28mm Biohazard trooper from Copplestone

Ok, apologies for not getting started on the Japanese house yet. I need to get some illustration or mat board and there is a foot of snow outside, so no goin's for a bit. I also need to look at my plans and figure how much and what sizes of (bass) wood I'll need; I want to approach this house a little more empirically than I have in the past. But I'll get to it.


In the mean time, I really wanted to change gears to relax my brain, so I (finally) grabbed this nice little Biohazard trooper from Copplestone Castings' Future Wars range. It's a lot smaller than those samurai, but he was just as easy to paint; it's a simple figure without a lot of extra detail, but I also credit Copplestone's sculpting skill. I've always said he sculpts figures for painters.

I have a squad of these guys waiting to be painted, and as fast as this one went (about an hour and a half including breaks), I think they'll go pretty quick. Or I may paint something else that's been sitting around. Essentially, after I've completed a relatively larger project (such as the samurai) my painting gets a little bit of attention deficit disorder- I just don't know what to paint- I grab something paint it, then go to something else- prime it - purchase another figure- announce plans for a big project- don't paint for three weeks- and so on. For now, I'm happy I got this fella painted.

Another quick note: The fuel tanks were made from greenstuff as was the hose. I got the base from Antenociti.
This figure and his squad mates will be used as alternative player figures for playing Doom the boardgame.

42mm samurai: Group photo

Hmmm, now I need to arrange some transport for these guys.

42mm samurai: Samurai with nagimaki

Done!! They're all done! Until I put in another order, that is. This samurai is in the running as my favorite (my favorite is either this one or the black-armored samurai with the carp-tail crest.) The armor on this one was a little easier to paint- or at least I made it easier on myself. I simply drybrushed the colors on the armor.
The large plume, orginally intended to be a group of peacock feathers, worked better as one large feathered plume. And, yes, I did paint peacock feathers first and painted this straight over them. No worries, I'll have another go at peacock feathers another day.
I'm REALLY happy that the nagimaki turned out well. I figured it would look good, but the paint really brought it out. Quick note: In case you missed it from earlier, that nagimaki is scratchbuilt- If you order this figure, you'll get a yari (spear), not the nagimaki. Though, I bet we could convince Steve to make one :)

So that's all the samurai for now. Sounds like folks want to see that Japanese house. That project will take a bit of doings: I need to pick up the materials, draw up a plan (oh wait- I HAVE drawn plans! I'll try to remember to post them later), and get into the building mood after having been painting nonstop since the middle of December.

Until I start building that house, I do have a couple smaller projects lined up. I have a Reaper figure I've thrown together and converted a touch, and I have a Copplestone Future Wars trooper in bio-suit I want to try. The trooper I think I can do in one sitting (with a couple breaks of course.)

I'll be keeping my eye out for Steve Barber's next samurai releases. I have a general idea of what I want to get next, but I want to wait a bit to see the new stuff, too.

42mm samurai: Ashigaru charging with yari

Well, here's the last of the ashigaru for a while. Just one samurai left on the table, and he's not too far from completion.

A little bird told me Steve has finished sculpting a samurai standing with a yari and that some ikko-ikki are in the works. Ok, it wasn't a bird, Steve Barber himself mentioned it in his Yahoo group. When that samurai (and maybe one or two ikko-ikki) go on sale, I'll be putting in another order. Until then, I'll be finishing up a couple Wings of War planes (I won't post those; I'm just doing a quick drybrush of light brown over the minis to kill the toy-like gloss finish and add a touch of weathering. I'll also take a quick inventory and try to finish up one or two random pieces. I have some Reaper, a couple Heresy figures I was going to paint up as civilian-clothed Ghostbusters, some Copplestone Future Wars bio troopers, Games Workshop Warhammer Empire troops, D&D prepainted figures, etc.

Or I could start that Japanese house for the samurai to fight for, in and around. It's been a while since I've built anything.

42mm samurai progress and future conversion ideas

Just a quick pic to show I am still painting these two. It's going slow; you can see in the background that I've gotten myself into a little bit of Wings of War minis (re)painting. I'm gonna try to get those planes done this week, so I can refocus on the samurai (and accessories.)

Conversions for the future
So I'm looking at my next order down the line already. This next order will almost all be for conversion purposes. First, I plan on getting two more peasants and performing a headswap. One will get a yari (or other polearm), but the other will be carrying a lantern (for the unarmored samurai.)
Speaking of the unarmored samurai:

This will be the more difficult conversion. First thing I need to do is to carve and file down the kataginu (the pointy shoulder things) so that he is only wearing a kimono and the hakima pants. I'll need to use a little greenstuff to shape the kimono back to style. Then I need to make the bow, remove the fan, drill out the hands, arrow in one hand, bow in the other, and I have to figure out how I'm gonna get that bow string under his sleeve (keeping it straight) and past the swords. I may have to drill the hole first, guide the string and make the bow to fit the string- which means a lot of eye-balling everything. I could also carve off and file down the swords, but they're in an awkward place for files and tools to reach.
The easiest part will be adding the quiver to his back and the arrow in his hand.

It's an ambitious idea for me. I'm not sure if I can pull it off, but I need to try. If I can build tiny Ghostbusters proton packs, I should be able to do this.

Final samurai are getting painted

The last of my unpainted samurai finally got their first coat of paint today. The samurai with the nagimaki here was painted with just a few drybrushed coats of a couple different greens.
In the background, you might notice a 60mm base with some greenstuff on it. The greenstuff has been carved into some paving stones on which I plan to build a small roadside shrine. I've been doing a little research: I can do the shrine, but I'm not sure how to do the torii (Japanese arch.) I can do the torii itself, I'm just not sure how to integrate it with the shrine- put it on the same base? (Not really enough room), Or put it on it's own base? Leave it off completely?

