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Ho there Dakka dakka,
After spending some time away from the hobby I have returned to give one last go at achieving my dream.
That dream is to build myself a uniquely designed SM chapter heavily themed and influenced by the Edo/Tokogawa period of Japan's history as well as Shinto Mythology.

I have made a few attempted starts at this project in the past, however they generally tended to run aground due to lack of skill/knowing what I was doing/materials. Putting my past mistakes aside and starting from (almost) scratch I managed to put together something that I feel is more in line with the concept I had going in my mind the entire time.

Torso:

Legs:


And here it is! My new and improved prototype. As far as generic troops go I'm happy with it but I will have to think of more ideas as I make better and more units.
It's still being held together with blutac so it may seem a little... off


The backpack is largely unfinished as I still have some detailing to do on it. The arms need some GS'ing to sit properly and I need to figure out a way to fill in the gap between the shoulder-pads and the shoulder (preferably with some something that either looks nice or inconspicuous).
As well as all that I've definitely not done all I can with the legs. The armor plates could use some more detail (perhaps another layer of plating underneath), the lower legs could use some alteration but I've got no ideas there (maybe something like Commander Dante of the BA's shinguards), and the boots... who knows...

Any comments, criticisms, or questions.
Fire away.

Very cool!

I have poked around with a similar idea myself. I went with 3rd party bitz though because I'm lazy and can't be bothered greenstuffing torsos and such.

Nice approach. Though like you say something to fill the gap in the shoulder pads is needed.

D

I've seen puppetwars have some samurai style heads and shoulder pads and banner poles that would work

I was going to mention them, I used them for my Samurai Astartes. The problem with the shoulderpads is that they are slightly off scale, they don't fit great on marine shoulders without filing down the inside of the pads, or the shoulder, its not a terrible amount of work, but it's still work. Their samurai helmets are top notch though. I would also avoid them for packs or katanas, they are thin and weedy on the poles and blades and break super easily. I don't know how the termos scale ones fit, haven't ordered any myself.

Kromlech packs and banner poles look ace, as do their weapons imo, they were my go-to, slightly pricey, but totally worth it.

Great work so far. Love the backpack.

evildrcheese wrote:Nice approach. Though like you say something to fill the gap in the shoulder pads is needed.

Absolutely. I think this has been one of my biggest dilemmas in regards to designing these guys though I have no idea what to do.

any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

dekinrie wrote:I've seen puppetwars have some samurai style heads and shoulder pads and banner poles that would work

Yeah I too have seen these. I think I will be using these in the future, most likely for command units or high-value units. for the troops though I'll be using these half marine half samurai helmets.
another option for banners are some of the smaller eldar/dark eldar banners.

Ah a fellow Samurai marines fan.

After so many years one of the best aproaches.
Really like the helmet and the sword, as well as the breastplate and the backpack.

Sorry for nitpicking, but a bit more greenstuff to accentuate the textile "trousers" and maybe samurai style leg guards?
I do not want to hijack your thread, so here a link to what I mean:

Looking forward to see that great idea come together and some paint on.

You know what might make the helmets look a little better is if for the normal marines you put a seam down the front of the helmet to make it look like it opens up in half from the front.

Then on your captains and other models that have an open face you have the samurai style helmet but either side of the helmet is the space marine mask.

Not sure if I'm explaining that correctly. It would take time to build some molds but I think the end effect would be awesome.

Here's a small update.
I've made enough bits now (aside from the backpack) to build 2 prototypes. Here is a picture of them together and a picture of the completed backpack which I will soon be creating molds of.



I'm planning on picking up some bits in the next few days. I will be rebuilding the backpack to look better and so there's some variance though I will probably discontinue the current one after a few copies.

I'm also going to have to write up an army list to stick too so I know what I'm building. I'm running these guys as Space Wolves but since their latest codex I'm a little lost. I'm definitely going for Fluff over efficiency but would still like something that wont crumble every time.

I'm still at a loss as what to do about the shoulder pads and the spaces underneath. Bar from coming up with a new design (which draws more blanks for me at this point) I'm not sure what to do.

Thats all for now!

Very unique. Great work!

Hey people, been working on my bits as of late. I've built an alternative to the backpack design(left) and also decided to give the bolters a unique look too. I've also been experimenting with a more compact arm-mounted bolter design inspired by the SG Angelus Bolter.

As you can see the new design is slightly smaller. It's also much thinner and actually closer in size to the standard SM backpacks. Another reason I prefer this new design is that it's built from the Scions backpacks and so fits perfectly onto the torsos.


I always planned to customise the bolters but never really had much of an idea as to how I wanted them to look. I decided to wing it and I'm pretty happy with the result.


