A Sign of Life... and a Look Back at the Last Two Years

First, I want to apologize for my long silence. Two years is a long time, so what happened? Around a month after my last post in June 2022, our second son, Marten, was born. We were thrilled that our little family was complete, but life also became much busier. As a result, I had to scale back on my hobbies. While I used to paint in the evenings and spare moments on weekends, those times were now dedicated to going to bed early and spending weekends with our older son. Though I found some time to paint here and there, I had to pause my blog.
So, what did I manage to work on? I’m sure you’re curious to see which miniatures I painted over the past two years and the current state of my projects. Let's go back to late 2022.

 

Realm of Slaanesh

After Marten’s birth, I continued painting for my small 3rd Edition Realm of Chaos Slaanesh Warband, which I teased at the beginning of 2022. I completed an unreleased Keeper of Secrets, two unreleased mounted Daemonette and one on foot as well as a further Slaanesh Champion.

Expansion of my Realm of Chaos - Slaanesh Warband in 2023

Dark Elves Sorcerer

Then, I returned to my beloved Dark Elves and finished a classic Dark Elves Sorcerer for my 4th Edition Dark Elves project by the end of the year.

Dark Elves Sorcerer

Dark Elves Cold One Knights

Using the momentum of the holiday season, I finished my last Cold One Knight, completing my unit of ten miniatures. 

Dark Elves Cold One Knights (General already missing his Banner)

 

When I saw the unit assembled, I noticed that the back banner on the Dark Elf General riding a Cold One didn’t quite match the style of the others, so I created a new one. By February, my goal to recreate the Dark Elf Cold One Knight unit from the 1995 studio army was complete. 

Studio Dark Elves Armyshoot from 5th Edition Beastiary

I was thrilled to share the final result on social media.

Finished Dark Elves Cold One Knights unit

My First Dark Elves Army

As my 4th Edition army project grew, I needed more space in my cabinets, especially with a planned move on the horizon. So, I decided to sell my old 4th/5th Edition army, which I’d collected and painted in the late ’90s and early 2000s. In April 2023, the army found a new home in the U.S. Although saying goodbye was tough—after 20 years of painting and gaming with it—I knew it was in good hands. Sadly, the package was damaged during shipping, and I had to navigate insurance and repairs for the rest of the year.

My first Dark Elves army painted between 1998 and 2000

More Dark Elves

But let’s return to the good news. I finished two more Witch Elves, extending my unit to eight. I began work on the final two Witch Elves but couldn’t complete them before our move.

Dark Elves Witch Elves painted in mid of 2023

Moving and the Chaos Within

We went on vacation in June and moved in July, so it was a summer without much hobby progress. Instead, I focused on setting up my new, smaller hobby room. Organizing my collection in this limited space was a challenge, and the new apartment required a lot of work. My first time picking up a brush again was in early October 2023. Unsure of what to paint, I chose Tzeentch Champion Aekold Helbrass, as “Chaos and Change” seemed to fit the theme of the past months. However, painting him took ages due to exhaustion and limited time. Before I could finish, disaster struck: one of my cabinets broke.

Attention graphic content that can make a tough hobbyist cry!

In the cold season, moisture built up in the newly constructed apartment, causing the backplates of my cabinets to warp and the shelves to collapse. Three levels of painted miniatures fell, with damage ranging from minor to extensive. My Cold One Knights unit and Dark Elf Sorceress on a Black Pegasus were among the broken pieces.

Recovery

It took time to find the motivation to return to painting. I managed to repair some of the less damaged miniatures, including the Sorceress on Pegasus. 

Repair of the Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus

 
I began 2024 with a heavy heart, struggling to rekindle my enthusiasm. Starting a 3rd Edition Realm of Chaos Nurgle project helped, as the quick progress on a small warband restored my motivation.

Realm of Chaos - Nurgle Warband started in early 2024

Original Warhammer Art

Already in 2023, I acquired an original Warhammer artwork by Dave Gallagher. Thanks to Andy Smith, I own now the famous Dark Elf Warrior piece that accompanies the Urian Poisonblade story in the army book. I received this beautifully colored piece in the end of 2023. It was framed in the beginning of 2024 and now hangs above my workbench, inspiring me daily to return to my Dark Elves project.

