After 7 days of voting for over 100 entries, we can now announce the winners of the 2026 Pendraken Painting Competition! Once again, the standard has been incredibly high so thanks for everyone who has taken part.

Each of our Forum members had 5 votes to cast per category, so without further ado...

The Winners of the 2026 Pendraken Painting Competition are:


Foot - Pre-20th C. (19 entries)

We had several entries pulling away at the start of the week, but by Saturday two had pulled ahead to take the top spots.


1st place: Hecoma's Williamite O'Brien Regiment - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: Titivillus' AWI 42nd Highlanders - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!



Foot - 20th C. (10 entries)

This category has three clear leaders all week with only a few votes separating them in the end.


1st place: ale's WWII Italian infantry - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: streetgang's SCW Moroccan Regulares - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!



Mounted (17 entries)

This was another tight one for most of the week with everyone slowly creeping forward.  In the end there were two entries separated by only a single vote.


1st place: Alessio's Ottoman Sipahis - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: Ray Rivers' FPW French Dragoons: - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!




Vehicle (11 entries)

This one wasn't event close really, two entries tore away from the rest of the pack right from the word go!


1st place: ale's WWII DAK vehicles - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: Maraviglia's WWII British A13s - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!




Fantasy & Sci-Fi (8 entries)

The Fantasy and Sci-Fi category had a few popular entries but three of them pushed ahead of the rest.


1st place: Fingolfin's Wood Elf Archers - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: Forez42's Blood Bowl Norse team - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!




Open - Single Base (20 entries)

This category had the most entries of the competition and was extremely tight for most of the week.  A couple of entries pushed ahead this afternoon and we almost had a three-way tie!


1st place: General von Schnepf's Nap Austrian artillery - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: Fingolfin's Lady Galadriel - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!




Open - Army! (19 entries)

We had two very clear winners here and I think they are friends too! 


1st place: Federicos 1859 Austrian Empire - wins £50 Pendraken voucher!



2nd place: ale's WWII DAK Panzer division - wins £25 Pendraken voucher!




And that's it! 

Congratulations to all of our winners, you'll receive your winners vouchers in the next few days.  We'll also be posting all of your entries to our social media this coming week.

Thank you to everyone who entered and took the time to prepare your entries.  We always look forward to the Painting Competition and seeing what you can do with our little metal figures.  We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

I didn't think I would be among the winners for my first time participating. A big thank to all those who voted for me, to all the participants, and especially to Leon and the Pendraken team for organizing this competition.

I'm honored to have been able to participate in another year's painting competition. Congratulations to all of the winners.

Great winners
 
Well done all. 

Fantastic painting all around!

Congrats to all the participants and their wonderful entries! 

Congrats to the winners. Well done everyone! Another great competition, time to start planning for next year!

Very well done to all !  

That's a big surprise for me, I was a little intimidated by the napoleonic era, usually a lot of great entries and this year wasn't different. The period itself with all of those colorful uniforms it's quite the challenge in all scales but especially in 10mm. Thank you all for the votes, many compliments to the winners and the participants as well, the general level is getting higher every year.
And of course a big thank you to Leon and Pendraken!!! 
 

Congratulations to the winners! Great artists all 

Congratulations to all the winners and participants!

The overall level this year has been absolutely incredible. After looking through all the entries and the votes during the week, it's clear how much skill, patience and creativity there is in this community. It's always inspiring to see what people can achieve with these tiny 10mm figures.

Many thanks as well to Leon and the Pendraken team for organising the competition and keeping the tradition going year after year.

Personally I've learned a lot just by watching everyone's work and reading the discussions, so I'm already looking forward to the next edition and hopefully taking part again with a bit more experience.

Well done everyone! 👏

Congrats to all the winners and to the losers too, as at times 5 votes were not enough!

Congratulations to all who entered, and especially to those who won. The standard gets higher each year.

Quote

<Extreme pedant alert!> Don't now whether that SPG is a Nashorn or a Hummel, but neither served in North Africa as far as I'm aware.

Well done everybody.

You provide us all a standard to aspire to - should we feel up to it.

Even is we don't, it's an excellent source of pictures to show our 28mm heretic buddies.

Quote<Extreme pedant alert!> Don't now whether that SPG is a Nashorn or a Hummel, but neither served in North Africa as far as I'm aware.

<Extreme pedant response> 'know' not 'now'!
   

Congratulation to all the winners. the standard was so high this year I really struggled to pick only 3 in each category.

Thank you to everyone: participants, voters and the good Leon

Quote from: Federico on 08 March 2026, 09:59:12 PMThat's a big surprise for me, I was a little intimidated by the napoleonic era, usually a lot of great entries and this year wasn't different. The period itself with all of those colorful uniforms it's quite the challenge in all scales but especially in 10mm. Thank you all for the votes, many compliments to the winners and the participants as well, the general level is getting higher every year.
And of course a big thank you to Leon and Pendraken!!!
 

Twentieth century figures are by definition less colourful than other periods, so I have a bias towards those entries because of the inherent disadvantage that the uniforms give.

QuoteCongratulation to all the winners. the standard was so high this year I really struggled to pick only 3 in each category.

Hmm! But you were allowed to choose five!

Congratulations to all the winners; there was some fine work on show again this year.

Such a great competition, many thanks for everyone's votes, And so tight too, with some wins by just one vote!

Echoing previous comments, I agree with the sentiment that some entries would have benefitted from better photography. If anyone is struggling to get a good shot of their work, here's a YouTube tutorial on how to photograph minis well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z84kE8J-804

So many good entries and some wonderful minis. Thank you Pendraken.