Golden Demon Essen 2024: I Was There!

[@ZzokK]

7:52 "look mom ! im on richard gray videos!" life achievement: checked. also thanks a loooooot for taking the time to give me advice about my lotr entry : dain ironfoot on warhog. I may try to improve my contrast and represent it next year!

[@Maxmillion77]

Cheers for the insights Richard. When the level of talent reaches such a high level and you end up relying on subjectivity, these contests can become very tough. Well done to all the winners. On to the next!

[@ScottMaurer-g2b]

so nice to hear the cheers and thunderous applause. gratifying to have that enthusiasm for our art. I remember many a quiet ceremony while most had packed up and left already.

[@benrayner5819]

Richard, this is a brilliant video. For someone that is looking at entering GD next year it is a huge help. It has helped me understand the way it works the structure there is and a glimpse into the magic world of GD. Also to do a video like this after this year shows what a true gentleman you are. Thank you for your help and the way you have inspired a totally newbie to GD to give it a go. 👌

[@Wijkert]

Even though you weren't entirely happy with them, I really liked the cabinet shots Rich! Especially because I couldn't attend. Hope you keep making them!

[@blitzz2713]

It was the first time for me to see Golden Demon. The lightning in the cabinet was the first thing that hit me. For me as a spectator, it was either ignorant or disrespectful toward artists. Those cabinets contain thousands of hours of work, love and often personal sacrifices not mentioning the promotion of GW products they do. As for the judging - will just say that artists are right to challenge it. It is not only about being right or wrong, it was first and foremost inconsistent

[@Wijkert]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on GD Essen Rich!

[@rlucas88]

Thanks for sharing this Richard

[@SWSimonpaintsalot]

Thanks for the video!

[@Hammerx3]

Thank you for spending your time commenting on my Sister Dialogus😊 It’s been an absolute pleasure meeting you and hopefully I can meet you again in the next competitions

[@DeceiverIX]

Those terminators at 5:50 look amazing! So cool.

[@richardgray8462]

I loved those as well, they were super old school style.

[@shadowlord19]

Hello Rich! I kind of agree with most of your remarks here. It was my first time entering so to be frank I had no expectations whatsoever. Yes it's always nice to go away with something but Ok. The thing that bothered me the most was the fact that there were no 'Eavy metal staff members to judge our entries. No shade to whoever it was that judged, especialy to Roman whose work we all know, but I spent at least 2.5k euros on that this trip. It is really annoying that I wasn't judged by established people in the paintintg sort of stage, again besides Roman whom I respect and value as an artist. I felt that many of us were not even considered or appreciated because of lack of 'eavy metal staff. One other thing that I feel needs to be clarified or corrected at some point is the damnable stickers situation. Coming on the 2nd or 3rd day and seeing the stickers, you know, who has what , is very stressful for the participants I feel. Another point that I guess happens every year, sorry I am not that experienced, is the masses of people around the cabinets. I could not admire other peoples' work. I learned that technique is not the only thing being judged, but also presentation, how it looks on the cabinet and pictures also. I could be wrong in all of my observations, forgive me everyone. Cheers.

[@rduke32]

I don't know how your Eldar didn't win! It is such a great piece and the freehand is amazing.

[@jonnowocky8179]

After all this time - having a set of bespoke cabinets with polarised glass and standardised lighting mounted inside that GW ship to events seems fairly low-cost. I’ve worked with touring production and stage equipment and I can’t see many barriers towards making this a reality. Interest and quality in these competitions and the prevalence of GW is higher than ever; I feel like if you come in to this hobby you should expect to be impressed not just by the entries but by the standard GW set in displaying them.

[@Aveltro]

When I used to do some judging for scale modelling contests (afv, airplanes etc), I always explained to someone who didn't "win" (for me, all participants are winners!), what the reasons were why another entry won. Most of the time it was always the basics etc.

[@alexwilliamson1486]

As a scale modeller, and I dabbled with Rogue Trader in thr 80s, I stopped entering competitions, I entered a British Army vehicle from the 90s, and was condemned from having the wrong colours of wheel nuts….i served 16 years all over the world, actaully drive the vehicle in a conflict zone. That was it for me, but I really understand the points you’re making, very frustrating.

[@Elfhelm]

Hardcore scale modellers will go on for hours about incosnsitencies within paint ranges, but then suddenly ignore fact that uniforms had changed colours 15 times during the war so that their field grey is hardly accurate in general ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@tureliondurr]

Your feedback matches with what I heard of the other KZbinrs I watch. You're just more diplomatic. So since you don't wanna say it, I think you should've won a golden demon. And let's hope this competition was an outlier and next year it is back to how it used to be.

[@BjornIronSid3]

ur entry is worthy of the slayer sword

[@GutsfromBewsewk]

I can somewhat understand the general sentiment around Golden Daemon and the podium three, but i don't think I'd go as far as to say I can relate. I make my art for myself, so the finished product is its own reward. At the end of the day, I still get a sick display piece, whether everyone else appreciates it like i do or not. Though, I can understand how some artists who poured hundreds of hours into a piece purpose-built for competition, would feel swindled when their efforts amount to naught. In those situations it's important to remember not to take it too seriously; after all, rarely does victory grace those who are truly deserving.

