Edo Street Gang and the boss

Here is the last figure from the latest order. I repainted him a couple times because I wasn't happy with the other designs I had picked put for the haori and kimono. I finally settled on the Hiroshige waves.

The head is an old man head that isn't yet available; I'm having all of my commissioned figures come with separate heads so that maybe I can have Steve put together a "head pack" for all your 42mm conversion needs. The body is from SAM38 unarmored samurai in haori. The only other conversion work I did with the boss was to replace the separate (but included) pewter scabbard piece with one I hammered out of brass (to add extra durability; I like my figures to be able to stand up to rigorous handling.)

It was fun painting all of these, and they form a nice colorful gang; finally, a group that can go up against my small entourage of sword school students. I think I will get a few more of the bandit swordsmen and another figure to be their boss, and form another gang. I have enough of Steve Barber's 42mm samurai now for plenty of skirmish action -- small OR large.

Down from the mountains

Here's my other yamabushi. I used the straw-hat head from the new samurai figure on this figure. And since he had a travelling hat, I painted him up in more "traveling" colors. I armed him with a hammered-brass naginata.

After figuring out where everything was on my first copy of this figure, it was much easier to paint the second copy.

Just one more samurai to paint (then maybe another small order, and maybe JUST maybe yet another commission.) The samurai I saved for last is the samurai drawing his sword- but this one has the head of an old man; this figure will be the boss of my new Edo (or other urban center) street gang.

If you're thinking about samurai skirmish games, I recommend you at least take a look at the 42mm options offered by Steve Barber Models.  Niche scale yes, but all the figures you would need are available, easy to paint, and fun to play on the table.

Art Interlude: Mouse walking in the rain

Nothing special, just a random piece from my sketchbook.

This is from a series of "Mouse" pictures I've been drawing/painting.

I do these to relax when I need a break from the minis (though, I don't need a break -- I'm ready to paint more samurai!)

(For the technical-minded: 8.5 x 11" pencil, pen and watercolor. And yes, copyrighted.)

More samurai

Perhaps a young samurai hero, lacking experience but full of passion and righteous ideals.

This bandit will give the gang plenty of reach.

Here are a couple more samurai. The samurai with the katana hasn't had much work done to him, just a new head from one of the ronin figures (SAM9a-b). The spear-wielder uses the body from SAM9 but uses a head from the new bandit figures (posted earlier this week.) The blue-gray and red palette for the yari ronin was decided on the fly, but it works for me; I like it a lot.

I have just two more samurai to paint. I have another yamabushi, who will be next. And finally, I have the boss for the new Edo street gang I've been putting together with this batch of figures.

I've also been reading up on the street gangs of Japan again; re-reading the PDF available from Wargames Illustrated, but I've also ordered a Stephen Turnbull book (Samurai Swordsman: Master of War) which devotes most of its pages to talking about samurai conflicts/fights/skirmishes that occur off the battlefield. The Quarrel in the Dry Riverbed of the Great Tonegawa, The Spray of Blood on Kojin Mountain, The Kameyama Vengeance: How could I NOT buy this book when these are the names of the battles and skirmishes? There's even a section on "Fighting Firemen." (I saw a Google preview of the book in case you're wondering how I know much of the content.)

The book also talks about the otokodate, city police, and other usual samurai offerings Turnbull has given us in many other titles. I look forward to reading it, and to getting some inspiration for setting up some actual skirmishes with all the new figures.

Samurai heavy hitter

Is that club too big? It certainly is taking up a lot of space in the pic. Nah, It's not too big.

Well, this is my favorite from this group so far. I made the tetsubo club a couple months ago, patiently filing down a thick length of brass rod, and adding studs from cured/cut green stuff. This fellow will be a force to be reckoned with in a skirmish. I've always wanted to do a figure like this after seeing (years ago) an illustration of a samurai holding a club, standing among his victims. (The book was "Samurai Warriors" by Stephen Turnbull, 1987 -- not an Opsrey title.)

The rest of the figure came together nicely. The body is from one of Steve Barber's ronin figures, and the head is from the new bandit figure. The vest was made from green stuff (not my best, but I think the paint hides it nicely.)

I gave him the a colorful costume so that he fits in with the other bandits. I also gave him a pattern reminiscent of the Kaage buntai I put together last year (and which is still for sale.) The rocky base was done so that this fellow would also fit in with a group of mountain bandits, though, honestly, I'm also just trying out some different basing ideas for fun.

Machinas for sale!

"Machinas: Death Races in the Wasteland" is available now from Two Hour Wargames.

