A quick report on my day in Birmingham
Firstly, my results...VERY peculiar they are too, but, as i shall explain later, acceptable...

Fantasy Single Miniature - Empire Warrior Priest - Finalist (The quickest of all my entries this year, so a big surprise!)

40K Single Miniature - Chaos Black Legion Terminator Lord (My main entry for this year...LOTS of work in this, yet strangely ignored, or at least, didnt place. Many of the painters i showed this to were very surprised but thems the breaks...)

Large Scale Model - Femme Militant - DQ'd! (Despite this figure being designed by the head of GW's art department, and indeed, sculpted by one of the design team also, my gal got DQ'd for NOT being a GW model!! It doesn't say this anywhere in the rules, so this was a massive surprise to me, especially seeing as i've seen this type of figure entered before...)

Open Category - Imperial Missionary - No placement, but thats ok...he was a stock model, and this is always a category that i dont aim high in, so i wasn't overly disappointed by this result.

Now, it may seem like i had a bad day results wise, its certainly less than i expected to get, and bucks the trend of my usual sort of results...

I had heard that the judging this year was far more mercenary. The example i was given by someone there was that out of the Squad Category, which featured about 60 different entries, only 9 or so made Finalist, where normally there might have been 20 or so Finalists. I dont know how true this was, but thats what i was told.

It may seem like im offering excuses for my seeming failures, but im really not. Sure, i was initially disappointed by the result on my main entry, but my day and spirits were bouyed up by all the cool painters i spoke to. Ive been lucky enough to meet some of the best in the UK, and indeed, the world...i saw some familiar faces, and some new ones, and enjoyed chats with them all. I held their entries in my hand, and got their opinions on my works, and despite the lack of Finalists, i had a lot of positive feedback on what i'd done this year I had an invite to a forum that has a lot of these people on it, and i may well just sign up to that...it will help me push further im sure! I also had a nice little chat with my hero, John Blanche! He will always be a legend and an inspiration to me, and just talking to him and flicking through his sketchbook was amazing...i totally wanted to steal that book!

All the winners were just fantastic...normally, i have some reservations about some that win, but this year, no complaints at all. Whether this is down to the 'new' judging, i dont know, but regardless...every piece deserved what it got, and it was a real pleasure to see these works.

I come away from Golden Demon 2009 a little shaken, but ultimately, inspired by the failure. I already have some ideas for next year, and what i can do to improve my work, and this process will start immeadiately! Im fired up...

Congratulations to all the winners, great to see the Slayer Sword come back to the UK! You all deserved your rewards.

My turn next year...

I'll get photos of everything up during the week...then you can all judge for yourselves

Love, Peace and Grease,
Ben x