Golden Demon
The Golden Demon competition is a miniature painting and modelling competition run by Games Workshop. Established in 1987 in the UK, it is the longest running miniature painting competition in the world, and has since spread to several countries. As of 2025, it is held in Germany, as part of the Spiel Essen Game Fair, and in the United States, as part of the Adepticon convention.
Each year, members of the public bring along miniatures that they have spent weeks, and often months, painting specifically for the competition in the hope that their piece will be painted well enough to be awarded one of the legendary Golden Demon statuettes.
The figures are all put on display―typically in glass cabinets―for the public to admire, whilst a team of judges examine each one of the thousands of miniatures entered, to decide which are most worthy of an award.
There are several categories into which figures can be entered, ranging from a single miniature to whole regiments, and from duels to action packed dioramas. Gold, Silver and Bronze trophies are awarded to the first, second and third places respectively in each category.
The Gold winners of each of these categories are then judged to find out who is the overall winner of that year’s competition. The winner is awarded the Slayer Sword for the miniature considered the ‘Best of Show’. This most prestigious trophy is the highest accolade that any Warhammer figure painter can achieve.
In the past, the winning entrants used to have their prized figures published in White Dwarf, and later in a separate winners booklet that came along with White Dwarf. Today, the winners are published in the Warhammer Community’s website.
Golden Demon has historically allowed Games Workshop to spot hidden talents and bring their skills to the Studio; they have discovered many talented painters and artists as a result and recruited them to the ‘Eavy Metal team. Until 2023, winners were sometimes handed a card with recruitment details should they want to pursue a career in the company.
History
The Origins Of Golden Demon
In the early 1980’s, before Golden Demon was created, Games Workshop used to run painting competitions during the Citadel Open Days and the Dragonmeet convention. However, Games Workshop discovered that some people would enter other companies’ miniatures, and it was from a need to establish a clearly defined set of rules that Golden Demon emerged.The Golden Demon competition was thus devised by John Blanche, Games Workshop’s Art Director, and Andy Jones, Convention Organiser at the time. Because of the wide variety of Citadel Miniatures that were likely to be entered, a series of definitive categories were established.
The Early Years (1987-1988)
The first Golden Demon was held on 27th June 1987 in Nottingham, UK. Regional heats were organised all over the country in Games Workshop stores and hobby shops as a forerunner to the main event. The entries at this stage of the proceedings were judged by shop staff, with some shops inviting games personalities along as guest judges. The three winners from each heat were invited to the Grand Championship Final in Victoria Leisure Centre, Nottingham.Judges at the final were John Blanche and Bryan Ansell, and cash prizes of up to £250 were awarded to the winners, with over £3,000 awarded in total.
At the first event there were eight categories, which formed the basis for some of the categories that would become typical of later competitions, such as ‘Single Miniature’ and ‘Diorama’.
- Single Character Figure
- Single Conversion
- Monster
- Dragon
- Single Mounted Figure
- Diorama
- Vignette
- Warhammer Battle Regiment
The 1988 winners were compiled in a book entitled ‘Fantasy Miniatures’, the first of four such volumes.
The Derby Years (1989-1991)
The third Golden Demon event in 1989 yet again made use of regional heats; however, the Grand Final for the first time was held alongside Games Day, which took place at the Assembly Rooms in Derby on 27th May 1989. Furthermore, Golden Demon was for the first time marketed as an international, not national, painting championship. Cash prizes were still awarded to the winners, with £1,000’s to be won.By 1989, categories had expanded from the first event, now including 40k Vehicle, Blood Bowl Team, or Titans. Alongside Golden Demon, the parallel competition ‘Marauder Blade’ was also established, where national heat winners competed for three handcrafted short swords in three categories: Orc Vignette, Dwarf Vignette, and Single Figure.
The Judging Team was restructured in 1989, and a panel with three judges was established. It was made up of Mike McVey, Phil Lewis and Ivan Bartleet.
In 1990, Golden Demon and Marauder Blade took place again in Derby on 26th May 1990, but reverted to being run independently from Games Day, and 1990 saw the introduction of a Youngbloods Competition in parallel to Golden Demon, aimed at painters aged 14 or younger. The first Youngbloods Competition was composed of three categories with the overall winner being awarded the ‘Youngbloods Axe’.
