Showing posts with label golden demon. Show all posts

Monday, March 3, 2014

First speculations on Golden Demons 2014

Let's talk a little bit about Golden Demon competitions this year.

As you know, last year's Golden Demons were quite disappointing. About half of them were cancelled, and the ones which were celebrated didn't live up to everyone's expectations. Especially flagrant was the quality of GD UK 2013, the flagship event for GW, most important traditionally and the one held at home (Games Workshop's home I mean). Some months have passed and attention has been drawn to other fronts of course, but let me gather up a few links that I compiled at the time which show the general feeling of what Games Days/Golden Demons were last year:

Even so, people like me still want Golden Demons. People like me want them back, and want them back for good. The problem is that the information around their future is very dark. There are rumours of every colour and taste, but the main trend seems to defend that there will only be one, in UK, and that the rest will be cancelled. Others, also very strong, seem to suggest that there will be no GDs this year, not even UK. From what I have been hearing here and there, and using my own intuition and prediction, my guess is leaning more towards this last one, that there will not be any GDs this year.

Sad as these news may be, I have been lingering on to them for quite a while now, and I am at peace with this notion. There are many other contests and events, so even it being a huge loss for the community, we can always defer to the many other initiatives, less commercial, open out there for us. GW and their event will always be in our nerdy hearts, a good memory of a very dear past.

But then again, we are just speculating here. There are no official news or confirmations whatsoever, so maybe there is still room for optimism. Like the one that arose last week when Hugo Matte, winner of 2013's Japan Slayersword, posted this picture on his Facebook page:

I already showed this on Facebook, but I thought it deserved some space on the blog.

Hugo just posted it to show pride for having his name on the famous plaques at the Warhammer World in the Games Workshop HQ. But as you can see, they had to put a new plaque to accommodate these new names, leaving a full plaque empty, waiting to be filled. Could this be a sign that GW is not planning on killing the most famous miniature painting contest in the world? Could it be just an anecdote? Have at it guys! Let me know what you think!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Help me update Demonwinner! (part 2)

I knew I could count on you guys! The response has been massive! Just past Monday I received a ton of messages of people who wanted to help with information they had. Seriously, thank you all!

So far, I managed to update and complete GD Japan 2012 and GD USA 2012. I have been adding some other minor updates but not complete contests. What I realized is that with so many messages and links to stuff, it's getting overwhelming to do the updates. So I thought of the best approach for the updates.

If you know of any photo/miniature that is not posted in DemonWinner, send me an email with the photo to my email (volomir at gmail dot com). But wait! Don't do it yet! I need you to name it properly so I can process it easily. :)

The name of the file for the photo should follow this template:
country_year_category_position_namesurname.jpg.
Each parameter means something to me:

country: obviously the country of that GD, from this list:

uk
usa
germany
france
italy
australia
spain
japan

year: the 4 digits of the year, if the GD it was this year it would be "2013"
category: the category in which it won. It can be one of these:

singlefantasy
unitfantasy
monster
single40k
squad40k
monster40k
vehicle
duel
diorama
lotr
open
youngbloods

position: it can be gold, silver or bronze, but use a number instead, so 1 would be gold, 2 would be silver and 3 would be bronze.
namesurname: name and surname (or surnames) altogether, without weird characters or anything

For example, let's say you want to send me a photo of my Dragon who won Gold in Monster Fantasy in Germany 2013 (don't bother, it's already updated obviously). This would be the filename: germany_2013_monster_1_rafaelgarciamarin.jpg

Easy, right? It's a little bit of effort on your part, I know, but it's extremely useful for me and it doesn't take that much time!

I am still mainly missing these contests:

Help me glorious painting community, you are our only hope!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Help me update Demonwinner!

You might remember that I took over the management and updating tasks for the website Demonwinner, a very cool initiative which serves as the ultimate database for Golden Demons all over history.

My plans for this website were big, I was working on redoing the whole site so that it would be renewed and updated to nowadays web standards. Actually, I did begin working on it earlier this year, and spent quite some time rethinking everything.

However, the current situation of Games Days and Golden Demons all over the world destroyed my motivation completely to work on this project, and as of now I have to say that everything is on halt until further notice, and under serious risk of not being restarted because of the constant attempts of GW to destroy their flagship event.

Even so, hope is the only thing that should never fade. For this reason, and to prevent this great initiative from being forgotten forever, I am going to update all the contests that took place in 2012 and 2013 and that still haven't been updated in the old site. And for that...

Painters and Golden Demon lovers of the world, I summon thee! I need you all to point me to sites which have information, names and photos of winners for the following contests:

So if you happen to have any information you can share, please contact me! You can send me emails, facebook messages, comment here... anything!

Golden Demons may die in the future, but its true spirit still lives on in our hearts. I think it would be cool to at least have the database up to date.

Help me glorious painting community, you are our only hope!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Golden Demon Germany 2013 confirmed!

It's funny that I am in Berlin as I write these lines... but yes!! Seems like finally we will have a Golden Demon in Germany this year!

And in Köln! August 11 in the Gürzenich!!!

Ok, everything is too good to be true. A raise in prices for the ticket (50€ or so) and a limited number of visitors, 2000 tops, will accompany this year's GD in Germany. But OK, we DO have Golden Demon in Germany after all!

Read it all at Mr. President's post on masterminis.net.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Games Day & Golden Demon UK 2013 Confirmed?

There seems to be some good news at last.

