What was Kontrast 2021?

Kontrast 2021 took place at 20-21 Nov 2021 in Warsaw, in a >new Warsaw Ursynow City Hall building<. Very easy to get there by metro. Main event was of course the miniature painting contest, split between master & standard categories, but there were a lot of other activities as well:

  • speedpainting contest
  • painting demos by Matteo di Diomede from Mindwork Games & Michal ‘Lan’ Pisarski
  • ad hoc afterparty in nearby bar
  • concert by Weljar
  • painting workshop for children
  • wargaming presentations
  • shopping area (Neko, Mindworks - they brought their original boxarts!, other brands)

Thank you!

First of all, massive thanks to all people who made it possible: Organizer Michal Maslowski from >https://miniaturenightpainting.com/<, staff from Warsaw Ursynow City Hall, volunteers that handled the figures acceptance, and awesome judges: Krzysztof Kobalczyk, Natalia Oracz, Ana Machowska, Michal ‘Lan’ Pisarski, Katarzyna ‘KAHA’ Gorska, also speedpainting judges: Jakub Malysa, Jaroslaw ‘Camelson’ Drabek, Michal ‘Mahon’ Machowski and everyone else involved. Finally big kudos to the awesome ambient/folk band >Weljar< who did a very atmospheric music performance. We even had a representative from Scale Model Challange! I also had a chance to meet new people, and to chat with the ones I haven’t had contact with for a long time, this was priceless, especially taking into consideration the times we live in now.
It was the best Polish miniature painting event I’ve ever been to.

Why it was awesome

Simple: quality & quantity (almost 500) of pieces, competitors from outside of Poland, networking. But let’s get to the brightest points for me, at least organisation-wise, so the improvements over Hussar miniature painting competition that was held in Poland for many years. The category split between standard and master encourages everyone to bring their models, and I think this is the way to go (Hussar implemented it in the last X edition). Also, the medal system worked like in most european competitions, meaning the judges could grant multiple bronze/silver/golds instead of looking for flaws in comparable works. I feel this encourages braver painting & allows for a more diverse style. Getting to the judges, they are extremely skilled painters, recognized internationally, so our pieces were in good hands and we could be sure they would make good decisions. Having their models being displayed was an awesome idea. Model registration process was streamlined & done beforehand via google forms, with a hard timeline. This got rid of stacks of paper that everyone had to fill up, and sped up the turning-in process to just finding a numbered sticker, sticking it to your plinth, and handling the model to the staff. Someone suggested the possibility of entering without registration (to have some pool of wildcard places with stickers), but come on, such competition is something you plan ahead and I don’t think such corner cases will ever happen. Last point: I think the social media side of the event was handled well - there was a lot of buzz on the internet, so I think everyone knew this event was happening. There was even a live transmission of >Weljar concert< & >awards ceremony< if you’re interested in who won! I managed to get bronze in master fantasy large for my >KD pinup<, >Ignisart< manufacturer prize & bronze in master fantasy bust for >wuzalka<, silver in master small sf for >traitor ogryn< and a honorable mention in master machine category for my blue >tau battlesuit<.

My personal favourites

Photos courtesy of >@steampaintstudio< neko_diorama neko_sf mihausz_osa monstroys rogland_bust rogland_fantasy ork

Now, onto random ideas & critique

Some of it is mine, some of it I’ve heard from different people. Perhaps some of these ideas could help make this awesome event even better?

  • Primarchs both in small & large master sf, nurgle demon tank in master small sf. EXACTLY the same models ending up in different categories. Looking at you Creepytables Cozy… most people in the polish minipainting community know what models were painted during workshops, so perhaps it’s worth to know which category it should end in beforehand? A general solution could be a review of the contestant-provided category, done after all participants registered via internet, a couple of days before the competition, done by the judges. To facilitate this, there could be a place for pasting a link to manufacturers web store during registration. Perhaps a clear guideline for the model take-in staff, with some examples, could be enough.
  • I’ve heard voices that maybe it would be good to split the categories between pairs of judges to speed-up the judging, but I’m against it. Judging almost 500 works for 9 hours by 5 people must have been pretty hardcore, but having 5 great painters doing it ensures great discussions and a balance between different painting approaches. Perhaps a better approach would be to include more judges, but split them between master & standard?
  • The paiting demos were too long. 1.5h would be perfect.
  • speed painting comp lost some flair without any live-commentary. It should take place on a big stage!
  • davinci as a partner, their maestro brushes leaflets laying on a front desk, when you can’t buy them. Actually, there were no brushes to buy available during Kontrast
  • moving the standard category to totally separate cabinets in a separate space, not having them in the same cabinet but below master category models
  • some models did not fit in the cabinets. Let contestants have an option to declare the total height (in large/warmachine categories) during web registration to give organiser a chance to prepare beforehand
  • mixing standard/master categories during the award ceremony. Why not do a speedpainting, junior, standard, manufacturer, master in order to avoid audience confusion?
  • place & time of before & afterparty, preparing a place for it beforehand - during registration contestants could optionally mark they want to take part in it. Some restaurant reservation fee collection before the contest?

Kontrast 2022

There are awesome plans - Katarzyna ‘KAHA’ Gorska & Francesco Farabi demos, Kimera arriving… It will happen in june 2022, probably in the same spot in Warsaw, you have to be there! Details will be appearing on miniature night painting fb page: https://www.facebook.com/miniaturenightpainting/. Now sorry, I have to go watch some cyberpunk movies to get ready to paint YAWA by Neko Galaxy Minis that I’ve bought during the event :D