Adepticon was a big event for Firelock Games and Blood & Plunder this year. In addition to the dozens of events, demos, and tournaments running at the convention, we had the honor of participating in the Adepticon Army Showcase 2026 event at the convention.
The Adepticon Army Showcase 2026 AdeptiCup
The Adepticon Army Showcase is one of the major painting events at the convention. Painting teams enter armies from various game systems on fixed displays and compete for prizes in several categories. The event took place on Saturday, March 28, on the 3rd floor of the Baird Center between 6:30 and 11:00 pm.
The award categories for the Army Showcase include:
| AWARD | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| AdeptiCup Best of Show | Overall Top Winner |
| AdeptiCup Reserve Best of Show | Overall Runner-Up |
| Best Display | Display board earning the highest marks |
| Commended Entries | An award for entries deserving the highest level of praise |
| Best Skirmish | Best of small-format game systems |
| Best Painted | Focused on the painting of the miniatures |
| People’s Choice | Voted on by event attendees |
| Judge’s Choice | 1 award given by each of the five judges based on their personal favorite |
Judges for this event included:
- Duncan Rhodes
- Jason Craze
- Sam Lenz
- Courtney De Vriest
- Dave Taylor
The contest has a high percentage of Warhammer entries, but, unlike the Golden Demon contest, this event is open to all game systems.
Our Experience with the Adepticon Army Showcase
Interestingly enough, this event was part of the catalyst for Blood & Pigment coming to Adepticon in the beginning. Many, many moons ago, Jason Klotz had seen multiple videos and articles for the ” Armies on Parade” at Adepticon and thought it would be a great opportunity to get some promotion for the game. He tried to put together a team to enter, and unfortunately, the contest was limited to Games Workshop entries only at the time.
The rest of the con was attractive enough, and it was centrally located, so we pushed forward and used it as a meetup and opportunity to help grow Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron after Covid. This was our 4th Adepticon as a team, and we’ve grown our presence every year. We’ve built multiple displays over the years, but they mostly just existed in our gaming area to get foot traffic and a honeypot to draw people in.
Past Displays from Adepticon 2024
Why Adepticon 2026 Was Different
While the Army Showcase event was on our radar, we were not actively looking to enter anything until Kicker Kalozdi stopped by our game area early in the convention and extended an invitation. We were thrilled by the opportunity, but the timing of the event was a bit problematic as it happened right in the middle of our Sea Tournament, which Jason was running.
We talked about it over the next day or so, and we really wanted to participate, so we scrambled a bit and worked out the logistics. Mike Tunez took over the 3rd round of tournament management, so Jason could pack up 3 of our Blood & Plunder display boards to take them down and set them up again for judging.
We finished our sea tournament (congrats to Dan and Garrett for placing 1st and 2nd!), went out for pizza, and Jason and I raced back for the award ceremony to see what kind of things won in an event like this.
It was a great community event with more than one “rousing speech” before the awards were given out. There were 70+ entries and hundreds of skilled painters present.
To our delight and consternation, they soon called out “The Blood & Pigment Team” as the winner of the “Best Display” category! We were absolutely floored! There were sooo many great entries in the contest. We certainly weren’t considering our chances being much better than the Spanish Mission Garrison winning a Blood & Plunder tournament!
We bumped into Brendan Born (winner in last year’s Great Pirate Paint Off) as he and his wife won two awards in the contest as well (not Blood & Plunder entries this time).
The Blood & Plunder Display Boards
We spent months designing, creating, and painting these boards. And when I saw “we,” I mean mostly Jason and Fernando. Jason worked his crafting magic with foam, resin, and some German ingenuity and made 6 full 18″x18″ display boards, one for each of the major nations in Blood & Plunder.
Fernando painted over 100 minis to put on these boards, and we used them as eye grabbers and conversation pieces at the front out of game area in the historical gaming hall.
We did a multi-part series on the creation of these boards for our Patreon backers. Each board highlights the differences in both the different minis and the different kinds of terrain and settings Blood & Plunder can take place.
From the Caribbean coastline, to frozen Canada, to Spanish town, to open seas, to a hidden pirate cove, to a native village, these boards are so diverse!
Our Entries to the Adeption 2026 Army Showcase
For our entry in the contest, Jason selected the Pirate, Native, and French boards. Here are some pictures taken by the organizers of the event:
Full credits for the entries:
- Jason – All the display boards and terrain
- Fernando – Most of the miniatures
- Garrett – Barco Luengo ship
- Joseph – Some minis, longboats and canoes
- Don Ollerton – Canoas
You can see all the amazing entries in this contest in this album provided by Manifest Studios.
After we got called as winners of the “Best Display” award, we were kind of shoved into a corner and couldn’t see who else was winning. But we got to walk around a bit afterwards and admire the other entries, and hung around our entry for a while, but no one asked for autographs or offered us endorsement contracts (ha! yeah right).
Final Thoughts
We were honored to participate in this contest and floored to be given an award. Part of our goal at Adepticon is to get Blood & Plunder out in front of as many gamers as possible. This was definitely a high honor and accomplished our goal! We were thrilled to be able to promote Firelock Games in the Adepticon Army Showcase. Hopefully, we’ll see you again next year with an all-new entry!
Thank you to the organizers for putting this on, and thank you to whoever invited us to participate!
Special congratulations to Jason Klotz and Fernando Artega for all the skilled work they put into these displays. Fernando wasn’t able to be there this year, but I have a medal to send him!
You can see all the entries in this video on the CONMAN CHRONICLES YouTube Channel. The Blood & Plunder entries are visible at 1:13:07.
Additional Recommended Reading
- View a MASSIVE collection of images of all of the entries at Manifest Studios
- Dutch Santiago – Dan’s 1st Place Ostend Privateers force from Adepticon
- Adam Horton’s 3rd place French Raiders force from 2026 Adepticon Tournament
- Dylan Dyer’s 1st place French Caribbean Militia force from 2026 Adepticon Tournament
- Padre Jose Mini from Adepticon
- Floating Spanish Mission – Josh Shivak’s 3rd Place Tournament Force