Back from the Windy City and settling in...

Games Day Chicago was a fun day for me. I know a lot of people have been a bit disappointed by certain aspects of it, but I think it's all about having your expectations met or exceeded.

I expected to have a fun day catching up with friends, meeting new painters, talking about toy soldiers, and perhaps even walking away with a trophy or two.

Check, check, check, and check!

I entered all 11 categories I was able to. A bit of overkill perhaps, but you can't with the MegaMillions if you don't buy a ticket. Again I was lucky that all my entries made it past the first cut. Of course that made the final judging very nerve wracking, particularly as it wasn't until the Diorama category that I saw one of my entries with a Winner tag in front of it.

That's right, The Withdrawal took Silver in the Diorama category, as did Cherubael in the Large Scale Model category.

Amusingly enough, my nemesis in these two categories was another Aussie, Kyle Morgan, who had flown in from Sydney to compete. As he was flying so far he brought eight entries (must be something in the Australian blood, or that we're raised to "'ave a go, ya mug!"). Kyle's beautiful work netted him five trophies in all (I think). You can see some of his work at the Oz Painters forums, where he posts as KyleM.

Anyway, here's a list of my entries by category:

1. 40K Single - Kalak81, Adpetus Mechanicus Skittarii (pictured in this post)

2. 40K Squad - Pater Sin and his Psyker Brood (pictured in this post)

3. 40K Vehicle - Nurgle Blight Drone (pictured here)

4. 40K Large - Renegade Berserker Ogryn (pictured here)

5. Warhammer Single - Chaos Sorceror (pictured in this post)

6. Warhamer Regiment - Ironskin Ogre Rhinox Riders

7. Warhammer Large - "The Bearer of Bad Tidings", Chaos Standard Bearer (pictures coming soon)

8. LoTR Single - Dying Boromir

9. Diorama - "The Withdrawal of the 144th" (pictured here)

10. Large Scale Model - Cherubael (pictured here)

12. Open - Departmento Munitorium Truck (pictured here)

Here's Kalak81, the Skittarii I have been working on as a commission piece for a friend of mine. I know he's very excited to get his hands on this model. The handover goes down next Tuesday!

A special edition model that I picked up from Jeff Hall (who's blog you can see here) at the last Bizarre Bazaar. For some reason I wanted to go with the purple.

And the class photo of Pater Sin and his Psyker Brood. I apologize that not everything is in focus. For some reason I got this splitting headache and blurry vision as I looked through the viewfinder ; )

Congrats to all the other entrants and winners! Keep an eye out on the GW site over the next few weeks for the other winning models.

Cheers

Dave