Blog Warden's Other Paint Log

My Bretonnian Treeman is complete!

The Gallows Oak

(front):

Spoiler: Bretonnian Treeman- More Pics

Left Front:



Side (most of the shields and chains are readily visible in this picture):



Back (I think the added moss foliage helped a bit. I decided to give some of the plants a light green wash to make them look slightly less plastic too):



Right side:

 

Haha I like him a lot

 

Thanks, its definitely a unique one!

Some shots in the jungle:



...with a foot knight for comparison:



... and surrounded by the Merry Men!

 

Samurai Army Project: Battle of Sekigahara

So I have been really busy recently and haven't posted much since July. That being said I have been working on a new project in my remaining spare time, assembling some Test of Honour miniatures from Warlord Games (I think @Phoedinn had some at one point too) and have finally decided on where I was going to take my painting inspiration from for this project: the Battle of Sekigahara (wiki link in case you want a quick overview).

I actually started assembling some actual samurai miniatures back in January, with very slow results.



These Warlord models were HARD to assemble at first. The hands and feet are much tinier than the GW Bretonnian models I am used too. GW models are "28mm heroic" which means the hand, face, and weapons are much bigger than normal. These Test of Honour models have much tinier details in comparison, though probably more "accurate" to what an actual 28mm scale human would look like.



Assembling the weapons and spears were hard though; I would have to carefully bend the thumbs in order to get the spear to fit, then bend the thumb back once I have the weapon in the right place. Then glue. Very time consuming project, but I got a better rhythm now.

I have been using many of the lessons I learned casting my Bretonnians and applied them to this project. By casting extra heads, torsos, and legs I will be able to assemble a much bigger force just using the contents of the base game.

Here are the ten samurai I was able to assemble using the extra arm components that came in the box:



And here is what my samurai force looked like at the end of January of this year. I had assembled enough for two small skirmish forces (x5 samurai, x8 ashigaru on each side) using what came in the box and extra casting bits.



Basing is what was really giving me trouble though. I have been experimenting with how to make a force that is compatible with both round and square bases, so that I can use these models in multiple kinds of games. Test of Honour rules are skirmish oriented with round bases. I am also looking at Pike and Shotte (also Warlord Games), Kings of War (Mantic), and regular Warhammer for rule sets for massed battles using more standard, regimented army blocks (all square bases).

 

The main reason why this project has been stalling for so long was the fluff.

I am a big fan of lizardmen fluff and the lore of Lustria of the Warhammer World, and I really wanted to capture that same feeling of depth in this project. I read through all of the Warhammer Armies Project's Nippon army book(s) multiple times, but while they set out great Fantasy rules for a forgotten part of the Warhammer rules, I didn't care for the fluff as much. It was great, but as I started reading the real-world history of medieval Japan my imagination really started taking off. I have been reading on Japanese history for a while, it is what inspired me to create an (unfinished) lore collection for Samurai Lizardmen of the Dragon Isles a while back! I am also a big fan of ukiyo-e drawings, I have used a few for Lizardmen artwork in the past too.


Inspiration: ARTWORK!

This Japanese folding screen is what I will be using for most of the army's look:

Spoiler: Higher-Res Pics

I also took the liberty of labelling some of the major samurai commands on this screen based on the research I have been doing. I am hampered by not being able to read Japanese, and being limited to strictly English sources on the battle.

Battle Summary:

In summary, the Battle of Sekigahara was fought between two sides, the Eastern Army (led by Tokugawa Ieyasu- RED) against the Western Army (a loose coalition to oppose him, assembled and led by Ishida Mitsunari- BLUE).



