Minirama: Our Celebration of Art at HammerHouse
Posted by Hestia HammerHouse on
Minirama 2025: Our Celebration of Art at HammerHouse
Last November, over a hundred artists poured into our humble store for Minirama 2025, the second annual edition of our in-house painting contest. Beginners, professional painters, and everyone in between came together to put their work on display, meet fellow artists, and share in the joy of creating.
More than just a competition, Minirama served as a celebration of art itself. From lovingly painted models to bafflingly huge dioramas, every submission had a story to tell. The HammerHouse community put in blood, sweat, and tears, bringing their works to life and proudly displaying their love for their hobby.
With so much to see, there’s no shortage of moments worth revisiting. So let’s wind back the clock and take a look at how Minirama 2025 went!
What Is Minirama All About?
Here at HammerHouse, we believe in three key pillars: hobby, art, and games. It’s the fusion of these three aspects that keeps players coming back time and time again, whether they’re learning more about a fantasy universe, battling it out across a tabletop, or settling in for a peaceful afternoon of painting and modelling.
But art is typically done alone, in the comfort of one’s own home. And when it comes to miniature painting, the results are often shared within a small circle. Your latest miniature might only ever be seen by your friends, your regular opponents, and the people sitting across the table on game night. There just aren’t many opportunities to really showcase the heart and soul you put into your work.
Minirama is meant to provide space to do exactly that. This yearly painting competition, hosted by HammerHouse, gives painters of all skill levels the opportunity to present their work on a larger stage. By sharing a table with people who bear the same burning passion as them, artists can inspire one another, exchange their ideas, and celebrate the many ways miniature painting can bring a world to life. Whether they’re fresh-faced beginners or seasoned painters, Minirama welcomes everyone to take part.
With these principles in mind, we decided to put the idea into practice.
The Submissions Roll In
We opened our doors to participants on a sunny Friday afternoon and were amazed by the response. What began as a modest 50 entries in 2024 had grown into a showcase of over 100 submissions just one year later. To host all of these works, we transformed the well-beloved second floor of our store, where games take place every day of the week, into an art gallery filled with rows of miniatures and dioramas.
Minirama spanned seven different categories of submissions, giving participants various different ways to show off their skills and creativity. Here’s a closer look at just a few of them:
Solo King
The bread and butter of miniature painting competitions. Our Solo King category was all about putting a single miniature under the spotlight, where every brushstroke, highlight, and tiny detail mattered. This category saw the most submissions by far, with painters bringing their best work to the table.
And there was plenty of variety. Some entries were showcases of pure technical skill, while others went all out with elaborate kitbashes, dramatic poses, and dynamic battlefield scenes. With just one miniature to work with, painters had to really get creative to make their pieces stand out.
Band of Brothers
In miniature wargaming, combatants are seldom seen alone. Our Band of Brothers category gave participants a chance to multiply the coolness and bring together a squad from their beloved armies. The challenge was to make every miniature feel like part of the same fighting force, with unified colour schemes, markings, equipment, and visual themes tying the whole group together.
But a squad was only the beginning. Plenty of participants went the extra mile, building custom environments and staging areas to give their warriors a proper place to fight. From scratch-built scenery to carefully crafted diorama elements, these pieces needed more than painting techniques alone.
Sector Vignettica
Speaking of customised environments, there was no bigger scale than our Sector Vignettica Diorama category. In settings like Warhammer, battles rarely take place in an empty field. Armies clash across ruined cities, alien worlds, war-torn wastelands, and vast stretches of hostile terrain. Sector Vignettica was about capturing that sense of scale in a single piece of art.
Participants were given the opportunity to create massive, cinematic stages for their armies, and they leapt at the chance to tell their own stories using these sprawling environments. That meant thinking beyond the miniatures themselves. Participants had to build the world around them, from towering cliffs and cascading waterfalls to the ground beneath their armies' feet. Plenty of them featured casualties strewn across the battlefield, or dynamic scenes of vehicles smashing through walls.
With entire hordes occupying the scene, these pieces felt less like collections of miniatures and more like snapshots of a much larger battle unfolding before us. We were utterly blown away by the sheer scale of these dioramas and the countless warriors that inhabited them.
Monsters, Vehicles, Mecha (M-V-M)
Another category that focused on scale was the M-V-M category, featuring monsters, vehicles, and titanic mechs— the heaviest hitters in an army. With a larger canvas than an individual model, but a smaller scale than an entire battlefield, these hulking centerpieces were made to command attention.
