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This model reminds me alot of Joe Orteza'a work
it shows a huge amount of technical skill, and is very clean, but for my eyes, there is just way too much going on.

After shrinking the picture down to scale on my monitor, I can really see what Navarro is talking about. The metal on the servitor looks REALLY awkward. There is almost too much blue, making it looks not quite metallic, but more... I don't know, lustrous plastic? The left sabaton leaves me feeling the dame way, though the rest of the greave is lovely.
The cloak is also just too busy. Not only does it look like he made his robe from gaudy curtains, but it takes away from the rest, since it makes his face and sword peices blend into a white/ivory/skintone mess.

This is not to say that I wouldn't crap myself if this was the result of one of my efforts! It shows a lot of technical skill. I just don't think the entire composition really clicks. Sort of the artistic equivalent of drinking a half gallon of really excellent Scotch in a few hours. Complex, delightfully made, but just so much that it leaves you feeling queasy.

That zombie duel is my favorite thing so far. It's a work of pure genius.

So granted it's been a while since GW finally lost me for gd after 20-some years, but have they really gotten that cheap and lazy that they're not bothering with *any* GD coverage on the site any more? Actually it looks like they're not bothering to do more than phone in the site anyway. Every time nostalgia creeps in on me and I decide to check out what GW is up to lately I get happier with my decision to stop giving them any of my money.

AgeOfEgos wrote:The cloak is impressive but if my Inquisitor dressed like this I would be more worried about dropping the soap than blaspheming the Emperor.

Heh. Must have been a good couple of days for the Slayer winner. After the trophy ceremony in Baltimore, he quickly hopped a jet to California and got married.

ExarchIzain wrote:So granted it's been a while since GW finally lost me for gd after 20-some years, but have they really gotten that cheap and lazy that they're not bothering with *any* GD coverage on the site any more? Actually it looks like they're not bothering to do more than phone in the site anyway. Every time nostalgia creeps in on me and I decide to check out what GW is up to lately I get happier with my decision to stop giving them any of my money.

You might want to check the second post in this thread.

Have a better day,

Chris

Boss_Salvage wrote:Quite neat, though a bit bizarre posing from this angle anyway. The big ork thing is hardly reacting to being eviscerated ... Unless that's the point?

Well, he's got a crazy helmet on that more than likely is pumping him full of some sort of gaseous narcotic, and both of his forearms have been replaced with massive close combat weapons, so I'd wager there's a chance that he's not feeling much pain at this point. Maybe he's half bionic/cybork or something.

Golden Demon Coverage
Winners and Runners-up


Some Dakka regulars on that list, huzzah! Off the top of my head, congrats to Skeeve for pulling in an armful of demons, and of course JamSessionEin for making the finals with his incredible Stompa!

You can't zoom in to see the figures? No side shots? Wow! You only get a general idea of the figures, hardly worth it. : /

So who's from Dakka on the winners list? Not that much in the loop to know who's who.

Good for Dylan winning so many awards. He spent a lot of time working on his chaos spawn at tower games. I guess being Bennet's protege was helpful for him.

[edit]
I am however surprised that Bennets "guardsman of cathay" was just an honorable mention. The sculpted detail on that model is quite sick.

double post

Why did that Samurai not place in the Warhammer Single Miniature category?

I have no idea, but I do know that bennet spent over 300 hours sculpting the converted cadian plastic guardsman. (You cant see it, but the model has a samurai faceplate that is hanging from on side on his face, as one example of the great detail of this mini)

Its a really keen piece. More insanely, bennet seems to be planning on making a whole squad of them.

I had a conversation with one of the GD judges about the DQing of the cathay guy and he still touts the GW line about "no Cathay in existence" even though it's clearly in the Warhams universe.

I continued to talk to him about other possible (40k) guard regiments and it's funny how ridiculous and subjective the rules are about made-up armies. Apparently if you do a late 19th century Prussian, Napoleonic or Polack guardsman or something, it might be DQ'd even though you have WW1 guardsmen, English imperialist guardsmen, and those Mordian guys. Funny how that works.

They wouldn't want to confuse the little kids...

...Too bad he didn't do a Sartosan Pirate!

stonefox wrote:I had a conversation with one of the GD judges about the DQing of the cathay guy and he still touts the GW line about "no Cathay in existence" even though it's clearly in the Warhams universe.

I continued to talk to him about other possible (40k) guard regiments and it's funny how ridiculous and subjective the rules are about made-up armies. Apparently if you do a late 19th century Prussian, Napoleonic or Polack guardsman or something, it might be DQ'd even though you have WW1 guardsmen, English imperialist guardsmen, and those Mordian guys. Funny how that works.

Huh. So the "guardsman of cathay" was DQed? That's criminal.

I recently listened to the newest 40Kradio episode two and a GW representative (robin dews?) was talking about how the golden demons are the "gold standard" for miniature painting competitions.

If that is true, then why DQ a fig that was using a GW plastic cadian as its base, and using the background for the warhammer universe? Hardly seems like "gold standard" thinking to me.

