Golden Demon 2019. My thoughts, feelings and a (slightly) shameful confession!

Warhammer Fest and Golden Demon felt bigger this year, a lot bigger! It’s the first time I’ve had to queue outside the Ricoh Arena to get in and the queue was long. Thankfully it was also pretty fast moving. Once inside there were more queues first to register for Golden Demon, which is usual, and then to get the minis into the cabinets. That’s something I’ve not seen before on such a scale and it was a clear indicator of just how busy the competition was this year.

At this point I really wasn’t sure that I was going to enjoy the day. That was partly due to competition nerves but mostly the crowds! I’m deaf in my left ear, and while that’s a minor inconvenience most of the time, I don’t cope very well in situations with a lot of background noise. All sounds come at me through my right ear and I’ve no way of telling where they come from. On top of that, if there is a lot of background noise, I can be totally oblivious of anyone speaking to me on my left side if I’m not looking right at them. I can get a bit stressful and does no good for my anxiety!

But happily things quickly improved and I was able to adjust to the situation. Once again the best part of the day, by far, was getting to meet and chat with so many fellow painters. Meeting old friends and making new ones is one of the best reasons for attending an event like this. I’m always delighted, and more than a little surprised, to meet people who follow my blog and enjoy the content I create for it. Nicest of all was the number of people who asked after Mark and I’d like to say “thank you” on his behalf to all the well wishers!

As usual my main focus for the day was Golden Demon but it was obvious that Games Workshop have continued to develop Warhammer Fest. My overall impression was that all the space was being used and to better effect than previous years. The Studio area now filled all the available space and felt much slicker and more professional as did the main hall on the ground floor, and I felt it was a good development

The middle floor was pretty much given over to the launch of the new Citadel Colour Contrast paints. Marketed as a fast way to get minis ‘battle ready’ in one thick coat they certainly performed as advertised. But I think they may well prove to be a useful addition to any painter’s palette. They’re a range of thick washes that tend to stay where you put them while drying. The colour range is great and for the most part features some lovely saturated hues. I had a quick trial with them and can already see myself using them in my own painting process.

This year’s Golden Demon was the biggest and busiest one I’ve seen. There was a buzz to it that reminded me of the early years and especially Derby 1990 when the comp first really began to grow. The only draw back was the difficulty in getting close enough to the cabinets to see all the entries. But from what I could see it was very clear that the number of entries and the standard of painting had gone through the roof! My first impression was that there were far too many well painted minis for all of them to be winning trophies. Some years there are clear winners but this year I think it was almost impossible to predict the outcome. It was all very exciting in a nerve wracking way!

I think both of my entries involved different elements of risk. I felt my Sloppity Bilepiper was the stronger of my two minis but he had already won a Gold at Salute. In my own mind this meant that the best I could do was equal the achievement with another Gold and anything else would be a bit of a let down. This is not the best attitude to have and it’s the main reason that I don’t usually enter a mini again in another comp if it has already won a gold. I adopt a philosophy of quit while you are winning and move on to something new. However I decided to risk potential disappointment as I was very pleased with how Sloppity turned out and felt he was good enough to have a chance at a Demon trophy.

My Tidecaster is another matter altogether. For one thing I felt I was taking a risk of sorts with all the water effects I’d added to her. While she was not converted I had, in a way, added to her. But I was pleased with my painting and I’ve always looked on ‘special effects’ as an extension of my painting. I just wasn’t sure how the judges would regard it. Secondly I’d reworked parts of the Tidecaster and in doing so I had come very close to ruining her. I’ll now confess that I had to repaint the face three times before I was satisfied. I found the repainting to be a traumatic experience and I really hadn’t had time to reflect on the changes. I was left with some doubts about how well I’d done them.

When the time came to see which minis had made it to the finals I found both my entries on the top shelf! I had two trophies but what would they be? First to be announced was Age of Sigmar single mini and I’ll admit to feeling a twinge of disappointment when Sloppity won Silver. This is the shameful bit because that’s not a sentiment I’m proud of! I think it’s one of the dangers of having a lot of success. It’s very important to be able to reflect upon and enjoy what you’ve achieved, rather than what you think you didn’t!

Luckily when I went to collect my minis I ended up next to Yohan Leduc and he was kind enough to let me take a long, close look at his Gold winning Plaguebearer. Any lingering disappointment at winning Silver evaporated pretty much instantly. Yohan’s Plaguebearer is a beautiful piece of work and totally inspirational! Without a doubt the Gold standard is getting higher and I’m proud to get Silver amongst such tough competition!

