I am finally back from some days of relaxing holidays in the amazing Lago Maggiore in Italy.
I spent there an incredible weekend (11th, 12th, 13th of July) attending the World Model Expo, and stayed there for three days more to enjoy some well deserved relaxing holidays.
Probably all of you already know but it is fair to mention that the World Expo is an event held once every three years in different cities around the world, where the best, finest, renowned brushes around worldwide fight for the Best of Show in an environment full of friendship, partnership and good mood (and food).
The contest itself is based on an open format competition, meaning that you present a display of models based on a specific style (Fantasy, Historical, Boats, Dioramas, Aircrafts, etc...) and such display is judged as a whole. This kind of format is much different than the one in other competitions (like the Golden Demon) because there is not one gold, one silver and one bronze per category, but several depending on some scoring established by the judges.
And this huge amount of medals makes the prizing ceremony to last an eternity (2,5 hours!).
Apart from the contest there has been also a commercial area where the most important manufacturers and distributors could sell their models, magazines, bases and any other hobby related stuff (in some cases with very interesting discounts).
The event itself was great (not perfect but great).
The location was perfect (yes, that was perfect): Stresa. An amazing town in the shore of the Lago Maggiore full of great people, great food and not so great weather :-)
I arrived on Saturday morning and had no issue at all in delivering my models (although I was told that some hours before some people had to wait for almost one hour to present). I was bringing two displays: Fantasy Master Open and Fantasy Master Painting. And for both of them the organization had reserved a space with my inscription number (well, for me and for every participant).
In case you would like to know what I presented here you have the P&P links:
The Aftermath (2014) - (Some pictures soon)
After I presented it was time to spend some money, to take a look at the figures in the contest (around 5.000 from 1.000 artists) and catch up with the friends.
And all of a sudden it was Saturday night... Time to watch the World Cup Final... And Germany won...
On Sunday you could feel the tension in the air, and you could hear all the bets and rumors about the medals and the Best of Show. But of course all of them were just rumors and the judges were instructed to keep their mouth shut. And they did!
4pm arrived fast and the trophies ceremony started in the auditorium of the venue. It was full of people, sitting and standing. And that, combined to the huge amount of categories and medals (both too many in my opinion, up to the point to run out of medals...) made the temperature to start increasing more and more, minute after minute...
Most of my friends in the event won medals and I would like to congratulate all of them: Felicidades chicos!!!
I am not going to say the names because for sure I will miss someone and will be mad at me forever :-)
And what about the BOS?
The BOS was for Kostas Kariotellis with a piece called "From Atlantis": a semi-mechanical winged centaur that quite probably has a story and background behind (as every piece from this Greek artist) but I did not get it yet...I will have ton investigate. I was not able to take a close look at it during during the event and unfortunately the pictures of the organization are not very good. For this reason I don't think I can build my opinion yet about such piece.
Whoever what I can say is that I am very proud of what the Fantasy has done in these last 10 years, from the moment it became one part of these kind of painting competitions until now when a Fantasy model has achieved the Best of Show in a World Expo.
And what about me?
I won two silvers medals with my two displays and I could not be happier (well, actually I could but I am very happy anyway :-) ).
In summary, a great weekend with friends enjoying a very well prepared event in a marvelous town where I would like to retire someday :-)
I hope in three years we can repeat this experience again. Where? To be defined yet...