Nippon Army (BlackEd)

[BlackEd]

A day or so late, but here are my pictures.  I finshed a samurai unit!

In case any of you reading this decide to paint Samurai, take this tip to heart:  Put the back banners on *before* you paint the figures.  Friday night I realized that I hadn't put them on.  I spent a few hours cleaning the banners, and drilling drilling holes in the backs of the Samurai.  On Saturday I discovered that 5 min epoxy makes the process of gluing the banners in place almost impossible.  Super glue was the way to go.

I'm working on a second Samurai unit, and I will stop here to put the back banners (sashimono) on NOW.

That said, I wasn't really happy with this unit.  Blue and yellow ochre colors.  The banners originally were bleached bone with ultramarine blue stripes, but that just looked stupid.  I went for blue background and yellow ochre symbol.  I like this better.

I added some Samurai archers to the unit, because the Samurai have 1 ranged attack.  I wanted something to remind me to actually use the shooting option. 

If you look really carefully, you will not see any Samurai apes in this unit.




And here is everything I have painted so far:




I hope you like!

[jchaos79]

wow that army is spectacular, full of bright colour and really really nice!!

I notice you add some samurai with naginata in your last unit. I like the figure attitude but I do not like how the naginata is sculpted, it is more likely to be holding a type of alphange or something .

Love your Fu dogs

[TristanHoag]

Those look very cool, Ed!

Are you going to use these on the 21st?

Tristan

[BlackEd]

JChaos:  Thanks for the compliments!  As for the samurai with naginata, I don't like the naginata either.  To me it looks more like a sword.  But I wanted to see what the unit would look like with multiple models on it.

Tristan: Thanks for the kind words!  No, I will be playing Daemons on the 21st.  But I will bring these with me in case you want to see them in person.

I'm painting this army up to get a friend mosre interested in Warmaster.  Well, OK, I think the army list is rather cool myself.

At some point I need to work on a General or some other hero.

[Edmund2011]

Good work!

What is the maker? Irregular?

[BlackEd]

Edmund2011:  Thanks!  The miniatures are from Pendraken.  The Temple Dogs (Fu Dogs) are from Reaper.

JChaos: That is SAM6 from the Pendraken catalog.  Maybe he looks different because he's in the crowd.

[BlackEd]

Another Samurai Unit:





I'm working on a character stand next.  I'm converting a Samurai and an Archer to create a character and standard bearer on one base.

[Guthwine]

Very nice looking army! Only the bases I think could still use some attention but I guess thats comming isnt it?

[BlackEd]

Yep, bases will get flocked later.  I'm just trying to keep up, and do 1 unit (or character) a week!

I will post some pictures tonight -- Hopefully you all will like what you see.

[BlackEd]

Here is the first hero for my Nippon army:







The Hero is a converted Samurai Ape from Pendraken.  I cut the arm from the shoulder, and bent the arm down so that the Naginata was level, making it almost look like he's gesturing with his weapon.  Another conversion in the background.  A Samurai Ape archer had the bow cut away and replaced with a banner.  The kneeling and fist-to-chest position shows proper respect for his lord's honour.

No flocking was (yet) harmed in making this character stand.

The hero has a yellow face and ears.  Samurai would often wear masks into battle, and this leader is doing the same.  As a bit of humour, the cresents are painted as bananas, and the cresents on the banners are pretty close to bananas themselves.  You could say I went bananas when I did the heraldry for this one. 

I do not know Kanji, so I apologize if I've put offensive words on the banners.  (Who knew there was a glyph for "Your mama is so ugly..."?)

I'm drawing from this resource as inspiration for colour choices and banners:
http://forums.samurai-archives.com/viewtopic.php?p=41560&sid=e28d92dafe433fa48f99259b324c7cbb

At some point, I will use the above webpages to come up with different sashimono (back banners) for my Samurai.  There are some pretty interesting sashimono that were used.

I'm not following any house or clan, but am using color choices or banners that catch my eye.  I am not (yet) a big Samurai fan, as I am doing this to pull a friend of mine more firmly into Warmaster (and he is a Samurai fan).

Hope you like!

[captPiett]

the pic seems to be missing...

EDIT: Ah, he's in the other thread.  Looks good!

[BlackEd]

Yep, pic was missing, not sure why.

It was late, I was tired, and I didn't check.

[Edmund2011]

nice convertions, and painting!

[BlackEd]

Thanks! 

I'm still working on the General.  I'll take a WIP picture tonight.

I am making a diorama for the general.  He'll be sitting on a dias, with some screens behind him.  He'll have two guards, and a commander standing on the steps.  I'm also adding in two odaiko drums, so his orders can be broadcast to the army.

[BlackEd]

Well, its been more than a few days, but I am finally able to post more pictures.  These will be WIP shots, as the General's stand is taking a bit longer than expected.

I started on a unit of Samurai cavalry.  I took the photos while everything was on the painting table, so you'll get to see some chaos in the background.  Here is the WIP of the cavalry:



But now for the reason you tuned in.  Here is the general's dias:



The general will be seated on the top most square.  Here he is, with two guards:



Here are the taiko drums that were driving me nuts:




Here are a few arrangements of the drums on the base with the dias: