We’re in to the last stage of the 2026 Great Pirate Paint Off. It’s been a really great contest this year with a record number of entries, and a noticeable uptick in the overall quality of entries. For April, the final month of this contest, we are focusing on Blood & Plunder Ships, and armies, or “forces.” These are the big capstone projects!
Between Adepticon business and some technical problems with our galleries, we’re late with this post. If you read this the day it’s published, you have less than 24 hours before mid-month mark where we give away a couple more prizes.
Blood & Plunder Ships
Blood & Plunder ships are big projects that can take a lot of time and creativity to complete. We have entries ranging all the way from the Canoe, and Longboat all the way up to the mighty Galleon!
For our mid-month prize, we are giving away a set of sails from our Blood & Pigment ship. These are simple paper sails, but they are easy to rig up and look pretty sharp!
You can check out all the beautiful ships in the Ship Gallery here.
Forces
This category covers Forces from Blood & Plunder, Oak & Iron, and Port Royal. People have been building up to this since early in the year, competing Commanders and Characters in January, and Units in March.
For our mid-month prize, we are giving away a set of Baron of Dice (winner’s choice).
We’ve already got entries for all three games.
Oak & Iron Forces
Port Royal Forces
The Port Royal Force size is very friendly and we’ve got some great entries. The Maroons are well represented!
Blood & Plunder Forces
The Blood & Plunder Force must contain 25+ models, based on the Nationality Box size. Anyone who finishes a whole set of 25+ models in this time frame gets respect!
You can peruse the whole gallery of Force entries here.
End of April Prizes for Ships and Forces
At the end of the month, we will be giving out larger prizes in these categories.
For the Ship category, we will be giving away a Blood & Plunder Sloop in resin. This is one of the best ships in the game, and if you already have one, you can rig it up differently as the Heavy Bark (very popular choice at the 2026 Adepticon tournament).
For the Force category, we will be giving away a fine game mat donated by Tablewar.
At the end of the month, in addition to the normal end-of-month prizes, we will be larger prizes for special categories:
- Best entry from each nation will receive either a Nationality Player Deck or Dice Set
- One random entry will get a huge 6th Rate Frigate!
- Best New Painter will receive a terrain kit from Things from the Basement
- The participant with the most entries will receive a Feldherr miniature case for 200 models