Of course I still had my Tidecaster in the ‘Eavy Metal Paint Masters category but I was alongside Angelo Di Chello and Patric Sand in the top three. So it was a ‘hold your breath’ and wait to see moment. I’m so proud that my Tidecaster took the Gold. My gamble with repainting her had paid off and it’s a lesson learned (once again) about holding my nerve and trusting to my instincts.

I’ve come away from this year’s Golden Demon feeling incredibly energized and inspired. It’s clear to me that if I want to keep painting minis to the Gold standard I have to up my game. I’m not going to win anything by resting on my laurels and aiming to win is a great way to push my painting and improve my skills. There’s an ebb and flow to painting competitions but at the moment the Golden Demons appear to be going from strength to strength. It makes for an exciting challenge and long may it continue!

The end of the 2019 Golden Demons marks the start of what I consider to be the 30th anniversary year of my first Slayer Sword. The challenge I’m facing, if I want continued competition success, feels exactly the same as the one I faced after the 1989 Golden Demons. That’s not something I’d anticipated but I know what I have to do so now I’ve got to pull my finger out and try to do it!

Hobby Update ... What Sproket did next.

Not so very long ago I’d resigned myself to a quiet low-key sort of year for my hobby. I’d had to cancel a couple of workshops while my partner Mark was recovering from his illness and it didn’t look very likely that I would be making it to any painting competitions either. I was OK with this; after all you need to get your priorities in order. The unanticipated benefit was that I became totally free to paint for the love of painting again and, as I gradually get back up to speed, I’m finding that extremely rewarding.

But now I suddenly find myself with lots to talk about because over the last few weeks the pace of life has really picked up! I’m planning to revisit some of these topics in more detail in subsequent posts. But for the time being this is a round up of sorts, to get this blog up-to-date, before things move on any further.

Artis Opus Series D

I’ve been associated with Artis Opus for about a year now as one of their ‘signature’ artists. This means that I’m among a group of well-known painters who have been using their brushes and have agreed to lend their names and reputation to promoting them. I do that because I really do use Artis Opus brushes and I think they are excellent.

A few weeks ago Byron from Artis Opus contacted me with a very interesting proposition. He’s been working on a new range of brushes (series D) designed specifically for dry brushing. Byron wondered if I’d be willing to try the brushes out ‘on camera’ as part of the promotion for the new kickstarter campaign. Now I’ve always been a ‘fan’ of dry brushing and feel it’s much maligned in some circles. So I agreed to go up to Stockport for a day of filming.

I had a bit of an ulterior motive, as this would give Mark and myself the opportunity to have a little break. Since Mark left hospital we’ve been restricted in how far we could travel or how long we could stay out. But we felt the time was now right to be a bit more adventurous. If you can really call Stockport adventurous!

The weekend was a great success on all accounts! Mark coped well with the travel and unaccustomed activity and I had a great time painting and filming. Not least because I was filming alongside Bohun an artist I’ve long admired. I’d anticipated a day of dry brushing but what I actually got was the chance to see Bohun’s individual take on the technique and have my mind opened to it’s potential which goes well beyond my own rather pedestrian notions!

I will definitely be posting more about dry brushing and series D in the near future.

You can find the kickstarter here.

Salute 2019

As the trip to Stockport went well we decided we could venture out again and the most obvious thing was a trip to Salute 2019. Unfortunately when the day came I had a bit of a cold and really wasn’t operating at 100% but we’ve done Salute enough times now that it has the ease of familiarity. We both found the day extremely tiring but were glad we went. It was so good to see old friends and acquaintances and in many ways the day felt like a return to ‘business as usual’ after a long interruption.

Of course one of the main reasons for going to Salute was the painting comp. My choice of entries was limited to two. My Isharan Tidecaster and my Sloppity Bilepiper. I was well aware that this might be my only painting comp this year so my choice was an important one. I’m very pleased with both minis but unfortunately they were eligible for the same category so I had to choose.

In the end that was fairly simple as I think the Slopity Bilepiper is the stronger of the two. It’s the model I painted to get back into my hobby and I lavished a lot of time and attention on it. As a result I’d been able to finesse the details to a high standard and it was the mini I was most confident about. This isn’t to say I’m not pleased with the Tidecaster but I think she will benefit from a few tweaks. But that’s for another day and, maybe, another painting comp.

