Loot Drop time. This week’s haul is a good one for anyone who’s ever stared at a mini and thought “okay, but where do I actually start?” Free tutorials, free maps, and free painting guides, all queued up and ready to go.
1. MINIAC’s Free “How to Paint a WHOLE Mini” Masterclass
If you’ve been bouncing between five different “how to paint a base coat” videos and still feel lost, this is the one to bookmark. MINIAC put together a full-length, start-to-finish masterclass that walks through painting an entire miniature, no paywall, no email signup, just a straight-up free tutorial covering the whole process from primer to finished mini.
This is the exact video to send a friend who just got their first D&D miniature and has no idea where to begin. If that describes you too, now’s also a fine time to make sure you’ve got a decent beginner brush set on hand so you can follow along step by step.
Watch the free masterclass here →
2. D&D Beyond’s Free VTT (Yes, Actually Free)
D&D Beyond has a free-tier virtual tabletop with quickplay maps, encounter tools, fog of war, and creature tokens, no subscription required. Worth a flag specifically because there’s also a paid “Drops” program that sounds similar, so don’t confuse the two: the basic VTT with maps and tokens is on the free tier.
Why a painter cares: scrolling through the creature tokens is a great way to find out exactly which monsters are coming up in your campaign, which means you know exactly which minis to prioritize painting next.
Check out the free VTT here →
3. Warhammer Community’s Free Faction Painting Guides
Heads up, this one’s Warhammer-branded, but don’t let that stop you. Warhammer Community has step-by-step faction painting guides, completely free, with this week’s additions covering Loyalist Legion and Custodes color schemes. The techniques (layering, edge highlights, basing) transfer directly to D&D minis, even if the paint names on screen say Citadel.
If gold and silver armor is on your to-paint list this month, the Custodes guide in particular is worth a look for clean metallic technique.
Browse the free guides here →
That’s the haul for this week. If you try out the MINIAC masterclass, let us know how your mini turns out, we’d love to hear about it.
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