It is once again festive miniature time at Reaper Miniatures! As I have had the joy of painting a number of the holiday figures for Reaper, I thought I would write a post to share additional photo angles and links to articles with painting tips.
Many cultures and faiths have festivals to mark this time of year. Whether you celebrate Chunukah, Christmas, Kwanza, Yule, or just Surviving December, I’d like to wish a very Happy Holidays. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the readers of this site. Knowing there are people who find what I’ve shared useful cheers my grinchy little heart.
How to Get These Figures
Limited availability holiday figures and paint, including a burly Dreidel Golem, are available for purchase in the Reaper store. Several of these were previously only available via the 12 Days promotion. 2023’s 12 Days of Reaper promotion runs from December 4, 2023 to December 15, 2023. The promotion gives you a free gift with purchase of your choice of one of the 12 Days figures for each $40+ spent at the US or UK Reaper webstores. This stacks with the usual monthly promotional figure. You can read all the details on the Reaper site.
Dobble the Gnome sculpted by Bobby Jackson, Zotzwick Dwarf Krampus sculpted by Jason Wiebe, Mousling Caroler sculpted by Gene Van Horne.
There are three new very fun figures this year. Geoff Davis has painted a terrific version of the Dwarf Krampus sculpted by Jason Wiebe. I didn’t have the opportunity to paint any of these for the store, but I think I might try to snag a copy of the Mousling Caroler to paint on my Beyond the Kit stream which airs on the Reaper Miniatures Twitch channel and is archived on YouTube.
The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, or Future (12 Days)
The three Christmas Ghosts are based on characters in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with a twist. I think these are also characters that could easily fit into many game settings if painted with different colour schemes. I have an article with information on how I painted the light effect on Christmas Past, and another article with a lot of tips for OSL light effects. You can also read my answes to some questions about how I painted Christmas Future’s black dress. (The Ghosts are single selections, not a pack of three.)
Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi. Available in the 12 Days of Reaper promotion.
Christmas Hugs Dragon (12 Days)
Christmas Hugs remains one of my favourites of the holiday miniatures that I painted. First, it’s a dragon! Second, presents! But the best part is the emotion Julie captured in the expression and pose. I wrote an article about painting this figure that includes the gold non-metallic metal recipe I used on 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. Available in the 12 Days of Reaper promotion.
Christmas Hoard Dragon (12 Days)
I wanna hug the dragon hugging presents! I wouldn’t dare to mess with one of the gifts in the hoard, though. I wrote a post describing how I painted the wrapping paper that includes more views of the figure. I have another article with tips for practicing freehand, and one that includes discussion of choosing colours for freehand.
Sculpted by Julie Guthrie. Available in the 12 Days of Reaper promotion.
Joy, Winter Fairy (12 Days)
I painted Joy the Winter Fairy years before I started this blog, but I shared additional views and information on the paint colours I used in a forum thread. I love the delicate details on the snowflake dress and the ice skating pose.
Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi. Available in the 12 Days of Reaper promotion.
I can never look at Joy without thinking of the crisis I suffered while painting her, though. I was sitting at my desk working. I had the wings out, since I was almost ready to attach them. Once I was ready, I could only find one wing. I hadn’t gotten up from my desk, there hadn’t been any cat invasion of my desk, but the wing was gone. I spent more than an hour scouring my desk, drawers, and paint caddies to no avail. I was embarassed to have to call Reaper and ask them to overnight me another wing so I could finish the figure by the deadline. Six months later I was shifting some stuff around on my desk and found the missing wing stuck to the bottom of my Bluetooth speaker stand. Arg!
Christmas Familiars (12 Days)
I had a ton of fun painting these! You can see additional angles and closeups here. I looked up photos of real seals, penguins, and bears to use as reference for painting these. That was particularly helpful for the fur pattern on the seal, which I felt helped add visual interest. I’ve written an article describing several methods for painting fur patterns.
Sculpted by Julie Guthrie. Available in the 12 Days of Reaper promotion. All three come in one pack.
Tinker the Gnome (12 Days)
Tinker the befuddled gnome is a figure you could easily pop into a variety of different game settings. I had a lot of fun painting him, and I’m still really happy with how the apron turned out! Alas he was painted long before I started the blog, so I can’t link to any info about the painting process.
Tinker was sculpted by Bobby Jackson. He is available in the 12 Days of Reaper promotion.
Holiday Paint Set (Store)
A set of limited availability holiday colours is also available. I have swatched out the colours and will try to add a photo here soon. Alternatively you can scan to timestamp 1:41:00 to see the swatches on my December 4 Twitch stream.
Mistletoe Goblin (Store)
The Mistletoe Goblin is such a fun little figure! I wrote an article with additional photo views, some painting tips, and the colours I used to paint the reds. I started working on another version of this figure on my Beyond the Kit stream last year, and now that I’m looking at him again I’m itching to finish painting it!
Sculpted by Julie Guthrie. Available during December 2023 on the Reaper webstore.
Cat Dragon (Store)
Julie did such a great job capturing the wonder and delight on a cat’s face when spotting something shiny to play with. 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
Sculpted by Julie Guthrie. Available in the Reaper store during December 2023.
Nick, Christmas Rogue (Store)
Nick is another figure that can easily slot into non-holiday settings with a different paint colour scheme.
Nick was sculpted by Bobby Jackson and is available in the Reaper store during December 2023.
Gingerbread Knight (Always Available)
The Gingerbread Knight was originally released as a promotional figure, but has since become a permanent addition to the Reaper store. He’s a fun figure to paint at this time of year. In my article about painting the Gingerbread Knight I talk about painting the different textures on the figure, and include a before and after example of a ‘needs more contrast’ situation. The article also includes additional photo angles of the figure.
Sculpted by Christine Van Patten. Available in the Reaper store.
Nativity Donkey and Sheep (Always Available)
Reaper has a set of Nativity figures that you can purchase individually or as a set. These are available all the time, not just during the holidays.
I painted the donkey for the Reaper store. A pack-laden version of the donkey is also available in both Bones plastic and metal.
Sculpted by Julie Guthrie. Available in the Reaper store.
I painted the sheep as part of a personal project.
Sheep sculpted by Patrick Keith. Available in the Reaper store. Anushka sculpted by Jen Haley.
Bird with a Brush 