GeOrcs Golden Demon Gallery

Me and my Demons in 2014

In my Preview for 2021 I had already announced that I am playing with the idea to make a throwback series about my Golden Demon winning entries. Time to start working on this article series with the goal to create here an overview of my Golden Demon projects of the past and an ultimate gallery showing these miniatures in a new light. That´s the plan. The good news is, that I still own all my Golden Demon winning entries. The bad one is, some are damged from showing them on multiple shows and events or from moving 6 times to different cities in the last 20 years. Therefore some need some love and repair. Additionaly, some have undergone modifications or repainting. Why? One one hand because most of my projects had their origin as part of painting my armies. Army projects which developed further over the years and which required to adaption of some miniatures in terms of basing or colour sheme. On the other hand, some of my Golden Demon projects were finished in a rush shortly before the competition. Some of them I have finished in the night before in the hotels or at the event site itself. This had the consequence that some miniatures were not finished in the quality or the look I had in mind when starting the project or I get better ideas for a finish after the rush. Therefore, I had modified some of them to fit my taste or finish them like I had them initially planed. Some are still work in progress. This means that I had altered a piece of art or of its time which has won a trophy. Some will say this is heresy. I will tell you that many artists suffer when looking back at their work from the past. that´s why many great artists sell their miniatures after a couple of years. I proudly kept them but sometimes it´s hard to look at the errors and faults they have and their links to critic and failure. It´s like a itching scar and one day you find yourself taking that damn miniature out of the cabinet scratch its paint off. Be sure that my changes made these figures better. And, stay tuned! I have a lot of crazy stories to tell.

 

An Introduction

I started the Warhammer with my 19th Birthday in January 1998 with a 4th/5th Edition Dark Elves Army which was a gift from my family and my girl friend at that time. I quickly started painting using the box arts, White Dwarf and Armybooks as reference. I was a painter my whole life and I had some experince with Hero Quest a couple of years earlier so I quickly made some progress and my learning curve was steep. Coming from the country side, finishing school at that time point and doing my military service shortly after reduced my possibilies for playing the game. That changed then starting my studies in chemistry in October 2000. It turned out that one of my fellow students, Alex was addicted to Warhammer, part of an active community in Freiburg and a good tournament player. He coached me some games and I joined him on a local 2 days tournament in Freiburg in 2001. 

My Dark Elves Army from the Freiburg Ufo tournament 2001

However, I was an inexperienced player and failed terribly. After Day 1 I was that frustrated that I decided to leave also dropping the idea of winning the best painted army trophy which I had in mind. That was the point Alex talked to the judges to look at my army before I will leave. I agreed and put out my miniautre from my boxes on an empty tabletop. That was the moment these guys totally freaked out. They begged me to stay and to take part in their painting competition. The latter I had totally missed while being focused on the tournament. I stayed and in the end of the day I won the Trophy for the best painted Army and a first price for my Dark Elves Sorceress. That was a game changer!

 

Early Succsesses and Failures

Alex always wanted to visit a Games Day and so our next stop was the Games Day Germany in cologne in summer 2001. All I was interested was the Golden Demon competition. I participated with my unreleased Sorcerer Lord riding Warhydra in the monster category. Humbly I learned that there are other good painters out there when the whole nation and also some international guests come together to fight the battle for the best painted miniature. However, I was very inspired by all these beautiful painted miniatures and the miniatures shown were something completly different than the box arts and the studio paintings. I learned a lot on this day. When being back home I moved on with painting but also with gaming. The same year I played the second Ufo tournament and again I was able to win their local painitng competition. I also played the Duzi tournament and my Unreleased Sorcerer Lord riding Warhydra won gold in the monster category in their local painting competition. 

My Dark Elves Army from the DUZI 2001 Tournament

I was still a bad player but my hobby skills got better and better, especially my scultping skills. My painting was still not enough for the Golden Demon competition and I failed again in 2002. It was a time I stuck in a very dark painting style which I name myself my Dark Era. It was inspired by a studio miniature painted from Neil Green showing an alternative Dark Elves colour schemes shown in the 6th Edition Armybook. I painted a whole battle force in Black and White which is hard to look at today but teached me to perform very fine blendings. The latter should become something I would get famous for.

