Apologies in advance for the poor quality of the photos. The lighting was absolutely awful so I didn't both taking many pictures. Most of these armies are featured on blogs so I'll link to them so you can see more of the armies if you're interested.
Today I'd like to start with the Best Painted Army category. This was easily the biggest category but only 4 players gained any votes. Peter Barrett's Blood Angels took a single vote in 4th place.
Next up were Luke Fogg's Howling Griffons/Ultramarines with 3 votes. Luke was showcasing his progress in the hobby by including the first miniatures he ever painted alongside those that he'd recently completed. It was interesting to see the progress. I've still got pictures of my first miniatures (also Ultramarines) but I no longer own the models. You can see more of Luke's Howling Griffons on his blog.
In second place with 8 votes were Chris Buckle's Imperial Fists (Legiones Astartes) which were heavily featured in the run up to the event when I was showcasing armies in progress. It's impressive to think that a lot of these miniatures weren't painted a couple of months ago.
The outright winner though with 16 votes (57%) were Steve Horne's Raven Guard. You may remember them from the army showcase too but they were even more impressive in the flesh. Even in the poor lighting conditions! I think it's always a good sign when a black army wins the prizes. So often people are drawn to the brightly coloured models (part of the reason I painted my IKs orange!) but it's nice to see that the less eye catching armies get the appreciation they deserve.
There was a notable absence from this competition with Dave Weston deciding not to display his whole Dark Angels force and instead entering the character category. If you'd like to look at his stuff in more detail then head to his blog, 40K Addict. Finally, here's a few honourable mentions:
Next up is the Conversions section of the contest.