that miniature). Its possible that a single entry could win multiple awards. The judges do have the prerogative to score your entire display if they can't reach a decision on a single piece or they feel that the display of miniatures, as a whole, is worthy of being rewarded with a medal.

What was my score and why did I get it?After the awards ceremony and when the painting competition hall is open you can ask not only what scores your mini received but who judged it. Most of the judges are taken from the ranks of the instructors at ReaperCon with a couple of exceptions (myself for one, although I do teach on occasion) so your miniatures are being judged by people that are knowledgeable about painting and how to do it. We use teams because we feel (and its one of the reasons MMSI developed this system) that a combined score is more indicative of what a mini should get rather than depending on a single judge to know everything and be neutral on all the different painting techniques that are out there. To find out what the judges were thinking you will have to track them down. Most of us are more than happy to discuss the whys and wherefores just be aware of our time and that you may be taking up the only 15 minutes we have to eat. Be considerate.

Some Hints for Entering

1) Every piece has to have a name or title. To speed up registration please already know the name or title before you get to the front of the line! Write it down before hand if you need to! As I mentioned before if you don't already know the name of your diorama or vignette you may have an issue with your story.

2) Don't bring everything you painted in the last six months. Yes, I know it says unlimited but really if you painted "20" miniatures this year is the first one better than your last three? Odds are the last three or four are probably more indicative of your best work. Try to keep you numbers down to around 5 or fewer per category.

3) Make sure your bases are at least finished in the Painter category. While presentation is not a huge chunk of the percentage in this category a nicely finished base will show off your miniature better than the base you tried out different color combinations on or used to wipe excess paint off your brush on.

4) Make sure your entry is well fastened to its base, you don't want to be subjected to the "Heisler Affect". If you mount your mini on a pedestal style base, judges tend to see that as a handle. If the mini is not attached when its picked up by the "handle" its going to hit the table, probably to disastrous effect.

5) Make sure the paint is dry when you hand in your mini for the competition!

6) You must enter all your miniatures at the same time. You cannot bring them in as you finish them in the painting room. So if you have 5 entries for each category then you have to bring all 20 entries at once, not a couple at a time.

7) Remember that if you have ReaperCon Full Weekend badge your entries must be in by 5pm on FRIDAY night. No exceptions.

8) If you have a Saturday only badge your entries must be in by 12 Noon on SATURDAY. No exceptions. If you have a ReaperCon full weekend pass you cannot enter on Saturday you missed your cutoff.

If I think of other things I'll add them to the list.

ReaperCon 2014 - Day 2

Day 2 was quite the busy day for me. I spend a considerable amount of time putting competition medals in little red boxes. Not very exciting. There was a banquet in the evening to induct a couple of new people into the Reaper Hall of Fame. This year it was Werner Klocke and Derek Schubert. After that it was straight in to start judging the competition miniatures. There were a lot of entries, 401 when we started. We work in teams of 3 for the scoring and we split the work between 3 teams. We finished in about 2 hours. Lots of fantastic entries this year and some pretty difficult decisions on scoring them. I couldn't get a good picture of my entry yesterday so I'll see what I can do when I get home. Here are a few pictures of the day, mostly focused on my favorite entries in the painting competition.

Bin of Bronze Medals

Box of presentation boxes

Boxes, that in theory, now have bronze medals in them

Dan Clark

Michael Proctor
That rabbit has a serious stash of loot under the snow

Mary Profitt

Mary Profitt

Rhonda Bender

John Bowery

Michelle Blastenbrei

Aaron Lovejoy

Anne Cooper

Angela Imrie
Artemis by Hasslefree, one of my favorite minis by them.

Mary Profitt

Tonya Lynn

Unknown

Tish Wolter

Aaron Lovejoy

Jessica Rich

Michael Proctor

Rhonda Bender

Heidi Jugovic

Glen Phillips

Ian Markon
(This was Best in Show at Genghis Con XXXV)

Michelle Blastenbrei

Meg Maples

Erin Hartwell
This one is my favorite piece in the shoe and one of the best dioramas if have seen in a long time. It shouts Old West and its fitting that it racked up its fair share of awards; silver medal in dioramas, a silver Sophie for dioramas and Best Theme. I managed to be one of the judges for this piece all three times, I really wanted to score it gold but it has a few issues, but its on the razor edge and wouldn't take much to get it over the top. Watch those mold lines Erin!

ReaperCon Competition WIP

I have no idea of I'm going to be able to finish this piece for the convention or not. She is close but I figure I might have as much as another 10 hours to go to get her competition ready. Its kind of a study in brown but what I'm really trying to bring out is the flaking paint revealing the creature beneath. I think there is enough difference in the browns that I used to make things stand out and I like the flaked paint look that I have managed to achieve so far. Really I'm down to pulling off the rusting effects at this point, but there is a whole lot of chain to paint. I'm on the road again on a fast trip, but I leave right away on Wednesday morning to head to ReaperCon, all I can think to do is perhaps pull an all nighter on Tuesday and see if I can get her close enough to finish at the con. I tried to limit myself to just Reaper paints so I can grab what I need at the show rather than having to check a bag. I really prefer carry-ons for air travel and you would be amazed at how much I can fit into a carry-on suitcase, about the only benefit to being a road warrior is the ability to back well.

Here are the pictures, I'm really happy with some of it, and less happy with other aspects.

For the planking I used the muddy soil triad, for her body I used the woodstain triad and for her skin I used the ivory tried. You can see the initial flaked paint look on the decorative vines and flowers.

On the back you can see the first rusted chain as well as the red flaked paint. I have seen British wooden ships with the upper deck sides painted in red. The theory being they wouldn't show blood as badly.

Working on the flaked paint look for the dress, then I will re-apply the brown highlights.

I thought I had one more later shot but apparently this is the last one. There are a couple of places where I used the Scalecoat paints from Scale75. The dress in particular as well as parts of the anchor and some of the highlights on the wood.

ReaperCon 2013 - The Loot

I am more or less recovered from the convention and willing to start painting again. So I started out working through the miniatures I picked up while I was at ReaperCon. With my current distraction deep into the wild west I figured I should pick up as many of Reaper's western style miniatures as I could. Apparently everyone else had the same thought as the bins were pretty empty of unpackaged metal, so I had to resort to pulling actual packaged minis off the shelf and I'm still missing a few. These minis are from both the Savage Worlds (Deadlands) and the Chronoscope Lines. Of course by now I have completely forgotten which ones I need so I will have to sift through the catalog again to figure it out.

That package at the top of the first picture are the Sci/Fi 40K Beastmen Trench Raiders from Victoria Lamb. I should have made her sign the back of the slip.

I just finished filing these and now they need a quick rub down with steel wool to remove  some of the scratches. I'm beginning to detest dusters, almost every figure has one and I haven't even painted one yet. Yes, I do already have that female huckster but two is always better than one!

Contents of the swag bag. The rolled up piece of paper in the cup is a small print  version of the Sophie Artwork for the convention.
Included were three bottles of paint, the convention Sophie, the convention Mousling, a Dark Sword mini, a plastic dinosaur, a mini from Miniature Building Authority (I would put this one in the mascot category). The Reaper catalog was not part of the actual swag bag loot though. I also have a dark blue con shirt. Dark blue was for guests, painters and sculptors, a nice chocolate brown for Reaper Staff, and black for con goers that purchased a shirt. Oh and the bag.