Golden Demon 2024 Winners

[Firedrake Cordova]

GW's put this year's Golden Demon winners up.

 

Really, they're all pretty mind-blowing, and really worth a quick look - the 40K single miniature winners are particularly impressive (I love the Kroot and Chaos Terminator entries), as are the Kill Team and Legionnes Imperialis ones. 

[Casual Heresy]

Oh damn that Space Wolf vs Hive Tyrant duel is spectacular!

[Firedrake Cordova]

It's probably worth adding that if you do right click & "open image in new tab", you get a much bigger image, which is rather helpful on the dioramas and unit entries ...

[Shinespider]

Most of them a really, really fantastic.

Only one that misses me is the Invictor. That particular style of lighting and NMM where every single panel has a super-harsh gradient kinda burns my eyes. 

[Matcap86]

There's some amazing work in there. Also really looking forward to the post on some of the commended ones, because there's some in there I was amazed didn't manage to win a trophy. 

[Tymell]

 

Most of them a really, really fantastic.

Only one that misses me is the Invictor. That particular style of lighting and NMM where every single panel has a super-harsh gradient kinda burns my eyes. 

 

Same, no disrespect to the talent required to do it, but I'm not a big fan of NMM at the best of times, and when there's a dedicated dose of it on every single armour plate...it's honestly just an eyesore to me.

Edited October 8 by Tymell

[darkhorse0607]

Really great showing across the board, and I think it shows how tough the competition was that Richard Gray didn't place or even get a finalist pin

 

That being said, personally, I feel like Saul Esteve's Khan should've placed higher. Maybe it's my personal bias. Who knows. Like I said, great showing from everyone though and I can see why the others might have edged it out

 

Agree with the comments about the Invictor though, but I fully admit that's just not the style of painting I love so that's probably why

 

 

[skylerboodie]

is this Orc a completely scratch-built entry, or (based on/) an existing mini? It's amazing but I don't recognise that face or body. Would love one for my Snakebite Orks

[DemonGSides]

 

is this Orc a completely scratch-built entry, or (based on/) an existing mini? It's amazing but I don't recognise that face or body. Would love one for my Snakebite Orks

 

He's heavily modified;

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAtKOe5tCan/?img_index=1

[SkimaskMohawk]

The salt on Facebook over the judging from all these high end studios is frankly hilarious.

[gideon stargreave]

The Escher jetbike is magnificent 

[MithrilForge]

They all look awesome... I feel tired looking at them and thinking of the amount of Hours, Days, Weeks and even Months put into these ... 

 

That Orc is really well done, i love the colour change on the hands and feet (why did I never think to do that before  well at least on a basic level) 

 

Mithril

 

@SkimaskMohawk - people should never get online and whine about judging... it makes them look feeble and pathetic.... 

[sbarnby71]

Stunning work as always.  I just wish the photography was more realistic, most single mini entries look like they have been heavily photo-shopped (the Orc from AoS for example).  Or maybe it's just my old eyes.

[Kenzaburo]

 

Stunning work as always.  I just wish the photography was more realistic, most single mini entries look like they have been heavily photo-shopped (the Orc from AoS for example).  Or maybe it's just my old eyes.

 

As someone who was there in person and who has participated in Golden Demob before, I can assure you that these are only photoshopped in order to represent the minis as they look in person. So much nuance and detail can (and will) get lost by taking pics of the entries. Many of the entries look like they are 3d photoshops when you look at them in person, it's really quite the mindbender. It just shows how good the top painters nowadays are.

[Carach]

Possibly the best load of winners I've seen to date - e.g The Khan entry is almost life-like. 

 

The quality nowadays is pretty mental. I wouldn't want to be a judge with such fine margins deciding who gets the top places. 

 

 

 

 

[Orion]

Overall great. The Fantasy single gold winner is so good.
 

Open category was a bit dull. (The winner was dope though)

I get the "it's a painting competition first", but an Ultramarine intercessor winning silver in the category where you can do anything?

Technically perfect for what it is, but thats it.

 

And I agree with the comments about the invictor. Thought the same thing, and would have placed the Landspeeder above.

Edited October 9 by Orion

[Evil Eye]

A good showing! The Triumph of Saint Katherine was my favourite, personally. Really great presentation of an awesome model.

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, Orion said:

I get the "it's a painting competition first", but an Ultramarine intercessor winning silver in the category where you can do anything?

Technically perfect for what it is, but thats it.

