The Great Pirate Paint Off marches on! At the midpoint of March we have some prizes to give away to early entries in the Port Royal and Blood & Plunder unit categories.
We have about 6 weeks of the contest left and we have to say you guys have been doing impressive work this year. There are some amazing looking minis! And a lot of them! We have already passed the numbers for all our previous painting contests. We currently have 435 entries in the 2026 event.
Mid Month Prizes
Here at the midpoint of the month we are giving away one set of Baron of Dice d10’s and a set of the Port Royal acrylic ruler templates in the Blood & Plunder Unit and Port Royal categories.
Blood & Plunder Unit Entries
Entries in the main Unit category have been trickling in since the beginning of the year. There are currently 63 unit submissions from 24 different painters.
Here are some of the early entries:
There have been a high quantity of cavalry entries this year! Check out these mounted models. There’s Dutch, French, English, Spanish and European variations here!
You can peruse the entire gallery of the Unit entries here.
Blood & Plunder Unit Prize – Set of Baron of Dice d10’s for Blood & Plunder
For this prize, the winner can choose from any set of the Baron of Dice d10’s for Blood & Plunder. We even have our own Blood & Pigment set of dice in addition to all the Nation-themed sets.
Each of the 24 current contestants in this category receive one chance for the prize, regardless of how many Unit entries they have submitted.
And this prize goes out to Greg P! He’s submitted entries in nearly every category this year! Check out some of his Unit and Port Royal entries from the last couple weeks.
From Greg’s Cavalry entry:
“Mounted cavalry unit from the Firelock Games plastic set. Good looking models but the lance part was too brittle and broke a couple during painting. Solution was to cut off the lances and replace with brass rod. I then tapped out the end and sharpened a point for the lance looking effect. Since the model set didn’t come with bases, I used some Bolt Action prone bases for the horses. Speaking of, painting horses was a snap, as I use my airbrush to do that. The airbrush gives a great blend effect. The details on the horse and riders were painted with Vallejo acrylics, then a wash then dry brush. I used my go-to pre-mix grout filler to even out the base then applied my special mix of flocking then a tuft or two..”
Greg is always getting stuff done and he has helped lead the Pirates for several years in the Summer of Plunder campaigns.
Congrats to Greg! He has won his choice of a set of dice!
Thanks to Baron of Dice for helping provide this prize.
Port Royal Entries
This is Port Royal’s first year as part of this contest. Entries can be either of a single model painted up for the game, or of some sort of objective token used for the game.
We’ve had 27 Port Royal entries so far from 9 different painters. Check out some of the entries:
You can check out the entire galley of Port Royal entries here.
Each of the 9 current contestants receives one chance for the prize, regardless of how many Port Royal entries they have submitted.
Port Royal Prize – Set of Port Royal Acrylic Rulers
And our winner is Kyle P with this Blackbeard miniature.
Congrats to Kyle! He indicated that his minis was his first mini for his first Port Royal force.
Thanks to Firelock Games for helping provide this prize.
Upcoming Deadlines & Prizes
Dexter extended the Plunder Den Terrain Challenge out for another until on March 22nd. We’ve already got some outstanding entries.
The end of month prize drawing for Port Royal is a full faction box for Port Royal from Firelock Games.
The end of month prize drawing for the Blood & Plunder units is a full Nation/Faction box of 25 models from Firelock Games.
Also, at the end of the month, we will be giving away a 1 Reale Coin from St. Augustine Mint, a set of Blood & Pigment D10’s, and a Blood & Pigment Turn Counter D6 to random entries submitted during February (regardless of entry type).
Please consider supporting our great February sponsors by purchasing cool stuff from them!
The Unit and Port Royal categories will be closing at the end of March, and April will be the last month of the contest, focusing on Ships and Forces (Blood & Plunder, Port Royal or Oak & Iron).
And we already got some great Ship entries.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for this update. Make sure to check out the full galleries for both Units and Port Royal.
We hope to see some of you (and some of your finely painted minis) at Adepticon coming up here at the end of the month. Should be an awesome time!