I really like the Angelus Bolters and wanted to see if I could create something similar though I'm thinking I will probably buy a few Angelus Bolters and customise them as opposed to what I've tried to do here. Ideally I'd like to have the bolters attached to their forarms and the pistols shoulder-mounted so their hands are completely free to hold katanas and other close combat weapons.


I'm rolling up to the stage where I will still start to duplicate some of these pieces so that I might speed up production. I'm using Instamold to create double-sided press molds which I then fill with greenstuff.
Please if anyone has any help or advice regarding this process please do share as I don't have all that much experience with it. For example is there a mixture of blue and yellow GS that fills the molds better?

So thanks for reading, drop me a comment or hit me with some criticism, just let me know what you think.

Cheers

Since there's very little point in doing a whole lot more without a better idea as to what I'm trying to accomplish I decided to write up a full army list as a guideline to work by. I'll be making every unit WYSIWYG so I have to know what I'm putting together before I begin.

As I've probably mentioned I'll be basing their design on the Space Wolves leaning mostly toward close combat. I've also decided I want to build an alliance of Inquisitors as ninjas and light infantry but I will get into that another time.

In all honesty I don't have nearly as much experience playing the game (very casual player) as I do modeling/painting and, while I like what I've put together so far, am not entirely confident this is the best I can do.
When I wrote this I was trying to keep in mind samurai imagery so things like swords, which I could then model as katanas, stood out to me where traditionally other options might be more viable.
__________________________________________________________________

7th Edition List ++CURRENT PATTERN++

HQ:
Wolf Guard Battle Leader/Daimyo Commander - Runic Armour, Power Sword, Thunderwolf Mount - 140
*Attached to Thunderwolf Cavalry

TROOPS:
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x6 - Wolfguard Pack Leader, Close Combat Weapon x5, Plasma Gun, Wolf standard - 144
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x6 - Wolfguard Pack Leader, Close Combat Weapon x5, Plasma Gun, Wolf standard - 144
DEDICATED TRANSPORT:
Razorback - Twin-Linked Lascannon - 75
Razorback - Twin-Linked Lascannon - 75

ELITE:
Lone Wolf/Ronin - Power Axe, Fenrisian Wolf x2 - 51
Lone Wolf/Ronin - Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Melta Bombs - 55


FAST ATTACK:
Thunderwolf Cavalry/ Samurai Cavalry x4 - 160

HEAVY SUPPORT:
Long Fang/Ashigaru Gunners x5 - Lascannon x4 - 155

999 Point List
__________________________________________________________________

I'm willing to make adjustments where needed though I do not want to take Drop Pods.

So, fluffy? Yes.
But viable as a casual army? Help me decide!

I really like your samurai marines. Well done, sir.
And maybe I can help you with your list.

HQ:
Wolf Guard Battle Leader/Daimyo Commander - Runic Armour, Power Sword, Thunderwolf Mount - 140

- Give him a better weapon (fist,axe or black death) and a storm shield. Just model the weapon as a cool big ass sword and make the shield in to a souped up iron halo or something similar.

TROOPS:
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x6 - Wolfguard Pack Leader, Close Combat Weapon x5, Plasma Gun, Wolf standard - 144
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x6 - Wolfguard Pack Leader, Close Combat Weapon x5, Plasma Gun, Wolf standard - 144
DEDICATED TRANSPORT:
Razorback - Twin-Linked Lascannon - 75
Razorback - Twin-Linked Lascannon - 75

- You can only have one wolf standard per detachment and you don't really need the first one either. And you don't really need 6 Hunters, just go with 5.
Give a combi-plasma to the Pack leader.
I prefer the las-twin-plasma razorback more, but the twin-las is ok too.

ELITE:
Lone Wolf/Ronin - Power Axe, Fenrisian Wolf x2 - 51
Lone Wolf/Ronin - Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Melta Bombs - 55

- No plasma pistols ever. To any one. Way too expensive for one S7AP2 shot.
Give the Lone Wolves a terminator armour, storm shield and thunder hammer and deep strike them to your opponent's face. You'll have a blast. (or they die to the first 4 shots...)

FAST ATTACK:
Thunderwolf Cavalry/ Samurai Cavalry x4 - 160

- Shields for every one and a fist/th for one is how I roll with them. Just drop a few shields in lower points game, but you really want some shields because these guys will get shot at. A lot.

HEAVY SUPPORT:
Long Fang/Ashigaru Gunners x5 - Lascannon x4 - 155

- You know that you can have 5 lascannons with 6 guys, right?
They seem a bit too expensive for what they do, but if you want to play with them las or missiles are the way to go. And maybe plasma cannons if you don't roll ones.

Thanks Halone for your advice. I've taken most of what you've said into consideration and have come up with this slightly revised list.

