Painting Tutorial: Reaper's Satheras mini from the September Dungeon Crate

Balasar Biri is waiting for you.

In our latest RPG adventure, Wilorin’s Tower, the evil wizard is the final foe you’ll face, and we included a miniature of him in the latest DungeonCrate.

We went through Reaper’s extensive catalog of miniatures to pick Satheras, a wizard miniature that’s just what we had in mind when we created the adventure.

Satheras is a human wizard clutching a scroll in one hand and a magic staff in another. The miniature is cast in Reaper’s white plastic Bones line, and though it’ll look just fine on your game table as-is, we painted him up (and took lots of pictures).

We wrote this blog with novice painters in mind, and did a very simple process of a base coat, highlights and wash to make him ready for the tabletop. He’ll look great when we play Wilorin’s Tower again, or whenever we might need a bad-looking wizard for any other D&D or Pathfinder session.

Follow along with our step-by-step instructions.

Preparation

First, I scrubbed him with a toothbrush and dish soap to clean off any mold release, which can stick to the miniature and make it hard to paint. Then I rinsed the miniature and let him air dry completely.

Then I picked out our paints. The character of Balasar is wearing dark blue robes, so I picked a color scheme based off that. I chose Cygnar Blue Base for the largest part of his cloak and Trollblood base, a lighter blue/green for the next largest area.

I use a variety of paint brands, but prefer P3 from Privateer Press. Painting newbies: Use whatever kind of acrylic paint you want, but we highly recommend using miniature paints. They’re already thinned down to the right consistency. Your friendly local game shop should sell a wide variety.

Base coat

I blocked out all the basic colors starting with the “lowest” layer and working up. What do I mean by that? I did the skin first then moved up to the next layer, which was his shirt and pants. Then what I’m calling the “under cloak” then the top cloak layer. I did the staff last.

Have a look at the base coat:

Here are the paint colors I used for each section:

●     Pants and shirt: Hammerfall Khaki

●     Scrolls: Bone White

●     Cloak: Cygnar Blue Base

●     Under cloak: Trollblood Base

●     Staff: Skorne Red for the stones, Gunmetal for the ironwork and a light brown (the label wore off and I don’t know what it’s called) for the wood

●     Boots, belt, satchel: Bootstrap Leather

●     Face, hands: Midlund Flesh

Next up, I did the highlights.

Shading

On this step, you’re going to shade the miniature by making the dark recesses of the miniature (folds in clothing, etc.) even darker.

I like to shade using washes. A wash is basically a very, very thin paint or ink that will flow into those dark recesses and make them more noticeable. I usually buy washes (Citadel’s Nuln Oil is the best black wash around, but P3’s is pretty decent), but you can make them yourself by taking a paint color and thinning it way down with water. Standard way to make a wash is with 1-part paint and 6 to 8 parts water or matte medium (or a mixture of both). It should be really thin.

In this step, you’re going to use your paintbrush more like a sponge. Hold your miniature horizontal, then load up your paint with the wash and dab it into those cracks and crevices.

This is what the mini looked like after the base coat:

Compare to the previous photo, and you can see he looks a little darker. You can pick out the buttons on his undercloak, more detail in the staff and the folds of his pants and shirt and the dark spaces between his fingers.

You can use a black wash all over the miniature for a general dark and gritty shading OR you can do colored washes specific to each area of your base coat.

I did colored washes. This is what I used:

●     Face and hands: Flesh Wash from P3

●     Cloak and Undercloak: Blue Ink from P3

●     Boots, pants, shirt and staff: Flesh Wash from P3

Highlights

In this step, you’re coloring the raised edges of the miniature to give them highlights.

This is the step that really makes the miniature pop.

Same as before, you’ll paint the miniature section-by-section. I always start with the lowest layer and work my way up, just like in the base coat step.

In short, you’re going to paint the highest peaks of the miniature with a color that’s a step or two lighter than the base coat.

On this miniature, I did the highlights by dry brushing. It’s really easy!

How do you drybrush? I get a little of the highlight paint on my brush and make several strokes on a paper towel until you can’t really see much paint coming off. (Don’t worry, there’s still paint on there. Just a little bit, which is exactly what you need.) Last, you brush the paint across the raised parts of the section you’re working on.