The forces around the town of Sekigahara were roughly of equal strength, ~80,000 on each side. The Western Army (BLUE) was deployed in the east spread out around a collection of hills. As the mists rose in the early morning, the Eastern Army (RED) found themselves directly in front of the enemy, and the battle began. There is a ton of great information on the battle that I won't go into detail here, but ultimately the battle was decided by traitors on the part of the Western Army. The forces of Kobayakawa Hideaki (Yellow) turned against the Western Army and rolled up their flank, causing them to route and for Tokugawa to win the day. At the same time, a huge contingent of Eastern Armies forces (the Mori) never even made it to the field, once again causing the Eastern Army to ultimately be outmatched in number during the actual fighting.

 

Army Size Planning:

When I finally decided on the battle and using square bases, I was very curious to see just how big of an army I could eventually create (given enough time, money, time, painting skill, and time). I decided to do a little powerpoint-wizardry to make paper tiles to mark each unit that I could possibly make to create this army in 28mm.



Here are the block sizes I was working with:

Infantry (missile ashigaru, spear ashigaru, foot samurai): 40 x 40 mm; 4x infantry per base
Cavalry (samurai): 50 x 50 mm; 2 mounted samurai per base

Each tile has a picture of the clans I have been researching.

Spoiler: Clan Breakdowns

Western Army Clans: coalition of Ishida, Ukita, Konishi, Shimazu, Otani, and others



Western Army Traitors: Kobayakawa and allies (who turned the tide of the fighting in favor of Tokugawa)



Eastern Army: Tokugawa and his generals



Western Army: Rear Forces of the Mori Clan (who in real life never joined the battle)

After everything was cut out, here is what it looked like on the game board!

Spoiler: More pics

Mori Clan in the rear:



Kobayakawa and allies:



Western Army positions:

And here are the generals I am thinking to lead the forces. Not sure if one or two of these were actually present, more research is required!

 

Here is what actual miniature progress I have done in July.

Assembly: more peasant ashigaru!



Most of these are just plastic, but future ones will be having a lot of resin thrown in too.

I am painting very slowly, as it takes me at least 2 hours for a set of 4 infantry. My first test set were Ishida Clan:



The next few sets were all painted in this white/blue scheme. Most of the mon on the sashimono (translation: the heraldry on the back-flags) did NOT turn out well. More research is required into water transfer-stickers; anyone ever make their own?



Magnetic Basing:

In order to make these samurai miniatures functional on both square and round basing wargames, I will be using magnets. I bought a metal sheet and some tin snips to cut out dime-size circles.



The metal is magnetic, so by the addition of a small hobby magnet in each base I will be able to move the miniature on the metal circle onto whatever base I want!



Not all the samurai minis will be done this way of course, that would be too much work. Most will probably be going onto straight up square multi bases.

The first set of ashigaru that I based were for the Ukita Clan:



They look pretty good on the movement tray!





Next up I have a few archers in progress, plus I just got the square bases for my Ishida contingent. I also have some red samurai still being worked on (experimenting with washes!).

If anyone is interested in learning more about the clans I have researched I can post that too!

 

Here is some of the work I was able to finish the other weekend, my first crop of ashigaru!

From the Ishida Clan (Western Army), I have five square blocks of spear ashigaru (two with Ishida mon, and one each of Toyotomi, Gamo, and Shima):



Total of 20 ashigaru based up. The sixth base will not be a multibase, to allow me to run the unit either as a block of 30 or a block of 20 as needed.





For the Ukita clan (Western Army) I have my first small batch of skirmish ashigaru with their magnetic bases.



Three spearmen, three bowmen, plus one "leader" ashigaru with a sword and a bannerman.

Each is magnetized, and I just need to finish painting up their square combined base for when I would rather run this guys on square bases instead!



I may make a second batch of the ashigaru-in-blue, but not until I do a batch of red ashigaru first (from the Ii clan, Eastern Army).

So far my progress for the cavalry contest has been slow, but the batch of five samurai horsemen are base coated and planned out. I am going to paint them as a few different clans from the Western Army (Ishida, Konishi, Ukita, and Shimazu).



Progress is slow and time is limited, but they are fun to paint.

