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Great scenery shot

love that your making the club

 JoeRugby wrote:
Great scenery shot

love that your making the club

Thanks Joe and welcome back.

Well no time this weekend for fun stuff. Landscaping our yard, basic house maintenance and family chores took up the time. Though this morning I had 2 hours to myself while waiting for appliance repair guy. I know the problem, but to get the part is ridiculous and might as well get an expert to do it. So with 2 hours I finished the remaining bolts and tried my hand at a basic paracord handle wrap.

I’ll be taking this off as I still need to trim down the handle some. In the raw wood it’s just a tiny bit larger than what would be comfortable to wield, so I need to at least take the corners off and sand it smooth, which I think would make the handle just right. Then I’ll wind up taking a total of about a 1/4” off to give space for the paracord or hockey stick grip wrap and still be the appropriate size. Weight is good overall, my household scale doesn’t calculate that low, but with the long grip handle I can choke up for a one handed swing, or have space for a both hands to deliver a final Coup de Gras once my opponent is down.

Love that club! Really gets you in the spirit for that samurai miniatures game, huh?

Very cool Theo, any other interesting projects after this one?

ZergSmasher wrote:Love that club! Really gets you in the spirit for that samurai miniatures game, huh?

I’m hoping that I can get a group playing eventually and show up with it and plop it on the table while they are setting up their figs.

Yorkright wrote:Very cool Theo, any other interesting projects after this one?

Actually since I had the paracord I’ve tried my hand at making a Celtic slammer using some small/kids pool table billiard balls. 1.5” diameter .

Woke up to breaker panel arcing in the basement . Waiting on an electrician to double check what’s going on. I replaced 5 breakers this morning but it’s still arcing. Probably need to replace the whole stinking panel.

But how good is it for hitting baseballs?
You know you have to try... for science!

 Dr H wrote:
But how good is it for hitting baseballs?
You know you have to try... for science!

The first test will be in honor of R. Lee Ermey and will feature his arch nemesis ......watermelon. Such a sad day last week when he passed away .


We’ll breaker panel problem set me back a couple hundred, but luckily it doesn’t need to be replaced. One of the buss bars is fried so I lost 2 of the 16 spaces, but the electrician was able to hook everything up without too much trouble. Replacing the existing panel with permit fees would have been $1350.00, upgrading to a new 200amp panel would have hit $1935.00. Cost me more sleep, and work time, but oh well who needs those.

I did get to watch YouTube vids and find lots of weapons (totally self defense only ) which may be made in coming weeks. In the que for now are nunchucks made from replacement hammer handles, Celtic slammers/monkey fists, a bola, possibly a bullwhip made from paracord, some that won’t be made are knuckle dusters

Quick hobby update

Water barrel has been getting multiple layers of Elmer’s glue and blue wash. Looks good to me.

Also knocked out another bandit, former dragon clan samurai


Thinking of doing a mountain drawing on his back.

That's beautiful. Yama ^ would be great: nod:

Nice job on the water.
Perhaps a bit too blue for such a small quantity but that's what these experiments are for.

Mountain... do it.

Theo I cant believe you made your own Tetsubo....where's mine?

inmygravenimage wrote:That's beautiful. Yama ^ would be great: nod:

Thanks, after I finish the last bandit I’ll try for a nice mountain scene. How do you say “happy trees” like Bob Ross in Japanese?

Dr H wrote:Nice job on the water.
Perhaps a bit too blue for such a small quantity but that's what these experiments are for.

Mountain... do it.

Yeah the water is a bit OTT. But you learn. First time in a long time using the PVA glue method.

carlos13th wrote:Theo I cant believe you made your own Tetsubo....where's mine?

$30 and a whole day will get you where it is now. Really easy. Wish I had a lathe though.

So tried the new method of making bamboo and grabbed another CD for the base.
Kenjutsu master taking a walk on a path through the bamboo thicket.

When out jump two Ninja....stupid Ninja


Scatter matches my table cover

Almost like it was planned .

Looks much better than my old bamboo, not up to Cam’s or Git’s quality, but it matches my painting skills pretty well. Some of the glue you can still see is not dried (white globs)

Also last of the bandits. I think I’ll call him Mr. Magoo...

If he were a space marine he’d have to be a rainbow warrior. Seriously I thought I was a bad dresser

So off to the completed shelf with the other bandits and brigands.

Top shelf bandits and brigands, bottom shelf is ninja, middle shelf is random special figs and soon to be starting warbands.

