FiMaJe 2013 report
Cheers folks, and miniatures lovers!
I'm thrilled and honored to have the opportunity of
offering u a report on the FiMaJe, the painting competition (but not only that)
which took place in Antibes from November 22nd-23rd.
As you could have read in the last posts by Michael, the
lord of Pestilence decided to take down our dearest President and Ben so they
could not make it. How unfortunate, but we know they will come the next year!
So fellows, what is the FiMaJe ? Like I said it's a
painting competition but not only that. It's a convention where you can find a lot
of things related to our hobby. The event is organised by the association La
Compagnie des Trolls and his president Antoine Racano.
What is FiMaJe?
FI : figurine, excuse my french, ergo miniatures MA :
marquette, or scale model and JE : jeux, or games.
This is what you can find at our convention ! So it's not only a painting contest. I've been to a lot of events and
sometimes after all the fuzz of the first hours, one can find that time passes by
quite slowly. Let's be honest, in our little world, when you don't find a good
ambiance or something else to do, a contest alone can prove a little bit
annoying. The only one for me that rocks from beginning to end was Monte San Savino.
But now there is the FiMaJe!
This year's FiMaJe was the third edition and it was quite a success.
It took place in Antibes in the south of France near Nice, in the convention center of
the Fort Carré. It is opened to the public during the whole weekend.
Divided in two separate buildings, you can find one space dedicated to the miniatures with the
contest, games and shops, and the other one to the role playing games,
illustrators and scale modelers.
This year featured a scale model of
the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean, two R2D2's wandering around at scale
1:1, and some cosplayers. Many french associations and clubs came too to display
there skills and works : For example, Lugdunum, the Team Toulouse... Here is the complete list.
But what is the coolest part in the Fimaje is that you can
interact a lot with great artists. On could say the rising and established stars
from France and abroad were there. At FiMaJe you could have met José Manuel Palomares,
Christian Hardy, Stéphane Camosseto, Allan Carrasco, Patrick Masson, Didier
Francagne, Valentin Zak, Gauthier Giroud and many more - all of them displaying there works
and speaking or teaching the people. A little private lesson for anyone who
asked !
As the days goes on, you could also try out some board games, miniature games (Warmachine and such) or indulge in some shopping. Some of the french brands, such as Smart Max, Ammon miniatures, Skulls mini or Blacksmith miniatures, were displaying there new releases.
Of course one could find hot drinks and food to cope with the cold outside. All in all, it was like heaven for the geeks which we all are! ^^
The first night was, as usual, a moment of friendship and
music, as we all gather around Dino, from Pivato, who feasted us with his legendary
grappa and some Italian delicatessen and cheese. (Michael: You know Dino from the MSS 2013 report)
What about the miniature then? This year we had an increase of more
than 50% increase of the number of entered pieces, giving a total of more than 300
different pieces!
From beginners to masters, all tried to achieve some
great results. The Master category was of course the more impressive with
miniatures from Spanish painters (the new studio Big Child Production working
for Dark Ages), and French artists like Julien Casses, Frédéric Bisseux,
Nicolas Rouanet, Edouard Negre...
In the end the Best of Show went to Christian Hardy with
his really complete display gathering conversions and full scratch builds. Well deserved in my opinion!
So I wish that the FiMaJe can continue his road like
that. Once you visit FiMaJe, you become a members of our great and ever growing family. Long
live the FiMaJe! Maybe we will see YOU in 2014? ;)
Here are some links for pictures and impressions from FiMaJe. Share & Enjoy! :D
Thank you Ed!
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| Édouard Negre at FiMaJe 2013 |
First of all thanks to Ed for sharing his report with us so that we all can enjoy ;)
As we posted earlier on this blog, Ben and I got so sick that there was no way for us to fly over to Antibes - even though we had a lot of great stuff prepared for the show...
And Ed's report painfully reminds me that we seem to have missed an awesome show! I personally like the mixture of miniature competitions, workshops, scale modelling, boardgames, concept artists and more...
We'll be there in 2014 for sure!
We'll be there in 2014 for sure!
Want to report from your event?
It's quite surprising actually, that this is the first 'guest report' we have on our blog. We travel to a lot of events. Really, a LOT! But of course, we can't go to every competition there is - it would be too time consuming and - unfortunately - too expensive.
So if you are running an event or visited a smaller event which you liked, why not send us a report and some pictures and we'll put it up for more people to see! We have between 70,000-140,000 views per month and it would be great free advertising for your show/event!
Unlike some big company's events (I shall not name them here ^^), the smaller, independent shows are growing year after year. Why? Because there fricking awesome, and they do it for us nerds - that's why! D'oh!
Oh, and don't forget to open your 'Advent Calendar!' Door #1 is open, Door #2 will follow tonight ;)
SHARE & ENJOY!
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