This post on GW Oxford Street London Facebook page seems to confirm there will be a UK GD this year:

Greetings People of London,
Have you been having trouble painting faces or skin in general? I, Sargent Greavus will be running tutorials all day to get your little dudes looking awesome. Also Andrea is here to help out with any non metallic metal problems you may be having.
With Games day a mere 6 months away we are on hand to have a chat about your GOLDEN DAEMON and ARMIES ON PARADE projects!
So get down here today and lets get the ball rolling.
"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!"

Other sources confirm that the official date will be September 29, already delivered to GW Stores Staff and that they will announce it soon in the next WD.

Will we have news soon about Germany and Italy? With France officially cancelled and Spain presumed dead, UK might be the only hope for GD lovers this year...

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Games Day France 2013 officially cancelled

Word is, Games Day France is officially cancelled this year 2013.

Check out this phrase in French on the GW website:

NB : vous vous demandez sans doute pourquoi les finalistes d'Armies on Parade ne se rendent pas au Games Day comme les années précédentes. L'année 2013 ne comportera pas d'édition française du Games Day. Nous avons décidé de profiter de cette année pour remanier le Games Day et ainsi vous proposer une expérience hobby hors du commun pour la prochaine édition.

Being the important part in English:

There will be no 2013 edition of Games Day France.

As you can see, there was only a very little note on GW's website about it. Should we expect the same about next GD cancellations? Will there be any more official announcements at all? Will we have German, Italian or UK's Games Days?

Thanks to Julien Casses for the information.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Golden Demons 2013: current status of rumours (I)

Quick update on how the European Games Days/Golden Demons RUMOURS are flowing currently.

So even though Spain and France look dead, there might be hope for us GD lovers. We'll be also waiting for GW's official response to the letter Mr. Zaphod has sent them in behalf of all the community:

Dear Sirs,
Recently, there have been a lot of rumors surrounding international Games Day / Golden Demons events.
Rumor has it that the Games Day Spain and France have been cancelled. The status of Germany and Italy are currently said to be uncertain.
We also 'heard' that the US, UK, Japan and Australia Games Days are still scheduled to be held in 2013.
We were wondering if you could confirm the 2013 Games Day event schedule with dates and locations, as many of our blog's readers would like to visit one or more events this year. Our blog at masterminis.net has around 40,000 visitors a month and we would appreciate a reply.
Thank you in advance for your much anticipated response.
Best regards and happy painting,
Michael Bartels"

Don't forget to check masterminis.net for updates! I will be talking about everything GD related here too, even though I'm not a fan of rumours, these are pretty big and affect us very much so I have no alternative!

See you all in Brussels this weekend!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Rumours: GD Spain to be cancelled?

I didn't want to mention it in my blog until it felt absolutely necessary. Like if denying its existence publicly made it less true, less certain. But the thing is, rumours are spreading like an infection, and there seems to be no way around it any more. Let's just deal with it and get it out of my system.

Rumour is that Golden Demon Spain 2013 may be gravely endangered.

The lack of news around Golden Demons have started rivers of comments around the internet. Some ventured that GW might have been thinking of cancelling Games Days and Golden Demon events in Europe, but no one was really sure about which of them. The thing is, as of today, there is still no official confirmation from GW about any dates for Golden Demons (except from US, but they kind of play in a different league) and the more time passes, the worse it looks.

So everything we hear lately is a rumour, and we should take it as it is, just a rumour. But everyone knows how GW deals with their fanbase, how they don't care about it if it doesn't involve short term revenues, and how GDs have been said to be largely unprofitable, especially in Spain, where the economic situation is anything but encouraging. All of this is creating a toxic ambience, and everything points to Spain as the first in line to be cancelled. We are nearly in March and being GD Spain the first GD, there is still no date, place or any news at all about it!

GW employees in Spain are also being very clear. No date for GD Spain doesn't mean anything good. Some even mention the possibility that GD Spain could be marked for death forever. Could have Pablo López been the last Spain Slayersword winner of all time?

These are certainly no good news at all. I'M NOT IN ANY LITTLE BIT HAPPY ABOUT THIS.

Anyway, if there is a little ray of hope, as little as it is, I will hold on to it. These are just rumours after all... aren't they? :( Aren't they?? :_(

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Golden Demon Italy 2012

Ciao ragazze e ragazzi! Volomir reporting from Italy!

What a wonderful weekend in Milan and Modena! I have to thank all of my Italian friends for the wonderful hospitality, I love Italy and the italian Golden Demon and I hope to repeat very soon in the future! Or Monte San Savino next year maybe? I don't know, but I hope it doesn't pass too much time without seeing them again. Bravissimo!

The Golden Demon was great with a very high level from all of the participants. Medium level in this country has demonstrated to be the highest in the Golden Demon circuit nowadays (waiting to see what GD France has to offer) and really great considering they are maintaining the level from last year. It was an insane day where I did many things, from participating in Scrap Demon to giving a painting demonstration which was really interesting, and I had time to make my usual photo report for you guys. Of course, I did my best, but there are many entries I couldn't photograph because at the moment I took them they were being judged. The cabinets were swarming with people all day so it was hard work. Please forgive me anyway!

Slayersword went to Luciano Rossetto for an absolutely astonishing conversion of an Ork Warboss, beautiful model with a very different way of painting to what I'm used to, and very careful about the details. Check out all the photos I have taken for you guys to see. Enjoy!