Ahoy, me hearties! If you’re a fan of pirates and miniature wargames, then you’re in for a treat! We’re excited to announce “The Great Pirate Paint Off” Pirate Miniature Painting Contest. Timber & Sail is teaming up with Blood & Pigment and a whole host of great sponsors to host a painting contest open to the public. Whether you’re a skilled painter or just starting out, this is your chance to show off your talent and love for all things pirate-y. The contest is open to ALL miniature painters of ALL skill levels! The only requirement is that your entry must be a miniature produced by Firelock Games for Blood & Plunder or Oak & Iron.
With the Summer of Plunder campaign event scheduled for June 4th-August 5th this year, we’re hosting this contest to inspire people to get their minis, ships, and terrain painted up and ready to game! But your entry doesn’t have to have anything to do with Summer of Plunder and you don’t even have to play the games. Just show off your spiffy pirate-y mini goodness and you’ll have a chance to win a prize!
How the Contest Works
The Basics of How to Enter:
- Get your favorite Firelock Games mini for Blood & Plunder or Oak & Iron.
- Paint it.
- Submit an entry with a picture(s) of your Mini on the Blood & Pigment blog
- Qualify to win prizes!
The Details of the Contest
- There are 5 categories to enter and each category offers a different prize.
- There are also 10+ prizes that will be awarded to entrants at random. So you have zero excuse to say you aren’t a good painter. Simply entering gives you a chance to win!
- Entries will be up for public voting for two weeks after the contest closes.
Submit An Entry
You can submit your entry here.
Painting Contest Rules
- Miniatures must be painted by an entrant this year (or since the Raise the Black Kickstarter shipped).
- Subject must be an official Blood & Plunder or Oak & Iron miniature or ship
- Entry categories details:
- Commanders – must be a commander-specific model or kitbash conversion of a Blood & Plunder commander
- Units (4-6 models) – a small group of a single unit type
- Full Forces (25+ models from the same faction and can include minis entered in other categories)
- Blood & Plunder Ships – Any boat or ship for the game
- Oak & Iron Ships
- Some miniature models could be technically used as several different units, but please select the unit that most closely fits your paint job or intend to use.
- Models must be painted to at least a “tabletop standard” level (e.g. not one solid color).
- Entries must include 1-5 photos. Please take well-lit photos that fill the frame so details and paint job are visible. Subjects should be posed on a battle board, in a lightbox, against a background, or any other suitable setting.
Contest Fine Print
- The upcoming national Commanders for the Summer of Plunder event will be awarding prizes to their favorite entries representing their nation. This applies to Commanders, Units, and Force entries. This is a great way to start supporting your favorite nation or faction for the Summer of Plunder!
- Regarding the “New Painter” Prize, please mention in the comments on the entry form that you’ve been painting miniatures for less than a year to be considered.
- Entries must be made through The Great Pirate Paint Off entry form on Blood & Pigment between February 26th and May 14th.
- Public Voting for the appropriate categories will run from May 15th until May 28th.
- Prizes for non-public voting categories will be awarded May 15th and the publicly voted categories will be awarded on May 29th, 2023. We will contact winners via email.
- Prizes will be shipped anywhere in the world for free.
- Blood & Pigment would love to be able to use pictures of your miniatures in an upcoming gallery feature we are working on. Please indicate on the entry form if you would rather we not use your contest photos for this purpose.
- There is no limit to the number of entries an individual can enter.
- Miniatures you have commissioned out for paint jobs may be entered, but you must provide the painter’s name and they will share the glory. You will have to choose what to do with any prizes won!
- Depending on the level of participation, we reserve the right to change categories and prize structure as needed. We have plenty more prizes we could thrown on the loot piles! The more entries we get, the more prizes we’ll add!
“The Great Pirate Paint Off” Prizes
We have some great prizes lined up for the winners! Prizes are available in multiple categories as well as random draw prizes for any entry.
Contest Categories
There are 5 categories to enter and each category offers a different prize. The winner in each category will be selected by a community vote.
- Best Blood & Plunder Ship – Set of deluxe cloth Balandra sails from Seamon’s Quality Sails
- Best Blood & Plunder Commander – Custom Engraved Wooden Dice Tower from Doubloon Lagoon blog
- Best Blood & Plunder Unit – 3 Deluxe Fortune Coins from Blood & Pigment
- Best Blood & Plunder Army (25+ models) – Deluxe Army Carrier from The Deadman’s Chest blog
- Best Oak & Iron Ship – Winner’s Choice of 1 Oak & Iron Expansion Box from Timber and Sail
- GRAND CHAMPION (the entry with the most total public votes across all categories) – Jumbo Blood & Plunder Commander of winner’s choice with winner’s name engraved on base from Firelock Games.
BONUS Prize Awards
There are a number of prizes that will be awarded by a panel of judges or by their appropriate criteria listed below:
- Prizes for Best Commander for each Nationality
- Prizes for Best 1, 2, 3, & 4 Deck Ships for Blood & Plunder
- Prizes for Best Unit in each Nationality
- Judge’s Choice Oak & Iron Ship – TimberAndSail will select an Oak & Iron entry to receive a set of 12 custom 3D printed and hand-painted Wake Tokens.
