Another year and another record-breaking AdeptiCon is in the books! 2025 was not only the first year of AdeptiCon’s new home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but also a year of firsts for The Army Painter as well. With the expanded vendor hall, we were able to splurge a bit and broke into Dipit’s personal bank account to upgrade our booth with new displays, new cabinets, a swanky new tower (for ease of finding across the cavernous new hall), and more. This was also the first year with our expanded Events Team, with Tim joining both Kat and Caleb as our new triumvirate of hobby excellence you can expect to see at every US-based event.
Exciting Swag
Perhaps most exciting of all, for you, the attendees, is it was also the debut (along with Gary Con) of in-person sales at events—a staple you can expect to see at every US event we’ll be attending for the foreseeable future!
This included the crowd favourite John Blanche Masterclass Paint Sets, as well as almost the entirety of the Warpaints Fanatic, Air, and Speedpaint ranges. Looking to pick up a Fanatic Mega Set to boost or start your collection—we have you covered. Just needed one or two paints for that specific model you just got from the booth down the hall—no problem. Unsurprisingly for a large gaming event, our Range Finders and Targetlock Laser Lines were in high demand, and flew off the shelves, even with additional stock prepared!
While having our extensive range of paints, tools, and hobby supplies in stock and ready for purchase is all well and good, I hear the question you’re all waiting to ask. What about the event exclusives?! No worries there, what kind of hobby company would we be without some exclusive swag in tow?
One of the most popular items for sale at AdeptiCon was our new Collapsable Water Cup. Made in collaboration with Game Envy, this water cup takes their already perfected design and presents it with a swanky new makeover, complete with our signature colours and a glorious “The Army Painter” logo emblazoned on the side.
Alongside this painting essential we had the hottest new looks to hit the hobby runway in the form of our stylish Beanie and Paint Apron. They can be paired perfectly for those cold winter nights of painting or worn separately to accessorise any outfit.
Lastly, it looks as though Dipit got into our paint supplies with his trusty marker, and added a bit of flair to the painting staples Matt Black and Matt White. Just who are these John Black and John White fellows? Sources say they offer the same amazing coverage and performance as the Matthew cousins, but with an extra level of grimdark flair when displayed on your painting rack.
Weren’t able to make it to AdeptiCon? No worries, all these event exclusives will be at future US events as supplies last. Stay tuned for more details on the rest of our 2025 event schedule.
Special Guests
It wasn’t just all exclusive swag and cool new towers though, we also had plenty of painting demos running all weekend long, including some special guests. Making his Factory Team debut at AdeptiCon, the one and only Chris “Peachy” Peach, spent time on Saturday afternoon showing off his skills at The Army Painter booth. While you may be familiar with his amazing painting guides and equal love of tea and Sharpe (we hear it’s a close tie) from his YouTube channel, Peachy Tips, there’s nothing quite like seeing it in person.
Joining him from the Factory Team were Uncle Atom, Phil the Glacial Geek, and Sam Lenz, as well as Stephen Box of Vanguard Tactics, and Dave and Oz from Build Paint Play. All of whom spent time in and around the booth, sharing their hobby wisdom and helping happy customers pick out the best colour combos for their upcoming painting projects.
Awards Aplenty
AdeptiCon doesn’t just celebrate the hobby with tons of cool events, people, and swag, it also celebrates the hobby with actual awards as well.
Phil took home the Best Chaos Theme medal for his lovingly painted Emperor’s Children during the 40k Flex event, a more casual focused gaming event run by the illustrious Carl Tuttle of The Independent Characters fame. If you haven’t been following Phil’s Emperor’s Children journey, I highly recommend you check out his videos, as he painted the entire 2,000-point force in about a month’s time leading up to the event. You can even pick up a paint bundle that he used on one of his models.
AdeptiCon is also home to numerous painting competitions including the Resin Beast by Creature Caster, the Path of the Worthy by Atomic Mass Games, and the US Golden Demon, the long-running embodiment of display-level painting within the Warhammer hobby, run by Games Workshop themselves. Factory Team member Sam Lenz won Commended for both his gorgeous Gorger and chaotically good Chaos Warriors unit in the Golden Demon, and took home Bronze in Small Model for the Resin Beast, and Gold in Single for the Path of the Worthy.
In the Golden Demon, Tyler took home Notable for his Lieutenant Titus and Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnought, both of which have painting guides on our blog, Commended for his Deathrattle Skeleton and Dread Pageant unit, and a Finalist pin and Bronze trophy for his rendition of Nekaph, Herald of Settra in The Old World category.
When reached for comment, Tyler took a break from writing the rest of this article, including this sentence right here, to say:
“I was super happy to win third place with Nekaph, and honestly blown away. I was hoping for a Finalist pin at best, so hearing my name called during the award ceremony was truly amazing and a highlight of the event for me. It’s been over a decade since my last Golden Demon trophy, so now the competitive painting bug is truly set in again.”
We said it was a year of firsts, and this year was our first as the official paint sponsor of Creature Caster’s Resin Beast painting competition. With our booth positioned right next to the Resin Beast display, we were fortunate to see the amazing works from many artists including Factory Team members Sam Lenz and Phil the Glacial Geek within a Mixing Balls throw from our John Blanche Masterclass display. The contest featured miniatures from Creature Caster, Loot Studios, Eldritch Foundry, Dragon Trapper's Lodge, Bestiarum Games, and even the custom Creature Caster’s Dipits made specially for this contest for The Army Painter. Saturday night’s award ceremony was filled with amazing artists from around the world, all worthy of acclaim for their entered pieces, Tactical Marketing Executive and Adepticon Darling, Adam Abramowicz presented at the awards ceremony where he stated:
“When I began my journey with The Army Painter, our name wasn’t synonymous with painting competitions, showcase painting, or miniature art. That has changed as we developed new products like Speedpaint and Warpaints Fanatic. Paints that are equally easy to use for beginners and gamers but with enough performance benefits and characteristics that miniature artists want and need. We are army painters, and we always will be, but army painters take inspiration from the amazing miniature artists at the Resin Beast. We are proud to sponsor this event and to make paints and products that are now used to create the works of art found in the Resin Beast painting competition. Thank you for all of the inspiration and congratulations to all of the participants and award winners!”
While AdeptiCon was amazing, the 2025 event year is still just getting started. We have plenty more events yet to come, so be sure to stay tuned here on our Events tab, subscribe to our newsletter and also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, BlueSky, Threads, and TikTok for all the latest news and updates as they become available!
