The Great Pirate Paint Off has moved to the second month and the focus is now on the Wargaming Terrain painting contest and Oak & Iron ships! In January, the contest focused on Commander and Character models for Firelock Games’ Blood & Plunder. With more than 100 entries, the competition was stiff! Congratulations to the winners!
But the painting contest contest continues, both for Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron painters. At the end of February, we will award prizes for the best painted Oak & Iron Ships and the best Terrain pieces. We are also very pleased to be coordinating with Dexter at The Plunder Den as he is hosting a special “Flash Terrain Challenge” again this year! Read on for more details.
For full info and rules for the Great Pirate Paint Off, check the contest’s main page. For a full list of prizes and sponsors, check this page.
We thank Dexter from the Plunder Den and Jason from Timber & Sail for the generous prizes for the winners of these categories at the end of the month.
Oak & Iron Ships Painting Contest
This blog focuses on Blood & Plunder, but all of our crew play Oak & Iron (and it’s a part of the upcoming Summer of Plunder campaign), so we are including it in our painting contest again this year. Oak & Iron got two new ships over the past several months: the English 3rd Rate (which includes the unique HMS Anne card) and the Galleon (which includes the unique San José card) in SiOCAST. These models have beautiful details, although quality has been a little inconsistent (Firelock is working on the quality control). But it’s good to see Oak & Iron get some new toys, and boy does that Galleon shake things up. Great ship, and feels especially good to play as a Spanish player.
Any Oak & Iron ship, all the way from the tiny sloop to the giant 1st Rate Ship of the Line is a great potential entry into the contest this month! If you haven’t tried Oak & Iron but are curious, this is a great time to jump in and paint some ships! The core set box includes everything you need to play including 6 ships that can be used to make two small squadrons or one “tournament-sized” squadron. For more info on Oak & Iron and more inspiring pictures of painted ships, visit the Timber & Sail blog! This review of the Oak & Iron Core Set is particularly helpful if you haven’t played the game before.
Oak & Iron Prizes Donated by Timber & Sail
Jason Klotz (also on staff here at Blood & Pigment) runs the Timber & Sail blog, the best place for Oak & Iron news, analysis and information. He has generously donated a Ships of the Line expansion for Oak & Iron as a prize for this category. This prize includes a 1st Rate, 2nd Rate, and 3rd Rate Frigate, along with all appropriate cards, tokens, bases, and gaming materials.
Wargaming Terrain Contest Category
This is an interesting category because it usually involves more crafting or creation than just simply painting a Firelock miniature. Terrain is a big part of Blood & Plunder (and it’s nice in Oak & Iron as well), and everyone needs a bit of a collection to make their games interesting, dynamic, and visually pleasing.
The rules are slightly different for this category as you can enter any piece of terrain that would be appropriate for either Blood & Plunder or Oak & Iron. This is the one category where the subject does not need to be a product from Firelock Games. It can be a custom-crafted hill or shoal, a 4Ground building painted up nicely, or a fun plunder objective token. The sky is the limit! You need some more fun terrain for your table, so use this deadline as a push to get something assembled and painted up!
Terrain Prizes Donated by The Plunder Den
Dexter is the terrain master! For several years running now, Dexter Heide at The Plunder Den has been faithfully producing remarkable tutorial videos on how to create and paint high-quality terrain for Blood & Plunder, Blood & Valor, and a variety of other 28mm wargames. We are lucky to have him on board again this year and he has donated some handcrafted and painted port defenses as a prize!
Please visit and subscribe to Dexter’s amazing YouTube channel!
Not only has Dexter donated this piece of terrain as a prize, but he is also hosting a special
The Plunder Den Terrain Crafting Flash Challenge!
In coordination with our big painting contest, Dexter is offering an awesome terrain challenge where he lays out the project, provides an affordable list of materials, and offers a crafting and painting guide on his Plunder Den YouTube channel. Contestants all get the same tutorial and guidance and enter their resulting projects. The challenge starts NOW and will close at the end of February, in coordination with the Terrain part of the Great Pirate Paint Off. Dexter built, painted, filmed, and edited the project in two days. You can do it in 3+ weeks!
This year his Terrain Flash Challenge is native focused! Check out the project and his Challenge video below! I double challenge you to enter the Flash Challenge! You’ll learn a lot, gain some new techniques, come out with a great piece of terrain you made yourself, and possibly win the example pieces of terrain as well!
Possible Painting Contest Update
The judging of these and upcoming categories may be moving to a “panel of judges” model rather than people’s choice voting. Irregularities continue to pop up with the people’s choice model and it may need to be replaced. More updates to come.
Final Thoughts
This is the month for your terrain and Oak& Iron projects! Sit down at that painting desk, pick up the brush, and enjoy your projects this month! All Oak & Iron and Terrain projects will be collected for judging at the end of the last day of February. Happy painting!