Roll out the red carpet, buff the Golden Throne, and don your black tie power armour for another glamorous celebration of the world’s greatest hobbyists.* That’s right, it’s time for the Armies on Parade 2022 awards show.
This ceremony is our opportunity to recognise the best and brightest of the Warhammer community, who’ve been hard at work on spectacular armies since the dawn of the year. You can check out the stream right here, and follow as our hosts take you through some absolutely jaw-dropping winners.
If the video stream isn’t showing, enable cookies and refresh the page. If you’d prefer not to, you can catch the show directly on Twitch right here.
To jump straight to the winners in each category, click on the relevant button below.
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Before we see the winners, let’s check out what some of our hardworking Warhammer staff have been doing on for Armies of Parade this year.
This year our three judges were Max Faleij from ’Eavy Metal, Louise Sugden from Citadel Masterclass, and Tyler Mengel, who you’ll know from his prodigious painting work in the community, and his From the Mind of Mengel series on Warhammer Community.
“Armies on Parade has always been my favourite hobby competition of the year and it feels wonderful to be part of the esteemed judging panel with such awesome painters as Max and Tyler! We’re always buzzing when this time of year comes around and, as ever, we were blown away by the creativity and skill of this year's entries.”
– Louise Sugden
“Warhammer 40,000 has such a rich and broad range of armies to pick from, this year the winners all had really strong narrative themes infused into their displays that really helped push them to the next level! The Gold-winning Blood Angels were a true joy to see, and the way it’s displayed with the forced perspective added to the board, through use of models at different scales, was really fun and unexpected!”
– Max Faleij
Johan’s heavily converted Aeldari really taps into their alien nature, bringing out a galaxy of strange textures – truly cryptic and fearsome.
This entry by Shaoge Hu is at once an Armies on Parade entry and a diorama worthy of the Warhammer World exhibition thanks to the detail of all those bustling greenskins working on painstakingly built innards of an Ork Stompa.
As Max has already said, Rafał Maj’s entry has top-notch painting which helped set it apart, but the clever use of scaled models and detailed conversions on key units are well worth pointing out.
“The Age of Sigmar category was particularly hard for me this year. If I could have given all three winners first place, I would. From the stunning conversions of Raphaël's Gloomspite Gitz, to the vivid colours of Toni's Kruleboyz, to the dark majesty of Erika's Soulblight, they all capture perfectly the soul of the Mortal Realms. Of course there could only be one Gold though, and the dripping blood castle of the Kastelai is just so creative and well executed that it rightfully took the top spot.”
– Tyler Mengel
Gloomspite Gitz are always a favourite pick for Armies on Parade, because who can say no to such adorable blighters? Raphaël Boyd’s entry combines lush paintwork with some brilliant conversions.
Toni García Crespo’s Kruleboyz are an explosion of rich and sickly greens – painted to an exceptional standard, there are plenty of smart conversions and a really novel display board to boot.
A giant castle made of blood materialising out of thin air to disgorge its vampiric contents… Erika Santarelli’s entry is a technical marvel, and totally captures the vibe of Age of Sigmar.
“The Best of the Rest category is the most diverse and therefore maybe the hardest! We see all of our favourite systems like Middle-earth, Blood Bowl, Adeptus Titanicus, and Necromunda all presented in unique and wonderful ways. Graham Shirley’s dense and detailed Necromunda board really stood out to me this year. His painting is superb and each character shows real personalities. It all comes together to tell a story which for me really takes an Armies on Parade board to the next level.”
– Louise Sugden
Scott Newman’s entry marries wonderful painting with some atmospheric effects to recreate a fan favourite scene right out of The Lord of The Rings: Return of The King™.
Good things can come in small packages, and Evan Valdyke’s Adeptus Titanicus board is a compact beauty with brilliant additional details that really sell the scale.
Clever use of Necromunda terrain and some next-level painting bag Graham Shirley the Gold with this Cawdor Gang and Hangers-On. Where on earth did they get that tank from in the Underhive?!
Every year our inbox is absolutely overflowing with entries for Armies on Parade – we covered plenty of them in the Online Awards, but our judges also wanted to single out a handful for a few special awards of their own devising.
