The people’s choice votes are in and we have some winners to announce for the Commander and the Character categories for the 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off!
We had 153 entries in these two categories with entries from the Pirate nationality dominating, followed by English, French, Spanish, Native American, then Dutch (still 6 entries!). Each category was narrowed by a panel of 5 judges, ranking their top 5 entries. The top five entries from 5 different participants were presented
Winning Blood & Plunder Commander
With all the votes in, we had a clear winner in the Commander category. Congratulations to Julian Nault for amazing work on his King Philip entry this year!
The shading, war paint, beading detail and eye work on this model are amazing.
Julian Nault submitted several outstanding entries this year. Several were chosen by judges to be in the top 5, but we included only his top voted submission for the People’s Choice voting. Remarkable work all around.
Congratulations to Julian for a well-deserved win!
Blood & Plunder Commander Runner Ups
The Native Americans did well in this category! In second place we had Kurtis Fraley’s Native Woodland Commander.
In third place we had Laurens de Graff by Michael Christensen. Very clean and bright paint job.
Winning Blood & Plunder Characters
This was a smaller category with about 30 entries. The votes were very close!
Our winning character this year was a Master Gunner, painted by Jacob Zuvic!
This is a new model, released in the 2024 Summer of Plunder Organized Play Kit and now available from Firelock Games. This is a great paint job with careful detailing and texturing.
Congratulations to Jacob Zuvic! Well done.
Blood & Plunder Character Runner Ups
In second place (with only 2 less votes) is the Surgeon model, painted by Robert Montgomery.
And almost tied for 2nd is an awesome version of Long John Silver, built and painted by Mike Anderson
Great work with the painting, the parrot and the photography.
What’s Next?
Congratulations to Julian Nault and Jacob Zuvic for their excellent work and they’re well-deserved wins. Prize medals will be shipping out to them. Congrats also to Hans Sprenkle and Jacob Zuvic (again) for winning the January prize drawings of the Winsor & Newton deluxe paint brushes and the Pro Acryl Blood & Plunder Paint Set from Firelock Games. More prizes next month!
In February we will be focusing on Terrain and Oak & Iron ships. Check out the February 2nd contest update for more details.
BTW you can still enter Commanders & Characters in the painting contest if you want. They could be featured in updates, they could be chosen as a “best of nation” winner at the end of the contest, and entries will still be eligible for the prizes drawings during each month. Just not eligible to win the category if the category has already been judged.
Thank you everyone who participated in the Commander and Character categories! Thanks also to our 5 judges and all of the folks who participated in the People’s Choice voting.
Happy painting!
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