The Great Pirate Paint Off is an extended painting contest focusing on the pirate games Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron (and soon Port Royal). The painting contest is back for its third year and has a great lineup of generous contest sponsors and a huge pile of prizes to give out. Let’s check out the prize support for this year’s contest and introduce you to the various contest sponsors who deliver the plunder!

This Year’s Contest Prizes & How to Win

This year we’re focusing on giving away game accessories and painting equipment. We’ll be giving away a lot of actual Blood & Plunder products during the Summer of Plunder event later in the year, but for this event we have a bit of a different focus.

We’ve also changed the way prizes are awarded this year. We’re awarding medals to the winners of each category, then using a random drawing system for most of the other prize support. If you participate, you have a great chance to win something!

Each month (January-April) will focus on a different category or two. At the end of each month, the current category (or two) is judged and awarded a winner’s medal, using a combination of a panel of judges (to narrow the field) and People’s Choice public voting (to choose the final winner). At the midpoint and end of each month, we will also award prizes. These winners will be drawn randomly from participants who have submitted at least one entry during the current month.

At the end of the entire contest, there will be a few final prizes, one for the person who submitted the most entries, one to a “new painter,” and one grand prize to a random participant drawn from the entire contest.

Sponsors for the 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off

We’re thankful to have many great companies and individuals support this event for the Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron Communities.

Here is the list of this year’s contest sponsors (in alphabetical order):

• Feldherr
• Firelock Games
• Miniature Building Authority
• The Plunder Den YouTube Channel
• Seamon’s Quality Sails
• St. Augustine Mint
• TABLEWAR
• Things from the Basement
• Timber & Sail Blog
• (Blood & Pigment Blog)

All told we have more than $1,000 in prizes to award during this year’s contest. Lets check out all these prizes and sponsors!

Feldherr

Feldherr mini cases are the best in the business! All of us here at Blood & Pigment have been converted over to the Feldherr miniatures case as a safe, compact, and affordable option for storing and transporting Blood & Plunder miniatures.

Their Storage Box FSLB150 with 4 layers of trays holding 50 minis each is just a great product. You can purchase these for €40 direct from Feldherr’s site, or you can grab them from Amazon for $50.

They make a “nicer” cloth padded case, but we have found the rigid cardboard to be a little safer and easier to manage. The padded cases do have the advantage of a zipper pouch for extra storage.

Feldherr has also gone out of its way to create custom foam trays just for Blood & Plunder minis! There is a tray for pikemen, lanceros, and a tray custom cut for the original resin sloop hull! and even a custom set of Oak & Iron minis.

Feldherr generously donated miniature cases and accessories for the 2024 and 2025 Paint Off and Summer of Plunder events. A huge thanks to the folks at Feldherr for their support again this year!

For the 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off, one of their FSLB150 boxes with trays for 200 minis will be given away to a random Blood & PlunderArmy Force entry during the month of April.

Firelock Games

Firelock Games doesn’t need an introduction! We not only appreciate Firelock Games for the awesome games they put out, but we’re thankful they are generous with prize support for events like this. Every time we ask, “can we give away one of your 6th Rate Frigates?”, they say “Yes!”

For this year’s Great Pirate Paint Off, they have donated one of their new paints sets from Pro Acryl (give out to a participant in January), and a coveted 6th Rate Frigate (given to a random participant from the whole contest at the end of the event).

Miniature Building Authority

Miniature Building Authority is a brand new sponsor this year. We contacted them and they were excited about donating some of their product to the Blood & Plunder community through this event.

Miniature Building Authority has been a big part of the amazing “Blood & Plunder aesthetic” since the beginning. You will notice several of their impressive buildings in images throughout the core rulebook.

Firelock Games was able to carry some of these buildings for several years, but I believe those particular “original” Spanish buildings are not currently in print.

They currently have a slightly different line of Spanish buildings that fit the Blood & Plunder world really well.

While not the cheapest option, these buildings look great and can be taken straight out of the box and put on the table without any painting or preparation.

This prepainted “Spanish Main House #8” building will be given to a randomly drawn participant who has entered a Terrain entry during the month of February.

Make sure to check out MBA’s ever-expanding range of options, including the new Native American buildings they acquired from Acheson Productions. They have some really great (and affordable) longhouses and wigwams.

A big thanks to the Miniature Building Authority for supporting the Great Pirate Paint Off this year!

The Plunder Den

We all know and love Dexter at The Plunder Den! Dexter has been a community leader for years now and has established an excellent YouTube channel focusing on painting and crafting terrain for Blood & Plunder, and other tabletop wargames.

Dexter has supported Blood & Plunder events with prize support for several years, and he’s back again this year with his Plunder Den Terrain Flash Challenge.

