Hello Pigmenters!

(The title might be a little confusing since there is going to be, technically, be two Wicked Brush painting contest events for 2025. The date of the convention changed from January to December from the previous year so there was two Everwinters in the year of our Lord, 2025. So, I am not sure if they are going to call it 2026 or 2025 Part 2 Electric Boogaloo.)

Dr.D here and I have just returned from a weekend of nerding at a local convention in the New England area. Everwinter is a miniatures gaming convention hosted in Boston, MA by Wicked Dicy. I have gone every year for the past 4 years and have loved it every single time. I was going to the convention to play Old World since there were no Firelock games being hosted…..this year…..but I wanted to make sure the celebration of big, painted boats was shared by all!

Wicked Brush is hosted at Everwinter every year and is constantly changing and improving as the years go by.

categories and levels

• Master and Standard Paint Levels
  • Single, Unit, Open, Large
  • An entry in Master and Standard will be awarded Best Overall.

Link to Wicked Brush

Entry and Thoughts

I wanted to put something into the contest to help give money to Wicked Dicy since I know running the convention is expensive. I got permission to submit a boat with a crew to the Open Category, and I admit that the only reason I wanted to put this into the contest was so I could talk about Blood and Plunder. I put my Light Frigate, the HMS Kraken, with my Dutch crew assembled for a scene of battle on the display plinth. I was asked if I wanted to be Standard or Master and figured I was probably a master at this point in my life. (Pay attention to this part). I realized I left my Early Dutch Flag in my model carrying case and would return about an hour later with the flag to put it on the main mast.

Yes, I got a whole lot of looks from people who saw a fully grown man carrying around a big toy boat on the T. (That is what Mass-Holes call the subway in Boston). I even had a lovely conversation with an older Boston citizen about Noah’s Ark since that is what she thought the boat was recreating.

I took some pictures of the entries on the first day, so I did not snap anything after I submitted my own model. I apologize to any of those people for not getting your entry, but it is clear the level of skill in the entries is very high. The website for this year’s contest has not been made at the time of writing, but they will usually post the winners of each category at some point in the near future. Here is a bunch of pictures in no specific order. View them and enjoy the hard work everyone has put into their incredible pieces of art.

Just looking at those entries gives me the shivers…..in a good way. All of the entries should be applauded, and there are some especially excellent entries in there.

Now, you might be asking, what is the point of this blog post and why should I care any more than just looking at pretty pictures. Well, I will get to that, strange disembodied voice that talks so condescendingly to me….., People REALLY like big boats!

I have been a fairly well-known B-tier level painter for long time now, and I am used to people complimenting my work. (Always appreciate it by the way, THANK YOU) The thing that struck me as odd this particular convention was the AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WHO LOVED THIS THING. I was approached by event staff and attendees that I knew in the area almost constantly over the course of the convention. People loved telling me how much they adored the boat and all the angry little Europeans on it.

I even learned from an actual Belgian why they are not a part of the Netherlands. Very interesting stuff.

This tells me that Firelock Games continue to really rule the roost when it comes to producing some incredible boat miniatures. It made me start to realize that I think we take the novelty of our big boat game for granted. Since many of the people reading this play Blood & Plunder, I think I can safely say we are used to having our little boats with our little sailors playing out little war game. We shoot cannons and celebrate “Talk Like a Pirate Day” early every single year, but it goes to show you that this game has some serious novelty.

The event staff was telling me that the HMS Kraken was placed perfectly in the room so that anyone who even saw it out of the corner of their eye would immediately go into the room to see what was going on. This is beyond flattering, but it goes to show you that the game we love playing is neat, not just because of the rules, but because we get to paint things other hobby gamers might not even think is possible. They see tanks and army mans all the time, but it is beyond rare to see an Age of Sail vessel with individual little dudes on it.

I rejoice since it just reinforces the fact that our game is awesome and we should appreciate our own hard work that goes into painting something like a Frigate all the way down to the humble canoe. The allure of painting and playing with boats is there and I think that we are not sharing that enough with the wider miniature gaming world.

When I returned to the hotel on Sunday, I was informed that I had not won the competition, but they had decided they needed to add a “Fan’s Favorite Award” for the next Wicked Brush just due to the joy my model caused for people walking by. I was told that I did not win because I had put the paper flag on the model, and it really lost me points due to the fact that it was not painted. The irony being, I only put it on the model since I didn’t think my entry would be taken seriously at an event where Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40K were the main events.

I have learned my lesson and I hope anyone reading this does as well. Do NOT knock the novelty of entering in an Age of Wind vessel.

Here are a few of the follow-up pictures. Pictures of the judge and the finalists of the Master-Level Open category. I did not get much more in the ways of pictures since I had to rush back to my Old World event.

Closing Thoughts

I try to be humble and not take myself too seriously, but I am going to fully embrace the fact that I won this year’s Wicked Brush painting competition. The fact that I had so many people come up and tell me how much they loved it and how my entry inspired a whole new award for next year’s Wicked Brush tells me that this was something special. I will be entering more ships into painting contests in the future since no matter how much time passes, some people just like big boats and they can not lie.

I am going to do my best to get at least one Blood and Plunder event going at the next Everwinter, so if you are interested in attending, make sure you make a note to visit the Boston area next December/January time. That way, it won’t just be a paint room attracting attention, but a whole group of people whooping and hollering while pushing around their own ships.

Maybe we can go throw some tea in the harbor too!

Make sure you check out Arachne: Raise the Black series of podcast episodes or the battle reports we do on the Arachne Youtube Channel. Keep popping out there and don’t let the guarda costas catch you! Spider Daddy OUT!

Additional Recommended Reading

• Great Pirate Paint Off HQ
• Prepping for your first Blood & Plunder tournament
• Arachne YouTube Channel