Golden Demon 2026 Finalists Part 2: AoS, Middle-earth, Dioramas

Warhammer Community has revealed the second batch of Golden Demon 2026 SPIEL Essen finalists, and this one covers Warhammer Age of Sigmar, the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game and Dioramas. There were so many standout entries that the finalists are split over three articles. Here is every single finalist from part two, all 26 of them, category by category. All photos: Games Workshop / Warhammer Community.

Published November 10, 2026. Part one (Warhammer 40,000, Duel and Necromunda) is in our first finalists gallery. A third part is still to come.

What is a Golden Demon finalist?

Every Golden Demon category has a shortlist of finalists, picked from hundreds of entries. The judges then hand out gold, silver and bronze from that list. Making the final at all puts a painter among the best in the world that year, so every model below is worth a slow look. For the medals and the Slayer Sword, see our Golden Demon 2026 SPIEL Essen winners list.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Single Miniature

Nine finalists, and the Mortal Realms clearly bring out some wild base work. Nurgle had a very good showing in this category.

A red-armoured Khorne warrior with two axes and a brass Khorne rune on his back, charging over a glowing lava base — **Kuan Tien Tung:** a Khorne warrior charging with two axes, the base glowing like hot lava.

A Skaven engineer in purple robes and a metal mask with a mechanical claw arm and a long warp-bladed staff, standing on a wooden crate with smoking machinery — **Thibaut Rahm:** a Skaven engineer with a mechanical claw and a smoking contraption at his feet.

An orange-skinned creature in a purple hood with a pipe and a bundle of sticks, a small purple-hatted goblin flying above him, on a swampy base with reeds — **Ross McCusker:** a swamp creature in a purple hood with a little gremlin flying over his head. Full of character.

A Nurgle warrior in rotting green armour with a spiked flail and bells on his back, standing on a clear resin water base with skulls under the surface — **Dominik Neumaier:** a Nurgle warrior over a swamp you can see into, with bones sunk in the water.

A huge Nurgle warrior with antlers, a bloated bare arm and a cleaver, leaning by a stone pillar dripping with gore, with flies circling — **Erkka Marttio:** a massive Nurgle warrior with antlers and a swollen arm, flies buzzing round the pillar.

A red-haired heroine in a pink robe raising a sword under a twisted tree, a small blue-winged dragon perched in the branches, on a carved stone plinth — **Lukas Holmström Friman:** a heroine raising her sword under a twisted tree, a little dragon watching from the branches.

An armoured knight with a winged lion helmet, a red cape, a long sword and a gold lion shield, on a mossy rock base with a toad — **Bastien Salvador:** a knight with a winged lion helm and a cape that looks like real cloth. Spot the toad on the base.

A pale green horned beastman with a Nurgle eye on his belly swinging a rusty cleaver on a dusty base with skulls and a bell — **Michał Mikłowski-Paszek:** a plague-ridden beastman swinging a rusty cleaver.

A dark hulking brute with an axe standing on a slime-covered ruin under a stone pillar with hanging roots — **Thor Intararangson:** a brute in a ruin dripping with green slime, roots hanging from above. A tall, moody piece.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Unit, Warcry or Underworlds Warband

Six finalists, from a full Gloomspite mob to a Skaven ambush.

A human warband in steel and red armour with a big red and blue banner, led by a robed priestess, on a rocky base — **Morten Fredheim:** a human warband under a huge banner, led by a fiery old priestess. Check out the Cities of Sigmar guide if this look is your thing.

A unit of aelven warriors in silver armour and purple robes with tall crested helmets, swords and a purple banner, on a stone and grass base — **Mateusz Turlej:** aelven warriors in silver and purple, banner flying.

A pile of hooded Gloomspite Gitz goblins with a shaman, two pink squigs with huge teeth, on a blue cave rock base — **Rafael García Marín:** a Gloomspite Gitz mob in purple hoods with two snapping squigs. The colours on this one pop off the screen.

A duardin warband in purple and gold armour with a horned leader, a banner and a captured goblin, on a purple rock base — **Kuan Tien Tung:** a duardin warband in purple and gold. Tung also made the Single Miniature final (above).

Skaven assassins in purple cloaks with curved blades leaping across a ruined wooden balcony with iron railings — **Joshua Jansma:** Skaven assassins leaping across a ruined balcony. The scenery is as good as the rats.

