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Winners for 2013's Crystal Brush are now posted on CMON's site: http://crystalbrush.coolminiornot.com/cbwinners

I was a bit surprised at the top three picks. It was not so much the choices as it was the order. Apparently it was a very close finish.

I also very much appreciated the wonderful Reaper model, The Final Charge, by Ivan Melnikov. Sadly, it did not make the top three.

i think the touch of death one should have won. That one's awesome

the judges appear to favor bizarre and IMO ugly, clashing color schemes. I should have entered in some hot pink space marines with brown, turquoise and purple detailing, i would have won for sure.

Touch of Death was my pick as well.

I didn't see all the entries and, frankly, they winners are admittedly ALL better than I could likely do... but I just don't see where they look like Contest Winning entries. To me, they all seem way too busy and just a cacophony of clashing colors. It almost looks like they were voted on because they were BIG.
Frankly, while the Walking Dead one had some spectacular elements, the zombie sitting against the car and some choices on how he made the car interact with the wall just kept drawing my eye towards the problems with it, rather than it's better points.

The winner... I just plain didn't like it. There was too much going on and vying for attention. For me, there was nothing to draw me to it.

The elf(?) fighting the giant thing was similar... the trees were so invasive and distracting that the main element -the fight between the two of them- seemed lost and muddled to me.

Sorry to come out with mostly criticism. I'm sure the artists (and I DO believe the winners deserve that title) put a TON of work into these, and any one of these entries has more hours into it than I've put into any TWO (maybe 3) models in my collection.
I give them full credit for the work and quality they've accomplished. I just can't help but think there had to have been better entries than these.

I guess I'll have to look into it and see.

Eric

Make sure you look at The Final Charge in the 54mm category.

I was surprised at the lack of quality overall for a competition that offers prize money as well as trophies.

Each category seemed to have 2-4 real competitors and then a lot of pieces that I scored as five or four with the occasional 6 or 7 in between.

EDIT: I should caveat this by noting that I only voted on the Sci-Fi single, Sci-Fi Vehicle, Diorama, 54mm, and Sculpting categories. I ran out of time before I could get to the Fantasy/Steampunk, Historical, and Sci-Fi squad categories.

Good info. I will.

Thanks.

Eric

I do prefer the 2nd and 3rd place entries over the first (particularly the 3rd place one, as mentioned above) but they're all great, imo.

 JB wrote:

I was surprised at the lack of quality overall for a competition that offers prize money as well as trophies.

Two factors:
1. A lot of painters are intimidated by the large prize and the feared level of competition. Why put in hundreds of hours of effort when you are competing against some of the top talent in the world.
2. Reapercon was this weekend too and I know several big name painters were there as well. This may have played into number 1 also, why miss a major painter's gathering for a setup for disappointment.

If there is anything I can think of that separated number 1 from 3, never underestimate the power of freehand work and bright colors. Plus the foliage and simpler color pallet of #3 were likely held against it. A friend of mine who competes for "Best Painted" categories at tournaments noted that bright color armies always beat out more muted colors. It cost him a couple times.

Good point about Reapercon. I looked at their list of painters and sculptors and it was very impressive.

I was very surprised about the order of the winners as well, but if you were able to see some of the models in real life (i.e. not just on CMON's website) you'd be able to pick out just minor details that should have cost them their placing in the competition.

Honestly, I felt that 3rd place should have won Best of Show, it was the best model I saw, and while I'm not an amazing painter, I was looking, if not begging, for an error to be found. I found the first place model to be really busy with the colors, and I heard rumblings that the back of the banner wasn't painted (it was just primered), but I don't have any proof, so take that as you will . With that being said, the model was well painted, I just feel that 3rd place was better.

Congrats to all of the painters that were even in the contention for running. My little model wasn't going to win anything, but it felt good to be entered, and a guy on Sunday with a far better painted mini than mine complimented me on my entry, so a small win in my book

Alf,

You have crossed the Rubicon. Now there is no turning back. You must enter painting competitions until you win or return to Rome on your shield!

So basically, you have to get better at painting or else say goodbye to Cleveland!

 JB wrote:
Alf,

You have crossed the Rubicon. Now there is no turning back. You must enter painting competitions until you win or return to Rome on your shield!

So basically, you have to get better at painting or else say goodbye to Cleveland!

I know I'm already planning for next year

Win all the trophies!

The fact that 1 and 3 are scratchbuilt is mind blowing.

1 was easily the best in the 54mm and up category. The 'Final Charge' wasvery well done, but didn't wow me.