Off at a tangent (again)

So as is my want when I should be doing something - I go off at a tangent ! .I've had these 'Test of Honour' Samurai for ages , I don't have any mounted figures and I had read that these where swines to put together (which may be the reason why they have languished unmade for so long) . I do enjoy gluing plastic figures together - so I thought it was time to 'man up' and get them done . 

The actual models went together quite well, BUT  the horses needed pinning to their bases with a pin through the base and into the horses stomach to hold them secure . 

I was surprised how quickly I got them painted up , I once had a bit of a phobia about painting Samurai but having got my head around the subject I enjoy painting them and hope to get them in action soon . I must get back to my other outstanding projects now.

 

Last of the bunch .

Finally finished off my 'Unlikely Allies' box , here is the Devote Monk .

The Watchman with his lantern 

And last but not least the Tea House Hostess , she was a challenge to paint, I've always found it difficult to paint female figures convincingly and rather delicate Japanese ones especially so . Her face took a couple of goes to get right .

The whole box set finished , it has taken me a week , but I have enjoyed the experience immensely - so different from painting uniformed units of all the same figures and uniform . 

Four more 'Unlikely Allies'

Been painting more figures from my new 'Test Of Honour' box , here we have a Ashigaru deserter looking rather dishevelled and a Blacksmith .

A Wise old man (or is he a Ninja ?) and a Ronin marksman . These are rather nice models full of character and I'm enjoying painting them and when they are done I hope to incorporate them in a scenario for 'Test of Honour'.

A work in progress and a change in painting style .

After painting lots of O.S. 42mm and plastic Jacobite figures I felt like a change so I decided on some Samurai personality figures . There is a newish box of figures for 'Test of Honour' call 'Unlikely Allies' and this figure is the Clan Envoy , I have shamelessly pinched the colour scheme from the box art as I can never think of convincing coloured clothing for Japanese figures . I used my wet palette and Liquitex artist acrylics to paint him . I going to paint the others up in the next week or so and I am liking the change of painting style and pace . 

Buddhist building work.

I've had this 'Sarissa' mdf temple gateway building for over a year and have been putting off building it as it looks very complicated , however having a bit of 'Test of Honour' renaissance I though I'd give it a go . The above model took an entire day of labour and enough bad language to last an careful man a year . I thought I'd be clever and spray some of the wood work before punching them out for building . 

The interior walls are grey card and were awkward to add and fitting the upper storey was the devil .

The roof structure was easier to assemble .

The roof is made from grey card which has to be bent to fit the rafters .

This proved easier than I thought , I use superglue to glue things together , I make sure I dry run things before gluing them .

The finished roof , there are some minor tweaks to do but I want to leave it overnight to set properly .

One thing I discovered is if you get superglue on your finger your mobile phone finger reorganisation won't recognise it ! .

The finished structure - very impressive . The red paint needs touching up and the base and roof tiles want a coat of paint but that's about all.

A close up of the gate entrance with a couple of monks for scale . I'm pleased to have got it done but wouldn't want to repeat it in a hurry .

Painted Ladies .

One of the hardest things to paint when it comes to figures are females , the average male figures has a somewhat craggy face which with a bit of shading and a touch of stubble can look convincing . Females however especially if they are done convincingly I find hard to do justice too (most females in wargaming are predictably portrayed with large out of proportion boobs and so somewhat a caricature) . Warlord have just done a set of female Samurai figures ( Onna- bugeisha ) for the 'Test of Honour' skirmish game and being a total 'fanboy' I had to get them . They are very nice indeed , slender and well proportioned and actually look like Japanese girls . Having got them I had to think of painting them , I must admit I was a little intimidated by the prospect . I looked at various illustrations and Google-pics which showed how hard it was going to be to get it right . Upper class Japanese woman tended to wear heavy makeup which whitened their faces and the eyebrows were drawn on , cheeks heavily rouged and very red lips , hard to get right in 28mm and not make them look like Coco the Clown. Here is my first finished figure and I'm happy with it , I pinched the colour scheme of the clothing straight off the Warlord advert , Well that's one down another six  to do .

Dabbling !

Back from the hols only to find problems with the Internet/phone system (oh ! the temptation to smash inanimate objects to smithereens !) and back to painting . I have lots to do but felt the need to dabble in a couple of periods which have been dormant for a while rather than something worthy . The above are Warrior Monks from 'Warlord' in 28mm for my 'Test Of Honour' project which scratched my itch for something fancy in 28mm .

The next is to start the Hessian Leib-Regiment in 10mm from 'Kallistra' for my AWI collection , this is more worthy as they have been undercoated and awaiting paint for over six month , ah ! the life of a 'wargaming butterfly' . Just noticed that both sets of figures need their bases finishing . Hopefully I will get back to a semblance of order in my painting schedule in a week or so.

Strange Searches On Google .

One of the interesting things about our hobby is the strange subjects and paths of enquiry it leads us down , so it was I found myself looking at pictures of Japanese kimonos to paint up a female figure for my 'Test Of Honour' Samurai project. The one thing that struck me was how bloody complicated they are both in pattern and design with lots of complicated folds and pleats , needless to say I chose a simple one to paint onto my figure . It took two attempts to get it half right, the problem is the designs disappear into the folds and  getting the general layout of the flowers on the dress to look right was hard work . Japanese Geisha's also painted their faces white (another Google search) and sort of drew their eyebrows, lips etc. onto this background . I'm glad I've got it done and equally glad I haven't a unit of them to do ! . Starting painting Royal Horse Artillery for the Crimea an altogether simpler subject next . 