- Most Models Painted
- First Efforts – Prizes for New Painters that just started painting in the last year.
- 10+ Random Entry prizes
Bonus opportunities to Win
For our other standard categories, we have plenty more excellent prizes from this year’s contest sponsors:
- Most Entries – Blood & Plunder Engraved Storage Box from Things from the Basement
- Best Entry by a New Painter – Pair of fine Winsor & Newton miniature painting brushes.
- Best Kitbashed Custom Miniature(s) – Box of Plunder Sprue from the Firelock Games’ Raise the Black Kickstarter
- Best Terrain Generic Terrain Piece – TBD from The Plunder Den
- Special Plunder Den Challenge – TBD from The Plunder Den
- Best Entry from Each Nation Within the Games – The Pirate, Spanish, English, French, Dutch, & Native “Commanders” from the upcoming Summer of Plunder event will pick their favorite entry from their nation’s entries to award a storage box with their nations flag on it from Things from the Basement.
We will also have some random drawings from entries through the contest. You have a shot at these even if you’re painting for the first time!
- 3 Random Blood & Plunder Ship Entries – Double-sided wooden engraved ship movement template
- 3 Random Blood & Plunder Commander Entries – Set of 2022 Promo Commander Cards
- 3 Random Entries – Deluxe Metal Fortune Tokens of Historical Coin Restrikes
- 2 Random Terrain Entries – Custom Terrain Pieces from Tales of the Sail
- Random Oak & Iron Entries – Set of 3D Printed and Painted Wake Tokens from Timber & Sail
Painting Contest Timeline
- ENTERING THE CONTEST: Entries can be submitted from February 26th to Sunday, May 14th.
- JUDGING: May 15th to May 28th = a 2-week period for the community to vote for their favorite entry in each category. The winners of these public votes will be awarded category prizes.
- Entries will be regularly shared in posts throughout the contest.
- After the conclusion of the contest, galleries of all entries will be posted as a helpful resource for new players painting their models.
“The Great Pirate Paint Off” Contest Sponsors
The piratical Firelock Games community is constantly growing and we’re honored to have a great list of content creators and companies sponsoring this contest through prize support, advertising, and ideas.
Firelock Games
There wouldn’t be a contest without Firelock Games! In addition to promoting this contest, Firelock is donating a 10x special edition print of a unique jumbo commander mini of the winner’s choice with their name engraved on the base as the grand prize.
Blood & Pigment
The best dang Blood & Plunder blog and content creators on the planet! They provide tutorials, strategy guides, YouTube videos and so much more for Blood & Plunder. They are donating a number of custom-printed collector cards, special storage boxes and minis!
The Plunder Den
Dexter has built up a massive amount of great miniature painting and terrain crafting and painting tutorials on his Plunder Den YouTube channel. He’s always working on something awesome and he never runs out of great ideas! He can make amazing terrain with a random bag of dollar-store materials. We’re lucky to have The Plunder Den sponsor the Terrain part of this contest. Watch for details for his special terrain project challenge on his channel soon!
Tales of the Sail Podcast
Tales of the Sail has been a huge part of community building in the Firelock community over the years. They are providing some custom 3D printed terrain pieces as prizes for the Terrain category.
Things from the Basement
The folks over at Things from the Basement have been supporting Blood & Plunder for a long time! They have a great line of accessories including storage boxes, miniature trays, and great terrain options. Things from the Basement also had a huge hand in design work for 4Ground terrain. The folks at Things from the Basement have offered us a great discount on their line of Blood & Plunder Storage Boxes that will be awarded by our Summer of Plunder Commanders to the top entries from each nation represented (Pirate, Spanish, English, French, Dutch, and Native).
Seamon’s Quality Sails
Our own Guy Rheuark’s mother Mary Seamons, is a quilter extraordinaire and has been offering deluxe, handmade cloth sails for all the ships in the Blood & Plunder line. Each set is carefully handmade using several layers of material for excellent visuals and functionality. Mary Seamons has donated a set of sails for the new Bermuda Sloop.
The Dead Man’s Chest
Tyler Stone has recently started up a blog covering several of Firelock’s games, including Blood & Plunder. The Dead Man has donated a deluxe army carrying case that will have enough slots to safely carry your favorite Blood & Plunder army to games stores and conventions.
The Doubloon Lagoon
Tyler Carlson, brother to Pigment Crewman “Iron” Dan, has recently started up a Blood & Plunder blog. This year, The Doubloon Lagoon is donating a custom engraved Blood & Plunder dice tower as a prize.
Additional Contest Sponsorships are Available!
If you are interested in helping sponsor this contest or helping out with the Summer of Plunder Global Campaign, please contact us!
Additional Recommended Reading
- For painting inspiration, check out our Oak & Iron Miniatures Gallery
- Need help getting started with painting? We have compiled a list of How To: Ship Painting Guides for Oak & Iron
- For more info on the Summer of Plunder Campaign, visit the Summer of Plunder HQ on Blood & Pigment.