Golden Demon 2024 | Boxarts DOMINATING & Disqualified Entries!

boxart should be its own category

Fantastic review brother! Intelligent commentary, and philosophy, thanks for all you do, I really appreciate your videos!

javi is pronounced like "hah-vee"

No, the REAL kicker on that Éomer is the base! Thats a Rohirric burial mound with the white simbelmynë flowers! That's such a beautiful, elevating detail!

i think the ork on boar suffered due to how it was fully 3d sculpted and printed, which lets be honest 3d printing and GW havent got the best relationship that thing winning would have been a political gut punch for gw from independant sculptors making proxies that directly compete with them.

I've been painting on and off since the 90's, hell, as a teenager I entered Golden Demon at Birmingham NEC with a single High Elf... you know the recipe, mithril silver, blue ink, I had the Mike McVey guide... winner for sure? No, of course not, I had no chance. Oh, how much I learnt! What I've seen since getting back into this hobby over the last few years is a lot of polarized opinions about Golden Demon, from respected artists, every year, and NOT the kind of butt hurt stuff. Justified and reasoned opinions. So what I want to know is WHY?! I get that GW judge how they want, and maybe push certain popular new models and IPs, but here's the thing........ Do other big painting competitions suffer from this same sort of drama, and if not, what are they doing differently?

to be honest I get the rewards system for the traditional approaches.

I think it is important to answer the question what GD is rewarding or for what it is for.

When it comes to rewarding and focusing on the painting technique, you should also focus on this only. Like on the Space Marine figure.

When GD wants to rewards creativity, than I don't get the Spacewolf Tyranid mini. Sure, it is extremely good painted and the craftsmanship itself is incredible. But the idea? Correct me if you see it differently...but for me it feels like a scifi rip off from the last slayer sword winner entry with the giant with the hydra.
like "oh an epic battle between two entities with water effects!"

Also rewarding uniqueness and creativity in this kind of competition is getting more and more difficult from year to year. It is from some point almost impossible to tell something new.

additional:
comparing digital methods with "handcraft" in one category is not possible because these are two different categories in my point of view.

tldr; whats the focus of gd? creativity? storytelling? craftmenshipt? I find it very blurry at the moment and it's kind of pushing me away from the event and just concentrate on the artists it self.

Golden Demon - Where creativity goes to die. What happened? This would be unthinkable 15 years ago.

> the most well known painting competition
The most well known GW miniature painting competition

Am I the only one who thinks that Pawel's Diorama of Khorne Forces vs Ultarmarines is overloaded? There is nothing to criticize about the magnificient paint job, but to me something is not right about the whole display. There is too much crammed into one piece.

Yeah i swear the best entry and most creative never wins. Its always some very standard looking paint job, good but not very creative.

How the Gollum piece didn't get gold is beyond me

Hey I have a Flexispot, highly recommend! Also Richard's Eldar was a thing of beauty

it would be great if gw actually put out the full judging criteria for people to know before they bring their miniatures in for judging

I personally like the Ultramarine more than many of the "should have beens" of people with large online presences for one reason alone - it isn't overcooked.

Granted, I'm not a fan of the overly perfect style in general, and I always find more interest in works where there's some more texture and grit. The Ultramarine has that. The "should have beens" are just too perfect, too reflective, too smooth, too everything. They do not evoke the universe itself, they're PURELY about one's skill of blending at the cost of composition, storytelling and overall feel. At some point these models don't even look like they're part of anything, it's just a collection of smoothest blends in the world. A skill an artist needs beyond their technical ability is also knowing when to stop, when they're overworking, overcooking, murdering a piece with detail that just makes it look worse.

The Ultramarine is simple, it's crisp, it's got light dusting of weathering and it is NOT OVERDONE WITH THE BLENDS. It actually looks like it belongs in 40k rather than a car show due to how chromed up and blinged up many entries look. I'm sorry, but when I think of Nurgle, I do NOT think of beautifully smooth, vibrant colors that are blended to perfection as they transition from one tonal opposite to the other - that's the aesthetic of TZEENTCH. And sure, some years the judges might like that if it's something against the norm - but a lot of the stuff we see online has the problem of getting too samey, too obsessed with perfection and just losing the sight on what makes a good display piece.

Anyone notice the Erkka Marttio duel is gandalf Vs the balrog?

