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Marc Schmelze won 3 Golden Daemons at Chicago Games Day and the real painter was Karol Rudyk.

If the latter ebays or takes commissions, he should be boycotted ( as it appears he was in on the scam).

Are the awards for "Best Painter" or "Best Painted"? If it is the latter then I can't see any wrongdoing in hiring someone to paint a beautiful army for you to show at tourneys.

I don't get how the real painter would benefit from this... why wouldn't she (forgive me if that's not a womens name, it seems the most similiar to Carol so...) just enter the models that won on her own?

Have any info other than an accusation?

Fairly serious to accuse people of such actions, without providing any support. Got anything to back that up, or is this just unsubstantiated web-rumor?

Dave Taylor's blog is the source of this.

Are the awards for "Best Painter" or "Best Painted"?

IIRC the rules state that the work has to be of the person entering it and not painted or converted by anyone else.

If Karol Rudyk's painting won a golden demon I think his work merits praise regardless of what Mark Schmelze did. I'm not sure why we would be penalizing Karol for this. Also Augustus5 is right. If they won best painted then they won best painted. I don't see why Karol being the artist instead of Marc makes any difference. Unless Marc entered the models without Karol's consent. Though your post seems to suggest they were a team.

So what exactly was the scam? I'm not understanding something here.

Janthkin wrote:Fairly serious to accuse people of such actions, without providing any support. Got anything to back that up, or is this just unsubstantiated web-rumor?

Link

http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-oh-why-do-they-keep-on-trying.html

Not sure why the original poster didn't include some sort of source but I think Dave is probably reputable.

thanks pixelgeek, though I'm still not sure why Karol would:

1. Want to be in on it. Why not take the prize for himself.

2. Deserve any strife.

augustus5 wrote:Are the awards for "Best Painter" or "Best Painted"? If it is the latter then I can't see any wrongdoing in hiring someone to paint a beautiful army for you to show at tourneys.

Except they're not talking about a tournament, they're talking about a highly prestigious painting competition in our hobby; a competition whose rules rather clearly state that you can only enter your own work.

(Personally, I'm not a huge fan of paying someone else to paint your army for you, either; this is an all-around hobby, paint your own minis.)

joking about that comment below:

I'll just buy GMM's models and submit - cuz clearly you can right?!!


joking about that comment above.



Interesting.

I think I would hold off passing this rumor around till more substantial evidence is found.

Could be just a bad case of "I'm too lazy to read the rules fine print" rather than deliberate fraud by either owner or painter, but the rules certainly disqualify such entries. If on the other hand the owner had lent the models back to the painter (I'm presuming these were painted on commission) and they were then entered by the painter, that would have been fine.

Edited becuase I just saw Karols cmon pages admitting the pieces were comissioned. Horrible.

Links to the entires: http://www.coolminiornot.com/220933 and http://www.coolminiornot.com/226038

He says they are commissions and then lists them as demon winning entires so the painter knows exactly what happened.

Did the original painter do anything more than just sell the guy the painted minis?

Because there is a possibility that he was clueless thats how the buyer was going to use it ( GD ) and if the painter was penalized , its not fair.

Well, updating the CMON status with said win and NOT informing GW that your work was used to win three demons without consent shouldnt go unpenalized if you ask me ....

Cant give the credit to your work and when someone calls shenanigans say you didnt know.

I am still confused as to why the painter didn't just enter them? Are there rules on living in the area? Was it a great distance from where the painter lived and if so, couldn't the other guy represent 'Karol'?

Yeah If the painter didnt know his intentions I dont think the painter should be penalized however no matter what the person who entered the models knowing that he did not paint should be stripped of the awards. As people have stated already, its clearly in the rules that it MUST be your work...

If true (I don't know so I will not make a judgement) the solution is simple:

1. Bump the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places in each winning category to 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

2. Demand the return of all trophies/prizes.

3. Ban the guy (Marc) from competing in Golden Daemon again.


Their are lots of analogies here, but its basically plagiarism - passing off someone else's work as your own for personal gain.

Assuming that what has been alleged is true, two things stand out - first, the real painter has nothing to gain from this. If he wants people to be aware his work is of Golden Daemon standard, he could just enter himself.
Second, the guy who entered the work was blatantly cheating. Arguing you didn't know you couldn't enter someone else's work (as has been suggested) does not wash, as no-one is dumb eneough not to be aware of rule as fundamental as that.

just my $0.02

In addition, the painter is himself a former GD winner (gold monster at UK in 06) so can't really claim ignorance, and the guy who entered did so with another piece from the same painter in Chicago a year ago. Since it was only an honorable mention, it flew under the radar.

