First off, thanks to everyone who entered the 2016
Pendraken Painting Competition, once again we saw such a high standard of entries which pushed the envelope in what can be achieved in this scale. I hope you all enjoyed entering, certainly more than the Judges enjoyed trying to pick the winners!
So just for info, each judge had 6 points in total to award. 3 points went to their 1st place choice, 2 points to their 2nd place, and 1 point to their 3rd choice. The points from all 5 judges were added together to give us our winners and runners-up.
And now, the Winners of the 2016 Pendraken Painting Competition are...
Foot - Pre-20th C. (24 entries)
This category always brings in some colourful entries and this year was no different. The judges gave honourable mentions to many of the entries on show, but in the end there was a clear winner, picking up maximum points from all of the judges. Second place was a bit of a scrap, with one just edging out the other.
1st place: "Lombardia", by bradpitre - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a £20 voucher from Leven Miniatures!
"A nice mix of using black lining and shading..." "Just great, fallen man in front rank a nice touch." "Superbly done, beautifully executed."
2nd place: James II Foot Guards, by redstef - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Overall a nice paint job, always love to see hand painted flags, well done." "Really nicely done, superb flags."
Foot - 20th C. (11 entries)
We often see a smaller number of high quality entries in this category and this year was no different. Five of the eleven picked up points but we had two clear winners in the end, with first place picking up a maximum 15 points.
1st place: SCW Regular Army, by MIG - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a £20 voucher from Ironclad Miniatures!
Really nice eye for detail, well painted, cleanly based and a great photo." "Clean and well-presented; nice palette."
2nd place: WWI Engineers, by Tiny Tin Troops - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Well thought out and put together. A nice paint job and great table dressing." "Nicely presented, lots of interest to the eye; simple, limited palette draws everything together."
Mounted (18 entries)
A couple of the categories each year have multiple entries from the same member, which can sometimes split the judges and result in that member missing out on a prize. Always something to be a careful of! This year it was a tight run race between three entries, with one chap just missing out on a place.
1st place: 7th French Hussars, by MIG - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a copy of the new 'Paints' magazine from Wargames Illustrated!
"Super paint job aided by a really clear and well lit photo." "Very crisp and clean. Shading almost too subtle for this scale." "Simple and understated, really subtle."
2nd place: James II Life Guard, by Redstef - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Lovely crisp painting with nice shading." "Beautifully executed."
Vehicle (19 entries)
We had a lower number of entries in the category this year, with one clear winner picking up maximum points, and then several entries vying for that second place.
1st place: Sherman, by BH62 - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a copy of the new Blitzkrieg Commander ruleset!
"Crisp, clean painting, great highlighting." "Cracking job here, lovely use of shading and highlighting edges." "Very crisp, really good edge highlighting. Very clear winner." "Really nice, simple but effective use of highlighting to make this one 'pop'.
2nd place: AVBCW Char St Chamond, by Vanvlak - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Nice job here, I like the whole display idea." "Subtle and clean job."
Fantasy & Sci-Fi (14 entries)
This category was an interesting one, with four different entries placing 1st amongst the judges, showing both the high standard of painting and how difficult it is to separate them at times! Finally, two entries pulled ahead that little bit and grabbed the prizes.
1st place: Squogglers and Night Goblins, by Hetairoi - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a copy of 'Warband'!
"The faces on the squigs are great." "Good painting and appropriately dark photography." "Very nicely done, great looking unit, love the flame-effect hoods."
2nd place: Skeletons, by Mostyn - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Nice tidy painting, great shading." "White's not an easy colour to pull off especially at this scale, well done." "Nice crisp style and shading."
Warband (5 entries)
This was the debut year for the Warband entries and we only picked up a few entries. Hopefully we'll see more next year! There were two clear favourites in this one, with only a single point separating them in the end!
1st place: Goblin Riders, by Andy T - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a Warband Army Pack!
"Really nice job, made me smile." "Fun unit, execution of painting ok." "Innovative and nicely done."
2nd place: Dwarf Gyrocopters, by fred. - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Nice detail and highlighting." "Light, clean. "Decent painting, lovely basing." "Basing is nice, lifts the unit (no pun intended!)"
Open - Single Base (26 entries)
This category always sees some outstanding pieces of both imagination and painting ability and it's one we always look forward to. This year the judges had one clear winner picking up a maximum 15 points and then a couple of others scrapping for second place.
1st place: 30YW Artillery, by bradpitre - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a Scourge Army from Hawk Wargames!
"Excellent attention to detail, a great artwork." "Really enjoyed these figures, great paint job, basing and photos. I love to see well painted figures with great basing, the full package." "Just gorgeous." "Superbly done, beautiful vignette."
2nd place: Russian Winter, by Tonton Flingueur - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Love the whole winter feel to this piece, again an entry that ticks all the boxes." "Nice storytelling, gets points despite uncertain photography." "I always love a well done winter base - and this is nicely done, simple but highly effective."
Open - Army! (27 entries)
The Army category always brings in some fantastic entries and this year certainly didn't disappoint. There were so many that picked up points and this was easily the closest category to be judged, with over half the entries getting an honourable mention from our judges. In the end, it was the 'complete' armies that got it, the ones that came together into one impressive piece of work. We did have a tie for second place, again showing how close this one was.
1st place: 30YW French, by bradpitre - wins £20 Pendraken credit, and a copy of the new 'Paints' magazine from Wargames Illustrated!
"A simple paint job that works well close up and on the table, cracking basing. These are more like individual vignettes, well done." "Superbly done - simple but really effective."
Joint 2nd place: James II in Ireland, by Redstef - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"A lovely looking army in the group shots, could have scored higher if the close ups of units had been clear."
"Love the painting, and the size of the units; those really are battalions." "Superb - effective and eye-catching."
Joint 2nd place: ECW, by DHautpol - wins £10 Pendraken credit!
"Top-notch, really coherent force." "Very clean, tidy painting, these really stood out." "Very tidy, again a coherent force."
Congratulations to all of our winners! We'll be contacting you in the next few days to get your prizes sorted out. We'll also get your Winner's medals added to your profiles!
Also, a huge thank you to everyone who entered from all of us here at Pendraken HQ. We always look forward to the Competition each year, watching every day as these wonderful entries come in. The time and effort that goes into achieving such a high standard is appreciated by all of us here and we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have.
We'd like to thank our Judges as well, for accepting the difficult task of going through all of the entries to pick our winners.
Coming up next will be the People's Choice Award, where all the entries who achieved at least a point (plus a few of my own favourites!) will go into a public poll to decide a winner. The thread for this can be found
here: and voting will run for a little over one week, closing at 6pm on Tuesday 15th March. The winner of this category will receive a £25 voucher for loads of Minibits goodies, so please make sure to place your votes once the thread is up.
And finally, as a special bonus for everyone who entered, we've got one more prize to give out! This participation prize will be given out to one randomly selected person who has entered this years competition. The Winners and Runners-Up will be taken out of the pot first, and then we'll draw a name from the hat to find our winner! The lucky person will receive £10 worth of Pendraken goodies. We'll announce this at the same time as the People's Choice winner, so stay tuned!