As I said I wasn’t quite feeling 100% and I managed to miss the start of the awards ceremony for the comp. That definitely wasn’t very cool because my Sloppity Bilepiper won Gold in Fantasy Single Figure and I missed the announcement! In spite of that I’m very happy with the result and glad I chose the right mini on the day!

Sproket does Troggoths.

Now it’s time to look ahead and to something I’m eagerly anticipating! On Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd June I will be returning to Element Games to run a painting workshop. I had several ideas for a subject model but the new Rockgut Trogoths from Games workshop are ideal. There will, of course, be the chance to explore the painting of textures and ‘lifelike’ flesh tones but these models also offer the chance to get to grips with painting volumes and forms in a way that many smaller minis don’t. I’ve been busily preparing for the workshop and my own take on a Rockgut Trogoth is coming along rather nicely.

Booking details will be available from Element Games very soon and I’ll publish them as soon as they are confirmed.

Sloppity Bilepiper Part 4

Apologies for the lack of regular post on this blog but with all my old routines gone my painting and posting is more than a little erratic. In truth I’ve decided to focus my hobby time on painting with social media and blogging taking a back seat for the time being. This is working out very nicely for me as I’m getting a little more painting time and, most importantly, I’m enjoying myself.

In my last post I had just about finished the Sloppity Bilepiper but I'd yet to paint his base. With the luxury of a little more time I’ve now done that and it feels so good to have completed a project. The process has been fairly intense as there was a lot of going back and forth to tweak some of the details.

As the Bilepipe, his nurgling companion and the base came together many of the tones, hues, textures and finishes were adjusted to balance out the overall composition. It was all a bit fiddly and in some places very subtle but it’s really helped to tie the elements together. It’s been a satisfying experience to finesse a project without any deadline pressure.

The base incorporates my first use of resin water effects for creating the puddle the Bilepiper is stepping in. Admittedly it’s a cautious use of resin but I wanted to start off with something straightforward before getting more adventurous. I can see myself doing more water bases in my future.

I’d initially intended to keep the slime and drips to a minimum but as the project developed I realised this was not the right mini for that approach. He is after all called a SLOPPITY Bilepiper and that suggests more than a little sloppyness. So out came the microbeads, UHU glue and plenty of gloss varnish. My Bilepiper is now appropriately sloppy and is pipes are oozing bile!

In contrast to the slime I wanted to add some rough textures for the mould and corrosion. In the past I would have used my old friend baking powder but I’ve finally found what seems to be a perfect replacement. Chinchilla bathing powder, a mixture of mineral sand and calcium powder, has the right texture and best of all takes and holds colour very well! Fingers crossed it will, unlike baking powder, be stable over the long term.

So there we have it, the finished Sloppity Bilepiper. I started this as a ‘quickie’ after Mark came home from hospital but, as usually happens, the project drew me in and I’ve invested a lot of time into it. But I think it’s been time well spent because I’m very happy with the finished result and painting the Bilepiper has helped me get into the swing of a new painting routine!

Sloppity Bilepiper Part 3

I’ve finally painted all of the flesh tones on the Sloppity Bilepiper and that’s enabled me to move on to painting the marotter. In doing so I’ve resolved the over all colour scheme and balance. The marotter is painted in muted tones but it features the same yellow/purple contrast with a green spot colour as the rest of the mini. In particular it’s the blue/green of the verdigris that gives a pop to the overall scheme at the moment.

I’d considered dialing down the slime effects on this mini (shocking – I know!). But the clue is in his name; so as the paint job comes together I will need to build in more slime, drips and goo. I must make sure my Bilepiper is suitably sloppity.

There are a fair few details to tweak here and there. In the most part that’s because I started this project with a fairly lose idea of the overall scheme. In spite of that the mini is suddenly looking a lot closer to being finished!

Sloppity Bilepiper Part 2

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again ‘I don’t enjoy painting sub-assemblies’. The problems that can crop up, when glueing and filling already painted parts, play on my nerves. However, there are times when painting a model in sub-assemblies is the best solution. It’s something I’ll do when it’s the only way to get clear access to areas of a mini that, although partly covered or obscured by the addition of other parts, will be visible on the finished piece.

The Sloppity Bilepiper is an example of this scenario. On first inspection I thought it would be possible to assemble the entire mini before painting. However, I realised that the upper torso and the area featuring the pipes would be tricky to get at and might, as a result, look a little under painted. Although these difficult areas are often in the shadows I would rather paint them as such by choice rather than omission.

