What Dad is doing

So I'm in Kansas City, and Dad showed me the ship he's making out of cardboard and duct tape. What you see is entirely cardboard and duck tape- absolutely no glue or any other material was used here. Dad says this represents about a month's worth of work:

Scale is 1/2"=1'

Back to the big scale (42mm Samurai)

I've placed my order and should hopefully be getting started in the next couple weeks on a new period and scale: 42mm Samurai! Thank you to Steve Barber for allowing me to post a few of the photos from his web site. (Help me pay him back by dropping in and taking a look around his site- better yet, buy something! :)

I'm looking forward to this; these will be the first samurai I've ever painted, any time or any scale. This will also be a chance to make some Japanese accessories -- pots, stick bundles, tools and implements, architecture, shrines etc. (anyone have ideas of what else a rural Japanese scene might include?), so now I have another reason to dig the Sculpey back out! I'm not sure if I want to build a Japanese Shinto Shrine or a farm house yet. The house will have more to it and be simpler to build, but the shrine will be smaller (where space is limited) but be a bit more difficult to build (curved wood corners/roof) and I would not have to furnish it.
Hmmm, I think I may go for the house- give me a chance to build a few items to go inside of it.


Hmmm, again, maybe skip the rural scene and build a gambling house; has anyone seen the latest Zatoichi film with the "lights out" fight inside the gambling house?
Well, I have some figures to paint first, so there will be plenty of time to think about it.

How could I forget about these: Steve Barber Samurai

So I was tromping through the internet, looking through all my old haunts, and I came across Steve Barber Models 42mm Samurai range- Holy cow, I love these figures! I remember seeing them when Steve first started selling them. In fact, when I decided to try 40mm scale figures, it came down to HLBS's old west figures, or Steve Barber's 42mm Samurai. I chose the Old west, and it still isn't a decision I regret; there was simply a greater range of figures from which to choose at that time.

But now I see Steve has added a lot more figures to the range since then! So I'll be counting my money, and ghost-shopping figures, working out how much this will cost me. I won't be buying a bunch of the samurai- not enough to make the Hojo Army battle Line seen at Steve's site- but I'll probably pick up between 10-20 figures for a good skirmish game using Two Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction Swordplay rules. Steve does offer up his own skirmish rules; if anyone has played them, leave a comment and let us know how well they play.

Also, with Samurai, I don't plan on building a Japanese town, at least not as extensive as my 40mm, scratchbuilt old west town. But I would like to make a nice little temple/shrine/tea house (something small like this) to place among my large trees (seen here being used in an old west game)- some pretty terrain for some honorable combat.

First thing's first; I have to buy some samurai figures (oh yes, and ninja too)

Vacation

Just wanted to let y'all know I'll be on vacation for a week or so; I'm gonna use the time to visit parents and get some short stories written up, so there won't be time for painting (and I don't plan on bringing any of my supplies along anyway.

But there is plenty of stuff to look at in the archives, so have a look through before you run off, and I'll be back and painting as soon as I can.

(For your viewing pleasure, here are my finished Games Workshop figures for display ... and some more that are waiting to get some color.

Mordheim Reiklander youngblood

Here's one more for the display shelf. Not my best, but much better than he was. Sometime soon, I'll take an ensemble photo of all the display pieces. Looking back, I wish I had painted the figures to represent each of the city-states/provinces/states of the Empire (for you Warhammer fans who are in the know.) Maybe I'll go truckin' through eBay, and maybe they'll have a bunch of classic metal halberdiers that need some painting.

The other figure is the champion from the previous post after being rebased. MUCH better, I think. I only had to retouch his footwear.

Some more Games Workshop

Here are another couple Games Workshop figures. Johann the Knife is a figure from the company's Mordheim range (still available.) I was looking for a figure to be a duelist for D&D and Johann fit the bill, with a minor conversion: I took the knife out of his left hand and replaced it with a cup-hilted rapier. The rapier blade was a length of brass rod I hammered out on a jeweler's anvil. The point was clipped and filed to shape. The cup hilt is simply some green stuff formed around the blade and hand after the blade had been glued in. Duelist!


