Charlamagne the Bear – Pt 1

New models are always fun, right? Picked up Charlemagne the Bear from Steamforged Games, part of their Animal Adventure series, specifically, the Raiders of the Lost Coast. The theme is a woman pirate with a bear for a first mate, and racoon crew. Lots of character and looks like fun to paint. Tons of textures, small, but not exceedingly so, details (I love the crab stand in for a parrot), and a larger size, which I’m looking for in a mini right now since I’m not ready to tackle the super small 28mm ranges yet. Still need to get my sea/paint legs under me 😉

As far as color scheme, I want to go with warn, natural colors to compliment the bear’s fur (I’m going with a brown bear). I’m thinking a medium-light foresty green for the vest, a light creamy beige for the undershirt, and dark grey/black for the pants and “boots”.  I might go with a blue for the crab as I think a pop of blue would help. We’ll see what things look like when I get there.

Here’s Charlemagne in his first few steps.

After picking from the browns I have at my disposal, I started with Charlemagne’s fur – I’m a firm believer in the “paint from inside, out” philosophy. I worked in the fur with Citadel Rhinox Hide – a dark brown. Once I finished, I looked in horror at something I missed during clean up and priming. A huge mold line across his cheek! Argh! Ok, at least I caught it now, right? a little sanding, and a little more primer, I’m off to touch up the base coat.

So, a step back, and a reminder to double check for issues like this. It’s been a while, so I’m a little out of practice. Teaches me thought. On to layering and picking the fury details.