Games Day and Golden Demon 2009

What a day that was!

First of all, I was shocked and very pleased that my WH40K squad made it through to the final round of judging, to see my little group of men in the same cabinet as some unbelievable work made me feel very, very good.

Talk about a confidence boost - I know I have confidence issues generally, but Golden Demon finally convinced me that I might actually be good at this stuff.

As a whole the day was a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I've read on a few forums that this was "a disappointing Games Day", but I loved it.

The Highs

• Bizarrely, walking through Swindon town centre at 6:30am, very surreal.
• The buzz in the Golden Demon queue and meeting some great people, the two chaps from Devizes who shared the same attitude to painting and gaming as me (I think their surname was Allison, but I can't for the life of me remember their first names), and the other chap from Wiltshire who won the LOTR single miniature category - I borrowed his pen...
• John Blanches miniatures - ancient as they were, they blew me away with the unbelievable level of detail
• "Grabbit and Scarper" mystery boxes, 4 random blister packs for £5 - bargain!
• Seeing Dave the old Swindon manager - and him being pleased to see me...
• Seeing my Nurgle marines in the finalist cabinet for the WH40K squad category - I was walking around in a daze for half an hour afterwards...
• Hanging out with Mark, Cameron/Paulo/Christie (I'm not sure I can explain it properly) and Freddie.
• Mark bellowing "CHEESE!!!" at me from the top of one of the staircases (again, explanation difficult if not impossible)
• The unbelievable gaming tables across the event
• The studio miniatures on display
• The rest of the Golden Demon entries

The Lows (not many)

• Getting up that damn early...
• Christie not being able to make it.  :(
  
• Not being able to talk to some of the studio people because there were too many sycophants about
• Difficult to see some of the cabinets
• Children pushing (argh damn you)
• "Green Army!"
• Some idiot referring to us as "sheepshaggers" - he was then about to try and get on our bus until someone pointed him in the right direction - dumbass...

The lows didn't ruin the day at all though - I'm going again.

Pictures of my miniatures, plus other pictures of the event to follow...