We’re in the last few weeks of the 2024 Great Pirate Paint Off! At the end of April we will be awarding prizes for our final two categories: Blood & Plunder Ship and “Forces” for Blood & Plunder or Oak & Iron. In this update we will look at these final two categories, take a look at the prizes, then review some of the final prizes to be awarded at the end of the contest as well.
Blood & Plunder Ships
Building, painting, and rigging a Blood & Plunder ship is a substantial hobby project, but very rewarding! That big 3 or 4 deck ship in its fully-rigged glory is a beautiful sight to behold! But it takes a lot of work! This category was left until last because of the number of hours that goes into preparing a Blood & Plunder ship for the gaming table.
We don’t’ have a lot of entries in this category yet, but we’re hoping for some good competition before the month is out! If you’ve been putting off assembling that plastic sloop, or have a ship half finished, this is the time to pick the project back up and get it finished!
If you’re looking for some inspiration for finishing that ship, here are some resources.
- Rigging a Brigantine video
- Detailed Painting and Rigging a Sloop article by Guy
- Beginner’s guide to Painting and Rigging a Bark
- Gallery of Blood & Plunder Ships
Prize and Sponsor for the Blood & Plunder Ship Category
For this category, Mary Seamons of Seamons’ Quality Sails has donated a set of her fantastic, hand-quilted sails. We have a limited edition set of black Balandra sails to offer as a prize. These are the best sails on the market, hands down. Mary, our own Guy Rheuark’s mother, is a master quilt maker and has made some truly remarkable sails for the discerning Blood & Plunder player. Each sail is essentially a historically informed miniature quilt with 3 layers of material, including a shaping layer.
If you want to make your Blood & Plunder ship really stand out, check out her sails on our shop page.
Blood & Plunder or Oak & Iron Forces
The final category we’re accepting entries for this month is full “forces.” This means either 25+ Blood & Plunder minis that could be played together, or a squadron of at least 5 Oak & Iron ships. If you’ve been painting up units over the course of the year, you can put them all together and enter all unit models together as a “force.”
Prize and Sponsor for the Force Category – Mat from TABLEWAR
The winner of this category will be sent a 4×3′ gaming mate donated by TABLEWAR.
The gaming mats created by TABLEWAR have been a huge boon to both the Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron communities. Their Caribbean series is really amazing, with great options for land, sea and amphibious tables. A good Caribbean-style land mat is hard to come by and my copy of this mat has seen a LOT of play! Their 4×4′ amphibious mat is a super product as well.
Thanks to TABLEWAR for donating this prize! Check out their Caribbean collection of gaming mats here.
If an Oak & Iron force wins this category, a 4×3′ Caribbean Ocean mat will be awarded instead.
Now we move on to the prizes awarded by judges at the final conclusion of the contest in May, 2024.
Top Entry for Each Nation – Storage Box from Things from the Basement
The Commanders for each nation represented in the 2024 Summer of Plunder campaign will be helping judge these categories. One entry will be selected as the overall winner from the entries from each nation:
- Pirate
- Spanish
- English
- French
- Dutch
- Native American
- Unaligned
Each winner will receive a Plunder storage box engraved with their nation’s flag or symbol on the lid. Things from the Basement provided us with a generous discount to allow us to buy multiple boxes.
These are a little more basic than the larger Plunder box (see the People’s Choice Unit prize), but they are very useful. If you play more than one nation, you can organize your accessories easily. You can just load up your Spanish box with everything you need when you play your Spanish armies. They come in a natural sanded finish but are very easy to stain and paint up with your nation’s colors.
Remember, nations that might get fewer entries will be less competitive and have a higher chance of winning! This means the Natives and Unaligned are low-hanging fruit for a prize! And remember, you can still enter Unit and Commander entries, even though those categories have been judged. Your entry would still be eligible for the “best of nation,” and the random drawings, and count towards the “most entries” prize.
Thanks again to Things from the Basement for their support of this event!
Best Entry from a New Painter – Paint Brushes from Blood & Pigment
Jumping into the hobby of painting miniature is a big step with a learning curve and we want to encourage people to take that plunge! One of the tools that can make a huge difference in how enjoyable (and successful) your painting efforts are is a good paintbrush. The Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes are the best of the best when it comes to painting small miniatures like these pirates. If you’ve started painting miniatures in 2023 or 2024, check the New Painter checkbox on the entry form. These entries will be considered for the “New Painter” prize of a size 0 and a size 00 Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable paint brush ($20 value each). These are truly the best miniature brushes out there.
Most Entries – Case from Feldherr
Part of the goal of this contest is to inspire people to paint a lot of miniatures, specifically so they have some new armies to use in the 2024 Summer of Plunder campaign event. If you paint and enter a lot of minis, you have a shot a winning a really great prize, donated by Feldherr.
The entrant who has entered the most entries over the course of the entire contest will receive a Feldherr miniature box, loaded with trays set up to carry Blood & Plunder miniatures. (If the winner is an exclusive Oak & Iron player, we can substitute an Oak & Iron case.)
The prize includes their FSLB150 box loaded with 4 trays for miniatures. It will contain 2 FSEB035BO trays that can hold 50 standard 28mm minis each, plus 2 FS040A023 trays that were custom-made to hold Blood & Plunder pikemen!
Each tray can hold 16 standard 28mm minis, 12 of the larger 28mm minis (like Lanceros or the more dynamic commander poses like Pargo). It also has some special slots in the center for up to 6 pikemen with their long metal pikes. All told this case can hold up to 168 Blood & Plunder miniatures of various shapes and sizes. My guess is, if you can paint enough minis to fill it up, you have a good chance of winning the case!
Feldherr Discount Code!
Feldherr makes a great product and we’re very thankful to have them as a sponsor this year! We’re also super happy to be able to offer a little exclusive discount code to all you Blood & Plunder players! Use the code BAP2024 in the coupon slot on your cart (BEFORE the checkout window) for €5 off €50 or more. They also offer very reasonable shipping rates to US customers, in spite of shipping from Germany. Standard shipping for most orders is a flat €15 to USA for an order of €50+. And any order over €199 gets free shipping!
You can check out all their great Blood & Plunder foam trays here, and their Oak & Iron trays here.
Feldherr also sells direct through Amazon which might save you more on shipping if you have a Prime account.
Random Drawings
We will give away another batch of miniature blisters again at the end of the month, provided by Geeks & Games in Oregon City! These will be drawn from entries submitted during April. You can
Final Thoughts
The Great Pirate Pirate Paint Off is coming to a close! Get your entries in before the end of April! We have about two weeks left and we have more than $350 worth of prizes left to give away!