by Joseph Forster
Hello Nerds! We’re nearing the end of the first month of the 2026 Great Pirate Paint Off painting contest for Blood & Plunder, and we will be giving away some more great prizes in just a few days. We have over $1,600 in plunder to give away this year for this contest, and that’s only possible through the generosity of our contest sponsors! This year we are honored to have Monument Hobbies help sponsor the Blood & Plunder (and more) painting contest.
Monument Hobbies
There’s a lot of paint companies out there nowadays, but Monument Hobbies stands out as one of the best. Created by painters, this company offers a full line of quality paints and painting accessories, perfect Blood & Plunder painter. Several of us here at Blood & Pigment have been using Monument Hobbies paints over the last year or so and we’ve been impressed. You can check out Garrett’s review of the Monument Hobbies Blood & Plunder paint set here.
Let’s look at some of what Monument Hobbies has to offer, then we will look at what they have donated as prizes for this event.
Pro Acryl Paints
Monument Hobbies’ main flagship line of paints is their Pro Acryl series.
Often imitated, never duplicated – Pro Acryl was created with ease of use in mind. Each 22ml bottle is formulated to give consistent coverage, flow, and vibrancy. All Pro Acryl colors mix perfectly and can be used for any technique you come up with, whether on the brush or through the airbrush. Pro Acryl lets you paint with confidence and spend more time on the model and less on the palette. As artists ourselves, we’ve created the only paint we’d want to use and we think you’ll feel the same!
I have a growing set of these paints, and there’s several features I really appreciate. First, you can get solid and smooth coverage with these paints. They aren’t gloppy or patchy. It’s easy to get great, solid results without fussing around too much. Second, these paints have a really flat finish. I like a flat finish, and that’s what these paints deliver. Thirdly, I love the delivery system for these paints. A 22ml dropper bottle with a screw open feature that doesn’t ever clog or gum up. And the best part is the ball inside the bottle that helps you shake up the paint quickly. After throwing away hundreds of dollars of dried up Citadel Paints due to their horrible pots, I appreciate a bottle that won’t sabotage my paints!
These 22ml bottles retail for $5 each which is solid value when compared to the Citadel 12ml puts for $4.55.
Monument Hobbies Blood & Plunder Paint Set
Firelock Games partnered with Monument Hobbies to create a 12 paint set with ideal colors for Blood & Plunder models.
Colors in this set include:
- Coal Black
- Bold Pyrrole Red
- Burnt Red
- Dark Grey Blue
- Dark Warm Grey
- Light Umber
- Dark Umber
- Camo Green
- Bright Ivory
- Yellow Ochre
- Warm Yellow
- Warm Flesh
I have particularly liked the Dark Umber, Burnt Red, and Coal Black colors in my painting recently.
While Monument Hobbies does not currently offer this set on their webstore, Firelock Games has it in stock for $50.
They have a multitude of other paints sets, including a massive 69 color set, and the dubiously named Wizard’s Butt set (I’m honestly not sure what’s going on there).
You can also buy individual colors on their website, and they have colors grouped by family. You can peruse two whole pages of different colors of brown! Glorious.
Paint Brushes
While the Winsor & Newton brushes are still my favorite, I own and use several Monument Hobbies brushes, and they are very serviceable and I use them extensively.
Monument Hobbies also offers a line of paint brushes, ranging from large brushes for drybrush work, to super small brushes for the smallest details.
Other Products
Monument Hobbies also offers Washes, Spray Paint, various Mediums, Primers, Texture Paints, a line of Fluorescents, and even a line of impressive miniatures designed to show off your painting skills.
Monument Hobbies YouTube Channel
There’s a lot to learn about painting and the Monument Hobbies YouTube channel is a great place to pick up plenty of techniques and tips. This isn’t just a channel full of ads and pushy videos promoting their paints. There’s a lot of solid instructional videos that can help you up your painting game.
There’s even a video where they’re painting the Blood & Plunder Blackbeard miniature from the 2 player starter set!
I saw videos for new painters, tips for glazing, a video on how to stay motivated as a painter, and a video on painting the Blood & Plunder plastic sloop!
You really should check out their YouTube channel! Lots of great stuff.
Prizes from Monument Hobbies
For the 2026 Great Pirate Paint Off, Monument Hobbies has donated $200 worth prizes!
At the end of January, we will be giving away 2 of their 12 color Blood & Plunder paint sets. Winners will be drawn at random from all painters that submitted an entry in the Commander category and the Character category of the contest. Each person who entered at least one entry will get one chance at the prize.
This paint set can form the core of your colors for your Blood & Plunder minis. Once you give these paints a try, it’s hard to want to use other paints!
In addition to granting our request for 2 paints sets, Monument Hobbies gave us another 2 sets worth of their paints to be given to entrants as well, and we will be awarding these credits at the end of the contest, chosen from among the newer painters participating in the event.
Final Thoughts
A big thank you Monument Hobbies for donating prizes for the 2026 Great Pirate Paint Off. To get a chance at winning one of the two paint sets, make sure you enter a Commander and/or Character before the end of January! All you new painters (that started painting within the last year) will have a chance at another two sets of paints at the end of the contest in the beginning of May.
One more reason to appreciate Monument Hobbies: they are supporters of the (in)famous Dr. D! Dylan has been making tons of great Blood & Plunder content over this last year, through his podcast, his Twitch channel, and by sharing some shots of his beautifully painted Blood & Plunder minis with us! Dr. D is a man of culture and taste and he uses Monument Hobbies paints! Check out some of his monumentally awesome minis below:
You can watch Dr. D make his magic with Monument pigments on his Twitch channel, professionalcasualnetwork. You can read a report on a recent painting contest he participated in here on Blood & Pigment as well!
I asked Dr. D for comment on Monument Hobbies:
I have been using Monument Hobbies paint for at least the past 4 almost exclusively. When I was using their stuff they were still going by Slow Fuse and their paint brushes were called Bomb Wicks (I was so young back then!). The greatest thing a company can do for a painter is make a product that makes the job of painting quick and less of a hassle. Monument Hobbies pulls this off by putting a mixing ball inside the pot and having it thin enough that you can practically use it straight out of the pot. If that isn’t convenient then I don’t know what anyone can do for you. It is just a bonus that their paint is one of the best on the market, hands down.
Their brushes are stellar for the price you pay, and even with my constant, demanding paint schedule (someone send help please), I am shocked at how long they last compared to a Citadel or an Army Painter brand paint brush. My paint desk looks like a bomb went off, but anyone who has known me will say that the paints on my desk have slowly become dominated by the big PRO words written on the side of the Pro Acryl bottles. Colors like Burnt Orange, Ivory, and the Black Green set are permanently glued into my brain as the BEST versions of those colors.
Listen, if you want the Dr.D verdict let me just answer the question.
Do you think I should buy Jason’s stuff from Monument Hobbies?
Short Answer:
YesLong Answer:
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
We appreciate Monument Hobbies as an excellent company with quality products. We hope you enjoy these awesome prizes these have donated this year, and we also hope you will support them by enjoying their fantastic paints!