Larger surfaces meant more space for colour, weathering, battle damage, glowing effects, and all the tiny details that can get lost on a smaller miniature. With so much of the model to work with, the challenge was making every inch count.
While entries from across these categories continued to come through our doors, the gallery itself was already open for everyone to enjoy. Participants could browse the other works between submissions, while visitors dropped by throughout the afternoon to take in the growing collection.
As the hours ticked by, Minirama became busier and busier, right up until closing time. Then it was the judges’ turn to take over and decide which entries would walk away with awards and medals.
Meet Our Judges
Every good competition needs reliable judges. We were honoured to have three accomplished miniature painters join us for Minirama 2025, bringing years of painting, modelling, and competition experience to the judging table. With hundreds of miniatures between them, they had the task of picking out the best of the best from our packed exhibition floor.
Michael Lee
Michael Lee is a full-time commission painter, with numerous awards and accolades from prestigious competitions. He has judged numerous events in the past, and his portfolio features plenty of busts and larger-scale models, with masterful brushstrokes that capture vivid skin tones and detailed patterns.
KJ Miniature Painting
Kwan Jin has spent 15 years immersed in tabletop wargaming and miniature painting, earning several awards in international competitions along the way. He is a regular face in our community, and his goal of growing the local miniature painting scene perfectly aligned with our own, making him a particularly fitting presence at our event.
BrushWarrior
Marwin Lasuardi, better known as BrushWarrior, is a full-time veteran painter who has been honing his craft since 2010. His work has earned him an international following, and his skill behind the brush has also seen him produce box art for several miniature and hobby brands.
On Saturday evening, our three judges spent hours poring over each and every piece, giving their individual verdicts and discussing which ones stood out to their experienced eyes. With over 100 entries on the tables, narrowing them down to a handful of medalists was no easy task. But the deed was done in the end.
The Big Day
Minirama reconvened on Sunday afternoon, with participants and visitors alike returning to HammerHouse to await a verdict. After two days of anticipation, the atmosphere was electric as we waited for the prize ceremony to begin.
Unlike a traditional competition, where there could only be one winner, Minirama’s medal system was based on meeting a set standard of quality. Entries were judged individually against the standards set by our judges, who considered everything from the quality and consistency of the brushwork to the use of colour, lighting, composition, and overall presentation, while also keeping an eye out for things like messy details, visible mistakes, or areas where the execution could be improved.
This meant there could be multiple Gold, Silver, or Bronze medalists in the same category— provided each entry met the judges’ standards for that medal. There was no quota to fill and no limit on how many medals could be awarded; if several entries reached the same level, they were all recognised for it.
Alongside the medals, we also had surprise awards from special categories that had been decided beforehand. These awards recognised the standout entries in each aspect of miniature painting and modelling, including freehand brushstrokes, unique kitbashes, gratuitous horror, and dynamic composition. A few exceptional pieces took these awards home and received an extra moment in the spotlight.
The crowd even got together to vote for the People’s Choice award, picking a collective winner from countless jaw-dropping pieces.
With the medals handed out and the winners celebrated, Minirama 2025 came to a close… but not before one last surprise.
We wanted to make sure that nobody left empty-handed. So once the prizes and medals were handed out, we began the sure-win lucky draw. It was only a matter of time till the wheel landed on each and every participant’s name, sending them home with a mystery gift of their own. It was a small way of thanking the painters who had put their time and effort into making Minirama what it was.
Finally, Minirama came to a close on a high note. And with nearly double the turnout from 2024, we decided to set out sights on the horizon and keep aiming for greater heights!
Where Is Minirama Headed This Year?
You haven’t seen the last of Minirama just yet. This year, we’re bringing it back at a bigger and brighter venue, ready to receive larger-than-ever crowds. We’re also adding new categories and smaller-scale events, including a dedicated space for beginners to submit their work, alongside in-store programmes where you can earn prizes for painting and playing.
Entries are already open, and the exhibition itself will be open to the public, so anyone can come down, see the entries, and take in the festivities.Click here to find out more about the registration process, and check out our submission guide here.
And for those coming down, we’re preparing a special display of our own. Fans of Middle-earth will want to keep their eyes peeled, as we’re putting together a massive Lord of the Rings diorama, complete with armies and fortresses, as part of the open exhibition.
If last year was anything to go by, Minirama 2026 is only just getting started! Follow us on our social media pages for announcements, upcoming events, and more as we count down to the next chapter of Minirama.