NaMoPaiMo day seven

Despite its name, NaMoPaiMo has always been an international event.

photo by Kathleen Fiford, New Zealand

Every year, model horse hobbyists from near...

photo by Beth Peart Weekes, Canada

and far...

photo by Marine Se, France

and really far!...

photo by Oksana Kuks, Russia

join together to paint models.

photo by Theresa Johnson, United Kingdom

I love it.

photo by Clémence de Casanove, France

In fact, it's one of my favorite parts of NaMoPaiMo.

photo by Janine Metzler, Germany

This year, we have hobbyists from twenty five countries signed up to paint. That's pretty normal for this event.

photo by Tina Melin, Sweden

The countries themselves are also predictable: the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Russia...

photo by Amy de Waal, the Netherlands

and Poland. Wow, we have a lot of painters from Poland this year!

photo by Basic Krocz, Poland

This made me curious so I did a little bit of investigating and discovered this year's best NaMoPaiMo story so far. Here it is in the words of Urszula Rudzińska: The Polish hobby community has a model horse Discord server and Yoni Yang and I (and a couple more awesome people) decided to make a dedicated NaMoPaiMo section on it. I noticed that many people (especially the twelve and under crowed) wanted to participate, but didn't know English well enough or simply felt to intimidated to jump in such a big event.

So Yoni did an AMAZING job as server admin and bought a good bot to make thing easier, figured out the rules and tips for the new users. We created a thorough translation of NaMoPaiMo's rules and entry form, followed by a mini equine dictionary so people can describe their planned colors and breeds correctly. Then we announced the server here on Facebook.

The response was MASSIVE. We quickly gathered some new members, as well as professionals and advanced painters willing to help the newcomers. I also arranged a group payment for people who don't use PayPal.

So far we've hosted two (or three?) prepping parties and one painting party, and it's been AMAZING! I've personally met a ton of new hobby friends. We share tricks, tips and just have a blast painting our ponies. I haven't seen the Polish model horse community so integrated and cooperative for years!

Yoni Yang and Urszula Rudzińska

Thank you, Yoni and Urszula for being the best kind of NaMoPaiMo ambassadors. I love what you've done for Team Poland and the entire NaMoPaiMo community at large. Congratulations, you are the NaMoPaiMo Champions of the Day.