Workbench Guides · Competitions
How to Enter a Miniature Painting Competition
Our miniature painting competitions are open to everyone, wherever you are and whatever your level. Here's how to enter, how to make your miniature stand out, and how to photograph it so the judges see every brushstroke.
Every so often we pick a miniature from our range, set a prize pool and invite everyone to paint it. Then the WPM team sits down with a cup of tea and judges every single entry personally.
You don't need to be a competition veteran to enter a miniature painting competition with us. Beginners are just as welcome as seasoned painters, and a brave colour scheme can catch the eye as much as a polished one. This guide walks you through the whole thing, from order to upload.
What you need
- The featured miniature, bought from us. Each competition page links straight to it.
- Your paints, brushes and anything you fancy for the base.
- A We Print Miniatures account, so we know who to send the prize to.
- A phone or camera, a couple of lamps and a plain backdrop for the photos.
Copies you've printed yourself, or bought elsewhere, aren't eligible. The entry has to be the miniature you ordered from us.
How to enter
Buy it, paint it, photograph it, enter it.
Each competition has its own featured miniature, prize pool and closing date, all shown on the competitions page. The rules can vary a little from one competition to the next, so give them a quick read before you start. The basics stay the same every time.
Tap the diagram to open it full size.
Four steps, start to finish. The only hard deadline is the closing time, so leave yourself a little room at the end for photos.
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Order the featured miniature
Order it from us in whichever size you like to paint. The competition page links straight to the product, and it's worth ordering early so you've got plenty of painting time.
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Paint it your way
There's no set colour scheme and no wrong answer. Classic, wild, grimdark or cheerful, it's your miniature. Basing and storytelling are very much part of the fun.
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Take your photos
You can upload up to six photos, each up to 10MB, as JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC. Chapter 3 has a shot plan, and our photography guide shows you how to light and shoot them.
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Sign in and submit
Sign in to your We Print Miniatures account, then upload your photos through the entry form on the competition page before the closing time. Entries are tied to your account so we know who to send the prize to.
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Wait for the results
The WPM team judges every entry once the competition closes, and winners are announced about a week later. Prizes are added to your account, ready to spend on anything you like.
Making your entry stand out
You don't need to be a master painter. You need to finish it well.
When you look through a pile of entries, the ones that stay with you aren't always the most technical. They're the ones that look finished, read clearly from a distance and have a bit of character. These are the things that make the biggest difference, whatever your painting level.
Get the basics clean
Thin coats, neat edges and no stray colour on the wrong bit. Tidy basics make a simple paint job look confident.
Push the contrast
Darker recesses and brighter edges help the shapes read on screen. If it looks a touch too bold on your desk, it'll probably look just right in a photo.
Give the face some love
The face is where everyone looks first. Neat eyes and a little shading around them bring a miniature to life.
Pick a colour scheme with a plan
Two or three main colours with one accent usually beats every colour in the box. Let one colour lead and the others support it.
Tell a story with the base
A bit of texture, a rock, a tuft or a small prop gives your miniature a world to stand in. Some competitions have a best diorama prize for exactly this.
Finish the edges
Paint the rim of the base, varnish to protect your work, and give it one last look in good light. Finishing touches separate a good entry from a great one.
Tap the diagram to open it full size.
Same knight, two bases. A plain base is perfectly fine. A base with a few rocks, some tufts and a little prop gives the eye somewhere to wander and turns a figure into a scene.
Photograph your entry
The judges only see your photos, so they matter as much as the paint.
We judge entries from the photos you send, so a lovely paint job in a blurry, yellow photo doesn't get the credit it deserves. The good news is that a phone, two desk lamps and a sheet of grey card will do the job. Our full guide on how to photograph miniatures covers camera distance, lighting and colour step by step.
With six photos to play with, use them to show the whole miniature and the bits you're proudest of. This plan covers both.
Workbench guide
How to photograph your miniatures
Camera distance, two-lamp lighting, white balance and phone settings, step by step. It takes about ten minutes to set up, and every entry you shoot afterwards gets the same studio treatment.
Read the photography guide
Tap the diagram to open it full size.
A six photo shot plan. Turn the miniature rather than moving the camera, so the lighting stays the same in every shot. Front, back and both sides show the whole paint job, then two close-ups show off the face and the base.
Keep the edits honest. Cropping, straightening and correcting the white balance are all fine. Filters, heavy smoothing and colour boosts change the paint job we're judging, so leave them off.
Before you hit submit
A two minute check that's worth doing every time.
Entry checklist
- Is it the featured miniature, ordered from us?
- Are you signed in to your We Print Miniatures account?
- Is every photo sharp when you zoom in on the face?
- Do the colours on screen match the miniature on your desk?
- Have you shown the front, back, both sides and a close-up or two?
- Is it before the closing time on the competition page?
Don't do this
Entering one you printed yourself
We admire the enthusiasm, but the entry has to be the miniature you ordered from us. The judges can tell, and so can the order history.
Shooting under the kitchen light
That warm yellow bulb turns every carefully mixed blue into a sort of sad green. Two daylight lamps and the room light off, please.
Leaving it to two minutes before closing
Uploads take a moment, and Wi-Fi has a sense of humour. Give yourself a day spare.
One blurry photo from a distance
We can't judge what we can't see. Use all six photos and get in close.
The beauty filter
Your miniature has excellent skin already. Filters smooth away the very brushwork you're trying to show off.
Thinking you're not good enough
Every painter started somewhere, and we love seeing first attempts. Enter anyway. You might surprise yourself.
Quick answers
The short version
Buy, paint, shoot, enter
Order the featured miniature from us, paint it your way and give the face and base a little extra love. Photograph it in good light from the front, back and both sides with a couple of close-ups, then sign in and upload up to six photos before the closing time.
That's how to enter a miniature painting competition with us. We can't wait to see what you paint.
Ready to pick up a brush?
See what's running now, grab the featured miniature and get painting.