As a special part of The Great Pirate Paint Off, you can participate in his Terrain Flash Challenge where you craft and paint a specific terrain project using one of his video guides. This year it’s a set of rock scatter terrain with a winter flavor. His videos are always easy to follow and he has a knack for making good use of the most affordable materials!

Dexter’s terrain work has become quite the legend and you will see it on some Blood & Pigment tables and in Firelock Games’ photography. Dexter crafted the whole Port Royal table used for the Port Royal rulebook.

For this contest, Dexter has donated this set of winter fortifications as the prize for his Terrain Flash Challenge.

You can support Dexter and the Plunder Den by subscribing to his channel and keeping up with his excellent work on YouTube. Rumor has it he will be at Adepticon again this year so make sure to say hi!

Seamons’ Quality Sails

Mary Seamons makes the best sails in the Blood & Plunder world! She is currently on sabbatical/retired from making sails, but we had one set of sails left that she had donated as a prize and we’re happy to be able to offer it during this event!

As a master quilter, Mary took up a new challenge of creating realistic cloth sails for Blood & Plunder ships. Working closely with her son, Guy Rheuark (former Pigment member), she made a beautiful product that brings ships to life on the table. Rumor has it she may come back to making standard sets of sails for the most popular Blood & Plunder ships, but nothing is set in stone yet.

For this contest, we have a set of black Balandra Sails to give away at the end of April to a random Ship entry during April.

St. Augustine Mint

St. Augustine Mint makes the best historical coin reproductions! We’ve using their coins as prizes for the last couple of years but this year they’ve offered us a discount so we can give away more of their great coins, and offer them in our Pigment Shop.

In this event, we are giving a real silver 8 Reale coin to a random entry during February.

Specializing in historically accurate New World Spanish coins of the 16-18th centuries, St. Augustine Mint offers small 1 Reale, medium 4 Reale, and large 8 Reale coins in both genuine silver and a more affordable “white metal.” Ryan at St. Augustine Mint has spent decades studying the the coinage of the Spanish Main and has learned to create the Spanish silver “piece of eight” and golden “doubloon” just the way they did centuries ago.

We will be giving away more coins from St. Augustine Mint later this year during the Summer of Plunder campaign.

The St. Augustine Mint website is currently not available, but it should be online again in the future. In the meantime, you can find some of their coins in the Pigment Shop.

You can find some great videos on how the coins are made on the St. Augustine Mint YouTube channel, and see some great pictures of the different coins they make on their Instagram account.

The irregular shaped coins are known as “cob coins,” and are created through a very different method than our normal stamped coins of today. Each one is unique!

TABLEWAR

Consistently a great ally with Firelock Games from the beginning of Blood & Plunder, TABLEWAR’s game mat products continue to be an amazing resource for Blood & Plunder players.

TABLEWAR mats are featured in the Blood & Plunder rulebook from the very beginning!

There was also a great set of ocean and island mats as an add on for the original Kickstarter project.

Since then TABLEWAR has continued to support Blood & Plunder through the release of a whole line of Caribbean themed gaming mats in perfect sizes for Blood & Plunder.

Their excellent Caribbean series includes:

• 3×4 Caribbean Tropical Land Mat
• 3×4 Shipwreck Lane Mat
• 3×4 Beachhead Land and Coastal Water Mats
• 4×4 Amphibious Mat
• 6×4 Sea Mats in Deep Sea Blue, Caribbean Shallows and Caribbean Sea colors
• Set of Islands and Shoal overlays for the Caribbean Shallows Sea Mat

For this event we are giving away a 3×4 Caribbean Land Mat in the middle of April to a random Force entry (Oak & Iron or Blood & Plunder).

Things from the Basement

This is the third year Things from the Basement has helped support Blood & Plunder events. Things From the Basement is a hobby company that offers an increasingly wide selection of gaming products. But their top product for Blood & Plunder players is their excellent series of MDF building kits.

Their Mediterranean Village series is excellent, working well for Spanish buildings in the New World. I believe these are the same designs as the “Ports of Plunder” series that was published by 4Ground specifically for Blood & Plunder.

I have found these Mediterranean Village kits easy to assemble, very functional, and a very appropriate scale for Blood & Plunder minis. They take a little effort to paint up or add adobe effects to, but the result is really great.

The large church building is particularly impressive. You can find more pictures and a review of the 4Ground version of that building here.

Things from the Basement also has a fairly large catalog of North American structures that can be helpful for Blood & Plunder players creating boards for various colonial wars in North America. The set of 2 “New England Style Houses” is another really great product for Blood & Plunder players as is the Salem Meeting House and New England House Extensions.

They have an impressive line of Revolutionary War and Civil War structures as well!