I wrote this more than a year ago after playing a game of Charioteer. This was also around the time when I was doing a lot of my post-apoc gladiators, so the fusion of the two was just a matter of putting pen to paper (really- I used ink-- then I typed it out on computer.)

So yes, my post-apoc gladiators and Machinas races share the same setting (Septimontium aka Seven Hills City.)

"Machinas" can also be used in conjunction with "Urban Renewal," "All Things Zombie," and "After the Horsemen." Check it out here!

42mm Samurai: Yamabushi

The yamabushi were an ascetic group of Buddhist monks (with some elements of Tao and Shinto.) They would often be found wandering the mountains. To announce themselves, they would blow a conch horn (seen bound in brown netting). And when they needed to rest, they would simply find a rock and have a seat; the small animal hide worn behind served as a cushion. Yamabushi could be found in many of the armies during the Sengoku period, and also fought alongside the Ikko-Ikki.

This mini has a lot of different things going on, so it was a challenge to paint. But the patience pays off. The most difficult part was the area around the chest which has the little (green) poms, the conch horn strap, and some bows all vying for a little space. OK, those elements aren't THAT tightly packed but they were a challenge for me.

In the end, it's nice to have a figure that you just don't see in other ranges. If you get one, the bo staff is a separate piece; I replaced my bo with a length of brass rod. And it's difficult to see in these pics, but he is wearing wooden geta sandals.

Soldiers for the kabuki-mono

Here are the (slight) conversions of the previous bandit figure. These really aren't conversions; they're more either a new weapon and/or a new head.

I like this pose. It's a good generic pose that is easy to change up with the new heads and weapons. I'll probably be getting a few more of these to fill out the ranks of my street gangs (kabuki-mono.)

The kabuki-mono were known for their eccentric behavior and outlandish clothes (they would wear bright colors and women's kimonos, for example.) Other gangs on the streets of Edo included the Hatamoto yakko -- essentially bored samurai with nothing better to do than terrorize the populace -- and the Machi yakko, townsmen who banded together to protect themselves from the other gangs. I'll be using my peasants as a Machi yakko gang.

Bandit and Samurai

Here are a couple of the new samurai by Steve Barber.
The samurai/ronin drawing his sword brings some attitude to the range. I wanted to keep the paint job simple on him since I'll need him to double as either a poor samurai or a ronin.

I had Steve model the bandit as a generic version specifically of the bandits seen in Yojimbo. But the figure will do equally as well as a mountain bandit, machi yoko (street gang) member, or a wako pirate.

The heads on all these figures come as a separate piece so that you can rotate them to change up the look of the pose. You can also knock out the sword guard (the blade comes as a separate piece), drill out the hands and add a small yari/spear or naginata.

I also ordered a couple more of the recently released ronin. On one I added one of the new bandit heads. I gave him a haori/vest using green stuff, and armed him with the tetsubo I made a few weeks ago. He'll bring some major power to the street fights.

New samurai arrived

My new 42mm samurai arrived from Steve Barber. I will thoroughly enjoy painting these over the next couple weeks. (The photo represents only a few of the figures I received.)

Most of the new figures will be used to form a couple street gangs. The new bandits will proved plenty of opportunity for some colorful palettes.

Pleasant Dreams

Just a quick note about a Kickstarter that'll be winding down here in a couple days. It's called "Pleasant Dreams: A Card Game of Nightmares."  The basic (and unique) concept is that you're trying to remain dreamily asleep, but nightmares are trying to build up enough to cause you to wake up screaming.

I honestly haven't read the rules in detail (well, I've skimmed them), but I backed the game for a few other reasons: It has a good entry price point ($15 for the game,) it can be played solitaire, and I love the art! Nice and grim with a victorian influence.

Check it out before it's too late!

A little from column A, a little from column Z

Not as many I as had imagined, but more than enough to choose from.

I think I will use the Dude (center) and Red Cap Ben to form the core
of Hobo Strike force. Need more hobo survivors!

A couple things here; first off, I finished the last of my Zombicide survivors. Now, I have a nice horde of them. I also finished painting the zombies that came with Jeff's copy of the game that I recently purchased, so now ALL of my zombies are actually painted. Last thing left to paint for Zombicide are the zombivors. I don't plan on playing with those anytime soon, so they can wait.

With this kind of variety, you'd think
I was arming some bandits or something.

Steve Barber let me know that my latest samurai order is on its way! I'm excited for this one because it includes three new sculpts I commissioned. Having this order in transit helped drive me to finish the stragglers from Zombicide.

After they were done, I cleaned the painting table, got some fresh water, dug out the anvil and started to make some weapons to arm the new samurai recruits coming in.