And yet another miniature that has nothing to do with my Tyranny of Dragons campaign. I have to take some more pictures of the final baddies before posting them, so I present to you something completely different in the meantime: Reaper’s Burrowing Horror is their version of the D&D classic “land shark” or “bulette”. It was part of the Reaper Bones Kickstarter and only took one evening to paint.

I think Wizards of the Coast holds a license, so Reaper had to change the visuals and the name of the creature simply to Burrowing Horror (77372). The name comes from their signature ability to burrow beneath the earth and through stone to scoop up on their prey from below the surface. Like sharks. The creature goes way back to the 1st edition of D&D in the 1970s. Reaper changed the head of the creature, but it still resembles a D&D bulette.

There are licensed versions of this monster from other miniature makers like WizKids. Below, you can the Todd Lockwood’s art depicting a bulette in D&D third edition.

Basing and Priming

The miniature is large enough to fit on a 3-inch base. I added some bigger pebbles and sand on the base to fit the theme of the burrowing horror. Then, as usual, I primed the miniature via airbrushing in black and white.

Painting

The D&D bulette in 3rd and 5th edition has shiny metallic colors. But as this is clearly not the original bulette and other editions didn’t stick to the metal colors, I felt using earth colors as part of a natural camouflage would be more fitting for the miniature.

Overall, this one was very fun to paint. Except priming, I spent maybe just 2 hours on painting the miniature while watching TV. Still, I like the finished miniature and I have used it in a battle encounter a couple of years back.