Oringal Warhammer Art by Des Hanley, Mark Gibbons and Dave Gallagher

The Unreleased Dark Elves Sorceress I

Next, I painted a special miniature: the unreleased Sorceress I by Aly Morrison from 1993. Seeing a friend buying another copy of this rare figure motivated me to finish it. I even took a few days off work to focus on its intricate freehand details, completing it just before our summer vacation.

The crown juwel of my Collection 
Unreleased Dark Elves Sorceress I

Aekold Helbrass

After the vacation I found some time to continue the work on Aekolf Helbrass. It was a lot of fun painting him. However when putting all parts together I noticed that the miniature doesn´t work how I had expected. I did some finishing touch and even if he loosk finished there is need for an revision.

Tzeentch Champion - Aekold Helbrass

 

 The Road to Golden Demon

Returning to my workbench in late June, I completed the Repeating X-Bowman I’d started earlier in the year. I also began other X-Bowmen, though they remain unfinished. 

Dark Elves Repeating X-Bowmen

 

With Golden Demon 2024 approaching, I decided to enter the Old World category with my Cold One Knights. Although I had to repair the unit, it was a rewarding process. I also designed a plinth emblem inspired by Wayne England’s artwork.

Emblem created by the art of Wayne England

The final result exceeded my expectations, and I hoped it would resonate with judges and fans alike.

Golden Demon Germany 2024 entry - The Old World category

Golden Demon Germany 2024 entry - Age of Sigma uni category

I entered two submissions: my Cold One Knights in the Old World category and a Witch Aelves unit led by a Hag Queen (Lady Gibbons), in the Age of Sigmar unit category. I was thrilled to receive a finalist pin for the Hag Queen and a commendation for my Cold One Knights. The Warhammer community’s positive response to my 30-year-old miniatures was incredibly rewarding. My Cold One Knights also earned a commendation in Darren Latham’s Glow Up Challenge, with compliments on my color choices from Darren himself.

Competition results - 2024

Outlook

After this success, my motivation is high. Although time is limited, and cold-weather illnesses are on the rise, I’m continuing work on my Black Guard unit, finding enjoyment in sculpting. I have some exciting ideas for making it a dark counterpart to the High Elves Phoenix Guard.

Dark Elves Black Guard WIP

With that I am at the end of my review. I want to close with an armyshot of my Dark Elves showing the actual state of this project. Enjoy

 

4th Edition Dark Elves Army projekt - late 2024

Thank you for reading this review and outlook. While I can’t promise more frequent posts, I’ll do my best.

All the best,
GeOrc 

2021 Review and 2022 Preview

"When writing these lines a strange and crazy year lies behind us and it looks like this will accompany us far into the new year." These were my first lines of my Review/Preview one year ago. It looks like these were still valid and a good opener for my first posting in 2022. My first posting in 2022 and it is mid of April 2022. The reasons are simple and the same as for sparse blog activity in 2021... a lot of diseases. While our kid enjoyed his day care location and his new infection community he spread nurgles blessing every two to three weeks at home. I can´t remember a phase in my life I was so often ill. Consequently, my job had became very very busy. Spare time was rare and my energy and motivation often low. All this while fighting through the second year of the Corona-pandemic. It wasn´t easy to get some hobby progress but from time to time I enjoyed some time at my workbench. Let´s take a look on the results of the old year and see how my plans look for 2022.

Painting my Dark Elves 

The first miniatures I painted and finished in 2021 were some Cold One Knights, which waited abandoned since a very long time on my workbench. They were part of my armyshot I presented in my last Review/Preview. I decided that I would finish the whole unit of Cold One Knights which were no less than 10 miniatures. At this time point I did not know that this will became an odyssey accompanying me for the whole of the year. Yes, I painted no more no less on my Dark Elves army than this only unit... and the last Knight is still missing. However, the result became a stunning sight. I published a preliminary result in mid of october.

My Cold One Knights regiment with command and general in my october 2021

After that three miniatures were still missing inclusing the Battle Standard Bearer. The latter took me was my biggest project in 2021. He was converted as close as possible to the original studio conversion. The painting of the whole miniature took all my spare time during two and a half months. An article with this story will follow. Until then enjoy some first teaser picture.

4th/5th Edition Dark Elves Battle Standard Bearer conversion

The result was an awesome sight and I was very proud, when I had this miniature finished on my workbench. Half a year later I still enjoy looking at him in my cabinet leading my Dark Elves Army. He motivated me to finish a further Dark Elves Cold One Knight and a further Cold One in December 2021. However, the motivation faded afterwards and the last knight is still work in progress on my workbench. That is how the year ended for my Dark Elves Army. But that was not all I had painted in 20021. I had some other small projects.... 

