Dreadnought 'Vorenus' gets a pin...

So at Golden Demon today, Vorenus made the cut and scored me a finalist's pin, which I'm pretty pleased with considering it's my first entry in. The Ork Mek and Wood Elf Sorceress didn't make the cut, but as they were extremely fast jobs, I'm not that surprised. The standard of entries was pretty high this year, so I feel pretty good. Oh, and he was also chosen as one of the images for the Games Workshop homepage - check out the Golden Demon Live section...

Ork Mekboy

A big mek done as a quick entry for Golden Demon. About a week's work. Quite pleased with the blending on the red, and the skin tones on the face. This is the first Ork I've painted in about 12 years... I really enjoyed it, full of character and fun...

Wood Elf Sorceress

A very quick job as I rush to put together more entries for this year's Golden Demon competition. Total time taken around 14 hours over 2 days. It's a fairly ugly miniature, but I wanted to do something that wasn't Warhammer 40,000 related and that was different from a Space Marine!
Golden Daemon time is tricky for me - do I push on with commissions (some I was hoping to hand over at the show) which could involve rushing a piece or do I paint up some personal miniatures and see what I can do. Luckily I have a partner which saves making up my own mind, so I'm taking the opportunity to vary what I'm taking to the show. The engraved plaque was done at Joblot Trophies in Mapperley, Nottingham. I can't recommend them enough if you need some work doing, and they were happy enough to work on the brass sheet I provided.

Ultramarines Venerable Dreadnought 'Vorenus'

My Golden Demon entry for this year. Also, my first ever entry into a major painting competition.

The total time taken to paint this model is around 3 1/2 weeks, equating to around 100 hours of working time, including cleanup and assembly. Click the above image for a larger version.

Edit: This model made the cut at the UK Golden Demon and secured me a finalists' pin.

There are a number of details that I wanted to include from the outset. First I wanted the Tyranid trophy to be in Hive Fleet Behemoth colours (ie blue carapace, red skin), and to look aged. The red skin was eventually dropped as I felt it would detract from the red on the banner and other spot details (hips, head, ammo drums). It was important to have an ancient feel to the dreadnought, rather than the more utilitarian schemes I use for line troops, so copious freehand was employed all over the model, together with very careful hand painted chipping (as opposed to my normal sponge technique). I also wanted a feel of character to the dreadnought, so I chose a homeworld for him (Iax, an agricultural world) and included the wheatear motifs on the back and the latin phase on the back of the banner.

The brass plaque was done for me (several times to get it right) by an excellent little engraving place in Nottingham called Joblot Trophies. I can't recommend them enough for their dilligence and professionalism.

Click on the images below for larger versions.