Quick update

I've been getting art stuff, books, supplies, etc. prepared for when the weather gets better (ever?) for field sketching/drawing/painting. So I've been doodling in the sketchbook (as you may have already seen). I haven't been working on the samurai in for the past few days. I'll try to get back to them asap- only two to paint!

Sketchbook update

I hadn't dug out the sketchbook for a while since it's too cold to draw outside, and too boring to draw inside. Still, I've been feelin' the itch, so I brought the book with for lunch. I didn't feel like drawing anything in the pizza place, so I drew his old lady falling down the stairs.
She'll be back later in the sketchbook to haunt those children.

42mm samurai: Ashigaru firing arquebus

My teppo corp is complete! All two of them.
This one is not quite finished, but all I have to do is throw a wash onto the gun and add a bit of scrub bush to the base. I'm also thinking about throwing on some drybrushed weathering on all the samurai, at least on their legs to look like dust thrown up while on the march. I'll give it a try on a couple ashigaru first.

The sword in the ground was made with some hammered brass inserted into a hilt and guard cut from a separate scabbarded sword.

Just two more figures to go. An ashigaru chargin with his yari leveled, and a samurai who I armed with a scratchbuilt nagimaki.

42mm samurai: Ashigaru with naginata

Here's a simple figure; he was was one the easier to paint. I spruced him up a touch by giving him a (scratchbuilt) naginata.

On second look, I think I will go back and touch up the blue sleeves. I gave them a blue ink wash, but forgot to go back in and clean it up. Sorry, you're all stuck with this picture :)

Just three more figures to paint, then I will do some more scenics and accessories.

42mm samurai: Bareheaded ashigaru kneeling

I like this figure. I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about this pose, but I purchased it on a whim just to paint something a little different, and I'm glad I did.

I like the much taller sashimono. I was tip-toeing my way with my previous sashimono efforts, but I needed to do that before I could take off and be a little more bold. Here's a flag that says, "Hey boss- I'm right here!"

All-in-all, I'm happy with this figure. It was easy to paint. The colors look good, and I'll be happy to add him to the ranks.

42mm accessories: A lick of courage- Sake!

I returned home a little later than usual, so I only had time to throw together this little sake set. The small table is made from two lengths of flat basswood that were scored to simulate more wood panels. The tray is a piece of card and the sake set itself is made from Sculpey. The saucers started off as little (TINY) balls of Sculpey which were simply pushed down on with the end of a paintbrush handle. The sake bottle started off as a baked rod of Sculpey that I simply carved into the simple shape you see.

I basecoated everything with (all Foundry colors listed here) Red Oxide 102A. The table was finished with a couple drybrushed layers of Peaty Brown 61. The tray was drybrushed with Spearshaft 13A and B. The sake stoneware was finished with a couple layers of Granite 31 (B and C.)

When I make my Japanese house, I will measure the floor out in 2-inch squares (I won't actually mark out the grid.) So things I make for the interior of the house -- such as this sake set -- all will be mounted on their own 2-inch square piece of floor. This way, everything going inside the building will be modular. This is the plan, anyway.

42mm samurai: Peasant advancing with yari

I painted this one up a little faster than I should have, but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this batch of samurai. I may order another couple of peasants and do head swaps. I like this one's pose and the other's head; If I get another, I'd have this one carrying a lantern (for my unarmored samurai). I'll look for just the right bead for a lantern, otherwise, I'll just roll one up with some Sculpey.

I've also got a couple ashigaru started, so there should be at least a couple more posts coming up this week. I'll paint this batch in a similar order as the last group (easiest to hardest- peasant to samurai.)

Also, with most of the accessories (that I had planned) done, I can move on to building the house pretty soon. I have plans; I need to tweak them a bit and figure out if I want to (or if I'm even able to) make working sliding doors.

The only other items I had planned are lanterns, a koi pond and a roadside shinto shrine (which I was going to build if I wasn't going to build the small temple.) Things are gettin' done!

42mm samurai accessories: Barrels and containers

While I waited for the primer to set on my figures (I give primer coats 24 hours to fully set for strength), I threw together these containers. The barrels started off as stacked caps (random wooden bits I had sitting around); you can use wooden dowel just as easily. I scored (deep) panel lines into a length of card and wrapped it around my (glued) wooden stacks cutting off the excess.
After the glue dried, I used some of my home-made rope to wrap the barrels (gluing the rope down, as well.) The lids were made from greenstuff. Paint and base- done!



The sake jar was previously done, I'm just showing it again based. You'll also notice a nice jar based with a couple barrels- that was another random wooden bit you can pick up at Hobby Lobby (comes in a bag of 10-20 or so.)

The large tub was made the same way as the barrels; I scored lines into a long panel, and then glue the ends together around a large wooden form (whatever fits- it's better to fit the panel around whatever wooden form you have rather than fitting the form to the panel.) Do not glue the panel to the form- the form is simply to help you maintain a circular shape. I removed the form and then poured gobs of 2-part epoxy resin into the tub. Five minutes later, water! Time for a samurai bath.

These elements are all mounted on 40mm bases. They make nice scenic elements but can also be set up as barricades.

Almost time to paint some more samurai!

42mm samurai: The next batch

New batch is here! Gonna be a few days of cleaning them up, making some new sashimono and priming.
I've made a naginata for my Ashigaru gashira, and a nagimaki for my new samurai. The blades are hammered brass, and the guards were made by cutting disks off a rod of cured greenstuff. I haven't glued in the crest on the new samurai yet. It feels just a bit overpowering. My original intent was to paint it to look like peacock feathers; the darker colors would help weaken the size- I could also just cut a few millimeters off the base of the crest. (And the crest was made by hammering on a brass rod.)