Let’s get back to important NPCs in the Tyranny of Dragons campaign. Spoilers, obviously. Neronvain the Green Wyrmspeaker is the head of the green sect within the Cult of the Dragon. His base of operations is deep within a forest. It is also the lair of his close ally, the green dragon Chuth. I needed a spellcaster miniature for this NPC, and Anirion from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter was a perfect match.

Anirion, Wood Elf Wizard (77068) by Bobby Jackson is a pretty general miniature with a wizard’s robe, a magic staff and a cloaked face with long hair. This is what makes the miniature great – it can be anyone who is wizardly! The robe is wonderful, because for me, it was perfect for the purple robed Cult of the Dragon leaders.

Many others like this miniature, too. The internet is full of cool painted version of Anirion. Take a look at these:

The art of Neronvain clearly shows him as a (moon) elf with flowing robes in purple and violet. The miniature doesn’t feature these elaborate shoulder pieces, but the artwork shows the colors I wanted to use. Otherwise, a perfect match!

Basing and Priming

I based the miniature on a standard 1-inch base and put some sand on it. Nothing too distracting. Then, I primed the miniature by airbrushing it in black and white. I think I stopped after this step for about 2 years and used the minis like this many times as general spellcaster on the battlefield.

Painting

Painting this miniature was fairly easy. There is not too much of the face required to paint, especially no eyes. I did not give the miniature a specific moon elf blueish skin tone, but decided on a more general Caucasian skin tone.

For the robes, I mixed both the purple and the violet and used true metal gold colors (Vallejo Model Color Gold) for the robes, too. As he is the Green Wyrmspeaker, I gave him a green emerald on top of his magic staff. I think that’s a nice contrast

Finally, I decorated the base just a bit with green grass. Overall, I really liked painting the figure and I also like how it came out! Later in the campaign, the mini could also stand in as an elite Dragon Cult spellcaster. Here he is: