Our judges had their work cut out for them scoring the amazing finalists in our 2018 Tabletop Gaming Painting Competition.

Now it's time to see who our well deserved winners are, as well as to check out the runner ups…

Single Figure Winner: Robert Sakaluk

Firstly we have to apologise to Robert for almost missing this entry in the judging process, which would have been a huge shame as it took out the category! Robert's Ork Warboss is a fantastic example of the use of colour to catch the eye and draw interest to the different parts of the model.

The weathering is extremely well down and consistent and the basing is one of the best in the entire competition, adding extra height and multiple layers of detail but not distracting from the piece overall.

Runners Up: Alex Murray and Richard IK Brunnell

Close behind were Alex's Ork prospector and Richard's Skaven gutter runner. Both of these pieces showed great technical prowess in the blending and highlighting, awesome weathering and brilliant uses of texture to show differences in materials.

Vehicle Winner: Olly Paun

Olly's Eldar fire prism is a brilliant example of a more stylised paint job, incorporating vibrant colours, well executed object sourced lighting and extremely smooth blending in the blues of the primary colour.

Details such as the gems and weapons have been picked out nicely and the decals applied perfectly.

Runner Up: Thomas Miller

In contrast, Thomas' airspeeder was an excellent example of a more realistic and weathered approach and demonstrated what can be done to elevate a more basic model to new heights. The chipping and fading on the markings is very well done, as is the motion streaking weathering on the panels. All the judges also loved the painted effect on the canopy glass.

Infantry Squad Winner: James Lynch

Shadespire teams and non-metallic metals were both very popular in the squad category but James' entry simply knocked it out of the park. The NMM is perfectly executed in both the gold and steel and the colour blending and weathering is extremely well done as well.

Runner Up: Robert Curry

The judge's highlight of Robert's entry were the helmet visors, which were beautifully rendered and immediately caught the eye. The blending and highlighting on the cloaks and uniforms was very well executed and the metallics well done. The mud splashed on the cloaks and boots tied everything together nicely.

Single Monster: Ben Hetherington

This category was the closet fought, but Ben's Magnus the Red took it out with some brilliant basing and water effects, smooth blending and great use of colour.

Runner Up: Olly Paun

Both of Olly's finalist entries came in as the runners up, with very smooth blending and great base work.

Overall Winner & Champion Golden Brush Recipient: James Lynch

Congratulations to James Lynch for securing the overall victory in the 2018 Painting Competition and becoming the 17th recipient world-wide of a limited edition Champion Golden Brush from The Army Painter.

Prizes

Congratulations to all our category winners.

Our category winners each receive a prize pack worth over $100, including a $50 Mighty Ape voucher, Army Painter masterclass brush & basing materials, brush repair gel, Citadel painting handle and Ammo of Mig Jimenez catalogue.

Spot Prize Winners

And a huge thank you to everybody who entered. It was fantastic to see so many entries across a huge range of different subjects and gaming systems and even better to see how people's skills are developing each year we run these competitions.

As always we want to encourage participation from the community as much as possible, so here are our lucky spot prize winners for this year:

3 Month Primate Memberships

• Adam Roberts
• Hansol Kim

Star Saga from Mantic Games

• Adam Hague

Hail Caesar Legionaries Boxe from Warlord Games

• Lance Holden

Black Powder Late French Infantry from Warlord Games

• Sasha Gee

Adeptus Custodes Verus Praetors from Games Workshop

• Chris Rout

Clippers & Files set from 4Ground

• Kerry-Ann Weirick

Mega Paint Set from The Army Painter

• Paul Kleynhans