I find it very hard to believe both parties did not know what they were doing.

odmiller wrote:In addition, the painter is himself a former GD winner (gold monster at UK in 06) so can't really claim ignorance, and the guy who entered did so with another piece from the same painter in Chicago a year ago. Since it was only an honorable mention, it flew under the radar.

I find it very hard to believe both parties did not know what they were doing.

What if it was purchased as a commission , or simply purchased?
The original painter couldnt have guessed it would be registered in a GD?

Well the problem I see is what can they do now? How are they going to force him to give it back? Also, even though it appears the painter has taken part... what do you do to the painter? He odviously doesnt want to submit his own work anyways... I would hope they get them back, disqualify him and bann from further golden daemons then give them to the right people.

@Luna, thats what I was thinking. But if hes entered models painted by the same person before, I would assume the painter would have known from the start if not deffinintelly the second time around

LunaHound wrote:

odmiller wrote:In addition, the painter is himself a former GD winner (gold monster at UK in 06) so can't really claim ignorance, and the guy who entered did so with another piece from the same painter in Chicago a year ago. Since it was only an honorable mention, it flew under the radar.

I find it very hard to believe both parties did not know what they were doing.

What if it was purchased as a commission , or simply purchased?
The original painter couldnt have guessed it would be registered in a GD?

Luna, read the comments on Dave T's blog.

the Marc guy has done this before with commisions from this artist.

Also, if the artist didn't know, why are the CMON entries saying they are GD winners?

skrulnik wrote:
Luna, read the comments on Dave T's blog.

the Marc guy has done this before with commisions from this artist.

Also, if the artist didn't know, why are the CMON entries saying they are GD winners?

Hmm , after some thoughts ... Im sure the painter is familiar with the rules.
Maybe there are more to this story.... i'll judge after hearing what the painter says xD

And to all you saying IF look at the links in my last post.

It's the painters cmon posts clearly proving he wasn't ignorant of anything.

Same stunt with same protagonists hapened in 2008 but just got honorable mention.

If you know how coolmini or not works theres not much room for doubt that the painter was totally aware that his entries were entered at the GD and won... since he took the credits on himself.
The client lied in the application since he entered the work as his own.
(GD US rules dont allow that for those that are not aware of these things)
Both do need a miracle to get off clean from this situation.

GW is taking actions ( at least is what was said at CMON forums) so I'm curious to know the full truth about this.

Well if the commission was bought and entered without the painters knowledge it simply wouldn't be anything to do with them. But the sell a model to someone who enters it under their own name and then put up pictures under your name with the "gold medal" honour attached, it would seem that they find it permissable.

It's a bit odd really, letting someone else enter your work under their own name, and it's been done several times so it seems they are happy with this. So it wouldn't appear that the painter was suprised by their commission being entered and have merely shrugged it off and put up their pictures and mentioned the medal, but are happy to accept this arrangement. Odd.

Some years ago there was a bit of a fuss with models being painted in Russia and entered in various European competitions (like Euro Militaire) and winning many prizes. But it was revealed that they were being painted by several people who specialised in different things, like horses, faces, armour etc. And then were being sent over and entered under one person's name (you're supposed to declare all names in a join effort) to sweep up the prizes. People weren't amused from what I recall.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:I am still confused as to why the painter didn't just enter them? Are there rules on living in the area? Was it a great distance from where the painter lived and if so, couldn't the other guy represent 'Karol'?

No. The rules state that you CAN NOT represent someone else. Either you're there and claim a demon, or you are not and can't enter.

Where's my bag of Rotten Tomatoes?!

The guy who entered - epic biblical F- fail. The artist, although very talented, has completely shafted himself from any GD in the world for quite awhile.

This happens quite a bit at tourneys with great prizes; some wiener buys a beautiful army, promotes it as their own work and then walks away with cash and prizes. I remember a Brettonian army floating around Western Canada a few years back with some puke talking about how he painted it while every word out of his mouth was a dirty lie.

These people sully the hobby and 'sportsmanship'. Total disgrace.

9 thumbs down.

People are starting to rate his models with 1's on CMON (and I can't blame them)

Pretty weak if true.