Wako

At last some finished troops.
10 wakos, of whom one skipped the photosession.

I think the magic glaze is a tad too light in these, but dark eough to tone the chiefs armour.
Any decent group of bushi should eat these guys for breakfast.

Japanilaisia merirosvoja. Uimasille joutuminen tuskin paljon haittaisi, mutta minkä tahansa haarniskoituneen porukan pitäisi Roninissa syödä nämä kaverit aamupalaksi.

Focusing? Keskittymistä?

I had this idea of trying to finish stuff already on the table before starting anything new.

Succes has been mixed - I have not started much new and I have concentrated on the peasant horde, Japanese pirates and the Danish command group. Other projects have gotten attention mainly when there has been extra color on my palette.

The wako - and some peasants - now block painted and with sand on wet acrylic paint. With dip, some glue on the base and varnish they are probably pretty much done. Disreputable bunch and with no armor except on the leader they'll probably die horrendously in the games of Ronin but they were fun to paint.

Peasants are a bit large batch - progress on them is depressingly slow. Still they are closing on getting their. I need to finish their faces (for some reason I've used two different shades - neither of which looks  really convincing) and facial hair, sand the bases  and see how they look after the dip. In the forefront  Danish command groups. With the new Swedish army lists for Scania these gentlemen will finally have an enemy they might want to meet on the field. So it is time to give finishing touch of powder to their whigs give them flags and make them ready for the battles of autumn.

Hoarding. Harakkaelämä jatkuu.

Polish peasants have been very slow to progress.
The different groups for Ronin have acquired some color but nothing has been finished - oh and I got myself some more minis from various makers.

The travelling hatamoto with his retinue is slowly progressing. And have run into a disreputable ronin.

 

Still wondering about colourscheme for these servants. Leaning towards vibrant blues at this point - not really happy with the hues I've tried though.

The samurai from Steelfist are almost intimidating in their detail. And in size tower over their lesser compatriots.

The wako bunch 

Ten disreputable pirates, bandits or rebelling peasants. Fun to do - very slim in their proportions.
Maker Forlorn games.

 Peasants of 1st corps. A bit stocky but mixture of improvised weapons is nice - might serve as bandits or join Ikko  army as lowest of the bunch.

From Warriorminiatures bunch of ashigaru, 2 samurai and a seminaked guy who will probably serve as bandit or very disreputable ronin. A bit short in comparison to some others but might augment bushi buntai or form one of their own. Sculpting style is very different from Perrys or museum miniatures - in a way these guys resemble sculptures more than real people. It will be very intersting to see how they paint.

Now I just need to resist the urge to get some more wako - even if I have seen one with Portuguese morion.

WIP Ronin and sohei

Even though a group of sipahis and a host of saga crusaders is on the table I caved in and started on doing the japanese of previous post. Some wip pics.

Over my depth in freehand decorations of samurai attire, but counts as practise.

Vaikka pöydällä on turkkilaisia Tuleen ja Miekkaan ja ristiretkeläisiä Sagaan edellisen postauksen japanilaisia on tullut sudittua eteenpäin. Koristelut ei aina paranna tulosta, mutta menee harjoittelun  piikkiin.

Mixture of TAG and Perry sohei in different stages of preparation. Nasty bunch to engage and far too large for single Ronin buntai.

Oopsie daisy. Hupsista.

Son wanted to invest part of his allowance to some ninjas. I agreed to work as intermediary and to take care of the mail costs. The six Black hat ninjas are his. I may have gotten a bit excited at some point... Poika tahtoi investoida ninjoihin. Lupasin välittää ja hoitaa postikulut. Mopo lähti hiukan käsistä...

 Black Hat ninjas and unarmoured samurai, single figures by em4 miniatures and sohei by TAG.

Black hatin samuraita keihäiden, miekkojen ja pulisonkien kanssa. Black hatin ninjoja ja TAGin soturimunkkeja. Em4figuresilta ronin, samurai ja ninja.

Mounted sohei and samurai command by TAG. Early equipment, but looking forward to painting this lot.
Ratsastavia soturimukkeja ja TAGin julma komentoryhmä. Varusteet ehkä 1200-1300 lukua, eli aika varhaista. Mennee omassa pelipöydässä hyvin sekaisin, varsinkin kun Black hatin ronineiden varusteetkaan eivät ole 1600-lukuisia.

Addition 11.2.
And with their January sale Museum miniatures sold me some more unarmoured samurai and ashigaru together with a bunch of 15 mm stuff. Very nice castings on the samurai range requiring minimal cleanup.