 

Golden Demon Competition

Me and my Demons in 2006

It was the year 2003 and meanwhile I was rather known for scultping than being a very good painter. The 6. Edition Armybook was 2 years old and still the outstanding Artworks from Dave Gallagher inspired me to transfer these into miniatures. I learned a lot in these 2 years and thanks to many advices from Chris Fitzpatrick who has sculptured the 6.Edition Dark Elves range I improved that much thinking the first time about becoming a professional sculpturer. My studies were less successful at that time point but the hobby was the opposit and offered amazing options. My grand father finanaced me a small spin casting machine and I started my first range of miniatures while still working on my 6. Edition Dark Elves. The latter were domiated by Cold One Knights and I had spent all my sculting skills into an extensive conversion of a female Character riding a heavily armoured Cold One. While the miniature get more and more into shaped it turned out that this miniature had the potential to be competitve for the next Golden Demon. But I knew that my dark painting style would not be able to make this beautiful design an eyecatcher. I looked for advice by Sascha Buczek aka Goatman who won already 2002 his first Golden Demon trophy and to whom I had a good contact. I discussed my problems with him and in consequence he directed the colour scheme into a more coloured direction and convinced me to paint the metals in NMM. It turned out that my blending skills were perfect for that NMM stuff and everything came together in this style. The rest is history... I won the first place in Warhammer Single at the 2003 Golden Demon in Germany. It was the initial spark for winning Golden Demon Trophies for 10 years in a row until Games Workshop interrupted the Games Day event in 2014. 10 Years of Golden Demon competitions and in the end 19 successful entries and their trophies. It was an exciting time with a lot of ups and downs and with always a workbench full of miniatures. Are you ready to read their stories? 

 

The Hall of Fame  

Subsequently, you will find a summery of all my successful Golden Demon winning entries. Miniatures with finished articles have bigger thumbnails. The ongoing list contains smaller ones which I stole from the inofficial Golden Demon Winner site for having placeholders until I can replace them by my own pictures. I will write for each of these miniatures a detailed article showing how they were created and the story behind them. Each article will then be linked to this overview here.

 

Dark Elves Princess / Druchii Anointed on Cold One
Games Day Germany 2003, 1st place Warhammer Fantasy Single Miniature

 

6th Edition Dark Elves Corsairs
Games Day Germany 2004, 2nd place Warhammer Fantasy Regiment

Beast and Master
Games Day Germany 2004, 2nd place Diorama

Dark Elves Sorceress riding Steed of Slaanesh
Games Day Germany 2004, 1st place Warhammer Fantasy Monster

Dark Elves Sorceres
Games Day Germany 2005, 2nd place Warhammer Single Miniature

Giant with Mark of Slaanesh
Games Day France 2006, 2nd place Monster

Chaos Dwarfs Sorcerer
Games Day Germany 2006, 2nd place Warhammer Single Miniature

Dark Elves Witch Elves
Games Day Germany 2006, 1st place Warhammer Fantasy Regiment

Slaangor
Games Day France 2007, 1st place Warhammer Single Miniature

Hellebron
Games Day Germany 2007, 1st place Warhammer Monster

Female Vampire
Games Day Germany 2008, 2nd place Warhammer Single Miniature

Beastmen of Slaanesh
Games Day Germany 2008, 1st place Warhammer Fantasy Regiment

White Lion Prince
Games Day France 2009, 3rd place Warhammer Single Miniature

Dark Elves Disciples of Khaine
Games Day France 2009, 2nd place Warhammer Regiment

Slaanesh Siren Songe
Games Day Germany 2010, 1st place Warhammer Fantasy Miniature

Fiend of Slaanesh
Games Day Germany 2011, 3rd place Warhammer Monster

Dark Elves Executioners
Games Day Germany 2011, 3rd place Warhammer Regiment

Dark Elves Menghils Menhide
Games Day Germany 2012, 1st place Warhammer Regiment

Herald of Tzeentch
Games Day Germany 2013, 3rd place Warhammer Single Miniature

That is it, my list of successful competition miniatures. There were much more enties through these years. All of them made the final cut even if they failed to win a trophy. If there is a greater interest I can offer these a seperate Gallery. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thats it for now. Check here frequently for changes und stay tuned for the upcoming articles of these series.

Kins Regards,
GeOrc 

Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus - Part 1

 Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus

It is the third time I am starting this posting and it´s a bit funny that the first miniature I write about in 2021 is the first I painted in 2020. That all is a bit representative for a curse lying on this miniature and indeed we have a very special relationship. But let´s go back to the start, lets go back into the into the year 1999. The loyal blog readers already know that I started late in the 5th Edition with the Warhammer Hobby with this Dark Elves army. The Bestiary of the 5th Edition I got from some school friends was the thing who catched me back in the day. Here the Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus decorated the army shot and the Dark Elves entry. Unfortunately, her box was already discontinued and the miniature was Mail Order only. She was one of the few things I was able to order when trying to complete the range the official way. I was more than happy to have her in my hands and painted her as good as my 20 year old self was able to achive. I painted her close to the studio paint job and was very happy with the final result. Definatly, not good enough in her eyes and her curse was sure.

