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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.

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.

The idea and overall design look really good to me, I can imagine there's a LOT of scope for some excellent conversions, and your character models could be off-the-scale brilliant.

The arms, legplates and shoulder guards all look excellent to me. If I was being picky, the rope detail around the wrists sits maybe a little too proud of the surface - it might look a bit better as a flatter wrap, or slightly inset?

The helmet is not working at the moment (for me) - I think it maybe looks too tall at the front. Perhaps if the lower edge of the pale grey was brought down to the top of the eye line it might seem a bit more proportionate. It's possible this is just caused by the colour difference, and once painted it might look fine.

Very cool, and done well enough to pull together the 'Samurai' feel. Definitely getting the right vibe out of the armor style, though I would agree the ropes on the bracers are a little too bulked out. Either thinner or flattened would give it a more balanced look, maybe.

The armor around the waist looks really crisp, though the upper thighs appear a little bit lump. Was there a reason you decided to sculpt the thighs? Instead of the stock SM legs?

I dont have any updates shots but I can say that I am slowly making the pieces I will need to start Insta-molding them and producing duplicates.
I'm currently needing to buy some replacements to some of my tools as they've worn out which is slightly slowing progress.

mockingbirduk wrote:If I was being picky, the rope detail around the wrists sits maybe a little too proud of the surface - it might look a bit better as a flatter wrap, or slightly inset?

Yeah the arms and sword are from a previous attempt at pulling this off. I agree the ropes stand out.
On future models the ropes will replace the circular wrist cuff-things instead and will not protrude as much.

mockingbirduk wrote:The helmet is not working at the moment (for me) - I think it maybe looks too tall at the front. Perhaps if the lower edge of the pale grey was brought down to the top of the eye line it might seem a bit more proportionate. It's possible this is just caused by the colour difference, and once painted it might look fine.

I suspect the issue is caused by the different coloured materials though I will keep in mind not to elongate the helmets where unnecessary. That said there are some samurai helmet designs that were fairly tall.
I'm considering adding a visor or crest just above the eyes. I know I will be doing this for future models.

clamclaw wrote:The armor around the waist looks really crisp, though the upper thighs appear a little bit lump. Was there a reason you decided to sculpt the thighs? Instead of the stock SM legs?

The Idea was to mimic the pants known as Hakama which samurai wore. when worn under the armour they are bunched slightly at the knees.

I'm sure there is another samurai marine project on here, let me see if i can find it


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kb_lock wrote:
I'm sure there is another samurai marine project on here, let me see if i can find it


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Yeah I'm really impressed with this army and they're very much an inspiration for me to continue this project.

Well 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!

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

A tiny bit of KY in the mold will stop the GS from sticking to it.

Depending on how much you are going to do though, I would probably use something else to do the casting. There was a link here not long ago with something that looked amazing, but I can't bloody find it.

I posted in the thread too!

I love the samurai idea! And it looks like you've got. Love to see more.

I love the concept, and your execution is great. Very clean sculpting as well.
I tried to find a critique or an area that could use some improvement, but I drew a blank. Everything looks great so far, and I can't wait to see where you go from here.

That's some damn fine sculpting you've got going on. The redone backpacks are a great touch too. If you do back banners (and with Samurai Marines, why wouldn't you?!) the Dire Avengers kit has some you could try using.

Aaaand I'm back.

Thanks brother srm I will probably use some of those banners in the future

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.

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

Looking good!!!

Hey guys.

Here is my latest progress. I decided to go melta, 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

Very very nice! I am even more curious to see them when the paint goes on and the vision is complete.