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I Ching coins may also work for you:

https://www.amazon.com/20pcs-Feng-Shui-I-ching-Fortune/dp/B00N0C6GJY/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_201_tr_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YXH05WQ9FEX5K30NA360

On the leg colour, I think Demagorgon is supposed to be a mish mash of different beasts, I think it is part of his nature. All the artwork I have seen gives him these bluish green legs and more vivid green tentacles. I really like the job you have done on him, when I get around to painting my much smaller Reaper version I hope I can do as good a job.

Great work on the ninja as well. I am terrified to get into japanese minis because if I do, I will end up going crazy with all the great options out there, so this blog is dangerous for me to look at

JoshInJapan wrote:Japanese 5-yen coins are copper (but lighter in color than US pennies), have a hole in the middle, and are the only modern Japanese coin with no roman numerals. Given the current exchange rate, they're worth about 4 cents each. That might be your cheapest alternative, assuming you can locate a source.

Those look great, but I just spent two hours calling local money exchange places and coin shops seeing if any would carry them or get them with no luck.

Briancj wrote:I Ching coins may also work for you:

https://www.amazon.com/20pcs-Feng-Shui-I-ching-Fortune/dp/B00N0C6GJY/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_201_tr_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YXH05WQ9FEX5K30NA360

The I-Ching coins are ones I have looked into, different sizes and quantities, but definitely the right direction.

Da Boss wrote:On the leg colour, I think Demagorgon is supposed to be a mish mash of different beasts, I think it is part of his nature. All the artwork I have seen gives him these bluish green legs and more vivid green tentacles. I really like the job you have done on him, when I get around to painting my much smaller Reaper version I hope I can do as good a job.

Great work on the ninja as well. I am terrified to get into japanese minis because if I do, I will end up going crazy with all the great options out there, so this blog is dangerous for me to look at

That’s too bad as I think you would out do me with the obsessive building and painting. Demogorgon is definitely a mixed up chicken-lizard-monkey-bird-squid thing.

I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I think I’ll go with the luck coins, now I just have to decide on 50,100 or 200 pieces. I was told that I’d probably only need 30 max to play Bushido, but most likely I’d have to provide both sides so the 50 could be tight if both sides were high Ki using armies (very doubtful). So it would be enough, but I’d go 100 more likely just to give some away to opponents as presents for playing the game with me. They also could be used with the kids as we are now playing more card games (gin, poker, spades) as they are getting older and need to learn these skills before going out into the world.

For coins I can see what I have at home but ebay might have the answer you need:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xjapanese+coins.TRS0&_nkw=japanese+coins&_sacat=0

How many do you want, and how quickly do you need them? I almost certainly have some lying around (they fit nicely inside 25mm round bases) that I could part with.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:For coins I can see what I have at home but ebay might have the answer you need:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xjapanese+coins.TRS0&_nkw=japanese+coins&_sacat=0

Thanks, my eBay-fu was failing to find much, but that helped

JoshInJapan wrote:How many do you want, and how quickly do you need them? I almost certainly have some lying around (they fit nicely inside 25mm round bases) that I could part with.

Thanks for the offer, but I think I’m going to paint up these Shogun coins first, and will probably just order some of the chinese luck coins in the end.

Anyway, a package arrived for me today from China...no coins, just bamboo sans panda bear .

Now to use it in terrain .

Nice path by day.

Dangerous one by night. Stupid ninjas.

That path vignette is awesome- great work!

What ninjas?

You should really write a very strongly worded letter of complaint
regarding the lack of free panda, shocking service on their part.

The vignette piece looks great, so thematic given its relatively small size, great stuff.

Meer_Cat wrote:That path vignette is awesome- great work!

What ninjas?

Thanks , and yes, ninjas. Plural

ListenToMeWarriors wrote:You should really write a very strongly worded letter of complaint
regarding the lack of free panda, shocking service on their part.

The vignette piece looks great, so thematic given its relatively small size, great stuff.

Darn straight, just not sure where I’d put it if they sent me one .

Another terrain piece in the works last night. Centerpiece is an aquarium temple I got for a few bucks. Scale looks nice as just a small gazebo sort of thing.

Might get a small statue or shrub.

You could always get the samurai panda from Rum N' Bones to guard the grove...

 youwashock wrote:
You could always get the samurai panda from Rum N' Bones to guard the grove...

How are you reading my mind?