 

I dug deep in my picture vault and found these two shots from my old website. That´s all what´s left from this ancient shame.

Back in the day I used some vanish to seal my painted miniatures and I made that embarassing mistake to take the can with chaos black instead of the vanish. I noticed it at once, but it was already to late. A multitude of fine black droplets covered a big part of the miniature. I was not much and I decided to life with it. But that fault never let me go. Years later in the mid of the 6th Edition, I stripped off the colour and tried to convert the Sorceress into a contemporary miniature using the Pegasus but replacing the most of the Sorceress by a Dark Eldar Sucubus. A conversion which was never finished and her parts always remembered me her story and that shame. Long before I started the repainting of my 4th Edition Dark Elves Army I had bought a second copy of her to erase that shame from my collection. Again she had to wait. When finally starting this project she was one of the first minatures I had on my workbench and which I started to prepare. It was about time to get her all the love she deserves. But having waited that long, she wanted it to be perfect! The perfect base, the perfect painting, the perfect banner and finally the perfect pictures! Read now the detailed story of my curse to make her perfect.

 

History of the Sorceress

Eavy Metal site of The Sorceress

I am known to do always a lot of research for the here presented old- and middlehammer miniatures. However, for the Sorceress, there is not much that I was able to find out. The Sorceress was designed late in the release schedule. That late, that she missed a display shot in the Armybook. That fit to the working procedure of Marauder Miniatures and Aly as he always designed the Core Troopers first and the Characters later. The Sorceress was then released in October 1995 beside the Dark Elf General on Cold One and the Repeater Bolt Thrower, all presented in the White Dwarf #190. She got an awesome shot together with her Dark Elves Army fighting the Undead presented on the back of the Cover page. Additionally, she got her own Eavy Metal page showing her in all her glory and with a print of her back Banner. The design followed the typical Dark Elves look of the range with big hair, an impressive backrest and a big Banner. Her design shares a lot of similarities with the Morathi description and also used some details of her artwork. Therefore, it was rumored if she was planned to reflect this character. But beside other special characters she never get that titel written on her box showing that even if Games Workshop intended to do a Morathi miniature they decieded to go with a generic Sorceress riding a Dark Pegasus. Probably Alys design was to far off from Mark Gibbons iconic design which is one of the most impressive ones from the Amrybook and cemented her look for an era.

      

Backsite of the Cover from White Dward #190

Preparation of the miniature

I started by carefully cleaning all parts. As always on mounted miniatures keep the rider parts seperated from each other and from the beast itself. The pegasus I glued together. All bigger beasts of this age needed a lot of intensive care by gap filling and resculpting some loss of details which oftern occures when separating the miniatures for the molding process. Therefore, I spent a lot of time to built the Pegasus and to repair everything properly. Because the pose and wing position cover a lot of the impressive beast when fixed directly on a base I decided to place the miniature on a higher position. For that I get a High Elves obelisc from the Sky Cutter set and tried to position the miniature as close to the edge as possible. I wanted it looking like the Pagasus just jump off into the flight. The whole miniature is very heavy and required to fill the obelisc with steel balls to get some counter weight. Additionally, the bottome of 40 mm Base itself was undermined and a steel disc was added. It is balanced that perfectly that it has to stand on totally even ground otherwise it fell off. The adding of the banner pole finally added the necessary weight to stabilize it properly. Here you can see the final miniature before starting the painting:

 

 Painting the Sorceress

 The original studio painting of the miniature was done by Stuart Thomas and the banner by Neil Hodgson. Stuart did an incredible job on this complex miniature to make the Sorceress an army centerpiece. His work is a great source of inspiration and there is not much that I would make different. Transfering his work into a contemporary paintjob would require to get rid of some colours on the backrest and Pegausu which make the project to colourful. The colour choice of the Sorceress itself is timeless and I decided to copy that very close to the original. Because of the backrest the miniature was painted in two pieces but both in parallel. I started this project during a painting weekend  at Mr. Dorns Mansion in Dresden. It was a funny weekend with a lot of good food, some beers and of course miniature hobby. The painted the daytimes and played games in the evenings. The miniature itself made me enthusiastic and the guys pushed me further so I had much progress after these two days.