[@whalopaints]

Hey that’s my terminator at 28:03 for me gd was very confusing this year, but hey so is gw as a company 😂

[@perfidy1103]

The title reminds me of the line "I was there when Horus slew the Emperor", I'm wondering exactly what happened at Essen now 😮

[@snowy5628]

In regards to feedback, two ways to solve that, increase the judging team size to allow feedback to be written down. But my vote would be to have actual criteria that we can read. There's no way to know what you need to do to improve

[@BittermanAndy]

There's 1000+ entries. Written feedback would end up taking WEEKS of person-time. And sore losers would still just argue with the feedback, as well as whinging they didn't win. Getting feedback from other entrants (as Richard says people asked him for feedback in this video) is probably the best way of doing it.

[@spuriusligustinus4509]

It sounds like Ninjon announcing the winners at the end lol

[@Moggy1k]

Hi Richard nice vid. If the things are the same as years ago and I can't see them changing, none of the cabinets belong to GW and are hired for each event. Which is why the lighting is different at each show.

[@kingmarke6940]

In my opinion looking the photos/painting lamp thing is somewhat a mistake, but it can be a factor in the final judgement. This video pretty well exposes the current trend of everyone painting for photographs/lamps. I think the pieces should stand out in the "nature" as well. Some of them do. I understand the frustration, wasted effort, poor judging etc, but I also completely understand why 'eavy metal style is being favored as often their lightning situation is more.. well.. universal.

[@demonrich]

The judging is carried out under painting lamps though. People paint this way as that was always heavily awarded when the Eavy Metal team were judging. Hyper detail was always a positive and subtlety within the artwork was also rewarded. It seems a shame to limit the styles and approaches.

[@m0ng0b0t]

First of all, i agree that the overall standard at this GD was very high. On the Point of GW having an exact List of Points by wich they judge, i strongly disagree. I fear this would produce less encoureged entrys imho. Everybody would just try to check the boxes as perfect as possible and the drama in the end would be even worse. Imagine a competition at this level where everyone checked the boxes but still just a few could get trophys... I really feel like the independent judge is a good thing and i think it absolutely should hav an impact. i would even go further and say lets have more GDs with independent judges and give each GD a different spin. Back in the early 2000s we had so many creative entrys wich sadly mostly disapeared or shifted to other events. The more or less strict Eavy metal preference of the last years had its time. let's move on. On the other hand i do of course understand the wish for a better understanding of what the criterias are. who likes to put hundreds of hours into a project just to enter a raffle, were i don't know what the judge of this year likes. it's a fine line... The question i have is, is ther also a limit of commended entrys? Maybee thats why some of the other awesome pieces didn't get one in relation to the overall high standard. That has been the real surprise to mee tbh.

[@scottburns2671]

To me I always figured 'Open' only really existed to allow GW staff to enter, and I guess being in Germany meant that wasn't really a factor versus Manchester last year. Agree it really shouldn't be an 'overflow' option.

[@ReynardCalcifius]

I'm a fairly new painter, I've only been painting 4ish years, Id love to dedicate the time to paint an entry for a competition, i think when i do get around to building the courage to actually do it, i think I'll be entering a non-gw competition, the judging standards for GD seem very wonky imo

[@bornincrimson]

Small corrections - the Notable card at Adepticon was white with black text and you only got the little plastic frame for it if you got a finalist pin. I got notable this year and only got the card. Honestly I think the black and gold cards look much better and I hope they continue just with those. Maybe they were still finalizing the design? Always cool to hear thoughts about GD from high level painters.

[@richardgray8462]

Thanks! I had a quick check and I confused them with Commended, which have the gold text on. The Notable have black text, you're correct.

[@porcu12345]

Don't want to offend anyone, but I was genuinely shocked to see the dark angels landspeeder get a top 3 placement in the vehicle category. It looked like it had nuln oil coffee stains on it. Also shocked that the 'eavy metal style intercessor getting a silver.

[@Americium-120]

There were a lot of rather questionable pieces that placed and other pieces that were flat out ignored that should have at least been commended and did not. Cult of Paint covered a few on their covering of GD.

[@TheManAmongAll]

I’d honestly agree to be brutally honest and no disrespect the painter of that piece but some of the other entrants I’ve seen in that category I’d have guessed would’ve placed above it - but I wasn’t there so who knows but props to them for entering and winning either way

[@darkseas3846]

Completely agree it was cool but there was definitely better and that single ultra marine I can’t see how that won as well

[@porcu12345]

@@darkseas3846 going into conspiracy territory but the only way I saw the ultramarine getting silver is because it was the open competition with lots of GW staff in it, so maybe he was a staff member and the judges liked the guy and let bias take over.

