Bembel Miniature Cup 2025

25Mar/250

Bembel Miniature Cup 2025

Last weekend the second Bembel Miniature Cup was held in the centre of Germany near Frankfurt / Main at the EVO Sportfabrik in Rodgau (Hessia). It is painting competition that goes for four days, including workshop sessions, but is opened public for the weekend. The event is free of charge for visitors, only participants of the workshops and painting competition pay a fee.

We dropped by Sunday morning and as loyal readers will know, our event reports start with a picture of the parking lot. The venue itself has only a few, and even charging points (but those were blocked by inconsidered people with their non-electric SUVs), so you're parking a few hundred meters down the road, next to the forest cemetery.

The painting competition itself is divided into four categories Painting / Sculpting / Technical, Expression / Storytelling, Gaming and Out-of-Competition / Judges, with the first three divided into two tiers (Standard and Master). As the competition is set as an open event, there can be more than one, gold, silver and bronce per tier and category, along with further special awards like Best of Show. You can find the complete rule set on their page.

Quite the lot of manufacturers and traders, from all over Europe, supported the event. A brief list among others;

The venue itself has a small bistro, where you can grab a snack and some drinks, along with place to drink and eat. Quite practical as you don't want anyone handling food around the miniatures.

The traders varied from regular shops with tools and accessories, to manufacturers of various scaled miniatures and busts.

Among those Zaba Art caught my eye, and I really love the bust of the Chaos Dwarf.

The entire entries were displayed upon the stage, with very good lighting, which made taking pictures quite easy. Some entries were just a bit crowded, so it was tricky to get a clear shot of the miniatures.

Overall, a broad mixture, from large scale figures, busts and tabletop miniatures, across various settings - from fantasy to Sci-Fi, and different historical settings.

Within these entries were a few Horus Heresy kits, while some where entire show pieces others were kept in a way to still be used for tabletop wargaming.

Overall only feww vehicles among the entries, and if you saw one it was primarely part of an army project. Lots and lots of busts.

There was even something that went for Oldhammer vibes, like this warband of the undead.

In one corner of the exhibits mostly army projects were shown, followed by more of the classic entries. The large scale roman diorama, with the water effect really spoke to me.

And these two where my favourite entries. An urban monkey (and if I had to guess, this was done by one of the Massivee Voodoo people) and the Kid-Zilla vignette.

While we were there a Speed Painting Competition (painting a bust within 90 minutes) took place, and was hosted by Katrin Maronn (oca.rina83) and Sabine Schütz (bi.miniatures).

It has been a while since my last visit to a painting competition, and I combined this with a family trip to the area (we went to Schloss Philippsruhe and plain spotting at the Frankfurt Airport) as the time spend there is about 2 hours, unless you participate in one of the sessions / workshops. Rodgau is well connected and it took me a bit more than an hour to get there from the middle between Frankfurt and Cologne. With its proximity to the airport it wouldn't even be that much hassle for international participants to join. The hosts took their time to give you ideas and suggestions to where to stay nearby or what to do in the area, which is a plus.

While the venue provides enough spaces for the event, and you can move between lines of the traders easily, taking a look at the entries was moderate (you weren't pushed and you didn't had to wait to long for others to move) but considered parking and exhibition space, I don't think they can grow that much without moving venues.

With the hassle on Golden Demon last year (taking place on the busiest weekend in Germany, at Spiel over the the Unity Day holiday) people might enjoy a more relaxed and open competition, which is closer to those living in central Germany than for example Scale Model Challenge in Eindhoven.

Link: Bembel Miniature Cup