Japanese Bandits.

Finished off painting the Warlord Bandits from their 'Test of Honour' range , they are very fine figures - some of the nicest I've seen for quite a while.

I must admit I borrowed heavily from the paint jobs on the Warlord web site , keeping the colours very earthy and muted as befits outlaws and brigands . I'm quite getting into these tube paints , not sure that I would use them for massed battalions but I painted these figures one at a time and enjoyed using them .

An Experiment .

One of my Christmas presents was a set of tube acrylic paints , when I first swapped for enamel paints - which must be thirty odd years ago - I used tube paints as they were the only thing I could get , settling on Liquitex as my brand of choice . I then moved onto Games Workshop and Vallejo as they became more readily available , which are ideal for painting masses of figures and Vallejo do camouflage ranges for modern figures . However I do like mixing pints for highlighting and shading and have had mixed results with Vallejo using a 'wet palette' - some shades go a bit 'funny' , so when I saw this modest set I thought I would give them another go .

I have painted up these three Japanese bandits using my new tube paints and enjoyed the experience , plus they last well on a 'wet palette' . I don't think I would use tube paint for painting massed rank and file when I would do six figures at a time , but for individuals they work well . The figures are by  'Warlord' from their 'Test of Honour' range and are some of the nicest figures I've seen for a while. 

Progress With Test Of Honour.

First an apology for the poor photo , the bulb in my light in the wargaming room has died and the only one on hand is of lesser 'wattage' and a large amount of Photoshop was needed to salvage this photo . I've been busy in the background painting more Samurai figures and terrain for my 'Test Of Honour' project - here we see a game set up ready for playing. 

One of the more fun figures I have been painting is Banzuiin Chobei a sort of 'Robin Hood' character in Japanese history - a hero for the common man . Rumours that I modelled for this figures are wrong ! , but he is quite a chap both in history and on the tabletop ! .

Here is a rather bloody wood print on his death , ambushed in a bath house he slew many of his attackers who had to set fire to the building to finally dispatch him .

Conflict At The Shrine.

The Samurai Tokugawa was planning to visit the shrine of Izumo to pray before composing a Haiku to the local Cherry Blossom and was angered to find another Samurai and his retainers approaching - it was Konishi Yukinaga a rival Samurai , harsh words were exchanged and honour could only be saved by the spilling of blood ! . So I have got enough figures done for the introductory scenario in Test Of Honour .

Tokugawa's force of two bowmen and a group of spearmen .

Konishi's band is the same for this scenario . The winner is the one which cuts down the opposing Samurai.

The force cards for Konishi 's force . The figures/groups stats are on each card with the number of dice which are thrown to pass a test/attack.

My customised bag from which tokens are drawn to activate figures , Samurai can be activated three times - others only once . The dice which are used - you need three or more 'swords' on the dice to pass a test 'X' are bad news , better troops get to roll more dice .

The game started with some ineffective bow shooting then Tokugawa had a run of tokens - and good dice throws - driving the enemy spearmen back twice and slaying two of them .

Then Konishi drew a token and charged in - his opponent having used all his tokens was at a disadvantage and was promptly 'cut down' and so the game ended . A quick little game to try out the rules .

Konishi Yukinaga won the game and was able to draw a fate card which will help him in his next battle . The rules are simple but clever and use a similar mechanism to 'Bolt Action' to activate figures but also add three 'fate' chits which when they are all drawn ends the turn , so you may not be able to activate all your figures per turn . Samurai are very dynamic but are vulnerable if they become isolated from the rest of their force . I'm enjoying painting these figures and making the terrain and more importantly playing the games.

First Painted Samurai .

Well these aren't Samurai but Ashigaru , I'm painting one faction up in red armour and the other in black . Sorry for the rather poor photo , I normally take my photos in the bathroom were experience has shown I get the best lighting but as my wife is having a shower I've had to take the photo on my table with the afternoon sun shinning .

My first Samurai , luckily as this game and the figures are based in the later Sengoku period when the armour and dress of the Samurai became a lot plainer they are easier to paint .

Another Samurai in black armour , the armour of this era seems to have been mainly either red or black .

An Ashigaru archer and yes the arrow does go on the right of the bow rather than the left in European archery.

The 'Black' clan Ashigaru spearmen . Archers and spearmen can be played either on multi- bases or singularly . Will soon have enough for my first game and am putting together an MDF shrine for scenery .

Grey Plastic And Cherry Blossom .

The figures in 'Test Of Honour' come in many bits on lots of grey sprue , I think the world is divided into people who like gluing figures together and those that hate it ! - luckily I'm one of the people who likes gluing plastic together (takes me back to my plastic modelling days) .

Here are some I made earlier , a Aquebusier and a group of Ashigaru spearmen , the ordinary infantry can be either single entities or on a group base . Lots of arms , head and weapon options .

If your going to have Samurai who have got to have Cherry trees (in full blossom) . I got this bag very cheaply off EBay direct from China . The only problem is like the full size trees they seem to want to shed their blossom at the slightest movement .

I based four of them up and decided to give them a heavy coat of matt aerosol varnish which seems to have halted the shedding of Cherry Blossom .

I did a test run on one of them adding gravel and flock before going into mass production  , here seen posing with a small Japanese type tin I got from a Charity shop to contain all the various tokens the game comes with .