Our 8 Adepticon 2026 Gaming Gems

This year, we traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Adepticon, the premiere miniature gaming convention of the year. This was Randy's 4th year, and Alec's 2nd, and so we wanted to really immerse ourselves in all that the show had to offer; from the vendor hall to classes to gameplay. As is tradition, Games Workshop and Atomic Mass Games had their big reveals this year for Warhammer and Star Wars/Marvel miniatures, respectively. However, as avid and dedicated miniature game players and painters, we wanted to explore and discover what else the miniature gaming world had to offer and share them with you.

In no particular order, here are our Top 8 Adepticon Gems we found while browsing the halls, taking classes, and immersing ourselves in the halls of the legendary gaming convention.

Necromolds 

Cast your creatures with Play Putty... and then squish them.

While not a miniature game in the traditional sense, you do get to create your miniatures for tabletop combat while playing the game... and then stab, squish, and stomp them. Necromolds gives players the experience of "casting" creatures from a putty mold to battle other creatures, with dice rolls determining what attacks and spells can be casted. Damaged creatures get skewered with plastic swords, and defeated monsters get smashed into the ground, marked with the sigil of the player. The game offers varying levels of play and difficulty, which makes it a great game to introduce new players to the tabletop arena. This game truly encapsulates the tactile gaming experience, creating immediate interaction and a ton of laughs.

SkullForgeStudios  & Blaster Magazine

Print-and-play Arsenal, Firmament, Skate28, Dead by Lead, and more.

Within the modern era of gaming, exists a battle-cry that calls for creativity, ingenuity, and accessibility. Supply lines and borders can create barriers, but 3d printing and PDF downloads make gaming available everywhere. Jordan Cuffie and Gregory Horton are two of many that have helped bring all of these elements to the big stage of Adepticon. Electi-Studio, founded by editor Gregory Horton, has brought multiple independent games to the forefront of accessibility through Blaster, a digital (and printed) magazine featuring an array of tabletop games created by many of the gaming industry's rising stars. Being out West, Dead by Lead, a western card-draw combat game immediately caught our eye. Despite numerous films, the Old West isn't as robustly represented in tabletop, and this game offers players a chance to be a gunslinger, sheriff, or outlaw in a quick, skirmish-style game of luck and daring.

Blaster also features Arsenal, "an ultramodern drop-skirmish miniature game set in a not-so-distant future where distant corporations have to make use of mercenary security forces to protect their assets from each other." Developed and designed by Jordan Cuffie, of SkullForge Studios, Arsenal provides a wide-open ground for not only gameplay but also community involvement through the Discord channel. Even though it has been around since 2024, the game, and its community, have been growing steadily since then. So many attendees at the booth were asking about when more content was coming out!

Games featured in Blaster are ready for print-and-play, both in models and PDFs. We absolutely cannot wait to drop some mech battlesuits in both the printer and on the tabletop for gameplay. These are games for hobbyists, by hobbyists, and created with talent, grit, and love.

I have been following Jordan for many years, supporting him by purchasing his fan-art model creations and proxy models for Star Wars: Legion. He does some of the best work out there, and it's amazing to see his passion and talent evolve to the point where he can design and produce his own games!

(Also, stay in tune for more info on Skate28, a tabletop skateboarding game that uses a skateboard as the board.)

ZynVaded!  Evo

1:1 scale alien combat on your kitchen table.

Earth has been invaded in the miniature game ZynVaded! Alien scouts of warring factions from the race known as Zyn have found that we are ripe for conquest! Unfortunately, because they are only 1" tall, they think that your house is the entirety of "Earth," and have deployed their armies to it to continue their war. Utilizing a simple d10 system with basic addition, players use their small squad of minis (which are true scale for the Zyn) to battle over your tabletop. The game uses a clever system of terrain - whatever you have in your house. Blocks, cups, snack bags, cellphones, you name it, it's all part of their 'living terrain' system. This means that any time you move a cup to drink it or grab a refill of your finger food, the terrain has been changed, and those bugs get exposed!

This is a fantastic game for those older gamer kids, but also a great "beer and pretzel" game (both of which would make some great terrain). It's a DOT game (Don't Over Think), so don't expect a robust rule book with rules to exploit unwitting opponents.  ZynVaded! is a wonderful way to introduce basic tabletop mechanics of moving, shooting, and decision making in a family-friendly game.

Goblin Stampers 

Beautify your minis with nail stamper ingenuity!

Goblin Stampers cannot seem to stay on the shelf. From the realm of manicure enhancements, Goblin Stampers makes adding flair to your miniatures a dream. Decals are a thing of the past, and Goblin Stampers can add that extra flair to your army instead.