Tetsubo. Hmmm, ah, "How many lumps do you want?"

Everything is looking good.

The Bamboo: why not raid the garden section of the local DIY/whatevs for plant stakes? There are a fair amount made of bamboo shoots, some painted a garish green, some natural. They are about the right diameter for what you're getting up to.

Always a fun and different journey reading through your updates (mixed in with RL - like the occasional ailment or domestic mishap - collapsing shelves!). The Tetsubo though - Wow, that's just mad ! Loving the mad though

Red Harvest wrote:Tetsubo. Hmmm, ah, "How many lumps do you want?"

Everything is looking good.

The Bamboo: why not raid the garden section of the local DIY/whatevs for plant stakes? There are a fair amount made of bamboo shoots, some painted a garish green, some natural. They are about the right diameter for what you're getting up to.

Ruglud wrote:Always a fun and different journey reading through your updates (mixed in with RL - like the occasional ailment or domestic mishap - collapsing shelves!). The Tetsubo though - Wow, that's just mad ! Loving the mad though

@Red, a whole lotta lumps one of my favorite cartoon clips from my youth.
[youtube]
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aGns_QEUPTw[/youtube]
@Ruglud, more mad coming. Been watching YouTube for inspiration on my next mad idea.

A little not so mad progress.

Now completed...Tadashi the dishonoured.

And his backside...the cause of his dishonour...there may have been a flagrant flatulence at the imperial court....just saying

Some nice looking monk's and a full-scale tetsubo..... Good to know Theo hasn't lost his knack in my missing years

Love all the figures you've done, and the bamboo thicket vignette puts me in mind of a scene from House of Flying Daggers- well done!

Inspiring work Theo, love the bucket of water I think that bright blue will show up better on the gaming table. Like Meer I really enjoyed the story and vignette.

The bamboo looks nice.

monkeytroll wrote:Some nice looking monk's and a full-scale tetsubo..... Good to know Theo hasn't lost his knack in my missing years

One does not lose their sanity, one only grows in-sanity....trying to get some cool sort of zen proverb out of it .

Meer_Cat wrote:Love all the figures you've done, and the bamboo thicket vignette puts me in mind of a scene from House of Flying Daggers- well done!

All the cool sword fights happen in bamboo thickets.
from Ninja Scroll, when this movie came out is was the first anime to win actual movie awards, it’s when anime started to become seriously mainstream and not just that dark room at conventions where people who couldn’t afford hotel rooms crashed.

Yorkright wrote: Inspiring work Theo, love the bucket of water I think that bright blue will show up better on the gaming table. Like Meer I really enjoyed the story and vignette.

the bucket was done by Maniac_nmt, I humbly stole his idea. I’m not happy with the paint on the wood, but I like the water effect. I think I’ll make a few more similar to this one, just go different style with the actual painting.

Maniac_nmt wrote:The bamboo looks nice.

Thanks Maniac_nmt, your boards are giving me some great inspirations. Love the Saxons your doing now, especially the shield work .

Well I took a personal day today, having 6 cu. yards of mulch delivered shortly. The yard has needed some attention and the weather is beautiful. Our cats are enjoying the open windows of our home and the birds that have returned after winter. Not much gaming/painting time to be had. I did a little dig though and found my next two figs to get done.


Hida Yakamo of the crab clan. I started on him the other day, but didn’t get too far. The orange hand and crab symbol will get layers of red wash to bring out some color. Not sure what color to go with for his shirt, maybe red as well. Suggestions would be great . I’m thinking of doing some of the lace work on his Armour in dark blue, some in light blue and maybe some in yellow or red. Hida Yakamo is the eldest son of Hida Kisada, champion of the Crab clan. I forget the original story, but I think his hand was gifted to the Oni Hida Yakamo(typo on the original cards, should have been Oni no Yakamo) and the Oni gave him one of it’s claws. The claw allowed him to break one item in the opponents army. Later when the Crab clan purged the shadowlands stuff from their ranks Yakamo acquired the jade hand which he could use to destroy shadowlands cards.


This scorpion samurai has lost the blade to his sword, but I will forge him a new one. Pretty appropriate that the scorpion have a broken ancestral sword . Paint work was started when I first got the fig many years ago. I started painting it while the primer was drying, which ruined it for me as the base coat cracked overnight and it got binned to work on later....much later.

Wife and I are having a date night tonight since I took the day. We are going to try either Thai food or Korean food. Neither of us have ever experienced those before. Well I’ve had Pad Thai, but that’s not really too wild. I’ve never had curry before, guess I was scared of it from watching Red Dwarf and the Curry Vindaloo monster

So much bamboo!