A Nurgle warband with a rider on a rotting horse, a scythe and a shield, green-armoured warriors and fat pox-ridden cultists framed by huge curved tusks — **Diego Ruiz Lacaci:** a full Nurgle warband framed by giant tusks, led by a rider on a rotting horse.

Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

Six finalists from The Lord of the Rings and The War of the Rohirrim ranges.

Helm Hammerhand from The War of the Rohirrim with a white beard, a fur cloak and his huge war hammer, on a grassy base with flowers — **Joshua Gatti:** Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan, leaning on his famous hammer.

Héra from The War of the Rohirrim with long red hair and a sword, standing on a grassy base with yellow flowers — **Dario Colasanti:** Héra, Helm's daughter, sword in hand.

A dwarf with a red beard sitting against ruined stone arches smoking a pipe, his axe resting on a fallen orc — **Dimosthenis Xylas:** a dwarf taking a pipe break on a fallen orc. Xylas was also a finalist in Warhammer 40,000 Single Miniature (see part one).

A warrior in gold and black armour with a red cape and a tall bladed spear, one foot up on a sandstone rock — **Théodore Auclair:** a commander in gold armour and a red cape, spear raised.

A Haradrim warrior in a red turban holding a spear and a red banner with a black serpent, on a sandy base — **Matthias Aigner:** a Haradrim warrior under the black serpent banner.

A man in a green cloak with a sword climbing over ruined stone carvings next to a broken pillar — **Clément Iliou:** a ranger in a green cloak climbing through the ruins.

Diorama

The Diorama category is about telling a whole story in one scene, and these five do exactly that.

A golden shrine with painted panels of a giant battle, a pale winged ghoul crouching on the stone steps in front, with a plaque reading Glory of Ushoran — **Karol Rudyk:** "Glory of Ushoran". A winged Flesh-eater Courts horror crouches in front of a golden shrine, and the panels behind it are painted by hand like a church altarpiece. Our pick of the whole batch.

A giant mutated creature strapped to a wooden frame in a Skaven laboratory full of pipes, cages, candles and glowing green tanks — **Yohan Leduc:** a giant experiment strapped up in a Skaven lab, with cages, candles and glowing warpstone tanks everywhere.

A huge green orruk with an axe on top of a ruined wall, more orruks with red shields and a small goblin on a mossy base with mushrooms — **Dean Lecoq:** orruks storming a ruined wall, with a tiny grot running for it. Lecoq was a finalist in two 40K categories too (see part one).

Space Marines in dark armour with red cloaks advancing down steps under a huge gothic arch, a full moon and a city skyline painted behind them, crows on top — **Aythami Alonso Torrent:** Space Marines stepping out of a gothic arch under a full moon. The painted night sky is incredible.

Space Wolves Space Marines and wolves fighting on a snowy rock under a burning pine tree, with a blue wolf banner in the middle — **Paweł Makuch:** Space Wolves and their wolves on a snowy crag under a burning pine. There are dozens of tiny details to find in this one.

Like this kind of news? Get the WIZY weekly: one email every Sunday, no spam.

Feeling inspired?

If these make you want to paint, a painting starter set with paints and brushes is the easiest way in. For Middle-earth fans, the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game starter set gets you heroes and armies in one box, and an Age of Sigmar starter set does the same for the Mortal Realms. For the tiny details, see our magnifying lamps for miniature painting, our Tone Pro paints guide and the Warhammer start-here page.

My take

Part two is all about storytelling. Rudyk's shrine, Leduc's Skaven lab and Makuch's Space Wolves are whole scenes, not just models on a base. And Nurgle had a huge day: four of the Age of Sigmar finalists are covered in rot. If you paint, look at how much the bases add to every single entry.

WIZY Blog is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Games Workshop. All photos belong to Games Workshop and the painters.

Sources

Warhammer Community: Golden Demon 2026 – SPIEL Essen Finalists, Part Two warhammer-community.com
Warhammer Community: Golden Demon 2026 winners revealed at SPIEL Essen warhammer-community.com

Written by the WIZY creator

A lifelong gamer and Warhammer painter, and the maker of the WIZY RPG game. I write about games, hardware, Warhammer and crypto in plain English, and I check every fact against its source.