42mm samurai: The Retinue of Kaage Kazuhito

And finally, here is Kaage Kazuhito himself, along with his sashimono bearer. The banner man/sashimono bearer started off as an ashigaru standing with a yari. I simply replaced the yari with a wooden sign sashimono I made using green stuff for the sign (and heavy tassles), and plastic for the "roof" pieces. I added the sword to the sashimono bearer almost as an afterthought, but I think it works great.

 I left the sign blank under the premise that when Lord Kaage is forced to visit your town, the peasants must decide on and write out their own punishment on the sign; if Lord Kaage is happy with their decision, he dispenses the punishment, and if not, he chooses the punishment (he usually ends up choosing.) Either way, the sign is left at the town.

The figure I used as Lord Kaage started off as an armored samurai defending himself with a spear. I rotated each hand which gave the figure an almost perfect stance for holding a sword. And for that sword, I chose a nodachi, which I hammered out myself from brass rod. The hand guard was sliced off of a cylinder of cured green stuff.

I also used green stuff to make the helmet crest. This took a while to get it even and smooth, but I'm happy with the result. Historically, this style of crest was meant to represent a cliffside that two samurai fell over while engaged in unarmed jujitsu during a battle (Kato Kiyomasa and an unnamed opponent at the battle of Shizugatake.) I chose the crest design as a piece of irony for Lord Kaage; he is secretly a coward, who dons the heaviest armor of any of his men, and the largest sword, with no intention of ever engaging in one-on-one unarmed combat with his enemies.

And, of course, as with the rest of his retinue, Kaage and his sashimono bearer have both been given haori jackets.

I love how this group of figures looks together. I based their haori designs on one of my unarmored samurai wearing a jingasa (seen in the group pic below.) I hope my red faction looks half as good as these guys come out; it might be difficult though because my red faction is simply a few of my figures repainted in red armor, and all bearing the same sashimono; there is no gimmick or overall theme to them. Maybe they'll look better than I think, once they're finished.