The other figure is one of my favorite Empire hero minis. I have two of them, one that is captaining a handgunner regiment in my repainted army, and this one, which I will rebase to go along with my classic Empire mini museum. This is one of my better "early" (about 8 years ago) paint jobs. I'd like to preserve the paint during the rebasing process, but if anything goes horribly wrong, I'll have this photographic archive.

Update: Nov. 11

Woops- went a week without updating. No worries, I'm painting. On the table now is Johann the Knife from Games Workshop's Mordheim range. I've clipped the knife from his left hand (the one under the cape) and replaced it with a cup-guard rapier. I made the cup guard from greenstuff and the blade from brass rod hammered out on a jeweler's anvil. The figure will be a duelist rogue for D&D. It's also just a nice little figure to paint.

I reckon' I should get to it!

A few figures: Heresy and Games Workshop

Here are a few figures I painted over the weekend. Nothing new. An armored Big Boris from Heresy, and a few classic Games Workshop Warhammer Empire figures for my Empire mini-museum display. Just a couple more Empire figures to go with that little batch.
Ugh. I have a regiment of 20 halberdiers sitting on my painting table. I need to force myself to start painting them. If I don't get to them, the coming winter should force me into boredom, enough to drive me to put brush to figure.
A quick note: That first halberdier is painted in the colors of my repainted Empire Army -- Red and black with one or two quarters either striped or checkered with white.

Reaper: Deckard, deathpriest (cleric for D&D)

Here's my cleric figure, painted using the same burnt orange palette as my wizard. This effort turned out brighter, which is ok.
This is the first figure painted on my new table. Next up is a Warhammer Empire halberd regiment. I'll try to get a couple colors thrown on them, anyway. I'm not in the mood to paint a regiment, but I really should try; my Empire army has been sitting ever so patiently on those shelves.

Table is done!

Well here it is, the new painting table! You've seen it go together; the only thing added since last you saw was some polyurethane/stain (satin walnut.)

Rackham Confrontation wizard (and familiar) finished!

(click for larger pic)



Well, alrighty then; I've finished the wizard. I also had a little time to throw some paint on a dragon familiar for the wizard. I used the same burnt orange on the belly of the familiar to tie it with the wizard. After doing a few D&D repaints and a massive barbarian figure (all of which were fun to do), it was nice to settle down and take a few extra minutes to do something a little nicer.
Now I'm waiting for my cleric figure to arrive.
I'm also thinking about getting a new camera. I think the CCD in mine has gone bad; I have a dark spot in all the images. I actually Photoshop the spot out of all my pics; that is why I continue to use this backdrop- it's easy to use the clone tool to cover up dark spots, rogue hairs and other debris. And, so far, it's been easy enough to compose the photos around the spot.
Still, a new camera would be nice, especially one where I can control the f-stop/aperature settings. I'll have to spend a little more -- maybe not -- I'll have to shop around. Worst case: I'll get another Canon Powershot. This little guy has worked well for me for casual shots of minis, I just want to kick it to the next level BAM!

Ah what the hell; here's a couple more shots:

Rackham Confrontation wizard continued

Here's another couple pics of the Rackham wizard showing the work on the tabard. I still like this burnt orange combination and might use it on another miniature which is currently on its way to me in the mail (Reaper's Deckard nightveil, death priest). I know, I know: Deckard would "work" better with a dark palette, but I want something different, something bright, something that makes this figure say, "I'm SO badass that I don't need dark colors to indicate my badassidness." Like a tough guy who wears pink. That's not a final decision yet; that choice will be between the burnt orange and a bright red. Maybe I'll have a change of heart. I'll have a better idea when I have that figure in hand.