Though a bit of trivia for the cathay model. Tower games recently had a Adeptus Minneapolis painting/conversion competition where a category was "best cross for 40K into fantasy" and this was supposed to be an entry until Dale talked him out of entering and being a judge for the event instead.

I just saw the Cathayan. Holy ****. how did they have the guts to disqualify *that*?

The one that got 2nd in the open category should have gotten Gold instead. His High-Elf Mage (Gold Fantasy Single) was amazing.

But the event had some nice minis all in all! Better than last year, no?

And kudos to Ein for getting his Stompa there - too bad he didn't win anything, it was an amazing model!

WTH
Seriously. So its perfectly acceptable to make up a Space Marine Chapter but nothing else? If i made a miniature depicting Cathay as drawn in the warhammer rulebook itself and got disqualified I think I'd just give up at that point.

They need to seriously drop the ridiculous rules about setting management and let people have their imaginations run wild. This _is_ an art/hobby contest is it not? How is one to judge proper if you're going to let (Imho) ignorant rules get in the way of creativity and fun? I'm ranting a bit here but I think its a damn shame miniatures with real quality aren't considered.

As for the slayer sword winner: Too. Busy. I don't care if you can write tiny little letters really well. It looks like he went hog wild with "Ooo detail!" and let that run rampant. Let the composition breathe a little dude. All this does is send a message out to Slayer Seekers out there that if you jam enough "detail" into a model you can win.

DQing that model says a lot about the judging at Games Day US. That model would have been accepted and won something at any of the European venues. I would want to hear the judges logic behind this especially since I know several GW employees read the forum.

The Power Cosmic wrote:The ability behind that model is amazing, but it's way too busy for my taste. It looks like a Mardi Gras float.

I agree. while the painting skill is amazing, it's like over seasoning a dinner. if you give the person too much to figure out on their palatte (eyes or tongue) you can kill the main flavor of the course..

I have no idea where to focus and the color selection is completely expansive.

deitpike wrote:This model reminds me alot of Joe Orteza'a work
it shows a huge amount of technical skill, and is very clean, but for my eyes, there is just way too much going on.

Orteza was the master of too busy. It got to the point that you had no idea what the hell you were looking at.. I don't really find that very fascinating or clean..

THE ork stompa we have been looking at on the extensive blog on this site only got an honorable mention? Hypocracy I tells ya!

The stompa is not part of the basic 40K ruleset. I can imagine that is the reason for it not placing and just getting an honorable mention.

That Cathayan swordsman......

Thats it. If I win the lottery saturday night, I'll commission that guy to do a whole army like that.

Steelmage99 wrote:The stompa is not part of the basic 40K ruleset. I can imagine that is the reason for it not placing and just getting an honorable mention.

It's not a GW or Forgeworld Kit? That would be my guess. You tell me the BA Dread is painted or presented better. What better than one of the Iconic models painted up in one of the core paint schemes to place first?

strange_eric wrote:WTH
Seriously. So its perfectly acceptable to make up a Space Marine Chapter but nothing else? If i made a miniature depicting Cathay as drawn in the warhammer rulebook itself and got disqualified I think I'd just give up at that point.

They need to seriously drop the ridiculous rules about setting management and let people have their imaginations run wild. This _is_ an art/hobby contest is it not? How is one to judge proper if you're going to let (Imho) ignorant rules get in the way of creativity and fun? I'm ranting a bit here but I think its a damn shame miniatures with real quality aren't considered.

As for the slayer sword winner: Too. Busy. I don't care if you can write tiny little letters really well. It looks like he went hog wild with "Ooo detail!" and let that run rampant. Let the composition breathe a little dude. All this does is send a message out to Slayer Seekers out there that if you jam enough "detail" into a model you can win.

There are rules that guides this competition. These rules state clearly in a very plain English "No real-life references on the mini". There is also rather vague rule that mini should reflect ethos and spirit of warhammer - with this rule I am familiar with close and personal. I am not discussing here whether these rules are stupid or not but as long as they exist judges may insist on adherence. This mini had Chinese character on the banner - this is real-life reference. GD in US has absolutely nothing to do with this; not that long ago they DQed a space marine with an American flag in UK.

I saw this mini and it was amazing. I was there early, and apparently it was still on the table back then. They took it away later, when I got back around 1-1:30 to look for the first cut it was not there

skeeve wrote:

There are rules that guides this competition. These rules state clearly in a very plain English "No real-life references on the mini". There is also rather vague rule that mini should reflect ethos and spirit of warhammer - with this rule I am familiar with close and personal. I am not discussing here whether these rules are stupid or not but as long as they exist judges may insist on adherence. This mini had Chinese character on the banner - this is real-life reference. GD in US has absolutely nothing to do with this; not that long ago they DQed a space marine with an American flag in UK.

I saw this mini and it was amazing. I was there early, and apparently it was still on the table back then. They took it away later, when I got back around 1-1:30 to look for the first cut it was not there

Sorry mate but the excuse that cathay miniature broke the rules because of some little chinese characters on banner is way to far fetched... If that was the case then the slayer sword should have been disqualified also because on the text on the banner there is text in latin refering to GOD, etc...