It appears they are unavailable at the moment, but Things from the Basement has long offered a set of Blood & Plunder Storage Boxes that are very useful in storing and transporting dice, cards, tokens and accessories.

For this event Things from the Basement gave us a very helpful discount for some prize items and we are giving away the 2 Story House from the Mediterranean Village set to the participant who submits the most entries.

Timber and Sail

The Timber & Sail blog is hands-down the best online resource for Oak & Iron. Jason Klotz founded Timber & Sail before he came on the team here at Blood & Pigment and has been helping create helpful content for both games for several years now.

On Timber & Sail you can find:

• Introduction to Oak & Iron through the Core Box
• Comparison to other similar games
• Painting Guides
• Faction Guides
• Fan Content for Kraken, Pirates of the Caribbean, Historical Scenarios
• Ship overviews
• Tactical Tips
• Galleries
• Product Reviews
• Much More!

In addition to all the articles and guides, Jason has put many, many hours of work into other community events like Adepticon and Summer of Plunder. Jason is an excellent organizer and has been a huge boon to the piratey community in both Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron.

In addition to all that, Jason has become quite handy at sculpting in 3D and has a great set of both Oak & Iron and Blood & Plunder accessories and terrain available in his Cults3D shop.

If you’re coming to Adepticon, make sure to say “Hi” to Jason as he helps organize all the events there this year.

For this event, Timber & Sail has donated a set of building terrain for Oak & Iron and a full printed Kraken for Oak & Iron.

Blood & Pigment

We always throw a pile of stuff into the prize pool! For this contest we are providing the following prizes:

• New Painter Tools Kit (set of painting tools including a set of drybrush brushes, a rotating stand for priming and painting miniatures, and a handle/clamp for holding a miniature while painting)
• Set of Winsor & Newton brushes
• Everlasting Wet Palette
• Light Box
• Airbrush
• Medals for People’s Choice Winners
• Funding prizes where sponsors discounted products for us

The prizes we offer are donated from personal funds while shipping expenses are paid for by our Blood & Pigment funds that comes from generous Patrons on Patreon, and income from YouTube and the Blood & Pigment Shop.

Full List of 2025 Prizes

Thank you to all the generous sponsors of this year’s Great Pirate Paint Off! We have nearly $1500 of prizes to give away this year! We hope you enjoy the contest, get some minis painted, and hopefully pick up some loot along the way!

• Commanders & Characters (January)
  • Mid January – Set of 2 high-quality Winsor & Newton paint brushes ($40 value)
  • End of January – Set of Blood & Plunder Pro Acry Paints from Firelock Games ($50 value)
  • People’s Choice Winner – Medal
• Oak & Iron (February)
  • Mid February – Full set of 3D printed buildings for Oak & Iron ($40 value)
  • End of February – 3D Printed Kraken ($40 value)
  • People’s Choice Winner – Medal
• Terrain (February)
  • Mid February – Genuine Silver Piece of Eights ($60 value)
  • End of February –Prepainted Spanish House from MBA ($150 value)
  • Plunder Den special event
  • People’s Choice Winner – Medal
• Blood & Plunder Units (March)
  • Mid March – Light Box ($40 value)
  • End of March – Everlasting Wet Palette ($45 value)
  • People’s Choice Winner – Medal
• B&P Ship (April)
  • Mid April – Airbrush setup ($60 value)
  • End of April – Black Balandra Sails from Seamons’ Quality Sails ($65 value)
  • People’s Choice Winner – Medal
• B&P or O&I Battle Force (April)
  • Mid April – Game Mat from TABLEWAR ($60 value)
  • End of April – Feldherr 200 mini case ($60 value)
  • People’s Choice Winner – Medal

Contest Finale Prizes

At the very end of the contest, there will be (at least) 2 additional prizes awarded for categories.

• Best entry from a New Painter – Painter’s accessories set ($50 value)
  • This prize will go out to a participant who has started painting miniatures in 2024 or 2025. It will be be judged by organizers. The prize will include a set of painting tools including a set of drybrush brushes, a rotating stand for priming and painting miniatures, and a handle/clamp for holding a miniature while painting.
• Most Entries – Spanish House from Things from the Basement ($30 value)
  • Whoever enters the most submissions will receive the “Two Story House” from Things from the Basement. This is one of the great designs used in the Blood & Plunder “Ports of Plunder line of buildings that 4Ground produced for Firelock Games.
• One Random Winner from All Entries – 6th Rate Frigate from Firelock Games

Additional Content Suggestions

• 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off Entry Form
• Character Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off
• Unit Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off
• Force Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off
• Terrain Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off
• Ship Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off
• Oak & Iron Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off
• Commander Gallery – 2025 Great Pirate Paint Off