HQ:
Wolf Guard Battle Leader/Daimyo Commander - Runic armour, Storm Sheild, Black Death, Thunderwolf Mount - 165
*Attached to Thunderwolf Cavalry

TROOPS:
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x6 - Wolfguard Pack Leader, Combi-plasma, Plasma Gun, Close Combat Weapon x5 - 129
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x6 - Wolfguard Pack Leader, Combi-plasma, Plasma Gun, Close Combat Weapon x5 - 129
DEDICATED TRANSPORT:
Razorback - Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasma Gun - 75
Razorback - Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasma Gun - 75

ELITE:
Lone Wolf/Ronin - Terminator Armour/w Power Axe, Combi-plasma, Fenrisian Wolf x2 - 71

FAST ATTACK:
Thunderwolf Cavalry/ Samurai Cavalry x3 - Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield - 165

HEAVY SUPPORT:
Long Fang/Ashigaru Gunners x6 - Lascannon x5 - 190

I was thinking about your helmets, why not use the bare heads with the resporator masks?

Your iron halo idea looks awesome.

And a few things about the new list:

Lone Wolf:
You can't deep strike your Lone Wolf with the Fenrisian Wolves (he's not so lonely Lone Wolf ), because the wolves don't have the Deep Strike rule.
You can have the SS/TH Lone Wolf for 4 points more and you can get him in combat much faster than your footslogging pack of wolves.
You can get the points from changing a TH to a PF in the Thunderwolves.
But if you like your Fenrisian Wolves you can always buy them a Drop Pod in a Fast slot. Or give them to your Daimyo for ablative wounds... I mean loyal guard dogs.

Long Fangs:
(Orks can make the lazers go 'dakkadakka'. They can make everything go 'dakkadakka'. They just add more 'dakka' till it goes 'dakkadakka'.)
I'm with you on this one. They really feel expensive in a list this small.
I don't think that the flakk upgrade is worth its points. But the plain ML is still cheap and useful in a non-tournament play.
(The Long Fangs have really taken a hit in 6th and 7th editions, due to the rise in firepower. Why take them when you can have Grav-Centurions with allies. But the Centurions are butt ugly and you don't want them to spoil your great looking army.)
Or you can change them for a Shield Dread in a Drop Pod for more harassment. (And I really want to see a samurai Dreadnought. Please reconsider Drop Pods )



Automatically Appended Next Post:
You should check out the Void Claws formation in the Champions of Fenris codex.
I think that they would go nicely with your samurai theme.
5 terminators with S5 lightning claws and WS5 who Deep Strike on turn one sounds like fun to me.
And reroll the scatter. And you can give them a Cyclone ML if you want.

I get what you're sayin Deadmeat85. I probably will have a few dudes like that here and there. Presently I have one such helmet made up already. next picture update I'll include it

I appreciate your help and enthusiasm Halone.

While I don't plan on changing my list up too much in the near future, depending upon the success of this project, I do intend to slowly add to it as time goes on. I may find room to add in those void claws...
A samurai Dreadnought is not an impossibility either and while I don't really like the look of Centurions they would give me a pretty good reason to custom build some pretty beefy-ass samurai. We will see what happens

Here is what I hope to be the final iteration of my list (at least for now)

7th Edition List ++CURRENT PATTERN++

HQ:
Wolf Guard Battle Leader/Daimyo Commander - Runic armour, Storm Sheild , Black Death, Thunderwolf Mount/Foo Dog Mount, Fenrisian Wolf/(other)Foo Dog - 173
*Attached to Thunderwolf Cavalry

TROOPS:
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x5 - Wolf Guard Pack Leader, Combi-Plasma, Power Weapon, Close Combat Weapon x4 - 113
Grey Hunters/Ashigaru Warriors x5 - Wolf Guard Pack Leader, Combi-Plasma, Power Weapon, Close Combat Weapon x4 - 113
DEDICATED TRANSPORT:
Razorback - Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasma Gun, Extra Armour - 85
Razorback - Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasma Gun, Extra Armour - 85

ELITE:
Lone Wolf/Ronin - Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield - 75


FAST ATTACK:
Thunderwolf Cavalry/ Samurai Cavalry x3 - Power Fist, Storm Shield x3 - 190

HEAVY SUPPORT:
Long Fang/Ashigaru Gunners x6 - Missile Launcher x5 - 165

Total Points: 999

If you're wondering what a foo dog is
Out of the three lists I've put up so far I feel the most confident about this one. I only have two doubts about it. The extra armour on the razorbacks and whether to have a Plasma Gun or Power Weapon in my GH squads.
Usually I'd go Plasma Gun but I want these dudes to spend less time shooting and more time hacking and slashing. Not a difficult change to make in my list either way.

I see what you're saying in the Plas vs P Sword issue, plas is probably a better all rounder, but a power sword would be more thematic...

