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So, after a near 15 year break from the wargaming hobby I've decided the lure of the plastic (metal/resin) crack is just far too strong to stay away. I've been a bit out of the loop with Games Workshop in recent times, back in the day my favourite games were Epic and Warmaster but I always wanted to build, paint and game with a Warhammer Fantasy Army. I used to start a project full of enthusiasm, get one unit done and then think "ooh look another shiny thing, I might collect them instead!". Now I've realised that I don't necessarily want a full army painted and ready to game with, but rather the fun of painting different units from different armies would be the most appealing part. If I decide after painting a unit for one army that I want to move on to another one, great! I'll roll with it!

My main aim for the Painting and Modelling blog is to use this to maintain enthusiasm for what I'm doing by sharing the results with others. I'm not a very good painter OR modeller, but who knows, with feedback it might help me to improve both of those sides of the hobbies too.

Also, my favourite scale to work with is 15mm so what I am aiming to do is find appropriate units to use for Warhammer Fantasy Battle in that scale. I've already had a preliminary look at different manufacturers, both historical and fantasy for ideas and a rough guide of what I'm going to do. I also find lists very appealing so I'll be listing what I've spent per month on models, supplies etc. as that to me makes the process a lot more fun (maybe I'm a bit odd....)

After looking at some really fantastic army books by Mathias Eliasson over at the Warhammer Armies Project, the Nippon army appealed to me, so I've decided to start there-


Cheers for reading my ramblings, I look forward to updating progress on a monthly basis!


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These are 15mm Japanese Oni with claws from Alternative Armies and their 15mm Sengoku Fantasy Japanese range. 5 unarmoured Oni and 1 with armour to act as the Unit Overlord Champion upgrade. These will be on bases of 3 models each, so can either be taken as a unit of 3 or 6 for games. Oni are a Special unit choice for the (unofficial) Nippon Army Book

Where do we stand with posting things like unit rules, points costs etc, is it a bit of a no-no?

First test Oni done, pretty happy with how it came out. Again, I'm not the best painter in the world and it does still need a matt dull coat over it, but for a first model in 15-odd years I'll take that!

That's the basic Oni with Claws done, just the Overlord unit champion to go

PAINTING STEPS

Basecoat with Abaddon Black
Skin- Mephiston Red
Trousers- Mournfang Brown (3) & XV-88 (2)
Eyes- Abaddon Black in the socket and then a dot of Corax White
Fangs- Corax White
Belts- Wraithbone
Belt buckle disc..thing- Hashut Copper
Claws- Wraithbone
Hair- Abaddon Black and then a drybrush of Slaanesh Grey
Wash- Agrax Earthshade

Not very happy with how the Oni Overlord came out, but it's done for now, as are the entire Oni Unit (minus the basing which I'll do later).



I've also knocked up a draft 3000pt Nippon Army List that I'm going to try and paint a unit a month for, to keep myself motivated-


LORDS & HEROES

DAIMYO
- Dragon Claw Katana
- Mon of the Daimatzu Clan
- Medium Armour

HIGH SHUGENJA
- Hand Weapon
- Candle of the Void
- Dispel Scroll
- Level 4 Upgrade

HATAMOTO
- Katana
- Medium Armour
- Army Standard Bearer Upgrade
- Mon of the Daimatzu Clan
- Imperial Standard

SHINOBI
- 2 x Hand Weapons
- Throwing Weapon
- Smoke Bombs
- Dripping Poison
- Night Milk


CORE UNITS

23x SAMURAI WARRIORS
- Katanas
- Medium Armour
- Champion
- Musician
- Sashimonos
- Mon of the Daimatzu Clan
* The Daimyo and Hatamoto join this unit*

24x ASHIGARU SPEARMEN
- Spears
- Hand Weapons
- Light Armour
- Champion
- Musician
- Standard Bearer
- Sashimonos
*The High Shugenja joins this unit and the Shinobi will be hidden inside this unit*

