Main Sponsors

CoolMiniOrNot is the Internet's largest gallery of painted miniatures, with over 100,000 painted miniatures submitted from all over the world.  CoolMiniOrNot also publishes, manufactures and distributes several miniature brands under license.

For the past 30 years, the hobby games industry is a global business of non-digital published products, including table top strategy games featuring model miniatures that participants in this hobby collect and model to varying degrees. With an estimated global market of over 500 million dollars, the hobby games market is a strong product category with an obsessive following across many market segments and age brackets.

Miniature painting has been a long developing art form for participants in this hobby. Featuring a dizzying array of tools, techniques, and personalities, painters from all over the globe continue to expand the level of quality and artistry that goes into the rendering of their miniatures, from large dioramas, to the smallest toy soldiers no larger than 5mm in height. Cool Mini or Not, along with the Adepticon games convention want to make the Crystal Brush contest a global arena for the world’s best artists to compete and display their talent.

We currently have main sponsor and co-sponsor slots available, please drop an email to crystalbrush@coolminiornot.com for details.

Prizes

The top 3 placers for each category will each receive the Crystal Brush trophy in the appropriate color tip (gold, silver and bronze), made of cut lead crystal.

The top 3 overall winners will each receive a cash prize of $10,000, $2,000 and $1,000 respectively, making this the most valuable competition in the miniature painting world today!  

Creators of the amazing Battle Foam transport systems used worldwide for all manner of games, personalized for numerous individual game companies and systems, the guys out at Battle Foam are forerunners in this, the Golden Age of miniature gaming happening all around us. They help gamers everywhere protect their beautiful works of art as they travel from home to shop, shop to events, and back again. This year, as a special Diamond-level award, Battle Foam will be sponsoring the Best Miniature Effects and Story Told Through Miniature category - giving all of those artists who enjoy telling a story with their art a chance to shine.    

One of Cool Mini or Not's strongest game licenses and miniature lines, Dark Age: Apocalypse is a best-seller with nothing but greatness on the road ahead. To celebrate the exciting new things coming in 2012 and beyond, Dark Age is using its Diamond-level sponsorship to set up a special category award of its own - Best Dark Age:Apocalypse Miniature.    

One of Cool Mini or Not's newer but stronger partners in the Crystal Brush, Wyrd Games have been producing amazingly fantastic miniatures for their unique game lines, the striking Malifaux and their recent rising star, Puppet Wars. Using their Diamond-level sponsorship to create the intriguing competition category of Best Wyrd Miniature.

 

Emerald Level Sponsors

Some of our greatest individual partners in the Crystal Brush process, each of our Emerald-level sponsors brings something special to the competition individual to their product lines or personal desires to award. They are the leaders of the pack, and we are so glad to have them on board!  

Known for their gorgeously unique sculpts, from their 15mm historics to their fantastical War Crow line and the science fiction masterpieces of Infinity, Corvus Belli Miniatures are bringing a new category to the Crystal Brush this year - Best Infinity Miniature.    

Allies in the Cool Mini or Not family for a long while now, the people at Micro Art Studio have made a massive foothold in the industry with their bases, terrain and interesting miniatures. As an Emerald-level sponsor, they are headlining a unique category of their own - Best MicroArt Miniature.

 

Ruby Level Sponsors

The following sponsors, our Ruby-level friends and allies in this journey toward the Crystal Brush, may not be heading up their own categories or individual prizes, but they are nonetheless instrumental in the creation and execution of this amazing miniature industry event.  

   

Manufacturers of amazing fantasy models with more character and savagery than many real beasties cannot even compare to, Gamezone Miniatures is a proud Crystal Brush sponsor and member of the Cool Mini family.    

Carrying the rising resurgence of Confrontation:Phoenix Edition miniatures for us at Cool Mini or Not, Legacy Miniatures has a very bright future ahead of them; being on board at Crystal Brush is just the beginning.    

Whether it is bits made special for conversion, chunks of terrain-enhancing parts, or individual miniatures of their own design, Secret Weapon Miniatures are good comrades to have and we a glad to have them here with us at the Crystal Brush.    

Cool Mini or Not and Soda Pop Miniatures have gone hand-in-hand for a long time now, with their beautiful anime-stylings of the Relic Knights miniatures (and soon to be game system!) at the beginning to their fantastically successful recent release of the Super Dungeon Explore! boardgame...there are so many good things to come from these guys, being part of Crystal Brush was a no brainer!    

Coming out of the minds and talents of some of the industry's most well-noted names, Mike and Allison McVey, as well as their compatriots, Studio McVey is on the verge of their big gaming release - Sedition Wars. Already a happy member of the Cool Mini family, Studio McVey is headed down an amazing path that we gladly will join them upon.