The first portion of the contest is wrapped up and public voting is now live for the Commander and the Character categories. If you haven’t already, go over and vote for your favorite paint jobs!
In this update we’ll touch on how the cuts were made for the finalists, highlight some of the great entries over the month of January, hand out a prize, and look forward to February.
Judging and Cutting to the Top 5 for Voting
Narrowing the field for people’s choice voting is always very difficult! In 2023 we did all people’s choice voting and it came with a little “drama.” In 2024 we pivoted to winners being selected by a panel of 5 judges. This year, we’re trying to combine the best of both methods!
Here’s the details on how we’re doing this, including one update. After all entries are in for the category in question, the full gallery of entries is sent to 5 independent judges, all well versed in the Blood & Plunder world but with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. Each judge selects and ranks the 5 they think are the best entries. The choices of all 5 judges are tallied using a point system. First choices get 5pts, second choice gets 4pts etc. Using this point system, we pull the top scoring entries for the People’s Choice options.
We implemented one significant change that we want to be up front about. This may sound a little unfair, but we think it’s best for all participants. We decided to only include the top-voted entry from each player in the top 5 instead of any and all of their entries that may have made it to the top spots. This helps make the top options a little more diverse, prohibits talented and prolific painters from totally dominating all the voting choices, and it helps focus the voting with more differences between choices. If 4 of the top 5 are all in the very similar style, voters who like that style may all split their votes while voters who prefer a different style are more focused on the remaining selection. So the 5 options for people’s choice voting will always be from 5 different participants.
This always seems like it should be simple until we’re in the midst of it!
Prize Winner for the End of January
At the midpoint and end of each month, we have prizes to give away. These are drawn from all participants who have entered something during the current month, one chance per participant (regardless of how many entries submitted).
Our prize today is a set of the Pro Acryl Paints by Monument Hobbies provided by Firelock Games. We recently did a quick review of this excellent paint set now offered by Firelock games and we’re thankful to Firelock Games for donating this prizes this year.
And this prize goes out to Hans Sprenkle! Check out some of Hans’s great work so far.
Commander Entry Highlights
There were a lot of great entries for Commanders. Let’s look at some of these commanders, group by nationality.
Pirate Commanders
There were probably more pirate Commanders than anything else, with the “Pirates of Legend” box set taking center stage.
And we had a large number of black Caesar entries, maybe partly inspired by the Caesar’s Men faction article released this last month.
Spanish Commanders
We had lot of Amaro Pargo entries! He’s a great model.
And some more Spanish Commanders including a fun kitbash by Dan Carlson.
English Commanders
Morgan at the head of his buccaneers and at the wheel of his ship!
William Kidd had several great entries so we’ll highlight those here.
French Commanders
There were some excellent French commander paint jobs. We have to start with the several Pierre Lemoyne d’Iberville entries.
Submitted by Julian Nault, Greg Padilla, Brendan Kampwerth and Gerardo Gonzalez.
And some more great French Commanders.
Dutch Commanders
Dutch traditionally have had less entries, we got some great ones this year! Look at that Piet Heyn!
This version of Stuyvesant by Michael Paul is a real eye-catcher as well.
Native American Commanders
There were a lot of great Native American commander entries as well. Incredible work. Look at some of that detail.
And we had a significant number of legendary King Philip entries.
Character Entry Highlights
Here are some of the Character entries his year.
A full half of the Character entries were female figures this year!
Focus for February
All categories may still be entered during February, but at the end of the month the Terrain and the Oak & Iron Ship categories will be judged.
We focus on Blood & Plunder in this contest, but we can’t leave behind the smaller scale, Oak & Iron miniatures. These 1/600 ships for the fleet level game offer a whole different level of challenge for the painter.
Terrain is a unique category for several reasons. First, this category does not have to follow the usual “Firelock models only ” rule. Second, this category usually involves a lot more crafting and creating than just applying a simple paint job. Just painting a building or something is great, but judges will always be impressed by scratch built terrain!
Thirdly, we have a special collaboration project with Dexter from the Plunder Den!
Plunder Den Terrain Flash Challenge
Dexter Heide produces an amazing series of crafting and painting tutorial videos on his Plunder Den YouTube channel. He is back again this year with a “Terrain Flash Challenge” special as part of the Great Pirate Paint Off. Check out full details here, or even better yet, jump right in and watch his video explaining both the Flash Challenge and giving instructions for the terrain project.
This special challenge has a terrain prize donated by Dexter and will run through to the end of February as well.
Check out more details here:
Next Prize Giveaway – Oak & Iron Kraken from Timber & Sail on February 16
Our next prize giveaway will be February 16th, drawn at random from all participants who have entered an Oak & Iron ship entry during February. Jason from Timber & Sail has donated a printed copy of his playable Kraken monster.
All you need to do to have a chance at winning this prize is get an early Oak & Iron entry in before February 16th. This prize comes unpainted. Check out Jason’s article on the Kraken on Timber & Sail.
At the end of the month, Jason has donated a set of printed buildings and docks for a coastal town for Oak & Iron. A huge thanks to Jason for providing prizes this month and for helping support the Oak & Iron community through the Timber & Sail blog. If you play the game, or are interested in play, you have to check out his great material up there. Very helpful.
You can help support Timber & Sail by checking out all of Jason’s great STL’s on his Cults3D account. In addition to the Kraken and Building Terrain, he has wake markers, a Nassau fort, Barks, Piraguas, Canoes, movement templates and a dice tray. And he’s got a bunch of awesome Blood & Plunder terrain and accessories as well. He recently built an excellent Ship’s Wheel and a Dutch Building from scratch. Excellent stuff.
Great Pirate Paint Off Schedule for February
Here’s our schedule for February:
- February 2-4 – Opportunity to vote in the People’s Choice Commanders and Character categories
- February 5th – Winners announced for Commander and Character categories
- February 16th – Random Drawing from February Oak & Iron entries for the Kraken
- February 28th – Entry window closes for Plunder Den Flash Challenge and Terrain & Oak & Iron categories.
- March 1st – Random drawing from February Oak & Iron entries for Oak & Iron terrain pieces
- Early March – Prizes awarded for the Plunder Den Terrain Flash Challenge
- March ~2-5 – Opportunity to vote in the People’s choice for Terrain and Oak & Iron Ships categories
At the end of February, a panel of judges will vote to narrow entries to the top 5 (using the same method described above), and then everyone will have a chance to vote for their favorite. The winner of this public voting will receive a 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off gold medal and everlasting glory and honor.
Notes on Photographing your Minis
To get a great shot of your miniatures, make sure you have good lighting when taking your photo. Natural lighting is often best, close to a window or outside, but that is hard for must of us this time of year. If you’re using artificial lighting, make sure there’s a light source hitting the model from the front, and not only from above. If the lighting is strong from above, it often creates dark shadows that obscure the details and fine work on the miniature. Check out this article for more details.
Final Thoughts
The Great Pirate Paint Off is off to a great start! Make sure you vote for your favorite Commander and Character before Tuesday night.
