This year, I opted to leave my armies at home and do nothing but painting seminars. I signed up for 12 of them. It was way, way too many. They were scheduled in two hour blocks, half an hour apart. So I only have about 30 minutes between classes to run and grab food or sprint to the vendor hall. I did a lot of speed walking through the event. I stopped int a few tournaments, too, but not as many as I had hoped. There's always more to see and do than you can pack into a single weekend.
Next year (because I dearly hope to return next year) I'll try to limit myself to 9 max. But who knows what awesome artists they might have next year? Could foil my carefully laid plans. I'll be doing a two part post on classes over the next couple days, one on Thursday/Friday classes and the second on Saturday/Sunday classes.
I got a VIG swag bag (perk of GNT, actually). It was even better than the previous year's, but that's a separate post, too. But I was disappointed to find out that the VIGs did not get early access to the vendor hall again. Last year we got in half an hour early (if I recall correctly) but they decided not to do that this year, for whatever reason. Not a big deal, but I was looking forward to it.
As last year, they had the fantastic painting area set up near the seminar rooms where you could go and sit for a spell, work on some minis, and chat with the huge variety of talented individuals who came by. I ran into a lot of old friends this year and made some new ones, too. That might be my favorite part of the whole con. I just wish I had left myself a little more free time to spend time there.
Wyrd made an appearance in the vendor hall which was fantastic. Forgeworld returned again as did many of last year's vendors. Reaper had a big booth, too, as well as their awesome "paint and take" tables over by the Crystal Brush displays. Disappointingly, Scale 75 did not return this year. I had been planning on spending some money at their booth.
All in all, this year was a great experience. I got some great stuff, hung out with some awesome people, and learned an absolute ton about painting. More than before, I'm feeling inspired by the hobby again.