10x SAMURAI CAVALRY
- Katanas
- Medium Armour
- Champion
- Musician
- Standard Bearer
- Spears
- Sashimonos

10x MATCHLOCK ASHIGARU
- Hand Weapons
- Handguns
- Light Armour
- Champion
- Standard Bearer

10x ASHIGARU BOWMEN
- Hand Weapons
- Long Bows
- Light Armour
- Champion


SPECIAL UNITS

6x ONI
- Hand Weapons (Claws)
- Overlord

10x TENGU
- Katanas
- Elder

10x RONIN
- Katanas

20x WARRIOR MONKS
- Katanas
- Halberds
- Light Armour
- Champion
- Musician
- Standard Bearer
- Mon of the Daimatzu Clan

10x SUMO WARRIORS
- Hand Weapons
- Great Weapons
- Light Armour
- Champion
- Musician
- Standard Bearer

10x RED DEVILS
- Katanas
- Spears
- Medium Armour
- Champion
- Musician
- Standard Bearer
- Sashimonos



RARE UNITS

1x MIZUCHI
- Claws & Teeth

1x MANGONEL
- Hand Weapons (Crew)
- Light Armour (Crew)

Cost of the project so far-

5x Unarmoured Oni with Claws (Alternative Armies)- £4.00
1x Armoured Oni with Claws (Alternative Armies)- £1.00
P&P from Alternative Armies- £5.00

Winsor & Newton Series 7 Size 0 Brush (Local Art Shop)- £9.10
Winsor & Newton Series 7 Size 1 Brush (Local Art Shop)- £9.98
Games Workshop Small Drybrush- £3.75
Bostik Blue Tack (Local Convenience Store)- £1.99

GW Paints
Abaddon Black- £2.75
Mephiston Red- £2.75
Mournfang Brown- £2.75
XV-88- £2.75
Corax White- £2.75
Wraithbone- £2.75
Hashut Copper- £2.75
Slaanesh Grey- £2.75
Averland Sunset- £2.75
Iron Warriors- £2.75
Agrax Earthshade- £4.75

Total Cost so far- £67.07
Total Points Painted so far- 340pts


COST PER POINT- 19.7p

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Up next will be a unit of Tengu, Japanese flying bird demon infantry, also from Alternative Armies. I've worked out that in order to have a 3,000 point army painted by the end of the year will mean needing to paint a minimum of 250pts a Month, so I'm ahead of schedule with the Oni unit painted. The unit of 10 Tengu with a Champion Elder upgrade comes to 130pts, meaning I'll be 30 points short by the end of February so I might order some Ashigaru bowmen and make a start on that unit too, that or the Matchlock Ashigaru

I'm intrigued!

At first I thought you were going for 15mm 40k.

Yeah, I realised that '15mm Warhammer' could have meant either. I'm so used to 'Warhammer' meaning Fantasy and just saying '40k' for Warhammer 40k lol

Nice work so far, i've started to get more interested in that scale myself. Tengu sound like they could look really neat!

10 Tengu from Alternative Armies, flying bird warrior infantry armed with katanas, with the champion of the unit being the Tengu dual weilding katanas to account for the extra attack. With their total lack of armour and standard toughness I'm guessing the unit will be best suited to attacking small isolated units of skirmishers or going after war machine crews quickly.

First Tengu completed for February, again not totally happy with it but I am enjoying getting back into the theraputic relaxing side of painting models again, so it's been good fun.


