And the Winner is…

…Max Von Deadlock!

That’s right, I won a trophy in the Salute 2011 painting competition. I can hardly believe it!

I’m sorry it went quiet around here this last week. I had plenty of progress I should have been showing you, but as the clock was ticking down I really had to paint, not blog. Apologies for that. But then it turned out to be worthwhile.

Well sort of.

You see, the mini I was painting so hard this past week – my Kingdom Death Preacher – didn’t even make it through to the final round of judging (unlike my Canoness last year). Yet the Neverborn Pandora crew, which I kind of threw in as a backup and I had painted for use on the tabletop, came in first in the Fantasy Unit category!

Afraid I don’t have close-up shots of the finished entries yet. I want to print off some new backgrounds tomorrow and play around with the photography setup a bit first to show them off to their best.

Watch this space.

And how was Salute itself I hear you ask? Well, as ever it was an awesome day. So many things to see and buy. This year I knew loads of people there and ended up socialising more than browsing.

I’d hardly got half way around the stands before the Painting Competition results were being read out and I was up collecting a rather splendid trophy and a £50 voucher courtesy of Maelstrom Games.

I did have an inkling I’d won prior to that as Dom pointed out that my Neverborn had been lined up on the front “winners” table. That certainly set the heart racing.

It was great to chat to so many folks I knew from different aspects of the hobby, though it did eat into my exploring time. I did get to wander around all the awesome demo tables, and get a good gander at most of the other painting competition entries. I have to say the standard in the comp was extraordinarily high and I think Salute is becoming a somewhat prestigious event in the painting calendar.

Other highlights for me were the Smart Max and Eden Miniatures stands. Both of which have new games and some really stunning miniatures. Eden is a Post Apocalyptic setting and has caught my attention with its creepy clowns and Mad Max ganger miniatures. I don’t need to start any new games, but I could see myself picking up a few of their minis to paint.

The same is true of Smog 1888 by Smart Max. The 54mm resin sculpts for their Steampunk range are all drool-worthy. I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of them.

That was surprisingly all of my purchasing for the day. I was really rather restrained.

In previous years I’ve bought loads of terrain, but this year I didn’t feel the need to. I have loads of Malifaux minis and Dystopian Wars stuff all waiting for my attention, so just imagining the lead/resin mountain at home was enough to stay my wallet – thankfully.

Before I knew it, the day was over. By the end of the day, I had developed something of a headache and was even feeling a bit queasy, which is really rare for me. It meant that I couldn’t join the chaps from the CGC for more than just a quick pint after the show. Shame that, as I really wanted to head over to Greenwich with them to celebrate the club’s fourth birthday. Instead I headed home. Tired, but elated.

It was a fantastic day.

And the day I won my first ever painting trophy 🙂

~ by Max Von Deadlock on April 17, 2011.