The first steps of painting on the Sorceress

 

I started with my usual skin tone and with the basic colours for the clothes. Here I used also Liche Purple as base but used a plain version with modification of glazes with Warlock Purple. For the bluish grey I used the old Shadow Grey which is much more saturated and a bit darker is the Russ Grey. Both worked perfectly to copy Stuarts style. It was a joy to see his beautiful colour scheme with some natural light distribution. I moved further and added the NMM parts for the backrest and the sword. Finally I was able to add some colour to details like gems and hair on this weekend. I decided to go with red gems only to stay in my usual army colours. The hair was painted plain white without colour nuances as the Witch Elves wear them. When we parted on Sunday the miniature showed already in which direction this project would go and I was very happy with the result. The monday after I was able to smooth some blendings and add more colours to the details. The sword was painted as her studio reference as a normal one but with some additional reflections. I looked forward to marry both parts and continue the work on one piece.    

The Sorceress after two days of painting at the hobby weekend in Dresden

 

Monday night, after 3 days of painting I was already able to join the parts. It required a further painting session to finish her and paint the back of the backrest. The result looked already very stunning and I had to share some first picture in the social media.

The Sorceress after 3 days of painting.

Painting the Pegasus

Painting the Sorceress worked very well. The hobby weekend in Dresden was very good to focus on her and I rushed through the painting. Because of the fast progress I was highly motivated to finish the whole miniature before mid of February, because the meeting with Aly was already planned and I wanted to surprise him with something very big. Therefore, I quickly moved on and started the work on the Pegasus.

The Pegasus ready for some colour

I started the painting with the body of the horse. I did this similar to the my painting of the Dark Horses from the Dark Riders using Russ Grey as basis for my highlights. Because I wanted it less colourful than Stuarts version I replaced the green scales by purple ones to stay closeer to an overall dark cold look. For the membranes I used my typical leather receipt which is a cold skin tone. It based on Tallarn Flesh (Foundation Colour) which gets shaed with Scorched Brown and highlighted with Bleached Bone (1:1 Mix of Ushabti Bone:Screaming Skull with a tiny bit of Golden Yellow). Finally, the whole leather here membran surfaces were washed with a glaze of Liche Purple. I used a lighter version of this receipt for the top and a darker version for the bottom of the membranes, respectively. The colours worked fantastically together and I was very happy with the result.

 

 

 First Colour tests on the Pegasus

After havin successfully tested all colours the diligence work started. There was need to paint the bottom sides of the membrane and on more wing. Also the second side of the Pegasus wanted some colour. I had a lot of fun with the scales and the hair from mane and tail because the highlights were a welcome variation to the moronic blending of the membranes.

 

After two weeks and several painting sessions all areas were processes and the main work was done 

Even if the membranes were a terrible work their great appearance always kept me motivated to continue painting them. When the work gets to boring I added some colours to the details and painted the face, eyes, horns and hooves. For the latter I based the colour on Graveyard Earth to contrast them from the main colours of the Pegasus.

I love that top view on the wings and I am more than happy with light on the wings

Now only the base was missing. It was only two days before the Tactica Event ind Hamburg and going off to meet Aly. I remember that everything now paced very fast. I hade some days vacation in front of the Tactica Event and used the time to finish the miniature. My wife was already off to visit my parents in law. So there was plenty of Hobby time to finish this project and pack my luggage. Therefore, I have not much work in progress pictures. I took these after glueing the Pegasus on the finished base.

Finished Base with fixed Pegasus. Finally, it holds without the weight of the Sorceress

 

Final Pictures

The main miniature was finished Friday night. I was not able to do the banner pole and the banner in that time and I knew this would cost me some further weeks of hard work. However, The main parts were finished and just in time before I would left the next day into direction Hamburg. I took the time to make some final pictures before she disappeared with the rest of my stuff I would show Aly in my transport box.

 

I hope you enjoyed this project so far. I really rushed through painting her and she was done in 3 weeks only. At this point I did not know that being able to finish her would need a whole year. For the moment I was lucky and it was a pleasure to show this big miniature to Aly. He liked her a lot and his positive feedback was a great honor. She also get a lot of positive reactions from the Oldhammer and Middlehammer Community. Especially, the positive Feedback from Stuart wasa joy to read. All that was motivation to move on with the banner pole and banner but it should come otherwiese.

 
Stay tuned for part two which is all about banner design and Freehand painting.

As always I would be happy to read your thoughts in the comments.

Kind Regards,

GeOrc