From my shelve of shame

One day in February I decided to finish one piece from my shelve of shame. It was a Daughters of Khaine Death Hag I sarted and abandoned some years ago. She was a reinterpretation of the famous Mark Gibbons Witch Elves Artwork from 1994. I had plans to base her on Morthis base but her step lenght was larger than the step. It was necessary to convert the whole plastic bit of the base and with that and starting my 4th Edition Dark Elves Army I lost my motivation. However, I felt Lady Gibbons angry glance and her evil stare bacame more and more threatening the more time has gone by. Therefore, she was my first choice to finish as an entry for The Miniatures Open Painting Competition. I was very happy finishing her and to unleash her beauty in this Online Painting competition. Isn´t she a lovely fury?

Daughters of Khaine Death Hag in referece to the famous Mark Gibbons Witch Elves Artwork

The competition was a very very tough one and unfortunately she was not able to win a trophy. However, I am more than happy having her finished after all those years waiting on my shelve of shame.

 

The call of Slaanesh

Beside Dark Elves I love Games Workshops Chaos armies. Through the ages I have collected large armies and started different projects for the different Chaos fractions. Beside wonderful army projects, dozens of unfinished miniatures fill my shelve of shame. After a loss of motivation painting Cold One Knights in March/April I decided to paint a further miniature from my Shelve of Shame. already on the path of Slaanesh through some collecting activities, I took a Champion of Slaanesh I started painting in 2009 and never finished. It was a project I enjoyed a lot and so I painted a couple of deamonettes to join their Champion.

Small Slaanesh Warband I painted in preparation for an upcoming army project

It was a lot of fun to paint this small Warband and test some colour shemes. I love these old Citadle Realm of Chaos miniatures and they are a pleasure to paint. Luckily, I have collected a respectable collection of these and I am looking forward to paint them in a future project.

 

Cleaning up my workbench and years end

It may sound surprising, but my biggest problem in miniature painting is the basing process. While I can transfer nearly every color scheme or idea on a miniature, it is hard for me to transfer my environment ideas on a base. Mostly it is a technical problem in combination with ambitious ideas. This results in a lot of unbased miniatures or on hold projects because I have problems to realize a basing idea. Therefore, when it comes to clean my workbench at years end I decided to solve some of these basing problems.... solve some of the bigger basing problems! I decided to base my two unreleased Chimeras. My initial idea was to place them on higher ground using parts of a collapsed High Elves column. I thought a long time how to realize that. Finally, I did some sketches, design the column, made a mold cast it in gypsum in broke it in pieces. That´s the short story. Here some teasers of the Chimera project I am actually workin on

Both 4th Edition unreleased Chimeras based on my workbench

 Meanwhile, the first chimera is already painted and I do not want to keep back a first view on the result.

I am more than happy how she turned out. It was a great pleasure to paint this beautiful monster and to highlight this rare miniature. The second one is already work in progress an I hope to show the results and an article in the futre on this page. Stay tuned!

 

Outlook 2022

I don't want promise to much as I have learned that real life is hardly predictable at the moment and to often it makes it necesarry to reduce my activities. As you have seen above, I had some good progress through the last year but I hardly get the time and muse to write about it. I hope to be able to write some more in the upcoming months to show all the finished stuff and finish all my started articles. But be patient with me. If the real life gets hard my focus is always on the painting side to escape these troubled times.

Painting in 2022

In the moment I am looking forward to finish the chimeras. I would also love to finish my last Cold One Knight as well as standard troopers and finish some regiments for my Dark Elves to make the army  ready for a new army shot. Beside working on my Dark Elves army I will try to paint a couple of different things this year. I would also love to add a couple of further Slaanesh miniatures to my growing Realm of Chaos Warband. Additionally, I also want to paint more of my rare and unreleased stuff. Through my collecting activities I was able to get my hands on some very precious miniatures. I would love to paint some of these figures to pay respect to the honorable collectors who sold these rareties for my collection. 

My workbench in mid of April 2022 wit a Teaser of the second chimera.

Now it´s time to return to my workbench. I hope you enjoyed my little review and my further plans for the new year. Let me know what you think and what you are working on in 2022.

Kind Regards,

GeOrc

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