Miniatures

Josef Bugman is not a dwarf to be trifled with, not even flanned. Like most Brits, he takes his beer very seriously (and a subject very close to my own heart). The diorama, came about by trying to use the ork figure in some context. I believe he was a limited edition from Games day 2007, and was begging to be painted. The creative genius that is Thomas Laing actually came up with the idea of him holding the beer barrel, which lead on to more beer related diorama's which ultimately brings us to Bugman!! He too is a limited edition figure, available only by drinking at Bugmans bar at Games Workshop HQ in Nottingham. the base itself was a happy accident, finding it stashed away. I believe they used to be available at Bugman's many years ago, and it fit perfectly with what we were trying to portray in the diorama. success at Golden Demon 2009 was placed as a finalist, but looking at the competition, it definitely should have placed. Some over the other stuff was just plain awful!

These two delights were created back in 1998 I believe for the Golden Demon awards for that year, which involved a battlewagon filled with rampaging orks all with this cool white tattoo/war paint on their faces. Sadly it wasn't what the judges were looking for in terms of Ethos and never scored a placing. From a personal perspective the orks (always my favourite) included some of my best work. Sadly the Diorama has been lost to history somewhere.

From my personal collection, a simple Dwarf army, big shooty and fun to paint.

Next, we have, what I thought was a Golden Demon trophy winner (and Tommo too!). The category we chose was called "Duel" where 2 figures are placed in a dynamic arrangement, within the "Games Workshop Ethos". So Tommo and I brainstormed this little scenario. The big lumbering giant is entering the woods, only to be ambushed by some pansy Wood elves, in a "get orf moi laaand" kinda way. The giant is a relatively knew kit for GW, and the Elf a limited edition figure, so I was hoping to get brownie points there. The Giant needed some major re-sculpting to get the pose right, after he was bought off some butcher on EBay (they ain't cheap!) most notably the "shield" armor he wears around his stomach, and the remolding of the cheek where the wood elf is kicking him in.
The Pansy wood elf also needed some rework, as he was originally pole-vaulting with a spear, that had to be cut away and the vine put in place.
Then of course painting it all. All in I reckon this chap was probably the best part of 25 hours. I could have done alot more, in terms of detail, but I simply ran out of time. In this category I came soooo close to another statue. There were 3 other decent submissions in this category. 2 definitely winners - and trounced what I had done, the third was dubious. But that's the whim of the judges.

This won me a bronze back in 1994 (god I feel old) - Part of an Imperial army for WHFB jointly owned by Tom Laing and myself. This is a complete in itself, but both rider and mount were used elsewhere (god rest you biggrin). They were bought together for the event in 1994. The irony is that the paint job matched exactly the paintjob on the box. There is no original thought into this at all. Even the base is dull. Just goes to show how far the standard for Golden Demon has evolved now-a-days.

Da Boyz is back in tahn!! I've always loved orks. closest to my heart in nature, these boys are something else. I started work on these in June 2009 and finished them a week before golden Demon (some 5 months later). There are some very subtle conversions in there, using alot of the Forgeworld ork-biker bits. I didn't want a static 'rush' of bikes, but wanted to bring some movement to them. The kind of slap-stick mayhem you'd expect of an orkry charge!! Which the front rank amply demonstrates by their prolific use of the orks power weapons. The mob since then has grown and grown to a veritable kult of speed! you just can't go wrong with them, dakka dakka!!

Back in the day Genestealers also ahem "mated" with other races, rather then just eating them, so we ended up with Genestealer hybrids. Part human, part alien - and now totally extinct. I guess when the Tyranids were re-invigorated by GW; they tried to move away from James Cameron's "Aliens" ethos. But these guys have lived in a box for the last 18 years, and recently touched up. It's weird to see the strange, formative weaponry GW was touting back before codex's ever existed!

Fire Dragons are hot burney death, represented by their "fire" colour scheme. These guys are hot, and the paintjob cool (sorry - couldn't resist).

Marneus is probably one of the oldest Characters in the 40k universe. This fig is actually the second re-incarnation of this figure, although still not the current figure, and can now be considered "Classic". A charming figure and very interesting to paint, he'd been sitting around for 10 years, so I finally finished him off! He come out lovely, finished in regal blue (not Ultramarine blue... sue me!), and he stands upon a base from the Heroes' kit. A great paint job!

A rather random Space Marine, he was originally one of 6 Marines originally base coated by Chris Forder in a frenzied moment when we wasn't playing World of Warcraft. After he pretty much butchered it, I kept the colour-scheme and tidied it all up. The idea is to take a simle plastic mini and show just what can be done. It worked very well, and to my surprise this guy made the finals cut too. Single 40K fig is another of those amazing categories that people spend hundreds of hours on.

I hate warpspiders for 2 reasons: They are fiddly as fcuck to paint - especially the freehand spiderweb on the back plate of the mini, and secondly- they singled handed killed my entire ork army (2nd ed rules).

Part of a chaos army commissioned by Tom, this Nurgle demon was a joy to paint. Sometimes the paint just flows through you. This is a great colour scheme - and it works so well with the Ethos of the piece. She scored a silver and we was robbed ROBBED of gold! The piece of crap that beat it was a version of the same mini - with exactly the same colour scheme as on the box. Difference was that the painter had given it little LED lights for eyes, sad git, thought this was a painting competition. Note the added nurgling on the base. Can't see it either, but there are pieces of shi...turds on the base, this is a demon of pestilence!

Part of the same 40K chaos army as the demon, this technical monstrosity is another example of inspired workings. It just came together, no planning, just paint and patience. Slightly converted, and covered in nurglings, the bubonic brown contrast with the blackened base really helps it to stand out. Again this piece is lost to prosperity.

So, Here's my submission for 2006 Golden Demon - and what a Riot it was, as we got this fella 2 months before it was actually released!! - It caused quite a stir as you can imagine, and I'm sure thats the reason as to why it didn't win anything. In my opinion,this is some of the best work i've done in a while - from the colourscheme conception - of a fading black to red to black, through to my second attempt at NMM on the sword itself. A real showcase piece and no mistake. There must be 50 gems on this piece, if there is one, and the pattern on the tabbard is free hand. All in, must have taken 12 hours from start to finish.

Marines - humanities finest - you can't really go wrong with Marines. This chap was in for the Golden Demon Awards in 2006 and rightfully made the finals cut, although missing out on a trophy. There is some conversion work here, although it is subtle - I've removed all the original chapter insignia (Ultramarine) and sculpted a couple of extra detail in - the swords have been swapped, and again used an NMM technique to bring them out. A great show piece, and an excellent pose - and my daughter chose the rock :D

Purely painted for Golden Demon, we conceived the idea of Radagast, which was a figure not overly well known in the Lord of the Rings range. Radagast is one of the 5 wizards of middle Earth, and is "Friend of the animals". Indeed it was he that sent the Eagles to rescue Gandalf from the tower of Orthanac, not a bloody moth! (As Hollywood would have you believe). So we hit upon the idea of being able to subtly convert the figure (taking the small bird off his hand) and replacing it with some bloody great eagles. Painted in colours of the earth, with some elaborate scrollwork on the hem of his cloak, it was a test of patience and a steady hand to work at such levels of detail. I think he came out marvellously. In the competition itself, he was beaten by another Radagast, by the legend that is Jacob Nielsen, so no loss in prestige to come in as a finalist to him (Great minds think alike!!). Although I feel very much that what we did with Radagast really brings forth the story of Radagast, as well as a really good paintjob!