 

 

 

They talked about that yesterday on the Cult of Paint wrap-up for GD. Apparently, the person who entered the Ultramarine used Dave Perryman's (infernalbrush on IG and Youtube, also the winner of the sword this year) tutorial for the Ultramarine and just brought it to show him, ended up throwing it in the open competition and won silver

[Kenzaburo]

1 hour ago, darkhorse0607 said:

 

 

They talked about that yesterday on the Cult of Paint wrap-up for GD. Apparently, the person who entered the Ultramarine used Dave Perryman's (infernalbrush on IG and Youtube, also the winner of the sword this year) tutorial for the Ultramarine and just brought it to show him, ended up throwing it in the open competition and won silver

 

Also, said winner posted on instagram that he himself was a bit perplexed as why he won a trophy for it. He was very understanding of the overall reaction from the community which as scratching their collective heads. :) But as he pointed out: The GD is a multi-tiered competition nowadays - notable entry, finalist entry, commended (from bottom to top) entry. That's the 3 levels that actually tell you something about the level of painting you have achieved with your entry. The 3 trophies at the end don't say as much about your level of painting, but rather what caught the judges' eye so much that they felt the need to pick it out. Meaning the trophies are more of an subjective judgement while the aforementioned tiers are more objective. I feel that this definition explains the results of GD way better than anything else I've heard. :)

 

Anyways, the painter winning ... silver, I think, for the Ultramarine took several more trophies home, so it's not like some rando winning a trophy with that rando Ultramarine. He's most definitely a top tier painter. 

[Aarik]

This isn't super important, but does anyone know any more juicy details about what happened with Richard Gray's warp spider exarch originally not getting even a finalist pin, and then GW later giving it one?  It was pretty surprising to me that a model of that caliber wouldn't even get one of the lower tier awards, especially compared to other models that did.

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

Some absolutely stunning work there. It is amazing what people can do. The talent, the dedication, the creativity. All fantastic. 

 

I really liked the Horus Ascended. Just so clean and neat. 

[darkhorse0607]

34 minutes ago, Aarik said:

This isn't super important, but does anyone know any more juicy details about what happened with Richard Gray's warp spider exarch originally not getting even a finalist pin, and then GW later giving it one?  It was pretty surprising to me that a model of that caliber wouldn't even get one of the lower tier awards, especially compared to other models that did.

 

Source on that? Last I had heard from the roundups I've seen and from his IG is that he didn't get anything

[Aarik]

51 minutes ago, darkhorse0607 said:

 

Source on that? Last I had heard from the roundups I've seen and from his IG is that he didn't get anything

 

I saw an IG post from him yesterday that mentioned something about GW giving him a pin later in the process or after the fact, but I could be mixing up the facts.

[darkhorse0607]

18 minutes ago, Aarik said:

 

I saw an IG post from him yesterday that mentioned something about GW giving him a pin later in the process or after the fact, but I could be mixing up the facts.

You're right, I must have missed that one

 

I feel like it got glossed over the first time. That's no disrespect to the judges meant, but there really needs to be more than a handful for hundreds+ entries to make sure everything gets a fair shake. Especially with RGs, which had a bunch of subtle stuff, particularly on the back that might be been missed if it was just glanced at

 

Them bringing in a guest judge is a great start, but I think it's justified in having a larger (dedicated) judging team that has lore people, at least one or two eavy metal folks and others

[Orion]

8 hours ago, Kenzaburo said:

 

Also, said winner posted on instagram that he himself was a bit perplexed as why he won a trophy for it. He was very understanding of the overall reaction from the community which as scratching their collective heads. :) But as he pointed out: The GD is a multi-tiered competition nowadays - notable entry, finalist entry, commended (from bottom to top) entry. That's the 3 levels that actually tell you something about the level of painting you have achieved with your entry. The 3 trophies at the end don't say as much about your level of painting, but rather what caught the judges' eye so much that they felt the need to pick it out. Meaning the trophies are more of an subjective judgement while the aforementioned tiers are more objective. I feel that this definition explains the results of GD way better than anything else I've heard. :)

 

Anyways, the painter winning ... silver, I think, for the Ultramarine took several more trophies home, so it's not like some rando winning a trophy with that rando Ultramarine. He's most definitely a top tier painter. 

 

Yeah, I noted it was a great paint job. I'm not trying to bring down the artist, it just seems like either there was a pretty disappointing showing of submissions for open, either that or the subjective judgement decided a UM intercessor should win....?

 

I have no idea what it was competing against, just that the Open category has had notably more interesting entries in past Demons.

I also think I don't really get the point of painting competitions if it isn't interesting.