Richard Gray Creations opens ROTSPOT 2026 community painting challenge

Richard Gray Creations has opened ROTSPOT 2026 with a simple twist that gives the challenge its bite: one shared model, one common theme, and a hard deadline at the end of June. Entries opened on 1 June and run from February through 30 June 2026, so painters still have a short runway to get a finished piece in before the form closes at 23:59 Europe/London.

The official subject is the Rotswords from Maggotkin of Nurgle, a box the Warhammer shop says builds 10 plastic miniatures and frames as heavily armoured mortal infantry for Nurgle armies. If painters cannot source the main kit, the Darkwater Blight Templar is accepted instead. That single reference point is the challenge’s real hook: instead of scattering entries across unrelated factions and basing themes, ROTSPOT gives the community one rotted canvas, making it easier to compare brushwork, weathering, blending, and conversion choices side by side.

Richard Gray’s rules also keep the format painter-friendly. Entrants choose between Standard and Masters, with Standard aimed at newer painters or anyone still pushing their skills and Masters set aside for experienced painters. Submissions need front, back, and close-up detail shots, and conversions are allowed as long as the model remains recognisable. The awards system follows Richard Gray Creations’ open style, with multiple Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards in each category and one overall Best in Show, backed by Artis Opus prize support.

That structure matters because ROTSPOT is built to show process as much as polish. Richard Gray’s May community round-up highlighted works in progress and the encouragement around them, noting that some painters were already leaning into grimy armour, rotten flesh tones, and all-out Nurgle excess. The same competition hub places ROTSPOT alongside BONEZONE and Squigmas in a wider annual programme, while a look back at ROTSPOT 2025 shows how quickly the event has become a recurring fixture for the community.

The timing also lands neatly alongside Darkwater, where Warhammer Community set Gelgus Pust on a campaign to corrupt the Everspring in Ghyran through a replayable dungeon crawler that can take roughly 10 to 14 hours for a full run. For painters, ROTSPOT 2026 turns that same plague-soaked mood into a shared modelling brief, and the payoff is obvious: one battered Nurgle kit, many different ways to make it look like it crawled out of the same ruined, decayed world.