Miniature Showcase

Beard

Beards can make a huge difference when it comes to a miniature. Depending on how you paint it, you can give a miniature the look of a middle aged man or a geriatric. This miniature is of an older mage with a mostly white beard. Before painting the facial hair, I made sure to paint the skin first. It took about three layers for the skin tone to reach the desired opacity.

The next step, as I always start with, is to paint the base coat. I started with gray here because I wanted white to be the prominent color. If you want a darker beard with less white I would recommend starting with a black base, using dark gray and light gray for the detail work. In this case, I wanted the caster to look much older. So I went with a lighter beard. For blonde beards, I would start with as dark a yellow as you can find without tipping into orange. Then use lighter yellow and white for the detail colors. The same can be said for any other color hair.

For this next step, I took the smallest brush I had (The Psycho by Army Painter) and began painting the lines in light gray for the first details in the beard. I did use a very light gray for this part and it might look more white than gray in the picture but the actual white paint does make a difference. I like the way this came out but I wanted him to look even older. I broke up the lines so they didn’t look too uniform. It turned out to be a unique texture that I really liked.

After the gray was the white paint. I used the same small brush and technique for the white paint. If you mess up like I did here and add too much white, you can always go back over it with the light gray and even some of the darker gray. This will add dimension back into the hair. Mess around with it until you find a color combo that you like. I also began painting the eyebrows using the same method. I started with a dark gray base and added light grey and white after. I really like how bushy and detailed this made the eyebrows look.

When I finished the mage the beard was a really bright focal point against all the blue colors of his robes. The final effect was amazing. I love how the bright blue eyes stare out from under bushy, snow white eyebrows. It gave the wizard a wise look that comes with having wielded magic for so long.

Have any questions or comments? Message below or find me on Twitter @DnDWifeStories and on Instagram @dndwife. I would love to hear from you!