Golden Demon Spain 2009

Well, Sunday finally arrived and we enjoyed the Spanish Golden Demon 2009 (or Madrid's Golden Demon as the statues mentioned in their plaques) and the truth is that there is much to discuss.

Regarding the event itself, the Games Day, let's say that well, I usually do not usually investigate a lot about what takes place at the gaming tables and demonstrations, but I can say it has lost much interest, the place is much smaller than before, the fact that the event is held in a sports gives an aspect of "homemade" that is very demotivating. But anyway, clubs encourage the party and they have brought very big and interesting dioramas. In general, the games day was quite weak.

The Golden Demon for me was a big surprise in terms of participation and level. I think the level has risen a lot in general, maybe you do not see megafigures that you knew in the past they were going to be a sword, and the demon hunting in categories is now very complicated judging to what we have seen this year. I will first discuss what I felt was the worse thing about the contest, without doubt the decisions of judges. Always with the same, that if the judges here, that if the judges there. I understand that verdicts are not questionable because they are bound to subjective criteria, but in this GD I have personally seen things that have left me very crazy. But very crazy! In my case, I guess that I should cry a bit about getting a bronze when my figure could have probably been more, but really knowing that my figure was almost a scratch, I probably have deserved it in the sense that we know what the policy of GW is on this matter. I already knew what I faced when I decided to present it. Anyway, I'm happy because even though it has not been a great reward regarding the work done, I managed to finish it (more or less...) and I'm moving on to the next. Congratulations to Petrus and Ivan for their gold and silver respectively, please do not feel bad at any time for me because the jury is the one who decides and if they consider that this is his first Golden and it is always the most exciting. Well, there is also the issue that my Eowyn wasn't even finalist... at least the version my friend Morsa (Elias Alonso) painted managed a gold and that will make my Éowyn glad and happy to be travelling to Germany to continue knowing world!

As for the rest of the awards, there was a lot of level in general and all those who have been awarded with something should be very happy. True, there have been few judging mistakes, I can assure that, and those who have suffered because of this please know that I support you, karma will reward you! For a moment I thought my friend Morsa was going to return home with nothing and this would have been extremely gore, but ultimately they gave him the gold in LOTR and this left me very relaxed. I am happy for my friend Malaleche, because I know he got a prize and that he has worked hard for it. It's his first and I hope that a few more will come in the future. Now, be brave to leave the squad categories and see what happens beyond.

Congratulations also on the sword to Arsies, I think the figure was a great idea and the colours were very light and cool, but as I told him I would not have given him the sword. The important thing is not to become accomodated because of success and to continue with this rythm because his level has risen spectacularly. If I had to choose, I would have given the sword to Crimes (his wife), she is a great person and very kind to keep on with a guy like Arsies :P and because she will have to be in bed with his husband and the sword (because we all know that Arsies will not leave the sword alone even when taking a shower...). Be careful, we don't want any accidents to happen!

Finally I would like to mention how great the awards ceremony was. BUENISIMO! We love to complain when things go wrong, and it is our right to do so. But when things go well we do not say so much. And frankly, the awards, where we could talk and dedicate, and the time were the sword was given calling all golds to the scene, really felt great. Please organize an initiative to send letters to GW next year to repeat such a great awards ceremony. I really do not know what you think about this but I really loved it.

Just mention that there is a thorough report available on our experience this weekend, and that great part of the awards ceremony has been recorded on video, and we are already working to organize all this information so you can enjoy with our stories (in Spanish of course :P). I hope to have it very soon!

III Encuentro San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Last weekend this event was celebrated in the famous village "San Lorenzo de El Escorial". A beautiful spot in the mountains of Madrid were old spanish kings are buried for eternity. In this royal background, this contest is getting more and more importance each year, and this year's edition was another one to enjoy. Because of the Golden Demon, which is taking place this weekend, our french friends Allan Carrasco and Jeremie Bonamant decided to prolong their stay and give a modelling course in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Jeremie also decided to enter the contest with some of his well known artworks and this gave the opportunity for local painters to compete with him.

There were a lot of entries this year, traditionally this has been a historical figure event but the fantasy part proved to be very very strong and many painters were impressed by the level of the new young fantasy painters.

Personally, I am preparing my Malus Darkblade for the Golden Demon this weekend so I couldn't enter the contest in San Lorenzo. However, I was given the opportunity to be part of the jury, so I could see all the contest figures closely, and contribute to the final veredict. Jeremie Bonamant ended winning the Best of Show with his Piper, the one we saw in France and presumably will be seeing in Spain, a conversion of a Wraithlord which is playing his weapon as if it were a flute, walking over a puzzle walkway while lots of tanks and machines follow him in the background. Great award for a crazy idea which is still surprising me.

