There are three flavours of Friday evening in this hobby: painting, planning to paint, and finding free stuff that makes you want to paint. This week’s Loot Drop is firmly in column three.
🎥 MINIAC: How to Paint a WHOLE Mini (Free Masterclass)
If you’ve ever stared at an unpainted mini wondering where to actually start, Scott from MINIAC just answered that question in full — for free. His April 2026 masterclass walks through an entire mini from bare plastic to finished paint job, no paywall, no sign-up, just hit play. It’s the video I’d have killed for when I started out.
If you’re watching this and realise you want to follow along but don’t have paints yet, the Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 Starter Set covers everything you need to get through a whole mini in one sitting.
🗺️ D&D Beyond Free VTT — Maps, Tokens, Fog of War
D&D Beyond’s free tier now includes a full virtual tabletop: quickplay maps, creature tokens, fog of war, and encounter tools. No subscription required. It’s not trying to compete with Foundry on features — it’s trying to get you to the table faster, and it does that well. If you paint minis but your group plays online, this is worth bookmarking.
Natural pairing here: physical D&D sourcebooks make great session prep companions, and painting the creatures you’re running adds a lot to the table even virtually.
🛡️ Warhammer Community Free Faction Painting Guides
GW keeps quietly updating their free painting guide library, and this week they added step-by-step guides for Loyalist Legion and Custodes. These are Warhammer factions — fair warning — but the technique content (basecoat → Contrast → edge highlight workflows) transfers directly to D&D minis, and GW writes these better than almost anyone. Worth raiding for process ideas even if you never touch a Space Marine.
That’s your Friday sorted. If you’re trying the MINIAC masterclass this weekend, drop a comment and let me know how it goes — would love to see what everyone’s working on.