Miniature Painters Converge at Long Island Tabletop Expo March 7 and 8

For $5, anyone who comes to the Long Island Tabletop Expo will get a miniature and a paintbrush and access to a variety of paints at a paint-and-take table, Litabletop’s event copy promises. The two-day show will take place at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard in Garden City, with doors opening at 10 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday; Saturday programming will run 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Organizers and partners shaping the weekend include SciFiSland in partnership with SBU Media Group, Indoor Tempo Group supplying Star Wars cosplayers and Young Padawan lightsaber activities, and Cosmic Comics & Games hosting Lorcana Chaos Drafts. Game pre-registration opened February 12, and SciFiSland notes registration remained open for tournaments such as Blood on the Clock Tower, Uno, Battleship, and Red Dragon Inn.

Miniatures and tabletop demos will be a heavy presence: Brothers Grim Games and Long Island Wargames are listed as demo hosts on the Litabletop schedule, which names Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol, Warhammer 40K: Kill Team, Warhammer Underworlds, Age of Sigmar: Spearhead, Blood Bowl, Battletech, Star Wars: Legion, Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Halo: Flashpoint, and One Page Rules Firefight among the sessions. Litabletop’s promotional line reads, “Join us for creativity and relaxation at our Paint and Take event! For just $5, each participant will receive a miniature and a paintbrush, with a variety of paints available for use.”

Competition tracks and timed events will pepper both days. Litabletop lists Speed Painting Contest slots Saturday at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m., with a separate line showing “Kids Contest: Sunday 11am [...] $40 entry.” SciFiSland describes the kids’ speed-painting contest as taking place “on Sunday morning” and lasting “three hours long,” a scheduling detail that differs from Litabletop’s specific 11 a.m. notation. The Bring Your Own Mini contest requires entries submitted by 5 p.m. Saturday with judging at 6 p.m. Saturday, per Litabletop.

Card gamers will find Lorcana Chaos Draft events in Series 3-7 with a $25 entry fee and sessions scheduled Saturday at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m., and Sunday at 12 p.m., according to Litabletop. The Tabletop.Events snippet included in source material also shows an event row with “Maximum Tickets | 20” and “Cost | $15.00,” but those fields appear among template placeholders and 2025 timestamps, so their direct mapping to 2026 sessions is unclear.

Tickets for the show will be available online and at the door, with individual day tickets and weekend passes offered, and organizers say a few days after the show they will send feedback forms by email and post them on social media. “The show up until now has been very focused on that walk-up experience,” said Harchack, and Harchack added, “If you’re even remotely interested in these sorts of things, this show is the place for you to get into gaming and find out more about any part of the tabletop gaming hobby.” Organizers plan to gather that feedback as they stage demos, tournaments, and family-friendly activities across the Cradle of Aviation on March 7 and 8.