With the decision made to work in sub-assemblies, I first painted the head and the main body separately before I glued the head onto the body. The next element to deal with was the bag of the ‘gutpipes’ and the arm holding them. This was all fairly straightforward as the only visible seam was in the crease between the upper arm and shoulder.

All of the seams, visible or otherwise, on the sub-assemblies were filled with a 50/50 mix of water and PVA woodworking glue. I’ve used this mix before when dealing with a visible seam between painted elements of a mini, most notably on my Megaboss. It can take a few applications to fill even a small gap as the mix shrinks when it dries. However it’s worth the effort as it dries to a semi transparent matt finish that camouflages visible seams most effectively!

When I talk about PVA wood glue this is the stuff I'm reffering to.
It's been a stapel item in my toolbox since I was in my teens and
I've used it in one way or another on almost all of my projects!

My troubles started when I turned my attention to the pipes! I base coated the pipes and then applied a wash and highlight before glueing them in place. This meant that any really tricky areas already had a ‘basic’ paintjob. While no part of the pipes proved inaccessible they were extremely fiddly to paint.

I rapidly found this part of the mini very frustrating. A problem made worse by boredom. I’ve never been very good at painting multiples of the same things because I quickly get bored and once I’ve painted something I like to move on and paint something different. It’s an issue I have to deal with on most projects at some point. A typical example would be the soul stones found on GW’s Aelves and Aeldari minis.The pipes really shouldn’t have been that much of a problem, but they very nearly got the better of me and I very quickly began to hate them!

In truth my frustrations were more to do with the upheaval and disruption following Mark’s stay in hospital and his ongoing recovery. As we tend to take things on a day-by-day basis I’ve not been able to establish a regular and consistent routine. I’ve come to realise just how much I like to plan ahead and organise my days and weeks. It’s going to take a while to get everything back to ‘normal’ in the mean time I’ve had to work my way through a tricky patch and remember not to dwell on problems and frustrations. After all mini painting is my hobby, not my job, and I do it for pleasure!

Once the pipes were (finally) painted things took a definite turn for the better. I’ve been able to get back into the habit of painting every day. Even if it’s only for a short time it’s made a huge difference and I feel like I’m making steady progress. Better still I’m really enjoying the project again and I’m feeling pleased with what I’m achieving. The Sloppity Bilepiper is a mini with great potential and I’m beginning to think that I might now be able to do it justice!

Sloppity Bilepiper Part 1

After all the upset and upheaval that happened over the summer it feels very good to be painting minis again! I’ve not been able to establish a regular routine for my painting as yet but that’s to be expected. With Mark at home recovering (and not yet fully able to enjoy his retirement) life is still a bit topsy-turvy for us both.

Bearing this in mind I decided to start a ‘fun’ project that would not require too much concentration and time. Horticulus Slimux and Mulch most certainly will and I’ll need to be fully back up-to-speed before I return to them. As it happens I already had a Sloppity Bilepiper assembled and base coated because I’d intended to paint him before the Isharan Tidecaster grabbed my attention. The Sloppity Bilepiper is the perfect mini for my current needs.

As well as being a fun miniature it hads the advantage of providing me with some familiar Nurgley subject matter. That meant that I could just dive right in and get painting. I’ve used the same techniques on the Bilepiper’s flesh tones as I used on all my other Plaguebearers. The only real difference is in the colour palette I’ve used. Instead of featuring green as the dominant colour I’ve experimented with a yellow flesh tone. Yellow can be used as a happy cheerful colour and it somehow seemed appropriate for a creature infected with the comedic fever of the Chortling Murrain!

In practice the colours used vary little from the combination of red/pink, blue and yellow over a Rakarth Flesh base that I’ve used before for my ‘human’ flesh tones (see below). The difference is in the proportions of those colours. I’ve built up a series of glazes going from yellow (Games Workshop Iyanden Darksun) through red (Scale Colour Antares Red) to a dark brown (Scale Colour Black Leather). This gave me my global shadows and colours. I then built up the highlights over the glazes using a combination of Iyanden Darksun and Flayed One Flesh (Games Workshop). In addition to the highlights this stage is where I build up the textures.

With the bulk of the highlights and shading done I then went back to fine tune everything with further glazes and highlighting. At this point I’ve use a little of the red from the Scale Colour Inktense range to increase the saturation in some of the shadows and mid-tones.

Fingers crossed this project will help ease me back into a more regular painting routine and serve as a stepping stone to my bigger projects.