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["title_eng"]=>
string(34) "We attended: Monte San Savino 2025"
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string(39) "Nastupili smo na: Monte San Savino 2025"
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string(13933) "
Our Ivan brings you a report from the best miniature painting competition in the world.
In a small town in Italy, one of the largest and most prestigious miniature exhibitions in the world has been held every year since 2006, bringing together miniaturists from all over the world. The Knezović clan decided that it was a shame that Croatians did not come to the Monte San Savino Show, so after a great time at Kontrast, a miniature exhibition in Warsaw, we decided to visit Italy as well.
The exhibition is held in Tuscany, and all the content related to it is located within the walls of the castle around which most of the town is located. The exhibition is set in an exceptionally beautiful setting of a medieval castle, with which no other similar miniature event can be compared. The town itself allows visitors to easily get to know each other, as most of them gravitate to the square in the center of the castle.
We set off on Friday, November 14, 2025, and it took us about eight hours to get to our accommodation. Italian motorways are good, but Italians themselves often don't know what lanes are for or how to use turn signals. Large trucks often swerved left and right, and drivers usually only turned on their turn signals after they had finished changing lanes. Fortunately, none of the miniatures were damaged in transit. The Patafix and plastic box are more than enough protection for the models.
We distributed a large number of flyers in the hope that some of the visitors would come to our Black Queen, and some even promised us that they would (try to) come. We also awarded the UMS Agram Best of Show medal. We did not proceed in a "judgmental" manner, but rather we sought the work (or works) of a miniaturist that we enjoy the most. I have long appreciated Magnus Fagerberg's works and have often used them as references in my own work. They were even better in person, which is usually the case with all top-notch works. Therefore, UMS Agram presented Magnus, in addition to the Best of Show medal, with a terranino to accompany the Monograph on our work.
The exhibition itself featured the best works that we usually see on social networks, and there were about 2,000 of them in total. Almost all of the winners of this year's Golden Demon also brought their models to Monte San Savino.
The results we achieved were very good, considering the exceptionally high average quality of the works. Filip won one gold with his works in the Storytelling Standard category, while I (Ivan) won one bronze in the Storytelling Master category and one bronze in the Fantasy Painting Master category.
I'll leave the best part of the article for last, photos of some of the models we saw. Filip has since learned how to use a macro lens, so I'd say the photos turned out great.
"
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Naš Ivan vam donosi reportažu sa najboljeg natjecanja u bojanju minijatura na svijetu.
U malom gradiću u Italiji svake se godine, još od 2006., održava jedna od najvećih i najprestižnijih izložbi minijatura na svijetu, koja okuplja minijaturiste iz cijeloga svijeta. Klan Knezović zaključio je da je šteta što na Monte San Savino Show ne dolaze Hrvati, pa smo nakon odličnog provoda na Kontrastu, izložbi minijatura u Varšavi, odlučili posjetiti i Italiju.
Izložba se održava u Toskani, a svi sadržaji vezani uz nju smješteni su unutar zidina dvorca oko kojeg se nalazi veći dio mjesta. Izložba je postavljena u iznimno lijepom ambijentu srednjovjekovnog dvorca, s kojim se ne može usporediti nijedan drugi sličan minijaturistički događaj. Sam gradić omogućuje posjetiteljima da se lako upoznaju, jer većina njih gravitira trgu u središtu dvorca.
Na put smo krenuli u petak, 14. studenoga 2025., te smo putovali oko osam sati do našeg smještaja. Talijanske autoceste su dobre, ali sami Talijani nerijetko ne znaju čemu služe prometne trake ili kako se koriste žmigavci. Veliki kamioni često su lelujali lijevo–desno, a vozači su pokazivače smjera uglavnom uključivali tek nakon što bi već završili prestrojavanje. Nijedna minijatura srećom nije nastradala u prijevozu. Patafix i plastična kutija sasvim su dovoljna zaštita za modele.
Podijelili smo veći broj letaka u nadi da će dio posjetitelja doći na naš Black Queen, a neki su nam čak i obećali da će (pokušati) doći. Dodijelili smo i UMS Agram Best of Show medalju. Nismo se vodili „sudački“, nego smo tražili rad (ili radove) jednog minijaturista u kojima najviše uživamo. Već dugo cijenim radove Magnusa Fagerberga i često sam ih koristio kao reference u vlastitom radu. Uživo su bili još bolji, što je u pravilu slučaj sa svim vrhunskim radovima. Stoga je UMS Agram Magnusu, uz Best of Show medalju, poklonio i jedan teranino za uz Monografiju o našem radu.
Na samoj izložbi mogli su se vidjeti najbolji radovi koje inače viđamo na društvenim mrežama, a ukupno ih je bilo oko 2000. Gotovo svi pobjednici ovogodišnjeg Golden Demona također su donijeli svoje modele na Monte San Savino.
Rezultati koje smo ostvarili bili su vrlo dobri, s obzirom na iznimno visoku prosječnu kvalitetu radova. Filip je sa svojim radovima u kategoriji Storytelling Standard osvojio jedno zlato, dok sam ja (Ivan) osvojio jednu broncu u kategoriji Storytelling Master i jednu broncu u kategoriji Fantasy Painting Master.
Za kraj ostavljam onaj najbolji dio članka, fotografije nekih od modela koje smo vidjeli. Filip je u međuvremenu izučio korištenje makro leće pa su fotografije rekao bih odlično ispale.
"
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