Miniature Showcase

This Miniature Showcase is all about Tiamat. One of the greatest villains of D&D, Tiamat can strike fear into her opponents in her dragon form as well as her human one. This miniature depicts Tiamat in her human form with the heads of the five dragons of a different color emerging from under her dress.

I started off with a grey primer and I got so excited that I painted the black dragon head. It’s my favorite, the most loving expression on his face as he cuddles up to mama. It is both an endearing moment and a terrifying visage.

I started work on the dress with some red acrylic paint. Miniature paints are higher end acrylics specifically designed for miniatures but sometimes you can get really gorgeous color combos from regular acrylic. I think they have a wider selection of colors. So I blended some red and a bit of gold to paint the dress. I wanted to give her the femme fatale look of Jessica Rabbit without copying the dress exactly.

Next came the hair. I went with blonde as it gives her a more delicate look of threat. I started off with the lightest yellow I could find and planned to add highlights in later.

To add highlights to the hair I used the same flesh wash I used to tint her skin and give it a more realistic look. It worked really well as the wash pooled in certain lines to look like darker strands of hair.

I filled in the face with piercing red eyes and lush red lips. She is smiling but the red gives her a hungry, violent look.

Then I painted all the dragons. They had different personalities which I thought went really well with the miniature with the red one being the most aggressive looking.

I gave each dragon different colored eyes so that none might be the same. The black dragon got red eyes, grey for the green dragon, yellow for the red dragon, white for the blue dragon and blue for the white dragon.

I also added different colored dry brushed to each dragon to give them more of a unique character feel. The white dragon has a subtle grey dry brush, the blue was dry brushed with yellow, red with black, green with brown and the black dragon with a bone color I had.

Of course, I have to show the back and damn what a booty! I really love the way the dress cascades down the miniature and this picture also shows what the highlights did for the hair. Overall this was one of my favorite pieces to work on. It was also, I think, one of my best pieces as I took extra care with all the steps to ensure a flawless look.

Have any questions or comments? Add a comment below or find me on twitter @DnDWifeStories or on Instagram @dndwife. I would love to hear from you!