Mounted Samurai

I have an huge collection of 15mm Peter Pig Samurai (and Ashigarus)... that I have to paint. I painted some as a test years a go and then gave all but two of the painted ones as gift to Japanese friends (yes the testbeds were intended as gifts). Of the testbeds I had done, a single base of mounted ones was left.  It was time to add some friends. In January Museum had its yearly sale. In the past I have painted some Museum Mongols for a customer (one of my former professors in Bologna University!) and I was quite pleased. I decided to pick one of their Han Chinese army packs (I watched the first season of Advisors Alliance... now if they subtitled the second...), and some some extras, namely some landsknecht arquebus and some mounted samurai, I am intrigued by their Kawankajima range. I painted the little fellas... and put them together with the PP ones.

Museum one are undoubtedly taller, but once based they do not tower unreasonably over their PP brethren.

I really like the detail on the Museum ones. They have no sashimonos and are sold in single pose packs, but they are well sculpted and reasonably clean cast. Also once painted in different liveries the single pose is not that obvious.   Of course I need better lighting...

More Armor...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are still on a World War Two roll… actually I am just clearing a backlog of posts… but target for today is the Mighty Tiger! In this case a full plastic model from Warlord/Italeri that I bought at SELWG 2015 (!?!) with my friend Minkyeong. Painted the following Christmas holiday, captured in images… and then… well I was slow in updating the blog.

It is a good model, with zimmerit modelled on. The TC figure is quite nice in my opinion (I know warlord often get bad rep). Simple, clean, and fun build. The only ‘negative’ element was the gun. Well moulded but the joint is too loose. I had to glue it in position otherwise it was depressing too much giving the impression of a knocked out tank.

Tidbit: do you know why knocked out tanks have their guns depressed? Because their hydraulic fluid, the one used in the recoil system has burned or spilled, and there is not pressure to keep the equilibrators working, so the barrel, usually not fixed at its balance point, just drop off.

Anyway just enjoy another 1:56 model!

This time I have gone for a general wash after the basic camouflage colours had been applied, IMHO it worked, it was especially effective in the wheels and to define the zimmerit.

After the Tiger we have another group of tanks in 1:56 painted the same holiday. Japanese ones this time. Two of them are Warlord resin models and one is a Company B.

I had the Company B for years while the Warlords were bought in 2013. That holiday I finally received my Trenchworx Thanks in Manchuria models. I built them but I decided to start painting from the backlog first… and I also took the opportunity to retouch the older Ha-Go. Anyway the Type 97 ShinHoto is Warlord, as one of the Type 95.  I am again very satisfied of the work. I will say that the Warlord resin model were slightly better than the Company B (and yes I plan to procure one platoon box of the new plastic Chi-Ha too). Yet everyone painted well. I think I am more happy with the Warlord because I got better and the colours are also more accurate. 

Warlord Type 97 leading, Company B Type 95 in the middle.

Posting again...

Hello Ladies (hopefully some ladies read this blog...) and Gentlemen,

I am not dead (as the people who has seen me at game shows can attest), just a bit under pressure from my new, temporary job. But be re-assured, I will not complain about the tribulations of a temporary teaching fellow... instead I want to post some picture of my Imperial Japanese Navy Force for the 1904-1905 scuffle with the Russian Empire. I posted some of the test ship I did, but I have put a lot of effort in the past months (actually in the past summer... this show how slow in posting I am), to finish the Japanese at least. And now you can see the efforts...

Let's start with two group shots...

and then move to the various divisions...

Battle force first. From right to left... Asahi, Fuji,  Shikishima, Mikasa

Now it is time for the cruisers...

Adfter the cruiser group shot some detail of the armoured ones... for once I even tried Kanji writing...

Kasuga and Tokiwa are Tumbling Dice... but the Azuma is a 3d printed WTJ one.

As the Takachiko

and the Naniwa...

Masts in this case are brass rods...

FinallyProtected cruisers and a couple of  destroyers...

Actually you can see only one...

  in the picture... but here...



You see the three I have...

Now some more  random shots of specific vessels...

 

And with this the post is concluded!

Better Muromachi period bushi (Part 1)

Well my intrepid readers, I promised better close up when I finished the dismounted Bushi.  Bushi and pictures were indeed produced by Monday but then laziness took precedence... now it is Wednesday and I am finally doing what I promised. Here is a small force from the fictional Clan Ogawa. It has a high ranking Samurai mounted, a lower ranked Bushi on foot, and two retainers. It is a bit more than 100 points in ronin. 

 

 Lord Ogawa has just loosened an arrow!

The two retainers look toward the enemy...

I included also a photos of the back armor.

As usual comments are more than welcome.

In a far distand land....

... during the middle ages (and also a bit of renaissance...) there were fearsome warriors called Bushi.

In a not too distant land there is a crazy soldiers' painter (バカ兵隊の画家？ not sure of the spelling） that is trying to paint some of them for Ronin. Because I gave all my 28mm Perry to mister Oshiro when I switched to 15mm for the Age of War I decided to not do the same period twice in two different scale and insteast opted for the earlier Muromachi period. Why?

Because I like the armor of the period, I like the history, I can use the Mongol Invasions as backdrop, and because... I discovered I had a bag of Curteys 28mm retainers... (ok there is a reason why I have them... I also know the reason but it is a moot point now...). I quickly ordered a bag of mounted and dismounted samurais from Curteys last month... and started painting. Now I have the retainer done, the mounted samurai done, and two of four dismounted bushi also done! That is a record, from internet to blog in weeks. I hope to have the picture of the dismounted Bushi taken Sunday or Monday at the latest, but for now...

 First you can see the retainers...

and then the mounted Bushi:

 I will show the detail picture in "precedence" order now so first Bushi:

I really like painting Curteys. I know people complain about their heads, but the detail of the armors is excellent and they are a joy to paint.

And then the close ups of the retainers:

 The spears are cast. I really like their blades.

Well for this small Japanese project the pictures have ended. I hope you like them.