Painted figures for some kind of size comparison. Clockwise from top fighting ashigaru; ashigaru carrying supplies; japanese women; 15 mm pilgrims, mainly museum miniatures, but with addition of a peasant and some legio heroica pilgrims; Museum miniatures medieval spearmen; general and guards, and mounted samurai with attendant. 

New Year, slow progress Uusi vuosi, hidasta edistymistä

Ideas of having some mega gamingsessions during the holidays went down the drain with nasty flu. Since my painting table was invaded by my wifes puzzle also the painting progress has been slow. (To be fair it is her table originally and she has done a puzzle on it for last ten years every Christmas holiday so I can't complain too loudly.)

With that said I have  slowly come into gear first with some 15 mm Legio Heroica crusaders to use as Saga warband - or with reinforcements perhaps in Lion Rampant.

 At the same time I have been slowly working on getting Sipahis of the BFaS ottoman Skirmish force into playing condition. Motivation on this hs been somewhat lackluster - we are eagerly waiting for the Deluge to see what changes

Warband has been fun change - limited amount of figures and somewhat different color schemes.
Still a work in progress, but seems to proceed rapidly whenever I find time to work on it.



As a side project I have aqcuired larger playing surface 200cm by 120cm. With a wish to fill it with troops next game has been agreed to be Pike and Shotte Italian wars.

My opponent will be bringing his exquisite Venetians whom I aim to thrash with brutal numerical superiority in a scenario inspired by Agnadello.
Hence I needed to dig up the Black Band landsknechts who were overtaken in painting queu by the BFaS troops over a year ago.

My intention was to add some finer details, but I ended just painting bases in different shades of green - one of the stages I hate. At the same time I did same operation on some Ronin figures, some fencing and touched up the sides of some sipahi bases. I may still have time to do some work on the band before the game on Sunday, but these guys will be deployed less than ready.

Joululoman pelisuunnitelmat kariutuivat sitkeään flunssaan, maalaus on pitkään takunnut. Hitaasti kuitenkin teko vaihde alkaa löytyä. Legio Heroican  ristiretkeläisiä Sagaan, hidasta edistystä ottomaani ratsuväen parissa ja pitkästä aikaa töitä Pike and Shotte Italian sotien joukkojen parissa.

Peasants again. Maajussit bambukeihäineen.

Same downtrodden group of villagers as in previous post.

Keihästä siis pidetään näin! 

I decided to go with still green bamboospears and give these fellows really subdued colors. Brown and darkgrey might even be too prosperous and respectable.

Siis terävä pää viholliseen päin, montako kertaa se pitää sanoa?

The peasants still drying from the dip. Some highlights, varnish and grass and they are ready to meet run away from first group of samurai, bandits or sohei they happen to meet.

Roninprojektin alkua. Start of progress for Ronin buntais

After 15mm these ronin guys are interesting new experience.
Very much WIP, not even at finished block painting stage yet. First a Group of Black hat peasants of 25 mm listening closely as member of Ikko Ikki from Perry is instructing use of spear.These guys might form the required peasant core of 100 point peasant buntai, but will probably be seen as hangaround members of bandit or ikko-ikki warbands.

Black hatin Lantsareita nojailemassa bambukeihäisiinsä, kun Perryn Ikko

 

yrittää näyttää mitä sillä on tarkoitus tehdä.

 

 Second a group of Perry warrior monks with naginatas and teppo. Joy to paint, but getting those yellows and oranges to look good will be a challenge. They actually look better on picture than in real life, which is nice for a change.

Soturimunkkeja. Kerrankin kamera imartelee - keltaisen ja oranssin peitossa on isoja ongelmia.

Some Perry Ikko Ikki. The buntai will probably get some of the peasants, just for flavor. Rest will be a mixture of guys with various levels of armor.

Perryn Ikko-Ikkejä. Vahvistukseksi voi tulla talonpoikia, soheita tai jopa samuraita.

 

 And finally some Perry Bushi. Two samurai and four ashi-garu waiting for me to finish the armor and give them some kind of clan mon.

Perryn samuraita ja ashigaruja - 1 samurai ja 4 ashigarua on suunnilleen 100 pistettä, suositeltu buntain aloitusvahvuus Roninissa.

Mielenkiintoinen uusi maalauskokemus 15 millisten jälkeen. Tilaa maalata on ruhtinaallisesti, toisaalta peittävyyden kanssa on erilaisia ongelmia. Soheit ja bushit voinee viedä pelitestauksen kohtapuoleen. Varalla on vielä jonkun verran Black hatin ronineita, jotka voivat joko muodostaa ryöväribuntain rungon tai tulla peliin palkkasoturironineina.