I have been known to do that. Sadly, never for anything useful. I love that model. I plan to paint him as Pooh Bear.

 youwashock wrote:
I have been known to do that. Sadly, never for anything useful. I love that model. I plan to paint him as Pooh Bear.

, oh Piglet


On yet another note, Runerunners Board Game looks like it will be going on Kickstarter in a couple weeks. I think this will fit nicely with my desire for a “next project”, looking like 11 figs and a game for $50. Plus it’s by the same guy (Necros) from here on DD.
Like to News and Rumors Thread here
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/758616.page#10020399

Not much of an update, but the crushed limestone paths are done. Temple dog is not glued down yet (if it even will be part of this). I’ll probably add some small shrubs, rocks and aquarium plants to the corners. Not sure if I’ll repaint the reds on here to match my orange Torii Gates or keep it this red color (sloppy manufacturing paint job).


Work tonight, having a family Bday party for all three kids tomorrow at my moms house with both sides of our family all showing up. It’s my oldest sweet 16 party. I’m just relieved she has no desire right now to learn how to drive, I don’t think she is anywhere near responsible enough yet. Busy week end, but I’m on my way to pick up a few items from Miniaturemarket, so there will eventually be an update .

Happy bday to the kids!

I hope you keep the t. dog. It looks cool all together.

 youwashock wrote:
Happy bday to the kids!

I hope you keep the t. dog. It looks cool all together.

So this weekend was a bust for gaming/modeling, but at least the kids had a good Bday party. Bunches of teenagers over to our house overnight and masses of pizza devoured. All in all a great week end, the weather was gorgeous until last night when a quick storm blew through, but no worries here.

I did swing by Miniaturemarket and picked up an order of Micro Art Studio bases. They have all the sets on clearance for $4 each (either 10 pack of 30mm bases with inserts or a pack which has 6 40mm bases and 1 50mm base). I grabbed 60 30mm bases, 18 40mm bases and 3 50mm bases for $36 along with some formed pvc sheets. The bases will most likely be used on my Temple of Ro-Kan Bushido guys, I only have 8 guys currently, but counting up what they can have with the Kami and the like this order will cover them if I ever complete the range.


Test pieces. The orange is leaving, I’ll redo them in a really light grey/white. I just thought I’d try painting the statue like they put a robe over it , obviously it didn’t turn out great. There has to be some suspension of reality as the bases do have the fluer des lyes embossed into them . The inserts for the 40mm bases measure out at 31mm ish, so I could see them used for space marines or any 40k army really.


With the weather being good I decided to prime the lot of them and a few other bits.

Well, off to painting

Lovely scenery here Theo, seeing a bunch of it together makes it clear how awesome a whole board with that set up will be in the end.

Loving the terrain features as well. Very evocative!

Da Boss wrote:Lovely scenery here Theo, seeing a bunch of it together makes it clear how awesome a whole board with that set up will be in the end.

Well the first goal I saw to get a 2’ x 2’ table for Bushido set up with these. After that I need to get it to 3’ x3’ for Test of Honour especially with ToH v2.0 coming out.

Gomez wrote:Loving the terrain features as well. Very evocative!

Thanks Gomez, not as cool as your arena, but I’ll take my Far East setting. Though I keep seeing your work and keep going to the Arenarex page.....argh. One day you’ll get me .

Finished up one of the larger base sets (6 40s and a 50mm).



I think it can still work for Asian basing, though my old neglected marines are crying for some attention.
Now just to do 70+ more of these .

Progress is progress wether there’s a little or a lot

Really busy days lately and my oldest turned 16 today, so more family time than craft time.

Back to watching YouTube videos for some craft projects to hopefully stir some imagination.

Edit: okay, so being the scrounger that I am I couldn’t just throw away a box of old cassette tapes from the church without coming up with something to do with them.

So I’ve disassembled 9 of them so far and have a little collection of bits going. First off the shells are nice 4” x 2.5” x .5” standard plastic pieces which I could see easily becoming wall sections for a sci-fi game. The guts on the other hand will make nice gubbins, especially the centers for the tape as they look like they can be used as cog like devices or around tubes as joins. The real gold I found were on the two small tracking wheels I took out of each tape. You can see one in front of the box I’ve put the pieces into, the details not really there in the photo, but they look like hubs from matchbox cars, so I think they will make nice added armor pieces, or maybe I can make some small walls out of them. I can’t figure out where I put my Gaslands stuff right now or I’d give a scale shot.

