Note, this writeup is entirely subjective.

Location

This time Hussar took place in a different location, at a bigger OKO site in Warsaw, not far away from usual site. The main room was bigger, higher, more impressive. There was also a nice, large scene with some elevation. In general there was more room for everything, including a large cloakroom. Overall, a big improvement.

Side events

Speed painting was a frantic, fun experience. Michał Cios provided a great live commentary, everything took place at the main stage, so it felt like some sports match and was really hilarious. First there was an elimination round (in two batches, because I believe there were 20+ contestants), with nighthaunt ghost model to paint. Each contestant had a synthetic brush, wet pallete, and 1 hour, at start you would randomly pick up 3 paint pots, and after each 15mins the pots were moved to the person on your right. Then top 8 contestants took part in lighting-fast 15min 1v1 sudden-death battles: painting the legs of necromunda escher ganger, then the torso with weapons & arms, and for final round when only two contestants were left standing, the head & hair. The twist of these 1v1 battles was starting with 4 colours, and collecting the colours of the guy you’ve just bested. Somehow I’ve managed to get 2nd place. If you can tackle the nerves & shaking hands I would recommend this little contest - it was something new for me :)

Krzysztof’s Kobaltczyk workshop on friday was a lecture on light, shadow and contrast. He also explained his unique way of painting and showed his dots/lines technique which leads to great blendings. I was mostly aware of these concepts, but the workshop encouraged me to try to push the dramatic light on my works. Krzysztof also brought up some valuable stuff from Color and Light book by James Gurney, like gamut masks.

Matt’s Cexwish workshop was held on sunday, just before the ceremony. It was more practice-oriented workshop, the focus was loaded brush technique that he and Ben Komets are utilizing heavily, but there were also general remarks about how Matt likes to work, about his brushes and general setup. We had a chance to practice the technique under Matt’s tutelage on a block of primed wood and later on a poxwalker mini, he has also shown the wetblending sketch phase. There was an opportunity to check out new pure-pigment kimera colors (they are uber-pigmented, so nice).

Overall a both workshops were great, with lots of interesting information. There was a tremendous improvement in how the workshops are handled - each one was recorded, streamed to the tv so everyone could see what’s going on without gathering at lecturer’s desk. Both presenters were very nice guys, gladly responding to any questions. Note: workshops were held in english due to foreign participants present, and you have to register for them early because places can be limited.

There was also an integration event at saturday evening, around ~40 people came, dodged the hangover so a success for me :) Nice conversations & encouragement from better painters, relaxed atmosphere. Recommended!

The contest

The total count of works was around 120 from what I’ve heard, vs ~150 from last year. I’ve seen lots of good works, there were no tabletop-ish quality minis (there were some at previous edition). I feel that the strongest categories were SF+fantasy large & bust. Grand prix & gold for bust went to Lan for “Seraphim, the hunter”, with silver bust being “Lady Sybilla” by Krzysztof Kobaltczyk - two best works of this edition for me. Hope the photos & results of all categories will be made available soon by the organizers. The judges decided to be more liberal with honorable mentions this year, and reward more entries with them, to appreciate the creativity or ideas even when the technical execution wasn’t flawless, which I feel is a good decision. There were also some additional “fun” prices, for example the one sponsored by KAHA. The only little dissapointment for me was not seeing new works from people like KAHA, Jakub Małysa, Piotr Czajka & Adam Hałon in the contest. Sometimes life/travelling gets in the way, which is totally understandable, I just love what they do :). It’s great that Bohun submitted multiple pieces though :) Also, Marina Ringill and Sergey Gubin weren’t present this year, probably due to multiple european contests held in close period - SMC, monte san savino, which forced them to make some tough decisions where to participate. I’ve come with 6 entries, and managed to get HM’s for Jareck in fantasy large & my 3 skellies in unit categories, bronze in warmachine for penthesilea & gold in single fantasy for gaunt summoner. The gold was an absolute shock, as my target was getting an HM somewhere this year, I wasn’t expecting gold in such usually strong category. That gives me a very big power boost, and I can’t wait to get painting :)

Summary

You love painting miniatures = you have to be here, it’s that simple. Seeing works of world’s top miniature artists is a sufficient justification to come to Hussar, even when you don’t compete. Among others, there were out-of competition works from the judges present, including last slayer-sword winning diorama by Paweł Makuch. Also valhalla, karol rudyk art, miniature bases & ragecraft displayed their painted boxarts and offered their products. See you at next, anniversary edition!