“Every year we’re filled with equal parts excitement and dread when faced with the task of having to pick just three winners for each category. With the ridiculous amount of exceptional entries we receive each year – we quickly realised that we need to showcase some of the amazing armies that didn't quite make it into the top three, but no doubt deserve recognition for their amazing hobby achievements all the same!”
– Max Faleij
The “In the grim darkness of the far future…” award goes to… James Stone.
“This board captures something that few can do right, the subtle use of neutral tones and carefully balanced value-contrast really conveys the bleak and dark future of the Imperium and specifically the sinister Sisters of Silence. The atmosphere is fantastic and the subtle conversion and personal touches throughout really push it to another level!”
– Max Faleij
The “Mastering the arcane science of Necrodermis” award goes to… James Taro.
“James is well known for his elaborate Armies on Parade boards, with loads of awesome entries from past years already in the bag, this year’s entry does not disappoint! The display itself is obviously amazing and the army spread across the monolithic structure is really cool as well.”
– Max Faleij
The “Future ‘Eavy Metal painter” award goes to… Olly B (age 14).
“Not only is the army displayed in a really cool way, on a plateau floating above the clouds, but the painting is great. You can tell that Olly has paid a lot of attention to how we’ve painted the studio’s collection of Lumineth that are displayed on the front of the boxes, and it really comes through in his painting!”
–Max Faleij
The “Power of a (star) god in the palm of my hand…” award goes to… Ivan Yurin.
“I love entries that tell stories, and this mound of Necrons does that with aplomb. There's a super strong narrative element to this, with the warriors and scarabs lifting their Cryptek up with their resurrection. The composition is also great with everything pointing towards the Cryptek and his glowing orb, which casts its eerie light over all of it and draws your eye.”
– Tyler Mengel
The “Orkimedes' Disciple” award goes to… Mark Ranson.
“Orks have always embodied a kind of organised chaos, and this entry fits that perfectly. I'm always a fan of multi-layered Armies on Parade entries. Each section of this display tells its own little story, from the portal of orky psychic might, to the Stompa awaiting deployment.”
– Tyler Mengel
The “Glory of Azyr” award goes to… Fan Yang 杨帆.
“I think the name of the award says it all. He has really captured the majesty of the Stormcast Eternals assembled for war. All of the models are painted to a superb standard, with non-metallic metal across the whole army. It's also a great cross section of the army, with miniatures from a variety of chambers,and plenty of mighty heroes. That Realmgate is just magnificent and fits the army perfectly. I particularly like how they've mimicked the actual Realmgate scenery piece with the frieze across the top.”
– Tyler Mengel
The “A Journey Into the Past” award goes to… Jose Manuel Pla Albiach.
“This is such a deep and creative piece and was one of my favourites in the whole show. The amount of detail packed into each ‘room’ of this board filled me with such nostalgia and awe, and I found myself poring over every nook and cranny. As a massive fan of Mike McVey’s** diorama work, seeing this entry was a real treat and super inspirational, it definitely deserves a special mention.”
– Louise Sugden
The “Those Trees Were my Friends…” award goes to… Haydn Cartwright.
“I’m sure I speak for all the judges when I say we have a real soft spot for Middle-earth. We always love seeing our favourite movie moments brought to life in miniature form, and the stellar paint jobs and creative use of the ‘board’ in this one filled us all with so much delight we went back for seconds.”
– Louise Sugden
The “We finally Made it Boss!!” award goes to… Andrew Park
“As soon as I saw this board I knew it would be amongst my favourites. I love these old Orks so much, and these are painted absolutely perfectly to reflect the era they're from right down to the smallest chequered freehanding. Truly a wonderful sight to see and Andrew really knocked it out of the Park (hehe).”
– Louise Sugden
That’s another incredible year of painting coming to a close down, which means it’s almost time to start preparing for Armies on Parade 2023! Stay tuned to Warhammer Community next week for information on just how next year’s competition will work.
* That's you, by the way!
** A legendary ‘Eavy Metal painter from an earlier Warhammer era.