Wow what a trip!
I just came back from 2 hours of flight + 5 hours of driving so excuse the typoes. It was a great event and a pleasure to meet up with the painters of the North-American scene
I have had the privilege to have met in the past, deplore the abscence of many others who couldn't make it, as well as meet and chat with new faces to the scene and behold what the new blood brings to the table (GD veterans better watch out!). The display "sneeze guards" are really badly scratched and are due for replacement, but when the finalist went in the cases I did my best to take pictures. Like the others, I had very limited success, but here are a few of them that may be worth your look to get an idea of the neat stuff. These did not all receive trophies and I wish I had more decent pictures as many other entries deserved to be seen. I dare not try and identify them all, I'll leave that to those who unlike me do not have the memory and attention span of a moth near a flickering spotlight.
Chris Borer had a stunning full sculpt of an imperial officer which he painted with remarkable finess. I await with a healthy mix of dreadful terror and amazement his next piece.
Talking to the judges afterwards, they explained to me that in the end the Slayer Sword race came down to Todd Swanson's 's Nurgle Lord Grulgor, Drew Drescher's original conversion of a Adeptus Mechanicus Knight Paladin and my "terrifying" Speed Squig (which came attached to his pet warboss on a bike). Speaking of the biker's freehand jacket you can't really see, I was told that it is precisely that which tipped the scale ever so slightly in my favor, seeing that I had made the effort to paint fancy freehand for NOBODY to see
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I still can't believe the slayer sword went to my Warboss (who took it home to da boys to bash skulls with) when standing next to such refined pieces. Todd your Nurgle Lord was a marvel of detail, those scuplted nurglings and maggots were insane!
Here are a few pics taken before I jumped in the car to catch the plane. Unfortunately under the GD hall lights no one would notice the little details I placed, from the freehand jacket, the broken headlight, the "Waagh button" on the powerklaw energy pack, the fact that the warboss had no way to brake the bike as the only functionning brake is on the powerklaw's side, and that splattered bug in his teeth due to his "magnetic" smile;
Congrats to all the finalists and winners, and thanks for the interesting discussions I had with those nice enough to spent a few minutes chatting with a raving lunatic!
