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WARHAMMER ABERDEEN THE GOLDEN TROLL 2026
Saturday 30th May 2026 - 10:00 - 16:00
Aberdeen's biggest painting event is back and better than ever! To cap off our store anniversary, The Golden Troll returns, with some new tweaks to categories, rules and entry tiers! As usual, many of the winners are decided by you so even if you aren’t entering, come along to see all the shiny models and vote for your favourites!
Tiers and Rules:
This year, we are moving to a 3 tier system for the main event; Standard, Masters & Top Troll. If you have never won a trophy in our painting competitions, you will be in the Standard tier; this has an open public voting winner, as well as a Judge's Choice winner for each category. If you have between 1 and 4 trophies, you will be in the Masters tier; this has the same categories as the Standard, but will only be voted on by other painters who are in the Masters tier and taking part in the event. And finally, if you have 5+ trophies, you will be in our Top Troll tier; again, this will only be voted on by others in the Top Troll tier, and will have a slightly reduced category list. We will also have a handful of categories outside of these tiers, as well as three Youngbloods categories for our Under 15s.
Entries must be handed in before the day of the event; we will be taking them any time in the week leading up to it! This is in order for us to have time to lay everything out and set up the voting!
Categories:
Below are the main categories; the full list is in use for Standard & Masters, whilst the categories marked with an asterisk are used for Top Troll:
Warhammer 40,000 Single Model *
Warhammer 40,000 Unit/K*ll Team *
Warhammer 40,000 Large Model/Monster *
Warhammer 40,000 Vehicle
Warhammer 40,000 Titanic
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Single Model *
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Unit *
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Large Model *
Middle Earth *
Duel *
Age of Darkness
Legions Imperialis
Best of the Rest (Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Old World) *
For Top Troll; the Warhammer 40,00 Large category will also include Vehicle and Titanic entries, and the Best of the Rest category will also cover Age of Darkness and Legions Imperialis.
Other Categories:
Youngbloods (U15s) Single Model
Youngbloods (U15s) Unit
Youngbloods (U15s) Large Model/Vehicle
Golden Troll Challenge Model: Helsmiths of Hashut Daemonsmith
Crucible of Champions Kitbash
Open Category/Diorama
Category Clarifications:
Whilst most categories are fairly self explanatory, below are some further clarifications on some of them. If you are unsure which category your entry would belong in, please get in touch, bring it in or show us some pictures and we can help to clarify!
Our Challenge Model this year is the Helsmith of Hashut Daemonsmith! For this category, everyone paints the exact same model as is and then they all get judged against one another!
Our kitbash category this year is themed around the recent Maelstrom campaign book and its Crucible of Champions rules for kitbashing and making custom characters - models are still required to be painted for this category as well as being converted!
The Duel Category is for a single entry of two opposing miniatures mounted on an appropriately sized base.
The Open Category is for anything that doesn’t fit elsewhere, as well as Dioramas, and larger displays; let your imagination run free!
Additional Rules:
Entries must not have been entered into any of our previous major paint competitions (Golden Troll, Golden Ghoul, Golden Pumpkin). It is okay if they have been used for other events (i.e. Armies on Parade).
Youngbloods: if a participant has previously won a Youngblood category, they cannot enter that category again; they must now enter the Standard category for those models. (They can still enter any Youngblood categories they have not previously won).
Plinths for models may be used if they are the same size as the base the model originally came with; this is to stop massive plinths and display bases taking up huge amounts of space. Large unit displays or oversized plinths will be moved to the Open Category instead - Check with staff for more details on this if you are unsure.
The Challenge Category model must come on the base it is supplied with; plinths or scenic displays will not be allowed for this one. This way the judging will purely be on the quality of the painted models. Additionally, those in the Top Troll category cannot enter this category.
You must be present on the day in order to enter and win; the last couple of years we have had a large number of people absent at the award ceremony, so this year we are requiring attendance in order to win!
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Event Venue
12, 14 Upperkirkgate,, AB10 1BA Aberdeen, United Kingdom, Saltire Fashions, 6 Upperkirkgate, Aberdeen, AB10 1BA, United Kingdom
Tickets
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