Looking good so far anyway, can't wait to see more.

D

Really liking those foo dogs.

Why don't you just drop the extra armors on the razors and take a meltagun for your Hunters. Now you can shoot your special and still charge with the power weapon.
(And change the combi-plasma also to combi-melta.)

Aaaand I'm back.

So what exactly have I been up to? Well, I've been experimenting with poses holding swords as well as creating pressmolds with Insta-mold. At the moment my main job will be coming up with a satisfactory representation of their ranged weapons. Honestly I am struggling a little coming up with a way to represent bolters in a more compact way (being so bulky). I will still be mounting Bolters/Meltas/Plasmas to their forearms though they will probably all be closer to pistol size. That being said I will also be shrinking down the pistols and combi-shots to be over-the-shoulder weaponry, example:
Hopefully this will eliminate any confusion as to what is supposed to be a pistol and what is not. This will be consistent throughout the army.

Some other things I still have to do is GS'ing details onto blank torsos which are copies from a master bit which I prepared for this purpose.
I've also to build more katanas. at present I've made the one you see below on the samurai as well as one which is being drawn from its sheath and another which is my attempt at a Chain-katana.

Anyway, time for some eyecandy.

As promised Deadmeat85, here is a respirator samurai helmet. This dude is almost finished. I only have to glue on the head and sort out the guns. Then it's good to paint.
Hopefully more will be soon to follow. I am looking forward to having my first squad of samurai grey hunters

Bonus Money Shot

Nice! Fantastic green work, I look forward to the paintjob.

Hey guys.

Here is my latest progress. I decided to go melta like Halone suggested, besides I think it suits the aesthetic they're developing.
I'm up to two models now and they are both fully assembled (bar some grenades and a magazine or two). On the left is a Grey Hunter with a CCW and on the right is a Wolf Guard Pack Leader with a Power Sword and Combi-Meltagun. I decided to mount the melta shot over the shoulder for the WGPL, as is with the Grey Hunter's bolt pistol and other pistol baring units to be. My logic behind this choice is that in order to attain a Combi-whatever a model must trade either their bolt pistol or close combat weapon so they wouldn't have a pistol to model on them anyway. Additionally I hope to have modeled the combi-shots to clearly show what they represent.

For a better view please click the image to see it in my gallery.

I may reconvert the GH on the left to be another WGPL for the second squad. I'll see how I go after I put together a few more Grey Hunters.
I hope you like what you see. I also tried a different style of shoulder pad. Let me know what you think of the two different styles.

Cheers

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

All these guys look great. Im excited to see what you do for the Foo dogs. My samurai are way less involved than yours, with the greenstuff work. I dont have the sculpting skill for that.

I think that the new shoulder pads look better than the old.
I also like the posing you got going.

Excellent. I really love the poses you've done for them.

Interesting idea putting the ranged weapons as a shoulder mount.

D

Thanks everyone for your support!
If you haven't guessed already, this is a pretty slow paced project but your support helps motivate me to keep going.
So thanks again

CaptainStabby I gotta ask where your Tetsubo came from! it looks great and would be perfect for either a count-as Thunder Hammer (due to it's enormity) or Power Maul.
As for the Foo dogs, think of a lion x dog. for example:

I'll probably find some appropriately sized lion figures and then slice, dice and GS until they look like foo dogs.
Although based on the Chinese mythology of these animals the passage in the picture works well too for fluff construction purposes. I will have a look up on the Japanese mythology behind them though I'm fairly certain it's pretty much the same.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have this first squad done soon. once I have both GH squads it's onto the Long Fangs. I'm looking forward to coming up with a custom Missile Launcher bit to equip them with.
And since I no longer have a Wolf Banner in my army list I think I'll put aesthetic banners on all my dudes with colours and symbols to denote which squad they belong to.

Peace out

So after starting a new project and then getting completely sidetracked from everything by Fallout 4 I finally return to my main project!

I've put together a new Grey Hunter (Leftmost) which turned out better than I was expecting it too. The arm pose was a biznitch to get right



I still need to give him a little knot at the front of his rope sash and I'm planning on making copies of that particular head to use on most of the low-level troops (Grey Hunters, Long Fangs)

I'm also beginning to brainstorm how I will do the basing and well... I'm not particularly sure how I want to go about it.
I want the bases to look nice and green while giving off an asian/japanese feeling.
One Idea I had was little pink cherry blossom petals scatted here and there but aside from that I have no idea how I want the terrain to look (Maybe stone tiles with weeds/grass in the cracks + petals?).

Anyway... As usual, comments, criticisms and questions are welcome, as are any helpful ideas.

Peace out y'all!

These are looking fantastic, you've really nailed the Samurai aesthetic. Even their posing and individual stances feel right, it's all very nice work, and I cant wait to see more .