Base Coat of Abaddon Black (I have since been told that Abaddon Black is a thinner black paint and not as suitable for undercoats as Chaos Black is... I just assumed that Abaddon Black was the new name for Chaos Black, oops!)
Robes- Averland Sunset
Feathers- Abaddon Black with a Slaanesh Grey drybrush
Belt, Katana Handle and shoulder strap- Mournfang Brown
Belt Buckle- Jokaero Orange
Katana Guard- Hashut Copper
Katana Blade- Iron Hands Steel
Eyes- Mephiston Red
Talons and Bony Head Crest- Wraithbone
Wash- Agrax Earthshade


The 9 Katana-Weilding Tengu and the 1 Dual-Weilding Tengu cost £13.00 from Alternative Armies, I also got a few more painting supplies from my local Games Workshop-



I used a £20 Gift Voucher that I received for my birthday at the end of January, meaning that lot only cost £1.40 extra

Cost of the project so far-


5x Unarmoured Oni with Claws (Alternative Armies)- £4.00
1x Armoured Oni with Claws (Alternative Armies)- £1.00
9x Tengu with Katanas (Alternative Armies)- £7.20
1x Tengu with two Katanas (Alternative Armies)- £0.80
P&P from Alternative Armies- £10.00

Winsor & Newton Series 7 Size 0 Brush (Local Art Shop)- £9.10
Winsor & Newton Series 7 Size 1 Brush (Local Art Shop)- £9.98
Games Workshop Small Drybrush- £3.75
Bostik Blue Tack (Local Convenience Store)- £1.99

GW Paints
Abaddon Black- £2.75
Mephiston Red- £2.75
Mournfang Brown- £2.75
XV-88- £2.75
Corax White- £2.75
Wraithbone- £2.75
Hashut Copper- £2.75
Slaanesh Grey- £2.75
Averland Sunset- £2.75
Iron Warriors- £2.75
Agrax Earthshade- £4.75
Chaos Black Undercoat Spray- £0*
Leadbelcher- £0*
Jokaero Orange- £0*
Screamer Pink- £0*
Iron Hands Steel- £1.40*

Total Cost so far- £81.47
Total Points Painted so far- 352pts


COST PER POINT- 23.1p

Wohoo, I'm alive! Sadly life got in the way and seriously derailed this project but thanks in no small part to an apocalyptic virus leading to nationwide lockdown I had time to finish the unit of Tengu that I started aaages ago. I haven't bought anything in the interim so the cost of the project hasn't gone up although I will now be ordering some basing material to finally get the Tengu and the Oni based up and PROPERLY complete.



That makes the grand total so far-

Total Cost so far- £81.47
Total Points Painted so far- 470pts

COST PER POINT- 17.3p

Ordered a couple of packs of mdf bases off ebay to base the Oni and Tengu. Rather than basing each model individually the plan is to base them using their minimum model requirement in the army book. So for example the Tengu have a minimum unit size of 5+ so they will be based in rows of 5 and when you buy more models you have to buy them in batches of 5, so you can have a unit of 5, 10, 15 or 20 (the unit maximum).

I've also ordered a couple of figures from Alternative Armies to use for hero-level characters so hopefully they'll be arriving in the next few days.

The bases were £4.50 for two packs of 80mm x 20mm and 120mm x 20mm, so that brings the project total to-

Total Cost so far- £85.97
Total Points Painted so far- 470pts

COST PER POINT- 18.2p

Next batch of models arrived today from Alternative Armies-

Left- Miko Maiden Casting- This model is going to be used for the Shugenja hero-level mage character
Middle- Armoured Samurai with Katana- This model is going to represent the blood-red armoured slightly mad Red Ronin Hero character
Right- Yamabushi- This model represents the Yamabushi warrior monk Hero level character



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The Red Ronin is done, it does look a little better in person maybe because the gloss reflects more in pictures, but I'm also not very happy with it. Nevertheless it's part of a learning process and that's another 200pts done for the Nippon Army!

He's a loner by nature, only able to join a unit of other ronin on the battlefield and can never be the army's general. He's also a bit of a nutcase with armour and weapons that talk to him and drive him insane (suffers from frenzy, stupidity and has hatred for everything). He's a one man, unbreakable and unhinged murder machine.

I'll do the costings and running project cost total once the other two characters have been painted up.