Ough ... what can I say?

Somehow it feels that I am not able to look inside and find what I want to say.

On the first glance.

On the second I see a lot I want to say.

Thanks a lot to everybody who sent congratulations to me about the sword or did so on the Games Day itself. I am totally stunned. Still.

I guess best will be just to sit down and write down what my fingers will type ... so it might get a little confusing in the end. I also feel a little pressure from the outside as I have won the sword now and now I am swordwinner and a lot of people might read my words and I have to think about what I am saying now, but this is bullshit. I am still Roman, the same as before and I will say what comes from my heart like always.

What I want to say first:
It was a great pleasure and true joy to see so many painters and friends again or for the first time. The people who attented this years Games Day, those who made the weekend what it was. A weekend full of holidays. I really enjoyed having so many great chats and deeper talks with new and old friends. Thank you for that! I won't cover the whole event here as I am really exhausted and just happy that my fingers are typing what is running through my mind. I want to congratulate every winner and everyone who took part in the contest. The cabinets where filled with great pieces all over and honestly I am happy that a lot of people made good photos of all of them as I wasn't really able to catch them all while looking at the cabinets. It was just too much mindblowing stuff going on there.

I already found great reports in words and pictures about the event - here is a list for you where you definatly should step by to see the event from other perspectives:





 

The German Games Day 2013 has passed. 

The day I had as a goal since 2,5 months with my big project. The day who made me skip summer this year and hide in a little hot cave for too long, close to insanity.

The day that came closer while I got more and more exhausted with working on my diorama. I said to myself on last weeks Thursday - three days before the GD - that it was finished.

On my schedule I still found some points for Friday, like painting the socket black, adding the socket label, but very fast while doing so on Friday I found myself working here and there again. On Friday evening I had to pack and prepare the project for the travel to Cologne so I said to myself again: Now you are finished! During our six hour car ride I felt every distraction of the road, every little bump made my heart cry while sitting in the car as I thought something will definatly break. I guess a lot of people know what I try to describe here. On Saturday we arrived at Phil's place and were greeted by busy painter friends who were painting like madmen. Thanks to Phil and Mareike for the awesome hospitality and thanks to Elias, Rafael, Bene, Valerie, Manuel, Lilly and Raffa for the nice time we enjoyed together.




It was great for me to not have to paint anymore as I was really exhausted and kind of sick of painting after 400 hours + I pushed into my project.

I knew how they felt while painting as Sunday was getting closer and closer. I was happy to say to myself I am finished with my project. It's so easy said, but believe me I know a thousand spots where I still could put some time in and I still would know many more if I would work on those thousands. I was still not finished. While I was checking for transport damage I found a little something to do here and there and did it. And again I said to myself, now I am done, but honestly this was lie. Somehow a project is never finished. For sure not if you put around 127 figures together for a diorama.

At the evening some still had to finish their paintwork and some of us choose to make our way to the Pre-Games-Day-Party. We did not make it in time for the dinner, but it was great fun to meet all the crazy figure painters in the hotel lobby. It really felt like a big family meeting and it was so good to see so many faces there. In fact I can not tell you much more as after entering the lobby all memories about that happening where lost. Holiday again. Drinking a beer (thanks to the danish guys I had my first one very fast!!), having a chat here, looking at a figure there, having a deep talk here, drinking a beer, drinking another beer, more figures, people, topics, hellos, beer, figures and beer and ... and around three in the morning I was sleeping back at Philip's.

Sunday.
We had way to less sleep but arrived in time at the Gürzenich, where the event took place. We had to organise the painting demonstration booths and prepare things here and there before the halls were opened to public. During the email conversation with Alex from GW in July who organised this years event I got asked if MV would like to do a presentation in the Auditorium and we thought about that.

I said: "Yeah, why not!" and prepared my personal entry for the fourty minute presentation called "This is how a Golden Entry grows - from start to finish." Thanks to everybody who came for this and listened. During this presentation I finally felt the call inside me "It is really finished now!" ...

At this point I want to say thanks to Sybille, Jens and Christopher who wrote me a mail today on how much they enjoyed this presentation and the deep insights into my project. Also a big thanks to Michael from Masterminis.net for saying such kind words about it too. Thanks to the organisation of the Games Day that this was possible and organised/prepared so well.

...
Read more in part 2 ... soon!
Including more Kong Fu, some WIP photos of my entry and more ...