The Pirate painting contest continues! It’s been 2 weeks since the last update and we’ve got 4 weeks to go. Let’s catch up with the latest entries and news!

(Note: in the interest of some level of anonymity for the final voting later in the Spring, we are not including painters’ names on photos going forward, except in the case of various prizes awarded during the contest.)

Participation

At our last update we had just hit 100 entries and as of today we are at 144. With these numbers we will hit about 225 by the time the contest ends May 14th. But I’m hoping for a surge of entries at the end. You’ll all painting away, right? Saving your entries for the last minute?

Forty-three different people have entered the contest so far. Lots of people having been posting their newly painted minis on the Facebook group and I’ve tried to keep up commenting on those, encouraging them to enter them in this contest. We haven’t pushed this event as much as we could and awareness still seems kind of low. So feel free to share, or comment on people pics and make sure they know about the event!

We’ve got some fantastic entries lately, including some entries nicely set in a lightbox. If you’re interested in getting great pictures of your minis (and increasing your chance to win prizes in this contest!), a light box is a great purchase! for $30-90, you can get a nice, collapsible box you can quickly set up and use that will make your pictures so much better! If interested, you can check out Blood & Pigment’s very first article from 2018.

Types of Entries

There are several different categories to enter in this contest. Right now the Unit and Commander categories have the most entries while the Oak & Iron and Terrain categories are pretty light so far!

• 55 Units
• 48 Commanders
• 11 Characters
• 10 Ships
• 8 Forces
• 5 Terrain
• 5 Oak & Iron Ships

Nations Represented

The national rivalry that is part of the Summer of Plunder starts now! Pirates and Spanish look to have good momentum so far!

• 30 Spanish
• 21 English
• 14 French
• 14 Dutch
• 2 Native American
• 28 Pirate

Random Prize Winner

This week Matthew Wright has been selected as the random winner to receive a little “mid contest prize” of a restrike of a 1731 Spanish 8 Reale coin! Check out Matthew’s take on British Able Seamen below!

A random entry of all the entries received between updates will be chosen as a winner about every two weeks.

Contest Sponsor Spotlight – Things from the Basement

Several different organizations, individuals and businesses are supporting this contest through advertising and providing prizes. One of those businesses is Things from the Basement.

Things From the Basement primarily sells laser cut terrain for wargames of many eras. I got the pleasure of meeting the people behind Things from the Basement at 2022 Historicon.

You probably know them best for their design work on the Mediterrainan Village/Ports of Plunder set of buildings that it appears they designed for 4Ground Publishing.

They also have a great set of New England style houses that has perfect for a centerpiece for Fire on the Frontier battles.

In addition to some great building and terrain options, Things from the Basement has designed and produced a line of storage boxes for Blood & Plunder which are part of our prize support for this contest! At the end of the contest, the several national “commanders” that will be participating as leaders in our Summer of Plunder event will be selecting a prize winner from all the entries from their nation. That winner will receive the Things from the Basement Blood & Plunder storage box with their nation’s flag cut into the box lid.

I find these boxes very helpful to store all the helpful game accessories like activation cards, dice, fortune coins, printed force lists, unit stat cards, marker dice etc. Just throw everything you need for a game in this box and take it with you to your store! You can stain and paint these boxes up to look really great! You can find an article looking at these storage boxes here.

And if you like your miniatures neatly marching around the battlefield, Things from the Basement has built some custom unit trays for Blood & Plunder.

Final Thoughts

This has been a fun contest so far! As a reminder, it runs through May 14th, then there will be a two week time for some public voting for the top prizes! Then a couple weeks after that, our Summer of Plunder campaign event will begin!

Once the SoP campaign starts, you’ll want to be spending more time playing games than painting, so get those minis pigmented up now!

Thanks for participating and supporting the Firelock/Blood & Plunder/Oak & Iron Community!

Additional Recommended Reading

• The Great Pirate Paint Off Home and Rules
• Painting Contest Entry Form
• How to Use a Lightbox
• Great Pirate Paint Off Update #1
• Great Pirate Paint Off Update #2
• Great Pirate Paint Off Entry Gallery
• Collection of Blood & Plunder Painting Guides