In 1991, regional heats increased the number of models that went to the Grand Final: the ten best from each Games Workshop store, and the three best from each independent stockist.
The judging panel for 1991 was increased to four judges: John Blanche, Mike McVey, Alan Merrett and Rick Priestley.
Golden Demon 1991, the last event that took place in Derby, stopped awarding cash prizes, and after two years of running alongside Golden Demon, Marauder Blade was discontinued.
Consolidation (1992-1994)
By 1992, Golden Demon had grown so much in size and had attracted such a huge following that the competition had to be moved to a larger venue with more space and better facilities. The selected venue was Birmingham NEC, and Golden Demon 1992 took place on 18th April 1992. Although in 1992 regional heats were still in place, independent stockists had been excluded and submissions had to be done solely at official Games Workshop stores. The 10 regional winners, who received a Golden Demon badge and a winner’s certificate, went forward to represent their shop in the particular category at the Grand Finals at the NEC.Albeit originally advertised as taking place in NEC, Golden Demon 1993 was finally celebrated at the Sheffield Arena on 2nd May 1993, preceded by the customary regional heats held at Games Workshop stores throughout the country, and for the first time at Games Workshop stores abroad too.
Golden Demon 1993 was judged in advance, as Games Workshop wanted to better display the miniatures on the day, and not have to keep removing them from the cabinets for photography and examination. The winners from the regional heats were sent to Games Workshop’s Studio in Nottingham, where judging took place. Another peculiarity of Golden Demon 1993 was the introduction of a ‘Veterans Category’, where only previous winners were allowed to enter. This was short-lived as it was removed from the following year’s competition category list.
Golden Demon 1994 saw the return to Birmingham, this time in the NIA. Golden Demon 1994 was the only Golden Demon in history where no Slayer Sword or other Best of Show trophy was awarded on the day. The winner was however declared so retrospectively more than 15 years later. Golden Demon 1994 also saw the return of the Youngbloods Competition, which had not taken place for several years. It was however limited to just one single miniature category and restricted to only plastic models. By this point, Mike McVey had become the head judge.
The Games Day Years (1995-2013)
1995 marked a big shift in how Golden Demon was organised. To begin with, it went back to being organised as part of the larger Games Day event, like it had been in 1989. Secondly, in the pursuit of a more open structure, it put an end to the regional heats system, and all contestants entered their models directly on the day, a change that has lasted to this day. Golden Demon 1995 was celebrated on 15th October 1995 in the Birmingham NIA. 1995 also saw the introduction of the Open Competition to Golden Demon, today a staple category, and an opportunity to let entrants’ imagination run riot and where Games Workshop staff could also enter. At the beginning, the Open Competition accepted 1:1 scale artefacts to be entered, but these were banned sometime in the mid 2000’s. The Open Competition was a single prize category until 2004. From 2005 Silver and Bronze trophies were added.Between 1996 and 2013, Golden Demon, by now a well-established competition, continued to take place in Birmingham, either at the NIA or the NEC. In 1996, to modernise the Golden Demon brand, a specific logo was created for the competition, depicting a blue marble slab with golden letters. This logo is still in use today, albeit without the blue backdrop. By 1997, the competition had over 2,500 entries and was judged by Mike McVey, Dave Andrews and Matt Parkes.
Image:The_Golden_Demon_Logo.png|thumb|200px|left|The Golden Demon Logo Evolution
The categories by this point had evolved quite a lot from the early days and were very similar to what they are today.
The period between the late 1990’s and mid 2000’s is commonly referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ of Golden Demon by the painting community. This period was characterised by an outburst of creativity and significant advances in painting and modelling techniques, partly due to the absence of other fantasy painting competitions that led to all fantasy painters gathering at Golden Demon. A lot of the winners from those years went on to become professional artists in the miniatures industry, and numerous Youngbloods winners during this period went on to win Slayer Swords in later years.
In 2003, two additional prizes were introduced. One was the Forge World Best of Show, which was awarded to the best painted piece produced by Forge World across all categories. The other one was the Fanatic Morning Star, which was awarded to the best painted model from the Specialist Games ranges. Fanatic Morning Star was dropped from 2004, but the Forge World award continued to be awarded until 2017, after which it was also discontinued.