I’m a G that loves having a gander at beautifully painted Warhammer minis, so obviously I love Golden Demon. I attend it, I occasionally enter it, and I’ve even managed to scrape together a handful of finalist pins… which I then painted… and then entered Golden Demon with. But lately, like everyone else with functioning eyeballs, I’ve noticed the standard has absolutely skyrocketed—every year the entries feel beyond belief. So I wanted to answer the real question: when did Warhammer painters get so good? In this video I use the Golden Demon Compendium (an absolute treasure trove of hobby nerd history) to time-travel through Golden Demon from 1987 to now. We start with the ‘80s: loads of whimsy, wild conversions, sculpting, and what I’d call the first “meta”—freehand and banners. Then the ‘90s click into that iconic bold, saturated ‘Eavy Metal vibe: crisp, clean Marines and sharp highlights. In the 2000s it flips hard into grimdark realism—muted colours, weathering, and grit—and by the 2010s we get the rise of non-metallic metal and “paint everything to the 11th degree.” Finally, the modern era goes beyond just the mini: resin pours, mirror tricks, insane basing and full-scene creativity. The big takeaway is simple: nobody gets good overnight—perfection can take decades, and that’s kind of the point.