Golden Demon series - 6th Edition - Dark Elves Corsairs 2004

Time to write about my second Golden Demon Trophy. I won this Silver Trophy for my Dark Elves Corsair regiment at the Golden Demon Competition in 2004 in Germany. The regiment was originally part of my first 6th Edition Dark Elves Army which I painted between 2001 and 2003. The Command crew consisting of the Musician, Standard Bearer, Champion and Malus Darkblade on foot had already a first but unsucessful performance at the Games Day 2002 in Germany. Two years later I gave the unit a second try in in Golden Demon Competition in the newly introduced Warhammer Unit category. The category was new and I gambled that not many good painters were able to paint a complete unit in minimum unit strength.  I should be right and was awarded with a further Golden Demon trophy. Read the full story here.

 

Colour test for the Corsairs

Musician of the Corsairs

I remember painting a Corsair as a test miniature for my new colour scheme in December 2001. In the following I painted quickly two further miniatures before I had the courage to paint my first miniature from the command crew - the musician.

The latter was finished in the end of February 2002. Then I took a break from the corsairs and painted my Dark Elf General riding a Demon Creature. This miniature was planned as an entry for the monster category at the German Golden Demon competition in late summer of 2002. I decieded to paint a further entry and chose a corsair command group accompanied by a hero miniature as an entry for the Battle Squad category. The musician for that project was already done. 

The first small warband of my group of Corsairs

Limited Edition Malus Darkblade

In April 2002 I painted the Malus Darkblade miniature on foot for this group. This Limited Edition miniature was a Give Away during the Albion Roadshow and at this time point very rare. I remember paying 80 Euro for this guy which is still today a lot of money for a rare miniature. 3 year later I got the same miniature for free as an event miniature at the Gaming Day in Vienna in 2005... and with me hundreds of other people. Definitely, one of my worser investments into rare miniatures. However, at the timepoint of purchasing this little bastard I was more than proud to have one and wanted to decorate him with a worthy paintjob. This meant during that time spending him some extra greys. Therefore, he get a loincloth and a sash full of skulls. The idea was from a Undead Necromancer who had the skulls sculpted into the clothes. Here I added them by freehand. I put one bigger skull into the center which was my favorite Dark Elves skull design released as an icon coming with the Tears of Isha campaign. Various smaller skulls I painted around the center symbol. The sword als got some special effect. It was inspired by a further Undead miniature I found in the expanses of the internet, a vampire conversion which based on Aenur. His green sword remembered me on the greens of emeralds. A gem which fascinated me and which I often looked at in an geological exhibition in our institute where I studied chemistry at that time point. Today I am still very happy with this miniature and the challenges I mastered when painting him. The only thing which drives me totally crazy are his squinting eyes. The next time I will sit on the workbench I have to correct this or I go mad.

There is a bigger time gap in my memories and in my picture database between April and Juli. During that time I painted my stuff in parallel to my studies. Especially, during the exam period the brush rested for weeks and months. During the semester breaks I had to do some work to finance my studies. These periods were also busy but with more spare time to do some hobby. I remember I had some tough exams in my fourth year at university and I also remember working in the logistics in company which built housings for computers and electronic devices in the summer of 2002. This also fits togehter that I continued my work on this project in Juli 2002.   

6th Edition Corsair Standard Bearer

 

The standard bearer was finished in Juli. Beside of the banner he followed straight my colour scheme and is nothing special. The banners were very small in that miniature range so it was difficult to add a good recognizable central symbol. I decieded for a dragon design in some kind of tribal style which was a big thing in the early years of 2000. I painted the complete design and additional runes in white and glazed them with a lightning blue. This way the blues really poped out and the design is good recognizable on the dark background. The blue pearl on the standard top was painted the same way and shows nicely the quality of my blending skills at that early time point.

The Corsair Champion should have followed afterwards but my memories are vague for him. The deadline for the Golden Demon competition was always late August. The fact that I have no work in progress pictures and the first picture of him in my database is far after the Golden Demon event suggests he was finished just in time for the competition. However, somehow I finished everything and presented my two entries proudly at the Competition in 2002.

Unfortunately, I failed with both and drove home without a trophy. I was able to finish further miniatures of this regiment in the months after the event and finished this unit for my 6th Edition Dark Elves army. I painted for some further time in this style but I developed new skills in 2003 and my old stuff was more or less abandoned.

 

Two years later I gave this unit a second chance in the Golden Demon competition. 

 

The whole Corsair unit, free from dust and taken for new pictures in 2021

 

 

and was successful... partly due to some gambling. 

 

In 2004 the command unit category were gone and replaced by Warhammer Unit. The rules for the category state that a unit had to be the minimum size according to their armybook entry. That was in most cases 10 miniatures for infantry and 5 miniatures for cavalry. I suspect that the good and very good painters would not be able to paint so many miniatures in time for the event. Additionally, the most competition painters I knew had no interest in painting so many miniatures from the same type at all. I should be right and the new category had a bit lower quality level compared to single or monster. Therfore, I was able to win the second place and with that a silver demon for this two year old unit.

 

 

 

Looking at the regiment now I have to admit that it work much better as the rest of the army. 

 

 

 

The advantage here is that the unit comes with much more coloured areas and the proportion of light/dark areas is much more balanced. The Standard Bearer and his banner is still today a respectable work and the light blue colours are a very nice eyecatcher.

 

I still like the sword from my Malus Darkblade figure. Maybe today I would have added a shield with some freehand work which would make him much more an eyecatcher. But at the time I wanted to keep his expensive purchase in an original state. 

Today I would also add more global light and would get out more of the scaled cloaks and weapons. These three points are some major drawbacks looking at them now. However, the unit is still the strongest part of this ancient army project seen from the painting perspective. Finally, I am very happy that this unit and with it the whole army project got a trophy and was honored with a Golden Demon trophy.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down the Memory Lane. Return here to my Golden Demon Gallery or stay a bit and put your thoughts in the comments. So long, train your blendings and happy painting,

GeOrc