Ashigaru

Here are the ashigaru I mentioned in my last post.  I was able to polish off these guys in no time.  They really were a lot simpler to paint, being that they have uniforms.  I knew the color scheme I wanted; so I just had to sling paint.  They still need some basing, which I'll get around to soon.

The color is accurate, though I used a flash to fill in the shadows thrown by the strong directional light from the open window.  It made the front guy look a little like Salvador Dali.  Hmmm...... I wonder.

That's it for samurai for a bit.  I just got in some of the Reaper Bones models.  I'll post up a review of that experience once I'm done painting a few of them.

Samurai in Kimonos

This week I turned my eye on my samurai miniatures for Legends of the Rising Sun.  I have a bunch of Perry Miniatures that have been sitting in my painting area for a while.  Since I didn't have much time for painting this week, I thought these would paint up quickly.

Legends of the Rising Sun is a game no one in my local group appears to have much interest in.  Maybe if I keep painting this stuff, it might catch on. I'd like to see how the game works on the table.

Here are unarmored samurai that I hope to use as ronin or bosses for a yakuza force.  I'll probably add in some other models that are less "awesome" than these guys, just regular bad guys with hand weapons.  For now, here are the Six Samurai (that's all you get in a box; the Perry Bros obviously didn't see the movie).

These Perry minis are without peer.  The faces on each of these guys is distinct and unique.  I loved the detail and the poses.  They are just excellent models all around.  I had considered going crazy with kimono designs.  But realizing that these models are going into a box to never be removed didn't provide much motivation for going all out. 

I also took three different sets of pictures and none of them really did any justice to the paint job.  The painting was much better than how they appear in these photos.  I guess too close up things don't look very smooth.

Next are my Ashigaru spearmen.  After that, I'll have to think about what's next.

Ninja Maniac Salad

If you saw that listed on a menu, wouldn't you want to order it?  What would you expect to arrive at your table? What would be the right dressing for it?  I'm not much of a food adventurer.  But even I'd want to know what that's about. 

While you're thinking about those answers, here are some ninja models that I painted for Legends of the Rising Sun.  About the easiest damn models I ever painted.  But what's with the guy on the ground?  He'll be perfect for a true line of sight game like LotRS!

Legends of the Far East -- Samurai!

I've completed my first six samurai models for Legends of the Far East.  These are the Perry Miniatures that I ordered when I first downloaded the rules.  I finally got around to painting them.  I was seriously stressed out trying to get the armor details correct.  Then I spent a whole lot of time trying to research the correct designs for the sashimono (the flag on their backs).  Here's what I learned.

To hell with that shit.  This is a game and not a goddamn history lesson.  I was totally spoiling my own fun.  I discovered a serious streak of "elitist know-it-all-ism" in the online community.  You might think these folks time traveled to Sengoku period Japan and took video.  To make my research more fruitless, the experts contradicted one another.  So I ended up just painting whatever looked good to me.

The sashimono designs are all authentic Sengoku period samurai designs.  I'm sure someone can tell you every detail of the samurai who displayed them, right down to his favorite breakfast cereal. I've probably mixed mortal enemies together in my little band.  Ah well, they'll learn to get a long.

I will take a short break from these guys to work on some other projects that have my attention.  But I have plenty more models to go.  I did promise I would get out of control, remember?  I have samurai and ashigaru with yari, ninjas, and samurai in kimonos.  So there's a bunch more to come... all guaranteed to be semi-historical and somewhat researched!

Soon to be Out of Control

The title of this post should be a clue as to how excited I was to find the PDF rules for Legends of the Rising Sun.  I've been waiting for these rules to come out for some time.  I first heard rumors of these rules around the time I was getting into Legends of the High Seas.  As soon as I heard about it, I knew I would want to jump into it.  It seems these rules have been out for a little while, and I'm a late comer.

Initially I was worried the rules would turn out to be some lame kung-fu game, with indiscriminate flying or killing enemies with moves like "Terra Raspberry Spike Attack."  You what I mean: a game that ends up playing like bad anime.  Well, I'm happy to report there is nothing like that here.  In fact, it's an honest attempt to bring 17th Century Japan to the skirmish games table.

So I purchased two packs of Perry Brothers Samurai models.  I'm anxious to get started on painting them and get in a game or two.  But this will soon be out of control, because I want to have all the gangs listed in the rules.  So I will need monks, peasants, ronin, ashigaru, etc.  In other words, I'll be buying a lot of these models.

I've also heard rumors from the guys I regularly game with that we might be able to do some Samurai wars.  So, that leaves me to wonder how to base these minis.  Should I put them on round bases for skirmish games or the square bases for war games?  Well, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.  For now, I'm pretty amped about these rules.  I'll post up when I get some of the models painted.