Golden Demon 2010 Results

Well even though I didn't win anything again this year, I had a great time going to Sydney to see the Golden Demon Grand Finals firsthand. It was fantastic to see some of the amazing miniatures that people had done. And it was again slightly baffling how some entries manage to get through at all. It still worries me that the judging process is purely subjective, and perhaps not as impartial as it could be.

So I had an in-depth conversation with some of the judges and tried to gain some insight into the process. There isn't any points system in place, and it's pretty much just a popularity contest once you've met the technical requirements. They look whether you've fulfilled the category requirements, correct number of models, correct sized bases, followed the rules. Then it's things like flash, mold lines, joins are filled, painting, whether the blending is good, whether the paint finish is chalky or smooth. But overall it then comes down to the ones they like the best, and that could well be the one with the extravagant (and probably slightly rules dodgy) base. So clearly if I'm ever to have any hope of winning anything, I'm going to have to get to know these people on more of a social basis. The fact that it seems to be the same small group of acquaintances that win year after year is not encouraging me to continue entering in it, and next year may be my last. I figure if its not fun to do, and I'm clearly never going to be able to achieve in it, then I'm better off just focusing on painting for gaming and enjoyment. It was interesting to see that Queensland was the only state with every category almost totally full (they had one category that wasn't complete). Obviously we have a lot of painters here, and the turn out was good. Although there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of entries from the Mt Gravatt store, and nothing from Chermside or Central. Interesting that the pre-finals were judged at Mt Gravatt...

I don't know if I'll try to enter all the categories next year. It was a lot of hard work just getting 7 categories entered into, and disappointing to not pickup anything in any of them. So I might just pick a couple of categories that interest me, and go all out on them for next year. I think I need to switch my focus from painting for gaming pieces, and do my Golden Demon entries more as display pieces. That's not to say that the paint job on my current minis is worse because they are gaming pieces (far from it as I'm a perfectionist), but going more into the elaborate base, and creating scenes that tell stories.

So the winners for this year were:

40k Single
1: Marcus Blackman - Blood Angel Mephiston
2: Robert Sakaluk - Imperial Misionary
3: James Brown - Imperial Guard Standard

40k Large
1. Marcus Blackman - Carnifex
2. Heath Newell - Trygon
3. Michael Weier - Wraithlord

40k Squad
1. Simon Hooker - Ultramarine Scouts
2. Jamie Downward - Imperial Guard Stormtroopers
3. Joshua Van Zaane - Deathwing Terminators

40k Vehicle
1. Michael Weier - Eldar Scorpion
2. Simon Hooker - Ultramarine Rhino
3. Jamie Downward - Ork Trukk

Fantasy Single
1. Kyle Morgan - Daemonette
2. Aiden Runegall-McNaull - Queek Headtaker
3. Empire Flaggelant - Adam Weller

Fantasy Unit
1. Mark Soley - Black Knights
2. Aiden Runegall-McNaull - Dark Elf Shades
3. David Travers - Harlequin Chaos Knights

Fantasy Monster
1. Great Unclean One - Jamie Downward
2. Heath Newell - Skaven Warlord
3. Cygor - Mai Zhou

Large Scale
1. Marcus Blackman - Pink Horror
2. Leigh Carpenter - Bretonnian Knight Bust
3. Michael Weier - Eldar Ranger

LOTR
1. Joshua Van Zaane - Gandalf
2. Leon Borbley - Elrond
3. James Brown - Wormtongue

Duel
1. Kyle Morgan - Fate of Man(g)
2. Peter Overton - Unexpected Resistance
3. Steve Guo - Chaos Enforcer vs. Death Corps

Open
1. Mark Soley - Bathtub Daemonette
2. Michael Weier - Eldar Corair Spearheard
3. Calvin Lin - Blood Crushers

Young Bloods
1. Eric Hester - Dire Avenger Exarch
2. Coulter Wiseman - Squig Hopper
3. Luke Maumov - Bilbo Baggins

Lost Demon
1. Sebastian Archer - Goff Rokker
2. Luke McFarlane - Space Wolf Scout
3. Joshua Van Zaane - Inquisitor Draco

Demon Initiates - 40k Single
1. Eric Hester - Dire Avenger Exarch
2. Coulter Wiseman - Witch Hunter Inquisitor
3. Tim Royce - Khorne Lord

Demon Initiates - Fantasy Single
1. Coulter Wiseman - Squig Hopper
2. Justin Taylor - Skink Warchief
3. Nikolas Oting - Chaos Lord

Demon Initiates - LOTR Single
1. Luke Naumov - Bilbo Baggins
2. Brandon Anway - Witch King
3. Callum Waters - Amdur

Demon Initiates - U18 Singles
1. Martin Dupont - Firewarrior
2. Suhail Chaela - Howling Banshee
3. Ben Cameron - Calistarius

Demon Initiates - U18 Medium
1. Suhail Chaela - Ork Captin
2. Coulter Wiseman - Nurgle Lorder
3. Louis Nitschke - Commander O'Shovah

Emperor's Chosen
1. Alex Murray - Ork Commando Nob
2. Ben Makepeace - Sigvald
3. Richard Gibson - Chaos Sorceror

Congratulations to all the winners. There were some fantastic entries in this year, and I'm sure it was very well deserved.

Since the final, Games Workshop has announced that Games Day will be returning to Australia next year. I believe it's going to be held in Sydney on October 1st. Apparently Black Library and Forgeworld are coming, which sounds exciting. Definitely have to save up some airpoints to go to Games Day.