Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age: part 1 (1987)

Games Workshop's National Figure Painting Championships - The Golden Demon Awards - began in 1987. Between 1988 and 1990 Games Workshop produced a series of three books (Fantasy Miniatures) which showcased the Golden Demon awards of 1988, 1989 and 1990 (the first book also illustrated some of the 1987 finalists). Unfortunately GW did not produce any further such books until 2002. White Dwarf magazines did, however, continue to feature photographs of Golden Demon finalists' figures, and I thought it might be fun to share with you images of such figures from 1991 and 1992. During these two years most of the figures illustrated were still of 1980's vintage (my favourite period) - after 1992 such figures tend to tail off.

I'll begin this retrospective series of blog posts, however, with the Golden Demon Awards of 1987. As I mentioned, Fantasy Miniatures (1988) illustrated some of the entries for the 1987 Awards, but there is better narrative and illustrative coverage of these Awards in White Dwarf 93. Actually, it's a very entertaining read and I'd recommend you make yourself a cuppa and spend a few moments basking in nostalgia...be warned however - there is 1980's fashion on display...

(PLEASE NOTE: if you simply click on the images you will see a slide show - if you want to see any image in close-up then right-click on it and select "Open link in new tab." Then click to zoom).




 If you are wondering where these wonderful figures are today then I can tell you that Bryan Ansell now has the "Chalice of Doom":


 ...and I own Nick Sewell's Zombie Dragon.

So, were you there? What are your memories of the day? Did you win anything? Who was Azaroth?


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

9 comments:

  1. Jason Fulford16 April 2013 at 14:34

    great post, there is great site here http://demonwinner.free.fr/ thats has a great archive of all the Golden Demon entries
    J

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve Casey16 April 2013 at 14:39

      Thanks Jason - I'd seen that site before but I hadn't noticed that they have the slayer sword winner for 1987 wrong! Unless White Dwarf 93 is wrong of course (unlikely).

      Delete
    2. Jason Fulford16 April 2013 at 14:45

      nice spot dude, I did have a little look thought the archives and I do remember http://demonwinner.free.fr/uk/1988/golden_demon_winner.php?categorie=7 3rd place the W40k dioramma being in Games Workshop Birmingham display cabinet forever 1987 onwards.
      J

      Delete
  2. Jason Fulford16 April 2013 at 14:46

    p.s.s when was the photo of te Goblet taken?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thantsants16 April 2013 at 22:17

    I remember John Toyer's many entries really standing out in the Golden Demon special WD's - loved the muted browns and greens he always used.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ninja-for-Hire17 April 2013 at 23:28

    Wasn't there, too young. Sadly I never had the opportunity to go to a games day like that, the first one I ever went to was after it moved to the NIA.
    Not sure if I have WD 93, if not I'll have to track a copy down!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous26 April 2013 at 16:37

    um - i remember bolt thrower boys giving mi 12 yr old step son whisky but that was so long ago ....

    ReplyDelete
  6. geronimo2 November 2013 at 13:25

    I remember Ivan building/painting the Chalice when we were at college together - nice to see it ended up somewhere safe :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)