For the third time I had the pleasure of participating in latest, anniversary edition of the most important polish miniature painting competition - Hussar. This year we’ve seen a record count of submitted works, there were around 150 works in “master” category and similar number in a new, more approachable “standard” category, aimed for non-proffessional and less experienced painters. Both “standard” and “master” categories consist of the same subcategories: unit, diorama, warmachine, bust, small sf, small fantasy, big sf & big fantasy. The evaluation process itself is a bit rigid, which proved to be the case this year, with only one entry in each subcategory receiving a single gold, silver and bronze place. The judges spent long hours to select the top 3, thankfully a healthy dose of “honorable mentions” was also awarded to compensate for that in “master”, and similarily “good job” in standard as well.

The level of Hussar is getting higher and higher, it’s also one of a few occasions to meet face to face with a lot of polish painters, show off your works and ask for feedback from the best of them, like:

  • Krzysztof Kobaltczyk (Red Art)
  • Michal Pisarski (Lan Studio)
  • Katarzyna Gorska (KAHA)
  • Pawel Makuch (Monstroys)
  • Jaroslaw Drabek (Camelson)
  • Bogusz Stupnicki (Bohun) also Karol Rudyk (not present at this edition though), Adam ‘Loler’ Hałon, Piotr Czajka ‘Dexter’, Flameon, C’tan among others… Most of them are regular competitiors or judges at Hussar. This year we also saw a lot of guests from abroad: Big Child Creative crew (Ruben Martinez, David Arroba), guests from Czech Republic (Tomas ‘Persifal’ Pekar & Lukas Zaba with friends), Robert Karlsson from Rogland Studio of Sweden.

Apart from main competition, participants could also take part in side activities:

  • crazy speedpainting battle royale :D
  • lectures - in english, prepared by Robert Karlsson & Ruben Martinez, showing off their painting methods, simultaneously translated to polish
  • painting class for children
  • shop area with stuff from Neko Galaxy Minis, Rage Craft, Big Child Creative, ZabaArt among others - the prices were really good, and most of the sellers had a display of their miniatures in original boxart versions.
  • integration party!

Event’s avenue was conveniently placed not far from Warsaw’s city centre & main train station, only around 15-20mins by subway. Whole gig was organised nicely, with (mostly) tightly kept schedule. I recommend it to anyone interested in miniature painting, be it pro or amateur, I’ve came home really inspired to work on my skills for whole next year. My troll unit (pics ->here got bronze in “masters” unit subcategory, I also managed to be 2nd in speedpainting contest.

Official pics were not published yet, but there are some compilations available on facebook, and you can check out the results:

->winners

->master part 1

->master part 2

->standard part 1

->standard part 2

Let’s go to my own evaluation of paintjobs: feel free to skip this part - this is highly subjective and based on what I personally like in miniature painting. Model selection plays a big part in that. When it was possible, I tried to use better photos from internet, but most used here were uploaded by “Mroczny raj” (thanks for sharing this on FB):

diorama:

  • By Michał “Mihausz” Szymeczko. Beautiful, rich colours, great NMM, superb texturing on the dragon head (which is a part of a dragon sculpt by Karol Rudyk). I particularily liked the stone texture, and straining chains which illustrate how tough it was to slay the dragon.

  • By Piotr “Dexter” Czajka. Subtle OSL, top-notch detailing work, clean blends. I like how the gritty base contrasts with miniatures, which by the way, compose together great, master-minion relation.

  • I’m not sure who did this (edit: David Arroba), but big kudos. Nice NMM & light modulation, also on the base. The flesh of warriors looks realistic, whole thing is gritty yet expressive.

small sf:

  • By Robert Karlsson. Simple, fitting base, clean face & armor with subtle reflection. The most impressive part for me is of course the cloak, with great texture & reddish shadows.

  • By Flameon. I’m not a big fan of his extremely technical and saturated style in general, but boy, this is an impressive eye candy… Also the layered base is preety interesting, the bubbles look like they are going to burst. The only thing I don’t like so much is a red nurgling.

  • By Shizune. Another eye-candy, violet/gold contrast pops! Subtle texture on white/gray coat along with freehanded base make it one of my favourites. Check out the back when official photos come in, there is another awsome freehand hiding there ;D

small fantasy:

  • By Bohun. Textured metallics, nuanced fleshy reds on squig, precise ribbon freehand on the lance, shroomy base.

  • By Krzysztof Pisarski “KP miniatures”. Krzysztof is really improving last 2 years, I like that he hasn’t used too many colours, NMM really shines, I like the teal. Base could be more involved though.

large fantasy:

  • By David Arroba. A little cartoony (but not too much - suits the mini), beautiful light, fantastic job. Simple base with nice touch - spilled beer.

  • By Mihausz. I’m suprised it didn’t get any award apart from HM… The cloak & fur are mindblowing. Nice vegetation used for basing.

large sf:

  • By Robert Karslsson. Colours on the skin contrasted with nicely executed NMM contrasted with desaturated purple pants just do it for me :)

unit:

  • By Tomas “Persifal” Pekar. Actual hussar submission had ambot starring in warmachine category. I love how Tomas interprets GW models, and how he flawlessly executes it on multiple of them consistently! High tech, NMM artwork.

bust:

  • By David Arroba. Expressive, funny, great skin & light

  • By Robert Karlsson. My overall favourite of all works on Hussar. There is some sadness/nostalgia emanating from this piece. Nice light & textures with tasteful laid-back colours. NMM headpiece really brings attention to the head. Beautiful miniature, nice touch with fly wings on the cloack.

What are your types?