Privateer Press Grandmasters 2010

Privateer Press and its Grandmaster competition was one of the big reasons why I went to Gencon. I’ve always been a painter more than a player, and well one of my to-do lists for Gencon was to submit an entry to Privateer Press’ Grandmasters.

Needless to say I was blown away when I saw some of the entries in the categories. It was so awesome that I actually went back to my hotel room to do some more further touch ups to my own submission.

Here are the winners of PP’s 2010 Grandmasters, as well as some of the models that caught my eye. If any of you guys know who painted what please do tell me so I can update their details =) Also, you can click on them for bigger pics (not necessarily better, I was using a tiny consumer cam 🙁 ).

Best Warjack/Warbeast: Warhog

Best Unit: Popg0estheworld’s Assault Kommandos

Best Diorama: Sorscha’s Icy Gaze
Great idea, and a lot of disparate skills and techniques were needed to pull of this story well.

Best Battlegroup: Thomas Schadle’s Irusk Battlegroup
I was in one of his painting classes (Making Model’s Pop) and he let us take a close look at the models… and let me tell you, they were breathtaking. I do not envy anyone who had to go up against those models. There were pretty much perfect.

Best Warrior Model and Overall Grandmaster: 2010 Nemo
This is another perfect model. Submitted by Natalya Melnik, not a name I was familiar with but a bit of quick googling and her stuff is AMAZING. Seems like she’s more well known in the GW circles, and I’m glad that she’s joining PP’s contests as well. Thanks to Anon for the credits info!

By the way, I’m very amazed to have placed, getting a gold coin for the Warbeast/Warjack Category for my Ceremonial Drago (converted Berserker). Even if I lost, to be placed in vague proximity to the winning Warhog was amazing. Ironically, in my urge to take photos, I left mine out. The best photo I have is this very overexposed twitter shot of it. It’s so overexposed you can’t even see the freehand on the top 🙁

Here are also some of the models that really caught my eye:

This pistol wraith was amazing. I don’t know how fragile it must be, dremelling/filing it out like that. It’s a wonderful representation of the incorporeal state though.

More of popg0estheworld’s stuff. His battledress green Khador is just top notch.

Odingrandson’s diorama involving Viktor Pendrake. It’s one of my favourite dioramas. It’s small, but subtle and it tells a really good story. Wish he had placed higher.

The colours of the teraph were really well selected and blended together really well. One of my favourite warbeasts.

More than the great level of detail put into the battlegroup, I’m amazed that Rasheth got painted up within such a short time! And to such a high standard too! The colourscheme was drop dead gorgeous.

This Kraye battlegroup was amazing too. The Union colour scheme is just awesome.

There was sooo much more minis. I tried to take as many photos as I could, and all of my grandmaster photos are in the gallery below, but if I missed any of your minis I truly apoologise. Its hard to make sure that you get everything when you’re literally overwhelmed by the level of top notch paint jobs that I saw in Gencon.

Needless to say, if I ever get the chance to look at and participate in the Grandmasters again I will jump at the chance.