Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Soldat de Plom 2015 report

What a great weekend this has been! We've attended Soldat de Plom 2015 in Girona (Spain), and it's been a blast. Another amazing reunion of great friends of old, plus the wonderful introduction of new ones, in a city that serves as the perfect frame for a contest of this sort.

Let's talk first about what interests us all the most, the pieces in the contest. I made many photos of the Masters Fantasy section (Master painting and Master creation) as well as a few pics of the Standard Fantasy section, and the miniatures in the Judges and expo cabinets in the event. You can find them all in the album I created for this purpose in my facebook page. I uploaded them during the weekend, therefore, don't forget to like Volomir's facebook page and never miss its updates!

Here's some pictures out of the Fantasy section I picked up for you so you get a glimpse of some of the best miniatures in that category.

Toni Nieto's Best of Show (Fantasy) - "Creativity is intelligence having fun. A. Einstein"

Marc Masclans Gold in Master Painting (piece is scratchbuilt by Joaquín Palacios)

Marc Masclans Gold in Master Painting (Giant is Allan Carrasco's)

Bruno Llavallé Gold in Master Painting

Sergio Calvo Silver in Master Painting

I had the privilege and the enormous responsibility of being part of the judging team in the Fantasy section, together with my friends and masters Alfonso Giraldes (Banshee) and Jose Palomares (JMPN). It was a great task as usual, and very tough. It was a great pleasure to see friends like Toni Nieto and Marc Masclans take their awards. In this case especially Toni Nieto because his works are absolutely unique and something we would like to see developed further in our little world of miniatures. Congratulations again on the BoS, Toni! Well deserved!

Also, I did not make many pics of the Historical section, but I want to congratulate Juan Carlos Ávila on his Best of Show Historical, for his great display in this category. Congratulations Juan Carlos!

But the contest was not the only thing we could enjoy this weekend. As part of the show, there were some additional exhibitions you could see, such as a Star Wars custom made toy collection, and painting demos from masters Banshee and JMPN (together with Sergio Calvo as part of Big Child Creatives), or the sculpting demo by Antonio Zapatero (which I unfortunately missed because I was judging at the same time).

Alfonso Giraldes during his painting masterclass

Jose Palomares explains and Sergio Calvo executes, Big Child Creatives painting masterclass

And the thing that makes Soldat de Plom unique is it's environment. Girona is a truly beautiful city, with great sights and food to feast upon. The contest is held very conveniently the weekend when the local festivities take place, so there's lots of life, party and fun. You can witness many traditional events from Girona!

Traditional "Castellet" in front of the cathedral and the venue where Soldat de Plom takes place

Lunch with great friends

And of course, beware the plans during the night, or you may miss the early hours of the event during the day...

Nightlife is tough during Girona's local festivities... with Marc Masclans

I want to thank very much all of the people from El Baluard, the association in charge of the event organization, for their wonderful hospitality and kindness. It's been a great pleasure to be able to collaborate with them this weekend, and it's been very fun. I am especially thankful to Ignasi Tor and Josep Maria Blanco (Kalpurgis) for treating us so well. Josep Maria is also a wonderful speaker, you should have seen him during dinner on Saturday!

If you want to see more stuff about this great event, don't forget to check in at El Baluard's facebook page. You should certainly consider paying them a visit next year!

Until our next meeting Girona (next year most probably)!

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