The Goblin Stampers received the first 100 in Gaming Trend's hobby history, and a year later, we still stand by this score.  With a set of new stamping plates and paints, this innovative tool will continue to grow in a brand new space in the industry with little competition. Brent (Goobertown Hobbies) and Casey (Ebay Miniature Rescues) have really hit a fantastic niche within our community.

Fort Wappel 

The heart and soul of the Adepticon Painting Community

Randy: You cannot come to Adepticon and not hear about the beautiful impact that Jim and Cathy Wappel have had on our hobby community. The Hobby Lounge, more commonly known as Fort Wappel, is a place for creativity and community. In the Fort, you are provided with everything you need to paint up a model, from access to the majority of paint ranges, donated brushes, palettes, and other tools. You are also surrounded by prominent painters, streamers, YouTubers, and anyone willing to pick up a brush. You can run into Golden Demon winners, get feedback, all with the best lighting in the convention.

Everyday, I spent time in the fort, working on projects, connecting with old friends, and making new ones, all in the spirit of Cathy Wappel, who lost her battle with cancer in 2023.

To be surrounded by creatives, from all backgrounds with all skill levels from around the world, and just sit, and talk, and paint is an experience unmatched.

Hive Scum, SmashBash, Orc The Brand, Snak28, and  Swap Nite

Your gateway to indie grimdark games

Over the last few years, I've caught onto the movement in the miniature community focused around the DIY aesthetic, older rule-sets, zines, and kitbashed minis. While this group of punks have existed for a long time, helping keep games like Mordheim, Necromunda, and various rules-lite game engines popular, I saw this in great force at Adepticon.

Smashbash had a massive booth shared with Hive Scum, where both companies sold various miniatures, shirts, and other...detritus. From a $5 bin of teeth that you reached into in order to get a blind box of bits to Sunrot demos to hand sculpted haunted houses that felt more like art pieces, dead Necromunda gangers, and plenty of left-leaning clothing, I felt at home in this booth. If you don't know, Sunrot is a GM-led, rules light, co-op adventure game that leans heavily on using fantastic miniatures, card flips featuring beautiful art, a kit-bashed board produced by Totally Not Panicking, and a massive supporting range of miniatures.

And it wasn't just the massive booth with a crowd consistently chanting "teeth teeth teeth",  around the corner sat Orc The Brand, which brands themselves as California Hardcore X Hobby Supplies, who were launching their model line for their game Monster Friends: Battle for New Florida. These models were a wonderful blend of DIY and whimsy. And because in this community, you support your friends, they were also selling merch from Hellpocalypse, who are selling some of the most interesting models I've put my hands on. And I was lucky enough to run into Fiver, the creator of The Game of Candy Cannibalism, Snak 28! While I sadly wasn't able to attend a painting class, buy a model, or play a game of Snak 28, it's high on my list of games to play! The rules are available for Name your own price, and the artwork is incredible. Check out and purchase physical models from Ramshackle Games, or snag the STLs and send Fiver some money!

Lastly, this DIY vibe came to fruition for me Friday night at Swap Nite, where open bins of bits, sprues, unwanted models existed alongside vendors selling metal records, zines and independent games of every shape and form. I was encouraged to kitbash a model based on a sign that read Build whatever, be nice, have fun. I also bought several zines, including Bloodwork, an RPG described to me as "The rave scene from Blade, but a game", produced by BigBoyGameTime. I also glued an orc to my hand, but in this community, a bottle of acetone is just an ask away.

Well worth my visiting all of these artists and next year, I'll be back at Grimdark Alley, along with own sprues to donate to the pile.

The Painting Classes

Never stop learning how to paint your minis

Randy: While the gaming at Adepticon is always a blast, the opportunity to improve your painting and hobby skills by being taught by some of the best painters in the world is the most valuable aspect of the convention.

My first class, taught by Matteo Di Diomede, focused on starting a project with the mood of the piece in mind and immediately diving into colors. In a hobby where we constantly worry about ruining a project, this class encouraged experimentation, breaking through anxiety and fear, and only starting with the basic 3 colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow. We focused on Trench Crusade models, which allowed us to paint with a creepy, grimdark feeling in mind. My choice of a strong pinkish magenta from Monument Hobbies resulted in a rendering of a cosmic-horror-tinted piece.

My second class, hosted by Vallejo Colors, was a class focused on skintone, light, and fabric, taught by Roxandru Hobby, This class challenged me to focus on just sketching darker skin tones and considering how light works with skin and fabric. I practiced volumes, light placement, and ended with something I was fairly happy with after 90 minutes of work. She provided me with excellent feedback, and I know what to continue working on during my time post-con.

