The RTT Won’t Let Me Be#

The story so far.

Not to bury the chase or cut to the lede, I tied for second place. Can’t complain for my first outing.

But now for the complaining (not really)#

The event was scored using the Adepticon rubric, which, like a contestant on Make Some Noise to the prompts, I had never seen before.

(As explained, the Display Base section was omitted since this wasn’t for a full army.)

Ultimately what got me were two key criteria - the diorama basing and the freehand. Let’s start with the freehand. I had some freehand, sure. But I’ll fully admit, my freehand was either large and geometric (Ambot) or large and crude (Ikit Claw). I am a self-proclaimed not-a-freehander and that was firmly in my “to-do” list of takeaways. But, like all painting techniques, I will need to spend more time practicing and will get better at.

Under the Exceptional Extras section, that would possibly bump me from a 2/4 to an 8, a massive jump in scoring.

The second, bitter-er pill to swallow, is the diorama basing. I can appreciate diorama basing, but generally it’s not my style. (The only models I sent out of the way to diorama were my Trench Crusade Hell squad, and that was just to give everyone some rusty barbed wire.) While I did paint bespoke models for the event, these are still intended to be used in a larger army/squad - I wouldn’t really want to put Clan Rat #7 on a massive stone pillar diorama base and have it look ridiculous next to the 19 other Clan Rats. (They’ll mock him endlessly.)

The other side of that bitter pill coin is, what constitutes diorama-like basing? (Behold, a man!) Some models, such as the Ikit Claw replacement in Age of Sigmar, functionally have a diorama as part of the model.

Does that count, or does one need to go above and beyond what’s included on the sprue? (In which case, it feels like just “painting what’s on the sprue” isn’t going above and beyond like the rubric is implying.) Or while the rubric mentions “flock” in some of the criterias, would the Blood Bowl grass and pitch lines count as a diorama, since it’s setting the scene as taking place in the world of Blood Bowl?

I’m not trying to argue that I should have gotten more points, but some clarity on what is and is not a diorama would be helpful. One can’t improve without know what to improve.

The third side of the bitter coin to pill is at least for the Ikit Claw kitbash, diorama basing is antithetical to the 90s ‘Eavy Metal style I was going for. Goblin Green as far as the eye can see, and not a single diorama base in sight.

Ultimately, that’s all a whole lot of words to say I wasn’t “teaching to the test,” so to say. I didn’t know about the scoring criteria ahead of time, and didn’t base any decisions on the scoring criteria. I had my own goals in mind, executed on them, and as I said previously, am happy with the results.

While I wasn’t able to get a copy of my scored sheets, I did a little self-assessment based on the given criteria:

I generally score myself pretty hard on things, which is why I gave myself a 4 on the Advanced Skills category - I don’t think I would consider my shading or blending to be seamless. It’s also one of those previously mentioned to-do bullet points. The basing and the freehand I feel I would have maxed out at 4’s, as I already mentioned. That gives me a total of 27 points out of 39.

If a future event uses the same rubric, will I change my plans and work the system? I can’t say for certain.

As an aside, for these kinds of creative endevors/contests, I like to push the edges of the guidelines when I can. Be a little extra. (In this case, it was with the 90s style throw-back Ikit Claw. Was really hoping to hit that nostalgia.) One of the ideas I had initially was a full on diorama - nothing that would be usable in a game, but setting a scene and telling a little story. Ultimately I didn’t go with it, in part because I was feeling pressed for time and part because the one idea I had, I didn’t want to open a box of Necromunda terrain just for that. While I’m not sure how that would go if this was intended to be a “best single model painting contest,” but it would sure nail all the diorama points. Maybe I’ll do that if there’s another contest.

That might have sounded like a lot of complaining, but it was a good experience. I can see what I need to work on, where I need to improve. Got one under my belt. Onwards and upwards. Diagonalwards.

If you want to get ahold of me, you can now reach me at floppyparts@proton.me. Send me whatever you want.