Project Nurgle part 15 & Golden Demon Winners' Day

It’s been a bit of an odd week for painting! When I fixed Gutrot’s trident in place the project seemed to move a lot closer to completion but, since then, painting has been a hard slog and it feels like I’m making no progress. It’s just one of those phases all painters seem to go through; and I know it will pass – probably when the weather cools down! 

However, in spite of the slow pace, I’m pleased with how the paint job is developing on the trident. As a key element of the mini, and the focus of the conversion work, it merits having some time and attention spent on it. 

I recently took a trip to Nottingham for the Golden Demon Winners’ Day at the recently refurbished Warhammer World. I had to miss out on the day last year, so I was especially pleased to be able to make it this time. 

As we’d been invited to bring along any work in progress we were happy to show Gutrot also made the trip. He was a bit of a revelation to some as my limited photography skills had somewhat misrepresented his colour. He is, in fact, both greener and darker than he looks in my pics and it was reassuring to get some positive feedback about this. The general feeling was that the darker colours look more appropriately ‘Nurglish’ than in the photos. 

I also decided to bring my Nurgle Predator from 1990. I thought it might be a novelty to be able to directly compare Slayer Sword winners from so many years apart. My Predator hasn’t been seen ‘in the flesh’ by anyone for at least 25 years so it was nice to get it out of the cupboard. 

I still don't think it's up to today's sword winning standard but I was pleasantly surprised by how good my old Predator looked in the company of the current GD winners. The idea of revisiting the concept and creating an up-to-date version of the Predator has a lot of appeal to me. For one thing, it would give me the opportunity to incorporate some sculpting into a project, which is something I've neglected since I came back to mini painting. 

The opportunity to take a good long look at the winning minis was a real treat! When viewed close up and in good light, it becomes clear why they were picked. Even the best photography can’t fully convey the subtlety and skill on display, and I was honoured to find my minis included in such company! 

Which brings me to Warhammer World where everyone can see examples of beautifully painted minis for themselves. I’m not going to write a full review but, I will say, that I was genuinely impressed. 

The exhibition halls are packed with painted minis and some truly stunning dioramas. The dioramas are massive and manage to balance an incredible amount of detail against the overall composition. I could have easily spent longer studying the dioramas but my favourite part of the display was at the very beginning where the oldest minis were. Many of the minis on display here were familiar to me from the pages of White Dwarf and took me back to my formative years in the mid eighties. It was quite a powerful experience to finally see these minis ‘in the flesh’! 

My personal highlight of the day was meeting John Blanch. I was familiar with John’s work as an illustrator before I was ever aware that he had any connection with Citadel miniatures and Games Workshop. John’s painted miniatures opened my eyes to the possibilities of a more ‘artistic’ approach to the hobby and an awareness that painting a miniature need not simply be a matter of filling in the colours in the correct areas. It was a very important lesson to learn in my early years and helped set me on the path to becoming a better painter.