 

You are a busy man ;D

 

Did some work the last two days, and my first crop of the Western Army is completely finished.





Samurai Project totals:

• Ashigaru:
  • Spears: 24
  • Bows: 4
• Cavalry: 5

All the Ashigaru Spearmen lined up, going to be a lot more of these at some point:



Ishida Clan Ashigaru and allies:


Ashigaru of the Ukita Clan, both quad bases fully magnetized:


...with round bases:


... options are great!

 

Samurai Cavalry!



This batch was a big test of a few different ways to paint my future samurai, lots of good options in the future. The clans represented are Konishi, Ishida, Shimazu, and Ukita.

Spoiler: more pics of the Samurai Cavalry- Western Army

Back view:


Ishida and Ukita samurai:





Konishi, Ishida, and Shimazu samurai:

A few more pics!

Ishida Clan samurai and ashigaru retainers:




Ukita Clan:



Hope you like how they turned out. Once I get a few more samurai patterns complete I will have to make some terrain pieces too, and maybe some cherry blossom trees!

 

Looking really good matey!

So much to talk about lol - so I’ll cover it all with ‘clap of hands’

 

Thanks! Got a few more in the pipeline:

Spoiler: pics

Some more ashigaru:



The red clan samurai/ashigaru warband are all washed up, as are two blue samurai:



And a bunch more bases for more units yet to be assembled:

 

Haha just like me; never ending conveyor belt of work ;D

 

Agreed! Labor-Day-Labors are complete, got this crop fully painted up! Just got to finish basing.

Here are a few with square bases, to include some drummer musicians. This will allow me to reorganize my ashigaru spear units as either 20 or 24 models strong.



Here are two new blue samurai from the Ukita Clan, mounted on their metal disk for skirmish games. They will get a square base eventually when I get more samurai assembled.



And here are the Ii Clan samurai (two in the front) and their ashigaru with bows and spears, ready to be based up then they will be ready for games!

 

Finished basing and touching up my Labor-Day samurai/ashigaru!

Some of the fillers on square bases to give me lots of options:



The musicians turned out better than I had expected. I will try making more of these as the project grows, and branch out with some arrow/baggage carriers as extra unit fillers.



The basing styles should give me lots of flexibility to play multiple different wargame rulesets or unit sizes. I am most familiar with regular Warhammer Fantasy 6-8th edition of course, but I have been reading up more on Kings of War Historicals. I got the book recently, and basic infantry troops are 20 models in size (100mm x 80mm combined footprint). I also was looking into Pike and Shotte (Warlord Games) and Fields of Glory (Osprey Games). Fields of Glory calls for about 24 models per infantry unit (120mm x 80mm).

Spoiler: Basing pics... and options!

Ishida Clan Ashigaru, 20 models in the unit (100mm x 80mm):



Ishida Clan Ashigaru with 24 models in unit (120mm x 80mm), plus my two blocks of Ukita ashigaru:



And another configuration, two units of 20 models! (footprints: 80mm x 80mm)



Another pic of the Ukita spearmen:

 

And here are the two opposing warbands on their magnetized round bases!



Finally have enough for a game of Test of Honour.

Blue Warband: the Ukita Clan



Red Warband: the Ii Clan



Each has two samurai, three ashigaru spearmen, three ashigaru bowmen, one ashigaru sergeant, and a bannerman.

Closeup of the sergeants facing off:



The SAMURAI !!!!



I really love the triple movement trays. Hope you like how they turned out!

 

Played two quick games of Test of Honour last weekend, it was fun!



My wife won both matches but they were very quick, fun little games. Nice intro wargame that isn't hard to learn, but I need to do more reading before we play again. Not sure if the samurai are supposed to have more than one wound... they died really fast!

Spoiler

My ashigaru facing off against my wife's red samurai (he beat them)



My wife's ashigaru facing off against my blue samurai (they won)



Two young samurai facing off in the center of the battlefield!



Guess who won