What is the Minis As Art Celebration?

The Miniatures As Art Celebration is a way to give back to the community by giving everyone the opportunity to learn, chat, compete, and enjoy this wonderful hobby in an awesome, and relaxed environment!

Join us AdeptiCon 2026 at booth #400, where you can meet some tremendous artists, take part in live painting demos, get interactive feedback on your models, and even enter our painting competition. So many cool things to do and people to meet!

LIVE Artist Demos, Piece Feedback, & MORE!

We're providing the best place to hang out during the show! Got an hour between classes? A break between rounds of play? A whole day to kill? Come join in on the fun and activities!

• Live Artist DEMOs - hands-on demonstrations where you get to paint along and interact with the artists! (Paints / minis / brushes provided)
• Artist Piece Feedback - Bring your latest work and get insights from great artists on how to push your talents even further!
• Artist Q&A - Chat with artists from around the world and share stories and valuable insights into painting and more!
• Painting Competition - That's right! We're doing a teaser competition for the upcoming MAA Cup series during the show. Bring your best work and take part in all sorts of fun awards! (See details below)

We want the inaugural Miniatures As Art Celebration to be a blast for everyone, so get your best dad jokes ready, and we’ll see you there!

What is the Miniatures As Art Cup Series?

The Inaugural MAA Cup will take place at Adepticon 2027, giving you one year to get your best work ready for the challenge! We're doing a Teaser competition this year to get everyone primed for the main event. Details for that are down below!

The MAA Cup is our vision for a truly “open” painting competition. We want to provide an experience where the biggest competition a painter has is themselves. The competition will be divided into different Leagues, each with their own set of awards and top winners, along with a rubric that will define exactly what needs to be done to progress a model to the subjective judging. Artists will be able to know exactly what to do to grow to the next step in progress and prizing within their own league, as well as knowing what it takes to hit the next higher one and beyond. Hitting each level of the rubric’s requirements will guarantee a prize slot at that level. Then it’s just wowing the judges to get a podium spot within your league. Each painter will be able to track their growth much easier as they reach each higher tier of expectations and then compete for top spot. Growing to a new league will be quite an achievement and something to celebrate on its own, with podium trophies within the tier really showing top progression. Leagues and tiers within them will continue to grow as the community's abilities do! The coveted Best of Show per league will gain a plate on that league's Cup for all to remember for years to come. 

Submission & General Information | Mini As Art Cup Teaser Challenge

The MAA Cup Teaser Challenge

This year is a primer for the first ever MAA Cup Challenge coming to AdeptiCon 2027, so it’s all about fun and getting to know the staff and judges this year. Bring your best and discuss what to expect from the event and have some fun prizing along the way!

• What models do I bring? - All single-figure models no larger than 150mm in height are welcome  (not including base or frame) and with a base no larger than 120mm in diameter. We’re keeping this first teaser simple. Limit to two models per entrant.

• How do I submit a model? - Bring your models (2 max) to the Monument Hobbies booth (#400) prior to noon on Saturday to be entered into the competition. Judging will begin Saturday afternoon and continue until the presentation on Sunday. We will be limiting it to 300 model submissions at this years event, so get registered as soon as you can!

• Are there categories? - Yes and no. We’re making this Teaser Challenge more of a fun and wacky competition. Our judges will arrange models as they see fit - mostly based on whether it’s a bust, full figure, historical, fantasy, etc. Leagues are not a factor in this initial teaser, and the judging will be more casual.

• How will it be judged? - We’re going for a “love at first sight” type judge reaction. What part of the model speaks out loud and makes us really want to look at more? Create that WOW or POP that drags us in and you’ll be in a good spot! We’ll want models that are properly built and cleaned to give us a firm foundation to build from, but other than that, sky’s the limit to what you present!

• Who is judging? - Dan Ozborne, Vincent Venturella, Krzysztof Kobalczyk, Mally Anderson, Lukas Zaba, Jason Craze

• Fun Awards & Prizes - We’ll be doing some great prizes for all sorts of judges favorites such as "Best Use of the Color Blue", "Best Tree", and whatever else we can come up with based on the awesome models provided. There will be a cash prizes for the Judges' Top 3 picks as well!

• Are there any rules I should know about before I submit? What is allowed? - Models that fit the above size criteria and adhere to Adepticon’s standards and code of conduct as well as not promoting sexual themes are welcome. Refer to Adepticon's Conduct Policy HERE.