[@TheManAmongAll]

@@darkseas3846 yeh Open Category was an odd one; unfortunately with the change of not allowing someone else to sculpt you a fun or large item (having to do it yourself and paint) they seem to have just gotten more standard entries from other categories that felt like excess entries.

[@benitokiri]

If anyone knows the artist who did that Aeldari Exodite riding a lizard please link. Thank you!

[@Wijkert]

20:50 lovely mossy base

[@donaldxavier2056]

I would not want to be a judge at that competition. The quality of the entries was insane. It is sad to think that there were some great minis at didn't even make first cut.

[@NisGaarde]

0:34 What's this one? Sigmar vs Orcs? Love the narrative

[@slthlrdz]

lol cheeky title

[@nofixedcourse]

I suppose this is the thing even looking at the event purely online rather than in person, you don't want to take anything away from the winners, they all did brilliantly, but at the same time, there was just something 'off' about some of the choices. Hopefully gw listen to some of the observations from artists and make a few tweaks to coming events.

[@Jaydonald_DG]

Loved all I saw and appreciate your content as always and your take is fair and spoken from the heart. At the very least I feel 30K should be split into vehicles and characters. Each are so different that I feel making the distinction is important, and 30k painters tend to approach their vehicles differently to 40k. Seeing duel and diorama as one in the same was disheartening also. Not all dioramas are duels and not all duels feel like dioramas. Open was just a mess, it really does feel like over flow. the marine that got the trophy was perfect but felt a bit forced, it just felt so strange that the Ironjawz one-off model sculpted and painted by thibaut.rahm wasn't amongst the winners of a category that used to feature some of the boldest and most creative pieces, and instead a stock standard marine was. Not to discourage the work of the Christian Clausen, his old world silver was jaw dropping - The category is just in a really weird spot and feels pointless without all the bold pieces and sculpts that we got used to seeing.

[@mrchips1795]

They need to start using properly lit cabinets. This has always been a problem and seems very easy to fix. People put so much time into their entries and they can't even be appreciated, so what is the point in them being in cabinets at all. May as well just hand them straight over to the judges...

[@karlmoore1837]

The frustration of those competiting in GD has been enough to put me off from entering. Maybe one day, but it ain't any day soon.

[@soddof7972]

Should you be allowed to re enter pieces? I'm not sure

[@aurel-tk]

The cabinet is the most clear proof that GW doesn't care. A led strip on each row would be ve the least minimum. Such a disrespect toward artists and visitors I don't get it ...

[@jamesmaybrick2001]

Where can we see what you entered? Unless im just being old and crap i cant find any pics of it. Model wise from what you have shown here, my winner would be Gollum with the ring. That was incredible. Then the Bloodletter on the throne. Khorne and Tolkien, im a simple man with simple pleasures. Blood for the Blood god and Rings for the Ring Lord.

[@BennyBartez]

It’s on X formerly known as twitter. It’s also featured on a number of other KZbin’s videos about the event 😊

[@Wijkert]

19:14 anyone know who painted this? Or this 34:42. Both so good!

[@richardgray8462]

I did 😂. I stuck it in as a spare piece in Open, it got a finalist pin.

[@ScottMaurer-g2b]

I want to know that too. That piece is incredible

[@Don_Dotta2786]

paint = weight and i think they weight the minis maybe? If you mess it up you wait a day and repaint the mistake. What if the golden demon staff members took that in for scores? the more weight the more mistakes? never went to a golden demon but i recenlty started painting 6 minis. I try to paint as less as possible so the mini wont have much weight and still fully covered and i paint and then assemble so you wont see any unpainted areas

[@orleansgac4088]

I think GW has to work on the lighting. This is one of their flagship events to draw people into this hobby. Another thing Artists need to judge this. Joe Schmoe who knows nothing about painting typically just looks at things in a very basic way, and is easily distracted by gimicks.

[@Bunyip_Studios]

Not like GW haven't been doing GD's for years, you'd think by now they'd at least get the lighting right

[@straycatt1313]

Never gonna happen. Not unless they establish a set location, that they own and maintain, to hold the event.

[@Bunyip_Studios]

@@straycatt1313 No, it's never gonna happen because of the upper management mentality, they were too short sighted when I worked for GW, and nothing has changed in the years since. It's either "not my job" or "it's not in the budget" or some other excuse you care to name

[@straycatt1313]

@@Bunyip_Studios Well, that too ...

[@simonoldfield9366]

Your not the first person to question the overall judgement of the judges.. I’ve seen pieces that definitely should have won or been in the decision process and didn’t even get a look in

[@TheSixYardBox]

I know what I'm doing next year, I'm entering my single minis into the open category...those winners were a joke

[@johnandre2962]

You were robbed. GW really dropped the ball in this competition. Seems they are not liking YT content creators at the moment. For whatever reason!!

[@BittermanAndy]

Seems like a lot of YT content creators don't realise there's hundreds of them and they can't all win. (That said, Richard's entry was phenomenal. But still... no guarantees on winning).

[@darkseas3846]

Hmm think they were definitely black cards

[@richardgray8462]

At Adepticon they were white.