As an outsider who just clicked because I wanted to see what won golden demon I have to laugh at the space marine that won second criticism from the community being “it looks like a games workshop box art” because to me every single entry that won looks like GW box art. I think some of these painters are delusional to think their style doesn’t look like it’s out of a GW guide book.

I do get why they are deterring 3d sculpted non GW models. There's the copyright aspect plus there's the moving away from sculpting and model making, that the competition is about, if you allow 3d sculpting to take over (it being a separate skill set).

Zumikito has robbed

GD it’s different competition than standard painting contests, you need to fit more into ‘eavy metal style imo. For this day I don’t how I won slayer sword (almost 20 years ago), when there were many better works than mine.

The reason he was disqualified doesn't have anything to do with licensing it has to do with the fact that he used 3D printing in Games Workshop is so threatened by 3D printing and 3D printers did they choose to punish anyone who dares to utilize the technology that will eventually put them out of business. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Wow, I haven't caught one of you videos in quite a while, but I am impressed! From what I can tell you've really upped your production game, and you seem much more comfortable and at ease in front of the camera. Well done!

Great video!

Great summary of the competition :)

3 judges plus a team of 5 to 10 panelists whose job it is to ensure the judges see and spend time with each of the best minis. The judges need to be separate from the attendees, so they shouldn't be constantly mingling, but the panelists could. They would be in the crowd, talking about the entries, who everyone thinks is the best and why. It doesn't matter if a panelist is biased because they have no power to sway the competition. Their job would be to choose 5 to 10 minis each day, or 1 or 2 from each category, and bring them to the attention of the judges.

Javipaintsminis dog one got a bit robbed imo, he made it for one category and it got moved to a category where people knew they were making a diorama.

I think Gollum was a non starter it’s not a licensed miniature and anything that isn’t in line with GW IP won’t go far. So don’t try power ranger colored squads!

I’m glad 3D printing isn’t succeeding. This is a GW miniature painting competition so the models need to be actual GW miniatures.

I wish there was some objective standard or even feedback for competitors. Right now it’s just a lottery.

The "overlooked" entries all have the same flaws from what I can see. They are boring. Technically they are beautiful pieces but I can see why a judge would move past them in favor something more interesting or complex with same level of technical expertise shown.
The orcs armor is bland and samey with the pigs face being flat, gollums palette is meh, the grey cloak might be smooth with amazing line work, but its grey and dominates the piece making the line work get lost.

Thank you for this video! I appreciate the discussion and your tagging of the creators so that I can follow them online and take inspiration from their works ❤

Trovarion, the difference between your videos last year and this year are stark and impressive. Your humility and willingness to pivot your approach to video making shows why you're such a good painter - you have an eye for seeing what precisely isn't working and rectifying any issue. You are a phenomenal creator and watching you learn and grow has been a real treat. Thank you for your hard work, wonderful video!

Just like when GW makes 40k into a worse game with an update, Golden Daemon painters are going to scream and cry, and then go buy tickets for the next one.
If I were GW, I would never change. In fact, I would always make sure I do things at random, to save on actual hard work and because people wouldn't notice, anyway.

Those red squids beat Zumikito's Nurgle squad?

GD competitions were at their best when there were multiple competitions each year (4 or 5 in the US and 4 or 5 in Europe). Now that there are maybe 3 per year, worldwide, there are a lot of great artists that go home empty handed.

Stop giving GW your life for free.

Was just thinking about a new desk. Never thought I'd compliment an in-video ad, especially on a first visit to a channel, but that demo of it lifting you was clutch. 😂

Does anyone know the brand of sculpting putty used on the models from Alberto and Thibaut? It’s got a yellowish tint to it

There's nothing realistic about the lighting on almost all of these models. They are painted as if they are a painting.

Just at a meeting glance I think the Autach/Warp Spider didn't place simply because they didn't do more to add value and interest to the cloth work/cloak.

It's not a huge amount of the model and even though it's very clean it looks unfinished in comparison to the extreme detail and complexity of the rest of the model.

Could be wrong but that's the quick read based on what you presented.

I think professional paint who paint miniature for a live should have there on category to allow more regular every hobbyist to take part

Every time GW takes a positive step forward they trip and fall, pushing the, permanently lodged, lobotomy pick deeper... It's so sad to watch.

That blue Eldar was crazy good

They should make them do whole armies 👀 instead of one model.

Some of these remind me a lot of Baba Booey.

Eye nipples is def a choice.... maybe not one I would choose. 😂

I thought that space marine looked amazing in open.