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30 January 2026
Greetings, fellow Nerf Herders and TGIF! Well, we might not be showcasing Princess Leia’s best insult, but they are quite furry and adorable nonetheless. So, let’s see if we can do Endor proud with a new paint scheme!
We’re especially digging this post because we’re piggybacking off a previously featured STL, but with a brand-new paint job. That’s especially exciting because it means DM Ben’s confidence in trying new color combinations is growing. Last month, we saw an alternate scheme for the tundra version where someone made them much more Ewok-esque. We thought that this brown-bear scheme was so darn fun that we just had to give it a whirl!
The progression of this 3D-printed creature clan is especially impressive:
It’s a feel-good confirmation for 3D print creators: whenever you offer a portion of your prints as free downloads, you can attract new, loyal customers. And for hobbyists, always be sure to sign up for those e-newsletters, as creators reward ongoing subscribers more than you realize.
We placed our new, brown-fur paint scheme next to the original ice-cap theme so you could see how the two paint approaches compare. We don’t run many cold-climate DnD campaigns, so we were energized to put these cuddly warriors in a more frequent forest setting. Plus, if you didn’t love Ewoks from The Empire Strikes Back, well then, we’re very worried about you. Seriously, seek help. 😉
It had been a while since our original run of these mighty warriors, so we didn’t even remember that we’d upped their default STL size to better fill a traditional d20 square. We’re not huge fans of smaller minis because, well, there are lots of older eyes at our game table, and they are naturally tougher to paint.
Still, no big deal, as various-sized miniatures are a good thing to break up that over-the-top table uniformity trap. No one wants everything to look exactly the same. Variety is the spice of life.
We did our usual Google search trick, where we simply asked, “What Army Painter Fanatic paints could I use to paint a brown bear miniature?” AI results are so good these days that it will return several step-by-step options, each with the exact paints and brushstrokes to try. This thought-starter technique has energized a novice painter like DM Ben by immediately breaking the pesky paint paralysis of not knowing where to start.
Our Google search revealed two paint schemes, which was perfect because we had six of these miniatures to paint, and minor color variations would be a welcome sight. You can see they are all following the same style, but some browns are darker than others.
Here are the paints and steps we used to create our protective forest spirits:
Achieving different shades of brown depends on your base coat and the two drybrush highlight colors you choose. Meaning you could go the darkest with a FAN Brigandine Brown base layer and add drybrush highlights with FAN Oak Brown and FAN Dryad Brown. Or, for a mid-tone, try FAN Fur Brown as the base with FAN Bootstrap Brown and FAN Leather Brown for highlights.
A little blending of your colors also improves the overall DnD 3D-printed miniature here, especially when going from their foreheads to their moptops. Our favorite paint scheme was the darkest fur color, centered on ASP Hardened Leather (a classic fur shade). You can really see that one pop in the pic above where we stuck with the default smaller STL size. The variations were all swell too, and if something is too light, you just circle back on your drybrush color and washes. Either way, you’ve got a bunch of choices!
Until next time!
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