This is what he looked like after highlights:

You can especially see the highlighting on the cloak folds and on the undercloak on the back.

I used mostly P3 paints on the miniature for one big reason: They make paint colors that have matching base coats and highlights. That means no mixing paints for the perfect highlight color. For the cloak areas painted with Cygnar Blue Base, I dry brushed them with Cygnar Blue Highlight.

But you can mix your own highlights. The easiest way is to mix a tiny bit of white into your base coat color.

Finishing

Nicely done on the paint job!

Now there’s only a few things left to do: Detailing, basing and coating.

This mini doesn’t have a ton of details, but I did add some “magic” writing in a bright blue to the scroll he’s clutching. I also put some extra washing on his belt and pouches to make them pop a bit more.

I also painted the base of the miniature with matte black. And though he’ll stand up on his own just fine, I wanted him to match my other miniatures and used some superglue to attach him to a black plastic base.

Last of all is sealing the paint job.

You want it to stay pretty, right? Yeah, you do. I use a matte varnish from Vallejo sprayed through my airbrush, but I also recommend Testor’s Dullcote from a spray can. Whatever you use, you want a matte, not glossy, finish. Otherwise, he’ll look all shiny, which would be weird.

Anyway, this last step will protect your paint job for years to come. It’s also easy: Spray your mini. Let him dry.

And boom!

There he is. Balasar Biri, the evil blue wizard.

Nice work! And happy gaming!

The best way to use your Wizard's familiar

Every wizard needs a familiar.

These little creatures are meant to serve as companions to wizards and warlocks, but they’re more than fun and furry companions to bring along on adventures.

Lots of players either neglect to have a familiar or don’t want to hassle with what amounts to a second character sheet and a second set of actions during combat.

But we’re telling you: You ought to have one.

Here are some fun things you can do with your familiar. (Just watch out: Most of them only have a few hit points.)

  

Casting spells

One of the familiar’s best attributes is its ability to cast any spell with the range of touch as if it were you. This is great if you can’t get close enough (or don’t want to get close enough) to deliver attacks such as Shocking Grasp or to help your friends with spells such as Cure Wounds or Guidance.

Flying familiars

Having a creature that can fly above the field of battle gives you a huge advantage. You can communicate with it telepathically, so it can tell you who and what you’re fighting. And depending on what kind of creature it is, you can load it up with things such as alchemist’s fire to drop on your unsuspecting enemies. Death from above!

 

Pink by straewefin 

Owl flyby

Speaking of flying, owls have this great ability called “flyby,” which states that the owl doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy’s reach, meaning it can swoop in, deliver touch spells and swoop out without anyone getting a swing on it.

Scout

Especially if you don’t have a rogue in the party, you can use your familiar as a stealthy scout. Most have high stealth modifiers and special senses (owls have darkvision!), so they’re great to head out ahead of the party and see what’s up. Plus, most enemies wouldn’t give a second thought to a spider or raven if they spotted one.

Help

Familiars can take the Help action, granting you advantage on an attack. But you better watch out. It’ll be in range of anything you’re attacking, making it vulnerable.

Stealing

In the confusion of battle, your familiar can grab an item no one is paying attention to and fly/walk/run off with it. Especially helpful if the item in question is something your party is seeking.

Unlock doors

As an action, you can dismiss your familiar to another dimension. Then as another action, you can have them reappear within 30 feet. You don’t need line of sight. For example, you could have them pop up on the other side of an unlocked door and open it for you.

Roleplaying

Your familiar should be a companion and a big part of your character. We read about a player whose wizard character was mute but her raven familiar helped cast her spells and another whose character’s mouse familiar was his best friend.

Our favorite creative use of a familiar ever:

We saw this one on Reddit. All credit goes to redditor Malkavon for this one:

“Familiar-Detonated Bomb: Have a raven familiar wielding a wand of dispel magic ready an action to use the wand when you throw a book at an enemy. Before the battle, you fill every page of the book with explosive runes (Glyph of Warding). Order your familiar to voluntarily fail the caster level check to dispel, setting off every rune in the book and obliterating anything within the blast radius.”