I can't really think of a better inaugural post for Counter Clockwise: I finally* won a Demon! Bronze in the diorama category, to be specific. I've wanted one of these since the summer of 1989, when I was in my friend Jeremy's basement looking at his issues of White Dwarf. I had just begun painting figures after seeing some of his BattleTech miniatures. Before I'd begun, in fact, as we had just returned from our FLHS, University Hobbies, where I'd purchased my first figures and supplies: a blister each of Space Marines and Space Orks, some paints (the old square jars of Testors enamels), and some brushes.
Anyway. I was flipping through the pages, looking at the figures, and specifically looking for painting articles. One of the issues featured winners from one of the first Golden Demons. I think it may have been the second one, as I believe the first was held in 1987, though I may be wrong about that. I remember the Slayer Sword winner was Ivan Bartleet, but given that he won the first two, I can't say exactly which year it was. Regardless, I was hooked, and that was how I got started in this hobby. Well, that, plus a large foray into Car Wars a few years prior in junior high, and even then it wasn't until we began involving miniatures in the form of Matchbox cars that I really got into it heavily. We didn't paint them, though, so it only counts insofar as it pointed me in the direction that eventually led to miniatures.
I should have photos up of my entry in the gallery in the near future. I have a new(ish) DSLR, and I want to re-shoot all of my previous work before putting it up here.
*This was my first time entering. So, "finally" as in "I've wanted one for a long time, but haven't had the chance to enter until now," not "finally after multiple attempts."