I couldn't attend both days but I could talk to a lot of friends and had a great time. Let's see what happens this weekend...

Golden Demon France 2009

Well my friends, I've been having some personal problems lately and I haven't been able to write as much as I would have liked, but anyway, I'm back! As you may know by now, this weekend we had the pleasure to attend Golden Demon 2009 in Paris. We had a great time there, it was my third time there and I think that, concerning the fun we had, probably the best of the three trips. We had a real bohemian french weekend, eating french cheese, french bakery, french wine, crèpes, croissants... oui! oui! great time there! We couldn't party because we didn't have much sleep because of the painting, but we will compensate it on Madrid!

About the contest, great figures over there. I would say that more or less the same amount of geniuses as usual, but maybe less participation on the average level as past years. Because of my personal troubles, I couldn't finish my planned entry, a Malus Darkblade, nearly full scratch, for single Fantasy. Instead I had to enter an Éowyn on Lord of the Rings, which I'm very proud of because of its story (which I will tell when the time is right :P). The bad thing is that I didn't get any awards, just a finalist, and I am becoming very used to not getting anything in french GDs (the only GDs i've ever been to and never got any award are all the french). Anyways, my spanish friends came back with a lot of awards, I list them here (spanish in bold):

Young Blood :

Gold : Sylvain Rousseau (Eldar Avenger)
Silver : Grégoire De Bernouis (Space Marine)
Bronze : Théo Lamury (Slaanesh Champion on foot)

Warhammer Single :

Gold : Jérôme Otremba (Orchestre Chaman)
Silver : Axel De Mohrenschield (Slaanesh Champion on foot)
Bronze : Georg Damm (High Elf)

WH40K Single :

Gold : Diego Esteban Perez (Space Wolf Terminator)
Silver : Nicholas Ferrière (Kroot)
Bronze : David Petit (Winged Slaanesh Champion)

LotR :

Gold : Bruno Levalee (Aragorn)
Silver : Jérôme Otremba (Arwen)
Bronze : Vivien Chesnel (Legolas on horseback)

Monster or Cavalerie :

Gold : Ben Komets (MazdaMundi)
Silver : Rémy Tremblay (Giant)
Bronze : Frédéric Duclos (Khorne Champion on Juggernaut)

Warhammer machine or vehicle :

Gold : Steve Party (Black Coach)
Silver : Guillaume Hémery (Orkut Truck)
Bronze : Xavier Payet (IG FW Tank)

Warhammer Regiment :

Gold : Denis Bouvet (Dwarves)
Silver : Georg Damm (Dark Elves)
Bronze : Julien Casses (Dark Elf Knights on Cold Ones)

WH40K Squad :

Gold : Guillaume Hémery (Badauds Moon Orks)
Silver : Pablo Lopez-Jimeno (Khorne Berzerkers)
Bronze : Jorge Valdes-Alvarez (Space Marines)

Diorama :

Gold : Matt Cexwish (The Puppet Show)
Silver : Bruno Lavallée (LotR : Defeat of the Witch King)
Bronze : Mickaël Denis (a big Tyranid in an IG holding cell)

Open :

Gold : Jose Manuel Palomes Nunez (Sigmar Priest vs Chaos Warrior)
Silver : Alfonso Giraldes-Borbon Bermejo (Catachan Ogre)
Bronze : Rémy Tremblay (High Elf)

Forge World Best of Swow : Milan Jespers (Krieg Officer)

Slayer Sword : Ben Komets (Mazda Mundi)


You can look for photos and links for more info on the Spanish Team forum.

Congrats to all the winners, specially my spanish friends which I'm very proud of, and also to my friends Matt Cexwish (for the motherfucking best diorama story ever) and Ben Komets (3 swords on a row?? who does that???).

Be prepared for Spain, I will be taking my Éowyn and who knows what else!

Step by step article on how I painted my Death Korps Army

I began to paint a whole Death Korps of Krieg army for the campaign we are going to play between some members of the Raspura Oscura. The campaign consists of painting the army gradually and playing meanwhile with the figures painted. The first round begins with 500 points for the month of February. I decided to write an article about the whole process of painting. It will be posted on the ST forum in Spanish and when I finish it completely I'll post it in the blog, translated into English. Meanwhile, and if you know spanish (or at least know how to use any online translator and understand what they translate) you can check out the process in the ST forum.

Link to the article in the ST Forum