My last class challenged me on something I haven't been able to lock down yet, and that is speed painting. Matt DiPietro led a class focused on grisaille, a painting technique which focuses on establishing form, tonal values, and volume before getting into colors. His class made me think about shadow and light, how they play together on a model, and then utilizing transparent paint and inks, I was able to successfully create a vivid paint job that is more than table ready in just a few hours. I will be using this technique in the coming weeks to take care of a series of Marvel Crisis Protocol pieces I have.

Alec: Given the massive popularity of classes, I was lucky enough to get into just one this year. In no way am I saying that Randy took my spots but... he took my spots. (For real though, I am so glad he got in!) (Randy: WHAT!?) I was fortunate enough to take a class from Vince Venturella, a veteran miniature painter whose painting genius is as subtle and as clever as his humor. We worked on True Metallic Metals, utilizing the best metallics on the market, Vallejo. Fun fact: metal paints in general are terrible because of the way they are manufactured. They either have an imbalance mixture of mica, ink, and suspension liquid (water-based), or they are cheaply made and are using a poor substitute of one or all of the elements. So, he recommends Vallejo Metallics or Army Painter Speedpaint metallics. I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear that it's not "painter error" with metals; metal paints are just awful to paint with! So, by using some Vallejo metals and Monument Hobbies Coal Black (a personal favorite of mine), we painted up some armor on a resin-printed mini, focusing on emphasizing where light hits the armor and where the shadows are created. Fantastic class, fantastic technique, and fantastic teacher!

The Painting Competitions

Pushing your art to the next level at one of the world's biggest showcases for it

Across the convention, there are multiple painting competitions, and you'll hear whispers about more. Sometimes, you find out about a competition the moment you're at Adepticon, and that all adds to the allure of it.

Competitive display painting is something I've immersed myself in for four years now, and it's a different shift in how you approach projects. I usually put my work into two of them, The Worthy and Golden Demon. And the work is intense. Artists will spend hundreds of hours pouring effort and paint onto a project, all in the hopes of getting recognition for their skills. That recognition exists in several forms, the most obvious being a trophy. But the more subtle and rewarding one in my head is just having a piece in the case and hearing what folks say about it. In one of my classes, the teacher mentioned that our hobby is too focused on Instagram posts, which is why artists make their pieces matte, and because of the algorithm, we only see matte pieces, and even more specifically, high end painted pieces that are flawless, usually airbrushed to perfection. Only in the cases do you see a wide variety of projects and skills, and in many ways, it's a leveler.

This year saw the entrance of a new "competition", the Mini's As Art showcase, from Monument Hobbies. This focused on picking pieces that, as I can best guess, fulfilled joy in the judges. For example, a child painted a Rogue Hobbies goblin, and ended up winning an award because a child painted it.  This "competition" broke the rules and wrote new ones in it's place, which makes me happy. On the floor, I heard about future competitions coming from both Trench Crusade and Corvus Belli. These new showcases alongside current ones, including the P3 Showcase, Resin Beast, and Badger Games showcase mean that there are plenty of places for displaying your work, collecting feedback, and who knows, potentially winning.

Also, Adepticup Army Showcase (essentially Armies on Parade), if you haven't heard about it or attended it, is a (literal) monumental showcase of dioramas of epic proportions. Pictures don't do it justice, especially on some of the more massive entries. Warhammer 40k, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Warhammer: Old World Star Wars, Bolt Action, Battletech, Marvel: Crisis Protocol, Halo: Flashpoint... you get everything all in one place. There's not enough time to see it all, but there are some dedicated and brilliant creators out there who give their maximum effort for this competition.

Additional Game Highlights from Adepticon 2026

There's not enough internet storage for all of the games, tables, and terrain we saw, but we did want to showcase a few other eye-catching and noteworthy games in the halls of Adepticon 2026.

BattleTech

Trench Crusade

StarCraft: The Miniatures Game

Star Wars: Legion World's Tournament Event Tables

Closing out Adepticon 2026

Truth be told, there's far more than 8 gems within Adepticon. With every corner and booth revealing something interesting, artistic, valuable, or a combination of that, it's impossible to see everything and give it the most attention. And it's getting bigger every year.

There are some fantastic releases for the bigs this year, including a new edition for Warhammer 40k, a brand new faction for Star Wars: Legion, and a new Starcraft Miniatures Game, which further expands the reach and growth for the hobby. From these major releases, to the indie games getting their traction, the hobby offers an incredible amount of entry points for gamers, painters, and makers more than ever before. There is a game out there for everyone; it's just a matter of finding it and sharing it!

We do plan on being back next year, and who knows what we'll do, bring, and buy. But what we can be certain about is that it will be worth our time.

What Adepticon stories do you have? Don't forget to subscribe to GamingTrend to stay up-to-date with all of our tabletop miniature reviews and painting tutorials. More to come!