Hittin' the old mountain: 32mm samurai/40mm old west

Since I didn't have anything lined up after my samurai- and since I was actually in the mood to paint, I grabbed a couple random figures off the old lead mountain. First up is a 32mm heroic scale samurai/ronin from Warcrow(?) He's been sitting around for a couple years. If I had known how easy and fast he would paint up, he'd have been done faster (it only took about an hour and a half to finish both figures here). Oh well; he's done now. I'll use him as yet another character/figure for playing D&D.

Next up is an older 40mm cowboy from HLBS (the range long since discontinued.) I think I have a couple more 40mm old west figures lying around needing to be painted- one each from HLBS and Knuckleduster. Hmm, I should go check out to see what Knuckleduster has been up to. I had been meaning to pick up a few more of their civilians.

Any new old west figures will be for later. I think I'm settled in with the Steve Barber samurai (I've ordered a few more, with another small order planned for late February/March.) The current order is for a couple more of the peasants (which I will do a headswap on), another ninja (female with a blowdart- I haven't seen photos, but it sounded intriguing), and an unarmoured samurai whose fan I will replace with a sword (katana for those of you who want me to "get it right!")

I will take my time with this next round of samurai (like the last round) with the possibility of more Japanese accessories/buildings during the paint. Any ideas for Japanese "stuff?" More goods, roadside shrine, small temple, small bridge? (And yes, I'm trying to keep everything "small" for this collection.)

42mm Samurai/32mm Barbarian finished

I finished a couple figures in one sitting. First up is the last of my 42mm samurai (should I buy more?) from the second group I started a few weeks ago. I like how the sashimono (with the skull) turned out. It was about the easiest part of the whole thing to paint. If I get any more samurai, I think I'm finished with red samurai. It's difficult for me to paint without muddying up everything with my impatiently thick layers. Maybe a yellow samurai next time? I do enjoy Foundry's yellow ochre triad (the color of this guy's sashimono).

Next up is a Reaper figure I painted up almost as an afterthought -- Usually, when I paint a figure, I'll have one or two random figures off to the side to paint while I wait for layers on my main figure to dry. This barbarian was that figure off to the side while I finished my last samurai. The figure is Reaper Warlord figure No. 14620 Barbarian Axeman of Icingstead. I like the sculpt except for the face. On the Reaper site, the face looks great, but in person, it's a bit small, and there's not a lot of detail; it was a bit of a challenge to paint. But the rest of the figure painted up great, and I like the simple, no-frills pose so that he will not stand out too much on the D&D table when the DM is looking for someone to take out his frustrations on.

42mm samurai: Finished peasant's hut

And here's the hut complete with thatched roof (which is not quite dry; I was impatient.) I went with a longer-haired fake fur (as opposed to toweling) to better suit the larger scale figures.

More envelope art

I'm making great progress on my peasants hut- the "fur" thatch on the roof is drying; it looks good for my first try at thatching. I've also added a couple details to my samurai.

I've also found a little time to doodle up some more envelopes for letters to friends:

Small samurai update (and smaller barbarian)

I've got a couple layers thrown onto my last samurai. In the meantime, I've started a Reaper barbarian that I've had primed for a few months.

The samurai will get a yellow sashimono with a skull in a pool of blood (something a little bit different from the sashimono on my other samurai.)
Again, I'm stuck on a lacing color. I'll probably just end up grabbing a color at random off the rack.

I tried something slightly different with the barbarian. Instead of dark gray as a first layer on the furs, I used a dark french gray (and it was plenty blue.) It seems to work well.

Once these two are done, I don't have any plans for what to paint next, but I do have the roof of my Japanese peasants house yet to finish. Maybe my next thing will be to actually play a game or two with the samurai (Hmm, Two Hour Wargames Red Sands Blue Skies? or Chain Reaction Swordplay?)

42mm samurai: Working on the peasant's house

I guess the building itch hit me early, and just at the right time (I had three hours of free time), so I got most of it finished. I still need to work on the roof (not sure if I'll use toweling or fake fur for the thatch- or maybe even sculpey??) I had originally intended to do the roof later; Usually when I build, I do everything all at once, and since the roof comes last, I tend to build it in a rush. Since I'm saving this roof for later, I hope to do a better job of it.

The construction of the main structure here was pretty easy. I drew up some plans, and glued together some modular walls (as seen below.) This time around, I actually calculated how much wood I would need (and only had about 6 inches of wood left over after finishing.) I decided not to recreate any teahouses or specific architecture, instead going for a generic "Japanese" look.

I built the raised floor as a separate piece, giving me a solid base on which I could glue the wall sections. Before gluing the walls to the base, I painted everything (to make it easy to get the brush where it needed to be.) I added a couple layers of framing around the top of the walls to give the roof an even base to work with, and to give the structure more strength- And it's strong; I wouldn't stand on it, but this house just feels more robust than any of my card buildings. Anyway- here's some photos!

42mm samurai: Standing with yari (and lumber)

" ... And lumber?"
Sure, it sounded like some of you wanted me to post stages of my work. Well, "stage 1" is lumber :)
Ok, it's going to be a small peasant's house- nothing spectacularly designed, but it will still incorporate mostly wood (instead of card.)

The samurai has a first layer of brown to serve as an undercoat to the red armor he will be wearing. This sculpt is one of a couple of the newer figures offered in Steve Barber's 42mm samurai range (the other being the ikko-ikki monk posted earlier in this blog.)

Next weekend, I'll finally have (after six months) more than 2 consecutive days off work (3 days!) So I think I'll try to build my little peasant house then (or finish it then, if I get the itch to start building during the week.)

42mm samurai: Kneeling ashigaru

Another easier figure to paint; I may have rushed it a touch, but it still turned out ok. The sashimono is a bit large (I was in a rush at that phase,) but it won't matter too much since these figures are just for skirmishing.

I've been thinking about getting a few more ashigaru to put together a small battleline (and give me an excuse to get a banner man or two.) But that's just a thought; I still have one more samurai to paint from this current batch, as well as a teahouse/house/small temple to build ... maybe. (I need to get up the gumption to buy a bunch of wood and take the time to lay it one plank at a time- If I do this building, I want to do it right.)

42mm samurai: Some new Japanese goods (and some old)

I had a few minutes here and there yesterday, so I threw these new (on the three GW cavalry bases in front) accessories together. Each individual pack and jar was actually already made (from Sculpey) when I originally started with this range; I've just mounted them on the bases and painted them up finally.

To help nudge me toward building a small Japanese house/shed, I've based these latest accessories to be placed indoors.

42mm samurai: Samurai charging with yari

This one didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but it still turned out nice. I wanted the lacing to be a bit brighter, but I think I dig the all-around darker look.

42mm Samurai: First colors on charging samurai

This sculpt is probably my least favorite to paint (yet still one of my favorite poses of the range.) The sculpting is good, but it requires a gentle hand to pick out the fine lacing on the armor. Later, I'll try a couple washes to see if I further define the lacing. I think some very fine blacklining between each color will help also, if the washes don't take. As my art teacher always says: "You have to massage the art."

I was unsure about what colors to use on this sculpt, knowing that the fine lacing would require some good quality paints, but the colors turned out nice; I just needed to put a few light layers on, building up the color.

42mm Samurai: Ikko ikki finished

Wow, that took no time at all (in actual painting time- probably about 35 minutes total) a testament to how paintable these sculpts are.
For armor and lacing, I kept it simple and humble - black armor (with just a touch of dark brown,) and light brown lacings.
And I think I'm getting better at hammering out my katanas. For those who don't know my method of making swords, you can see a tutorial here.