The 12 Days of Reaper promotion for 2022 has begun, running through December 14th. I painted seven of the 12 figures available this year. In this post I’ll share larger photos and additional view angles, as well as painting information for these figures and Christmas colour schemes in general.

During the 12 Days promotion period you will receive a free copy of your choice of one of the 12 figures for each $40 you spend on the Reaper site. This stacks with the other promotions from the webstore. Each daily order over $40 also receives a Christmas Sampler that includes the Saint Nicholas the Mighty figure and two holiday paint colours – perennial seasonal favourite Coal Black and new Rudolph Red, while supplies last. (Unfortunately I do not think the holiday promotions are available for Asia-Pacific region customers, check the Reaper 12 Days page for more info.)

The 12 Days figures are part of a collection of holiday figures that are only made available during the holiday season. The figures cannot be purchased singly prior to December 14th. Usually any stock remaining after December 14th is put up for individual sale. There are additional seasonal figures that are not part of the 12 Days promotion, but which are only available to purchase at this time of year. There are also several holiday and Christmas figures available year-round if you’re looking for other seasonal painting fun. (Unfortunately those two search pages do not distinguish between which figures are seasonally and permanently available.)

There are three new 12 Days miniatures this year, and they are all fantastic! (In the graphic above, the three new figures are in the corners, apart from the upper right figure.) I am sad that I was not able to paint any of them. Painting cute new Reaper Christmas figures has become a part of my holiday traditions, and I’m a little sad not to have been able to do it this year. I’ve been recovering from a back issue since early November and have only recently resumed any painting at all. I also had to limit time at the computer, which is why it’s been so long since I posted a new article, though I did release a couple of videos for the wonderful people who support my Patreon.

General Painting Information

Painting Red
My article about the Mistletoe Goblin includes my usual paint recipe for painting red, and some tips for painting this challenging colour. I also talk about painting red in my article on Ziba the Efreeti.

Painting Green
The article I wrote about Finn Greenwell includes a paint recipe for greens that would work well in a Christmas colour scheme.

Fur Patterns
If you’d like to paint one of the cat dragons with a patterned coat, you might find my article on fur patterns useful. (Or my second article about painting fur patterns.)

12 Days Photos and Painting Information

I had a ton of fun painting the Mistletoe Goblin! I wrote an article that includes my recipe for the reds and some tips for painting this challenging colour. It also discusses the idea of creating a focus point on your miniature, and the value of using reference photos to paint objects because we usually don’t remember what things look like as well as we think we do! I demonstrated how I painted the reds on video on an episode of my Beyond the Kit stream.

Sculpted by Julie Guthrie.

I love the expressiveness that Julie captured in the Christmas Hugs dragon. Julie excels at sculpting dragons both large and small! I wrote an article about painting this figure that includes the gold non-metallic metal recipe I used for the dragon, as well as some general tips and discussion of the challenges in painting NMM. You can also see additional angles of the figure in that article, and a detailed guide to what each of the geeky gifts on the base is if you’re having trouble seeing them while you paint yours.

Sculpted by Julie Guthrie.

I painted this mischievous cat dragon to resemble one of my cats. The first Christmas after we rescued him we put up our tree with great trepidation. He still had some kittenish high energy and has always been very easily bored. To our very great surprise he was completely disinterested in the tree once all the glittering ornaments were hung up and stopped moving. But if he had assaulted the tree, he would have given us this exact ‘what’s the problem’ face when we tried to stop him. 

You can see additional angles in this Facebook gallery. If you want to paint your copy as a cat with a patterned coat, I have an article outlining four different methods for painting fur patterns.

Julie Guthrie sculpts cats, she sculpts dragons, she sculpts cat dragons.

Here’s a picture of my inspiration cat, who is also an example of how some of Santa’s elves go for roly-poly instead of holly jolly.

This sneaky dragon is not looking for candy cane snacks, they just want to make sure your stocking is full. Yeah, that’s it. The article I wrote about painting this figure includes additional angles and WIP pictures. I used greyscale value mapping and colour sketching to paint the Stocking Dragon. I have some tips for painting green in another article.

Sculpted by Julie Guthrie, of course.

What better hoard could there be than Christmas presents? My article includes several different view angles in addition to the ones shown below. This is one of those figures that is hard to capture the charm of in photographs! I also share tips on how I painted the wrapping paper and the base. I have an additional article with information on how to practice painting freehand.

The first of the Reaper holiday dragons that Julie Guthrie sculpted.

Tinker the Gnome looks ready to help fix Santa’s sleigh or solve problems in the toy workshop. I don’t have an article about painting the befuddled Tinker the Gnome, but you can see additional view angles of him in this Facebook gallery.

Sculpted by Bobby Jackson.

If you have ever had a cat and a Christmas tree you can tell from this figure that Julie has also had a cat and a Christmas tree. In my article about this figure you can see lots of additional views, including what it looks like from above. I used the greyscale value mapping technique with this figure as well.

Sculpted by Julie Guthrie.

Whichever season you celebrate, I send you my best wishes for a good one! It can be a tough and stressful time of year, and I’m grateful to have this hobby that allows me to sit down, paint a miniature, and take a break from everything else.