Advance! 2026 expands miniature painting categories at La Mesa convention

Advance! 2026 did what the best regional painting contests do: it gave unfinished armies a hard stop. Held April 25 at the La Mesa Community Center from 9:00am to 6:00pm, the fifth annual Advance! miniature wargaming convention used its bigger venue to make room for a painting competition that had clearly grown beyond a side attraction.

For miniature painters, the real story was the third annual Advance! painting competition and the way it widened the lanes. New for 2026 were expanded categories covering historical, science-fiction, and fantasy work, with awards for Best Historical Unit, Best Historical Single Figure, and Best Historical Vehicle/Weapon; Best Sci-Fi Single Figure, Best Sci-Fi Unit, and Best Sci-Fi Vehicle; and Best Fantasy Single Figure, Best Fantasy Unit, and Best Fantasy Large Monster. Historical and sci-fi unit entries had to include at least five miniatures, which pushed painters toward cohesive squads instead of one-off showpieces.

That structure mattered because it changed what could win. A painter bringing a lone character, a rank-and-file block, or a scratch-built monster all had a clear lane, and Best in Show winners from the individual categories then faced off against one another to decide the top painting at Advance! It was the kind of format that rewards finish work, basing, and presentation as much as raw brush control. For painters who tend to leave projects half-done on the desk, the convention worked like a deadline engine with trophies attached.

The rest of the day reinforced that sense of a full hobby event rather than a narrow contest. Convention admission was listed at $25, with door prices marked as possibly higher, and flea market tables were set at $25 each before reservations closed on April 7 to secure City of La Mesa business permits. That mix of game tables, trading space, and painting categories meant the event served builders, collectors, and display painters in the same room.

Advance! also sat inside a broader Southern California hobby network. San Diego Historical Miniature Wargamers describes itself as devoted to miniature wargaming, modelling, and painting, while HMGS-Pacific Southwest says it has around 150 members across Southern California, Arizona, Hawaii, and the Las Vegas region of Nevada, with a mission to teach history using miniatures and games. With Sand Wars set for Chandler, Arizona, on May 2 and 3, and Mini-Wars scheduled for Fullerton, California, on October 10 and 11, Advance! stood out as one of the circuit’s clearest showcases for painters who want their work judged, compared, and finally finished.