You know, you could always go grab some bamboo plants from Mathilda Park (back by the baseball diamond) if you want to transplant some to your own home.

The son of a lady who owns property along the park's boundary planted some on her side of the fence years ago and it has grown into a sizeable thicket on both sides of the fence.

I have to keep my son and dog out of there when I take them to the park.

 complex57 wrote:
So much bamboo!

You know, you could always go grab some bamboo plants from Mathilda Park (back by the baseball diamond) if you want to transplant some to your own home.

The son of a lady who owns property along the park's boundary planted some on her side of the fence years ago and it has grown into a sizeable thicket on both sides of the fence.

I have to keep my son and dog out of there when I take them to the park.

They look at me funny when I go into the botanical gardens and try to dig up specimens. I’m sure no one will look sideways at a mid 40s guy sneaking into the park at night with a shovel .

It’s funny as I’m taking a break from yard work at the moment ant all the plants I gravitated towards at the Home Depot on garden centers we looked at wereJapanese . I talked my wife into a flowering/weeping Japanese cherry tree I planted week, some of the ground cover we are considering is a Japanese plant. I really liked these strange shrubs that grew almost completely vertical, almost no width, turned out to be called Japanese sky pencil plants . Next year we are considering a large Japanese maple (with professional installing it).

Loving the L5R crab clan! Very excited.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Loving the L5R crab clan! Very excited.

Thanks Graven

Well my excitement had waned on the figure as painting continued. I wanted to try some things out and it Didn’t turn out the way I really hoped. I he leggings especially are not really getting me. Maybe I should do a dark blue instead of the brown. What do you all think?


Or do you think it’s the purple shirt? I think that might be what is really bothering me.

Edit: just realized I didn’t paint the handle of the Tetsubo

The purple shirt could probably be a little darker. Nice work on the lacing, though. That style of armor is a bear to paint well.

I'd make theprrple a lot lighter and the legs a dark grey, almost black, to pull the eye up. Lovely work on the armour though, that must be hell to paint.

I think it's contrast that you are missing; the red, blue and purple are all a similar tone and merge together a bit, especially the red and purple.
Can be fixed as either the above by making the purple either lighter (towards lilac) or darker (a really deep, rich purple).

To go with that, I'd say use some pale yellow highlights on the legs. Yellow and purple work well together as complementary colours, bringing out the best in both.

Good work.

JoshInJapan wrote:The purple shirt could probably be a little darker. Nice work on the lacing, though. That style of armor is a bear to paint well.

Darker you say....hmm

CommissarKhaine wrote:I'd make theprrple a lot lighter and the legs a dark grey, almost black, to pull the eye up. Lovely work on the armour though, that must be hell to paint.

Dark grey legs might work out

Dr H wrote:I think it's contrast that you are missing; the red, blue and purple are all a similar tone and merge together a bit, especially the red and purple.
Can be fixed as either the above by making the purple either lighter (towards lilac) or darker (a really deep, rich purple).

To go with that, I'd say use some pale yellow highlights on the legs. Yellow and purple work well together as complementary colours, bringing out the best in both.

Good work.

I think the dark purple will work out well . But I think the dark grey will function better with the idea of a dark soul

Anyway, I will begin work on that later this week. Until then I was at Walmart, and found my next weapon project. Still need to work on the Tetsubo, but I’ve always loved the meteor hammer...

But I couldn’t ever figure out a good weight for the ends that would fit in my hands. Then inspiration hit.....So I give you a shot of my balls



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JoshInJapan wrote:The purple shirt could probably be a little darker. Nice work on the lacing, though. That style of armor is a bear to paint well.

CommissarKhaine wrote:I'd make theprrple a lot lighter and the legs a dark grey, almost black, to pull the eye up. Lovely work on the armour though, that must be hell to paint.

Dr H wrote:I think it's contrast that you are missing; the red, blue and purple are all a similar tone and merge together a bit, especially the red and purple.
Can be fixed as either the above by making the purple either lighter (towards lilac) or darker (a really deep, rich purple).

To go with that, I'd say use some pale yellow highlights on the legs. Yellow and purple work well together as complementary colours, bringing out the best in both.

Good work.

I like Mr. Crabs, that armor must have been a bear to paint but the effort paid off it looks great. You have had a lot of suggestions for the purple so I am not joining in, but anything to make the focus toward the face will help.