Fimir - fawsends of 'em!

OK, maybe not "fawsends", but I reckon 100 - 150 at least...

I've just been browsing through "Fantasy Miniatures" 1988, and while reading the write up on "The Great Day" i.e. the Golden Demon Awards 1988 I spotted a rather interesting battle scene.

You can see the scene in question on the bottom row, centre, above. I love pouring over old pics of battle scenes like this, and on closer inspection I realised that every single figure in the army facing the camera is a fimir! There must be at least 100 - 150 of them, and those are just the ones in the shot! Here's a close-up of the scene - feel free to drool over it:

What do you think the fimir are facing? Skaven? But that dinosaur-like thing in the centre towards the bottom is a bit of a mystery. Any ideas?

Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age: part 3 (1992)

In this third and final installment of Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age I will be sharing with you images of figures from the 1992 awards (from White Dwarf 151). I say "final" because I was unable to find a reference to subsequent awards (1993, 1994 etc) from the White Dwarfs of the period. If anyone knows different please let me know and I would be happy to scan them and put together a pdf doc. You'll notice that the majority of figures featured in this article are from the 1980's and very early 1990s, so there's a good chance that the Golden Demon awards from the mid-90's also contained such figures. SO it would be a shame if White Dwarf hadn't featured these.

If you are new to Scribd then clicking on the expand screen icon at the bottom right of the Scribd box below (to the right of the + and - zoom buttons) gives you a full screen view.

Anyway, enjoy!

Games Day 1992 by bridgend_steve

Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age: part 2 (1991)

In this second installment of Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age I will be sharing with you images of figures from the 1991 awards. This was the first year that Golden Demon was also held outside the UK (in the USA and Canada) and pictures of some of the overseas entries can be seen. The Scribd document begins with a two-page introduction to the awards (from White Dwarf 139); next are the entries themselves as seen in White Dwarf 140 including those from the USA and Canada; and finally (from page 22 on) some more Golden Demon finalists as seen in White Dwarf 141.

Golden Demon 1991 by bridgend_steve

Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age: 1987 revisited using Scribd

Orlygg over at Realm of Chaos 80s has just reposted his feature on the three Fantasy Miniatures books, and they are very handily presented in Scribd format. I haven't tried this approach before so if you will indulge me I'm going to repost the Golden Demon Awards 1987 feature from White Dwarf 93 using Scribd. If this works then I will probably present a number of similar future posts using Scribd - it will save on all that clicking...please let me know if this format isn't working for you. If you are new to Scribd then clicking on the expand screen icon at the bottom right of the Scribd box below (to the right of the + and - zoom buttons) gives you a full screen view.

Golden Demon 1987 by bridgend_steve

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?