Las Vegas Open hobby track offers 70 classes for miniature painters

Las Vegas Open’s hobby track is built for painters who want a fix for a specific problem, not just a day of passive demos. With more than 70 class options, the program now reads like a curriculum, covering everything from getting unstuck mentally to painting banners, tattoos and eyes, while the Hobby Hub is included with a convention badge for the first time in 2026.

The hobby program is presented by Verko’s Vault and managed by Charity Edwards, who serves as Hobby Program Director. It sits inside a larger Las Vegas Open package that runs October 1-4, 2026, at The Expo at World Market Center in Las Vegas. The convention, established in 2013, is now in its 13th year, and Frontline Gaming says it will feature major tournaments, hobby classes, workshops, activities and an expanded exhibitor hall.

The most useful classes are the ones aimed at painters who hit a wall. One session focuses on the psychological side of the hobby, taking on frustration, low motivation, plateaus and distraction, then looking at how to get moving again with help from cognitive science. That is the class for anyone staring at half-finished projects, not because the brushwork is impossible but because the desk has become a graveyard of unfinished momentum.

Other classes go straight at technical bottlenecks. A small-scale painting and drawing class gives attendees a model to practice on, which makes it a strong fit for anyone working on freehand, tattoo motifs or banner work. Another class is devoted to painting eyes, the kind of detail that can turn even experienced painters cautious, and promises tips and tricks from an experienced instructor to make the process more manageable. Those sessions are aimed at the painter who wants character pieces to read cleanly up close, not just from across the table.

There is also a class focused on making armies look good in play, with strategies for mass painting and for handling common pain points such as faces, detail-heavy models and large hordes. That is the lane for tournament players, commission painters and anyone trying to turn volume into consistency without losing all weekend to one squad.

The scale did not appear overnight. Frontline Gaming said its 2024 hobby-program rollout would offer more than 60 studio classes and launch the first Verko’s Vault Master’s Championship with a purse of more than $7,500, while a Flames Of War report put attendance that year at more than 5,000. LVO’s hobby side has been growing alongside the convention itself, and the 70-class lineup shows how far that idea has gone. This is no longer a side room attached to a tournament weekend. It is a full path to better painting, built for the exact problem that keeps each army from looking finished.