Also dont be naive enough to think all GD's share same rulling if you followed european ones you would know how diferent they are between each other and how diferently rulles are applied... Im not saying they are better or worse... just diferent.

What im saying is that i disagree with you because its not about the rulling but more about how a judge can be anal about the rules and enforce them in the random way he chooses to.
There is always some cleary strange decisions in all GD's and believe me most of the times its obvious that its more luck than talent involved on winners, since many times the runer ups are far superior.

This is a GW comp and they choose judges the way they like it... so its all good.


Seen pictures of entries and cathay is clearly superior to slayer also some runer up eldars are better than winners... as for slayer, well now that i seen the poor base also i cant say i like this anybetter.

Overall i think it was a average GD with some nice minis and with one superb one (cathay)

It's funny, I like the Honorable Mentions more than I like anything that actually won.

And that GD Inqisitor is WAY too busy. The paint job detracts from the mini, rather than improving it. Isn't the point of GD to ENHANCE the aschetic of GW minis, rather than see how well a painter can freehand-paint really small? It's beautiful, but that sort of work belongs on a canvas, not a mini.

NAVARRO wrote:
Sorry mate but the excuse that cathay miniature broke the rules because of some little chinese characters on banner is way to far fetched... If that was the case then the slayer sword should have been disqualified also because on the text on the banner there is text in latin refering to GOD, etc...

The formality of any rule is convenient for a judge because he can chose whether and where to apply it or not. Go watch figure scatting; they are doing it all the time.
However, the formality of rules is very convenient for entrants as well - you know what to avoid. As for the reference to God on a scroll, well, the official title of the Emperor is the God-Emperor.

NAVARRO wrote:
Also dont be naive enough to think all GD's share same rulling if you followed european ones you would know how diferent they are between each other and how diferently rulles are applied... Im not saying they are better or worse... just diferent.

Umm where exactly I said this? All I said that the similar clause was invoked recently in a different country. For all I know, they might decide all of a sudden to enforce this particular clause on all GDs.

NAVARRO wrote: What im saying is that i disagree with you because its not about the rulling but more about how a judge can be anal about the rules and enforce them in the random way he chooses to.
There is always some cleary strange decisions in all GD's and believe me most of the times its obvious that its more luck than talent involved on winners, since many times the runer ups are far superior.

This is a GW comp and they choose judges the way they like it... so its all good.

I don't think you disagree with me . I only try to interpret judges behavior based on rather incomplete information. I am not saying this rule or their ruling make sense. You have to realize though that "good" and "bad" is irrelevant. They are organizers, so they set rules however they want, you either agree to these rules and participate or you don't.
If you go to any historic miniature competition with amazingly painted, say, purple-yellow Russian grenadier, you will be DQed regardless of the quality, because said grenadiers did not wear these colors. You can say that it limits your creativity and I agree with that, but you knew the rules when you entered. It is easy to avoid obvious breaches like Chinese characters or American flags.

NAVARRO wrote:
Seen pictures of entries and cathay is clearly superior to slayer also some runer up eldars are better than winners... as for slayer, well now that i seen the poor base also i cant say i like this anybetter.

I would be very cautious deciding anything based on seeing pictures at 72 dpi compressed from original 300dpi and re-sampled down at least 4-8 times That said, however, these eldar were indeed really good, although the autarch was somewhat under-highlighted for ambient light (of rather poor quality, I must add). Racing nob was very cool. Orkish trukk in Open was one of my personal favorites as well as Purple spawn, also in Open. Both got only HMs. There were several very nice youngbloods, some of them didn't even make a cut. Also there were several pretty nice single fantasy minies.

The funny thing about the whole Cathayan model is that it's not allowed "because it's Chinese" yet there's an official model of an iconic ninja costume on an Ogre. Wasn't there a diorama of that ninja Ogre under a cherry tree that placed? Or was that given only an honorable mention? I forget.

So it's "Ogres are allowed ninja costumes, absolutely, but not human characters." OK. Gotcha.

If you go to any historic miniature competition with amazingly painted, say, purple-yellow Russian grenadier, you will be DQed regardless of the quality, because said grenadiers did not wear these colors. You can say that it limits your creativity and I agree with that, but you knew the rules when you entered. It is easy to avoid obvious breaches like Chinese characters or American flags.

But, the thing is, there's historic evidence to say that Russian grenadiers didn't wear purple-yellow gear.

Warhams clearly talk about all manners of human civilizations in various stages throughout the entire galaxy AND you see a plethora of images, given by GW itself, of humans wearing outlandish patterns that really don't belong on a battlefield. There's also marines...but talking about their colors is too easy.

So, what exactly is the diff between a Napoleonic human and a Mordian? Lack of skulls? Not all humans GW makes wear skulls. A "sci-fi" gun? The Tallarn and Krieg guns look awfully close to real guns. However, I'm sure that a Mordian would be OK yet a Napoleonic grunt with a gun+bayonet may be turned down. Huh, Krieg are over there and Genswick are one row over.

Maybe it's the freakishly large heads and hands. Next time, the Cathay guy should make those bigger and no one could then say it wasn't typical of GW's figures.