Anyway, I have dozens of these cassettes to chop up for bits so I’d better get on with it.

Looking good, man. I've never had the patience for painting a group of bases all at once (let alone trying to get a whole army finished) so it's cool to see how unified you've made them. I'm sure that'll really stand out on the table.

And isn't it crazy how quickly those babies turn into (nearly) grown ups? My oldest is graduating high school in six weeks () and I swear it seems like just last week I was rocking him to sleep. I don't know how many kiddos you have, but make sure you enjoy every minute.

Sidenote: do you game/hobby with your kids at all? My little guy (10) loves playing pretty much anything I've got but couldn't sit still long enough to even think about caring about painting/modelling, while my oldest mostly just sticks with Magic/D&D/video games, so it feels like I'm missing out just a bit.

 Gomez wrote:
Looking good, man. I've never had the patience for painting a group of bases all at once (let alone trying to get a whole army finished) so it's cool to see how unified you've made them. I'm sure that'll really stand out on the table.

And isn't it crazy how quickly those babies turn into (nearly) grown ups? My oldest is graduating high school in six weeks () and I swear it seems like just last week I was rocking him to sleep. I don't know how many kiddos you have, but make sure you enjoy every minute.

Sidenote: do you game/hobby with your kids at all? My little guy (10) loves playing pretty much anything I've got but couldn't sit still long enough to even think about caring about painting/modelling, while my oldest mostly just sticks with Magic/D&D/video games, so it feels like I'm missing out just a bit.

Thanks Gomez, I know I need to crank these out before I get too far or I won’t be able to reproduce them later. Even with notes I’d muck it up somehow.

My kids have no interest in my gaming stuff. The girls don’t care at all and my son only cares about fortnight. They did play Zombicide with me for a while, but even that died out quick. Tried Gaslands too, but no desire on their part to continue.

Speaking of Gaslands, I was editing my last post when you commented, so here’s a better picture of the wheel hubs I found/scavenged.

Oh my friend that's damn clever.

Cassettes. ROFL.

Still, a good use for them. Better than lissssstening to them. Ah that hisss they made. VHS cassettes also have interesting bits in them, if you ever get a hold of any of those.

So my local Wegman's had a bunch of hot wheels in a clearance bin. I managed to restrain myself...mostly because my grocery cart was already full. I don't know what I'll do next time I'm in the store. Maybe curse certain Dakka members?

That temple is a nice little find. Doesn't the red color have some sort of meaning? Seems I see a lot of those sorts of buildings in that red.

inmygravenimage wrote:Oh my friend that's damn clever.

Thanks Graven

Red Harvest wrote:Cassettes. ROFL.

Still, a good use for them. Better than lissssstening to them. Ah that hisss they made. VHS cassettes also have interesting bits in them, if you ever get a hold of any of those.

So my local Wegman's had a bunch of hot wheels in a clearance bin. I managed to restrain myself...mostly because my grocery cart was already full. I don't know what I'll do next time I'm in the store. Maybe curse certain Dakka members?

That temple is a nice little find. Doesn't the red color have some sort of meaning? Seems I see a lot of those sorts of buildings in that red.

Oh I have old VHS tapes in storage. Who needs to rewatch ones wedding after all.....

Most of the Torii Gates and temple buildings I’ve seen are in a red or an orange color. I’m not in the know as to why, but I guess it’s got some meaning. To me I figure it’s probably linked to the sun (red sun on a white field for the flag, but probably just talking out my butt again.

All the bases will be mine...eventually. Batch two completed.


Batches 1 + 2 together.


More later as time permits.

The bases are outstanding, and I'm stealing the tape cassette scrounge! (Some of us oldsters like the tape hiss- it's how Elvis passes his instructions on to us.)

Elvis hated tapes. Vinyl, now that is Elvis's medium. You cannot put hidden messages on tapes that reveal when you play them backwards... without going to a lot of trouble, at any rate-- the playing the tapes backwards. And vinyl still sounds amazing...

Theo, You have not digitized those tapes yet? Uh-oh.

The bases look nice. A pain to pick up though, for me. the rounded edge is impossible to hold.

HERESY!!! *stabs the screen with a pathephone (tm) needle*

Good catch with these cassettes, I've lost my chance to procure them for similar use, but snatched some other junk instead. Would Love to see what You come to with them!

Good job on all the bases.

Your base-ic skills are magnificent!