Frequently Asked Questions

The Guilds Inn is a miniature painting event weekend hosted by the Sydney Display Painters Guild. It will be a whole weekend dedicated to hobby activities, organised painting sessions, fun speed painting comps and social hanh. The event will also host the seasoned Guilds Inn national painting competition, with entries to be submitted and judged over the weekend.

For more information, see our 'What Is The Guilds Inn?' page.

The judging format for the event is referred to as the ‘Open System’. Popular in many European competitions, the Open System is a more objective competition that inspires competition with oneself in place of competing against the other entrants in the contest.

Instead of ranking entries (1st, 2nd, 3rd), each medal-winning entry is awarded based on the standard of painting it has achieved: Gold Silver or Bronze. There is no limit to the number of awards that can be given out across the competition. For example, if there are 25 entries and 5 are deemed to be of a Gold standard, then all 5 will be awarded Gold.

There will be Gold, Silver and Bronze pins awarded to medal-winning entries as deemed by the Judges for both Standard and Masters. Each miniature piece within an entrant's display will be judged individually and each miniature awarded individually by the judges.

This year sees a number of awards on offer and the introduction of new ones!

Overall Best in Show
Selected by the entire Judging Panel

Best of Standard
Selected by the Standard Judging Panel from the standard category.

Guilds Inn Platinum Award
Selected by the Masters Judging Panel for technical prowess

Crikey Award
Selected by the entire Judging Panel for a miniature showing something especially unique, remarkable or original.

Speed Paint Competition Award
Selected by a SDPG representative or famous speed painter Trent Denison.

This year will see the return of Standard and Master categories for the painting competition.

Each entrant will decide for themselves whether to enter Standard or Masters. An entrant must submit all of their entries to only one category. The organisers can provide a recommendation for a painter if they are uncertain where to place their work, but the final choice will remain with the individual painter.

If you have never submitted your work to a painting event before; if you have entered an event but not won a gold medal; if you mostly do army painting.

For the majority of entrants, this is the category to enter. When this category is judged, the focus will be on celebrating improvement, rewarding creativity, and supporting painters.

Previous Gold Medal winners in Standard category or medal winners in Master, or otherwise seasoned display painters who want to compete against the best in Australia and the world.

This category will be judged harder than the standard category.

This year, we will have 2 separate categories;

Painting
The Painting category gives more weight to technical mastery, colour composition, coherent interpretation, and overall presentation. All painting styles are welcome.


Storytelling
The Storytelling (Dioramas, Scenes, Vignettes) category gives more weight to creativity, story, atmosphere, and concept. This category encompasses small scenes, vignettes, duels, dioramas, and any other piece where the focus is placed on the story being told.