Its good you think I\'m standing up for the GW judges, and perhaps I am because they too are human beings, and I am friends with them, and they aren\'t here to defend themselves. Easy to call someone a moron when they aren\'t right there. And if defending them makes ME a moron, hey, dig it, I\'ve been called worse and I know otherwise. Always remember, these are all still opinions we are dealing with, and as such BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT.
If it was just a PAINTING contest then no one would be able to CONVERT anything. It is an ART contest. I never said I thought Golgotha was inferior to others, it was flat out the best painted AND converted miniature there. And I don\'t really feel the entry that beat it is all that consistent with the universe either, I don\'t think Space Marines would ride dinosaurs, but hey. I was making the point going in that the Demons will always be two things:
An ART contest for the best looking figs..
A GIANT ADVERT for GW Products..
Yes, it is absolutely restrictive. But you know that going in. Yes, it keeps the artistic mind down. But you know that going in. I always enjoy these because I find it challenging as an artist to BE RESTRICTED, to have to keep within the lines, because sometimes thats hard to do, and sometimes YOU HAVE TO DO THAT, no matter how much you want to be a non-conformist.
It\'s their show, and they get the opportunity to promote their products because of it. And, no matter what you want to think, without them and their promotion of the hobby in the 80s and 90s, there is no hobby. Fortunately, other companies are taking up the hobby as well, and improving it and becoming better than GW. This is a good thing. We get great figures from so many places other than GW now, and we have a choice to paint things other than GW.
Because of this, we also have other contests that have no restrictions on them, such as GenCon, where the level of competition is so much higher and better.