ArcOpen is for anyone who shares a passion for painting fantasy and futuristic miniatures.
Event
The inaugural ArcOpen was held as part of Arc40k 2023 at the Batman Royal, Coburg 4-5 March 2023.
The aim of the event was to inspire and challenge participants to advance their skills, seek to improve, and strive to present their best work. Rather than competing against other entrants in a shoot out for a limited number of awards the event recognised attainment of quality and effort for every painter.
There were no first, second and third places in the ArcOpen Categories. Instead our judges graded each entries achievement - basing their decisions on the standard of the work and in the end which pieces deserve to be recognised as Gold, Silver and Bronze level awards. Due to the number and quality of entries we also recognised effort outside the top tiers of skill by selecting a whole raft of entries to be awarded Commended status.
As the ArcOpen System is about presenting a level of painting mastery there was no limit to the number of awards. As a result we were pleased to award 6 Gold Medals, 11 Silver Medals and 15 Bronze Medals as well as 40 Commended Entry awards across 3 Categories and a field of more than 230 entries.
Best In Show
ArcOpen also recognised an event master - the Overall Best in Show, taken out by David Colwell for his amazing Chaos Dwarf in the Large Model Category.
Most Popular In Show
The Most Popular at the show - voted by participants and general public - was awarded to Jarrod Clifford for his Flesh Tearers Squad entry.
Crimson Brush
The Crimson Brush is an open format painting competition held at Cancon 21-23 January 2023. Their judging panel for this year are David Colwell, Natalia Oracz and Sebastian Archer. The ArcOpen team recommends The Crimson Brush to everyone and hopes that in supporting other events with similar aims we can enrich and grow the Australian Miniature Artist Painting community.
Click the Crimson Brush logo above and link to their website find out more.
Categories
In 2023 ArcOpen ran with categories the team felt would give a wide variety of options for painters to explore their hobby craft. The hope was to make ArcOpen an event that would encourage participation by painters of all skill levels. With the system being based on the principle that every deserving work should be recognised we hoped would encourage everyone to have a go.
Our three categories for 2023 were:
Single Miniature
This category was for any single Human-sized fantasy/futuristic miniature mounted on an appropriate sized base. This includes miniatures mounted on creatures or small vehicles. This category is for miniatures up to 40mm scale. This Category proved the most popular among entrants with 104 individual models make up the field.
Unit
This category is for squads, squadrons, gangs or units of three or more fantasy/futuristic models. This includes miniatures mounted on creatures or small vehicles. The unit may be displayed on an appropriate sized base. This category is for miniatures up to 40mm scale. There were 52 units entered in this category.
Large Figure- Character/Monster/Vehicle
This category primarily provides a category for large models or vehicles; other mechanical subjects; single large Monsters; & Busts. We saw a range of large miniatures entered in this category, which included entries in scales of 75mm or larger. The Large Figure Category contained 80 quality entries.
The Future...
Bringing ArcOpen to life is the result of a lot of behind the scenes work and support. The Major Sponsor of Arc40k - House of War - also enabled the launch of ArcOpen. Their support provided table cloths, the medallions, giveaways and of course brought our international guest judges to Australia.
Twisted Miniatures came on board to provide our major prizes for the Best in Show and People’s choice awards, as well as prizes for the pool which medalists could pick.
Epic Basing also provided support to the event. Entrants and General Admission tickets received sample packs of Epic’s basing materials. Plus they brought together some special prize packs which were made available in the prize pool for medalists.
We’ve already started work on plans for next year’s event. With feedback from our post event survey and discussions with our judges already influencing how we can improve on our first event.
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