Golden Demon - an observation (and a question)

[me_in_japan]

So, in light of my inability to attend this year's GD in Tokyo, I've been mulling over my options for next year (assuming there is a next year. Here's hoping...)

I've been looking at various models on the GW homepage, trying to decide what category to enter and what mini to enter it with. After a bit of browsing I came to a rather surprising conclusion:

I don't like GW minis.

Sorry, but there it is. I've been trying to find a mini that makes me go "yes! That's my GD entry!" but it just ain't happening for me. I'm not saying they're all bad sculpts, far from it. Lots of GW minis are very nice. They're just not ringing my bells. There are a few minis I'd like to paint that are GW, but they're not new enough to be serious entries. For example, I have a bloody great idea for a squad of eldar exodites. I have the conversions mostly planned out, and the paint scheme in my head. Even the group base is planned and good to go. But, there are no exodites in the codex, and that means auto-lose, unfortunately. I fancy doing a farseer or bonesinger, but in that case, the judges will have seen it all before.

Fortunately for my GD hopes, Forge World is ok in GDs. Having decided that FW is the way forward, I had a shufty over there. Some nice stuff, and indeed, stuff I'd like to paint, but I'm really quite keen to enter the squad category (in either fantasy or 40k) and the rules say 5 or more in a unit. I want to do skinwolves, but it's only 3 per set, and I don't want duplicates. I want to do a khornate ogryn with hounds of xaphan, but there's only 4, and besides, are they a unit or what?

Anyway, my question is:

Should I buy multiple FW things and convert em to be different or choose a different category?

Single mini is going to be the most hotly contested, I suspect. It usually is.
Open is a no-go. I lack the time and budget to compete in such an event, assuming Japan is comparable to UK/european ones.
Vehicles - I'm not really a vehicle person, truth be told. They can be fun to do at a tabletop level, but to really compete you're getting into military modelling stuff, which I'm not good enough at.
monsters - maybe, but not dragons or similar. Something like a vermin lord could be cool, though.

Does anybody have any suggestions for things they'd like to see me do?

*edit* oooh! I could do that dwarf slayer standing on the GDs head! That'd be tasteful

[Colonel Voss]

give what you did with your nurgle army, I would say convert the every loving resin out of them. and I do believe FW has a downloadable codex for the chaos imperial guard including the ogryns on their site.

[Primarch]

Assuming that this is something that you really want to do and that you want to do well, I would say that you should buy the models that you think you can do a good job on. If that means buying a few extras, then that is what you will have to do. Whilst FW is expensive, it's not THAT much unless you are buying a Titan and you already have one of those.

Sometimes it is worth spending the extra money to get what you really want, rather than something cheaper that you will always see as second best.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I think you should just paint the Eldar titian you have an be done with it. Not that I I want to discourage any one out there from entering the JGD but if you are in I am out. At least I would not want to waste my time in the same category as you. so my advice is figur outshot you are going to do and let us know. So we can avoid it.

[me_in_japan]

Well, as I said, I'm not entering this year, so by all means go ahead and enter yourself. As for the Titan - its too big and I have no ideas how to paint it (colour schemes etc.) I'm also not sure but I think it might fall into the Open category, which is a silly category to enter for your first GD.

[Ichibanpainting]

The Titan falls in the vehicle category not open. I'm entering my titan in the GD this year if I can finish it in time, unfortunately I pecked up another commission that sets me back till September with work so... Not sure it will happen. As for models I think that forge world makes good stuff and cool stuff to do. But at the same time if you look at previous GD winners they use the same models over and over again so even for my entries I was thinking of choosing models that aren't popular IE a tech marine and enter those .

[me_in_japan]

So a titan counts as a vehicle. Good to know - might be a goer for next year, if inspiration strikes in time

As for doing a model that isn't so popular, I agree completely. I have a ton of nice eldar minis (I play eldar), but there are so many farseers and wave serpents entered every year the judges must get fed up with them. I reckon the key to a GD winning entry is a clean and tidy paint job (flawless if possible), make sure the mini fits the GW fluff, a wee bit (or a big bit) of conversion, and then some spot interest to raise it above the competition. oh, and a mushroom on the base somewhere. That's critical, that is

[Ichibanpainting]

I'm going for something that was never done yet with my Titan
Pose wise it asnt been seen anywhere base wise too and also paint wise little hint "pearl paints like on cars"

[Admiral-Badruck]

Sounds like fun.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I am looking for a model to paint for the GD this year. Most of my nag hammer painting eateries are a bit too third party to even be considered. I am looking for a vehicle model or a large model to enter in the GD this year. If someone wants a model done to golden daemon level then pm me. I will not charge for th paint job. So basically you will get Badruck's best. For free... Pm me ASAP. This is a one time offer.


On a side note is this just a rumor or is this officia.l if it is official then can we get a link to confirm it.