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Excellent work. nice and modular too.

I've mocked up the roof, and have segmented it for now so that I can trace the patterns onto the faux fur that will make up the thatch. I've painted the walls, and put the initial flocking down. I put the trees on to see how I will have to set them so that I can get the roof on/off. Overall coming along nicely.





I will glue the fur to the roof, and then need to run a small section to go over the door. I want that to be slats of wood, so more card for that. Along the top roof line I'll probably run a bamboo skewer as a pole similar to what I've done for other houses.






I'll need to add some bushes/shrubs and what-not to the ground.


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Windows are in and tested. The tea light works, but isn't amazing. It will not work for larger structures, unless there are multiples inside the building.

Really great work, has such a great feel to it, Very impressed.

I like the way you do bases and buildings as integral pieces. I think that is particularly appropriate for Japanese stuff.

So here we go with a finished roof, lighted, water poured, and my kanji.

Here I've poured the water and put some green ink into it. Swirl it around and it will tint the water so that it isn't perfectly clear. It will still look like water, but like real water now as there would be a depth/hue to it.



Mixed up:



With my kanji streamers 'nailed' to the trees (we decorate trees at Christmas, so this was a double hidden meaning in them for the contest). It reads, "A savior born for mankind". That would have been a key concept for converting the locals, and one that kept Christianity alive even after the Portuguese were kicked out, that Jesus had come for all peoples. It is also a little ironic, as to my knowledge the Portuguese never allowed any Japanese priests.

I think I previously mentioned it, but for my daughter's birthday I bought her some Onna-bugeisha to paint up for Ronin. She just turned 7, which could prove to be tough in the short term, but she loves to craft so that is a big help. To get us started, I picked up the Osprey manual on Samurai Women to look up some color schemes. To say she was thrilled would be an understatement, and for the last ~two weeks every day has been 'can we paint my samurai Daddy?'.

I have been counseling patience, and planning to her, which is helping so far. We sat down for about an hour and flipped through the osprey book to pick out colors and talk about designs. Afterwards I went and found some line drawings online so that she could color them up and pick out what she wanted them to look like. After a number of color combos she's finally settled on the following for the hakima/skirt, but wants to give them blue shirts with pink accents instead of the yellow in the picture.



I'm glad Fanitization Miniatures sent the minis in partial shipments, as this let us get started painting (the Bushido mini for her leader came after Christmas, but the Onna-Bugeisha came before Christmas, letting me modify one to hold a bow an arrow so that she'd have a ranged option in her force and it would come out of the box that way, ensuring she'd be okay with it). I'm still waiting for a Hasslefree mini to use as a Ronin for her force, which I will paint up for her, but off we went last night:



I had to help her clean up around the edges so that there were no white spots showing, but overall she did a good job getting several coats of teal down, plus the first round of flesh. She took instruction on brush care, cleaning, and drying very well and I'm hopeful she will see it through and be happy with her pieces and playing with me.

For myself, I always seem to have about a dozen projects going on, and these two are no exception. I've built up some extra shoots of bamboo and started on some bases so that I can include them as scatter terrain. I will have to stay on it so that they are mostly ready when her pieces are done so that we are ready to play.



The larger, CD base is covered with some faux flower basing from Michaels. They sell several different kids of it, but all are essentially a backing with bits of moss, twigs, and similar items tacked onto it. It works really great as a base for woods/forests. I cannot take credit for it, as another member of our group did it first, but I have stolen it and used it on some of my other trees.

Lastly, Christmas was good to me on the hobby front. I received a number of Late Romans from my wife, Footsore (plus some Gripping Beast Plastics), which I have started on. I'll say this now, I hate making spears. Brass cuts easily enough, but then you have to sand the rough ends down, shape one end to a point, and I hammer that end a little flat to make the spear tip. They hold up REALLY well, but it is slow making them, drilling out the hands, and getting them in place.

As I've been working on the Late Romans I received for Christmas, I came across this site:

http://www.fectio.org.uk/fectio.htm

It is a Dutch re-enactment group who have undertaken various projects to recreate authentic Late Roman equipment. Their gonfalon experiments are quite interesting. They also have some useful links for historical sites.

Next year my wife and I want to take the kids and go to Germany for a family vacation, I may have to look at hitting Xanten.

I'm still trying to decide on colors for the tunics. My un armored ones are already off-white/unbleached wool with red, which seems to be popular. However, I'd like to paint my armored infantry and/or cavalry with something different to differentiate the combined units of a Late Roman army. That, and white is a pain. I haven't decided on color yet, but lean towards a green or red tunic. Any advice on color schemes or if we can trace those back to where units served?

When I painted up all of the skewers for my entry I ended up with a lot left over that I wasn't initially sure what to do with. In the end I've decided to mock up a few stands of bamboo in place of the normal trees I usually build or purchase.

When I was given a set of lamps from the Michaels After Christmas sale an abandoned shrine immediately came to mind. So the first bamboo grove comes on an old CD with a stele/shrine that is slowly tipping over and sinking into the ground.



The base ground cover is material typically used in faux flower arrangements. It usually comes as a matt that may or may not be sticky on the back side. It is messy, but works great for a forest floor.

Beautiful work again, you tables are a real treat.

To go with my Late Roman soldiers, I've started on a villa. I plan to have the main house, kitchen (which you can see cut out and mocked up), bath, and probably stables. I am debating on servant quarters as well, but may use one of my existing building for that. The building morphed on me, as I had originally planned on a second story balcony, but decided to just do a porch instead. Currently I think I will leave the bath and kitchen un-attached and just build the door on the side of the building so that I can pull them off and separate the buildings as desired.

View of the front:



View from the rear/side (no windows on the rear, for security reasons as I envision the villa somewhere near the German frontier).



Kitchen mocked up:



I may put the kitchen on the other side of the villa and put the bathing complex on the side the kitchen is on in the photos. The Chedworth Roman villa is a fun day out, and it had a natural spring off the villa next to where the kitchen is sitting right now. I think I may mimic that. I'll need to make some steps that can go on the villa if I don't attach the out buildings, and for the outbuildings if they are un-attached.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa

If you happen to live in England, and are near Cirencester, I highly recommend it for a lovely day out. Cirencester used to be a major center for mosaic production, and Chedworth is right outside of it. The church of St. John is lovely, and the gorgeous golden sandstone of the Cotswold's is on display through most of the town.

Does anyone have any good ideas for a semi circle cone roof? I want to build two half cylinders on the back of the bath house, but am not sure of a good way to bring the roof up to the wall. I can run some trusses up to the apex to support it, but making the convincing curve/cone may be hard.

In essence, make the curves of the bath the outside wall.

https://uclconservation.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/1.png

Rather than inner walls to add some viual flavor to the building.

Villa looking great.

I would make a normal full cone rof. (cut a disc, cut a slice out and overlap to desired incline.) Then add internal structure to half the roof and after I could be assured it had enough structure, cut the other half off. The structure could be as simple as a triangle of card running across at the centre line, but you could make it fancier if you wish. Then finish with required roofing. You may have to short lengths of the roofing tiles to make it a convincing curve.

Just how I would try.

That worked quite well in the end. I ended up using some of the corrugated sheets that I use for roofing to make the wall, supported by two half rounds (one at the bottom and one at the top).






I will make a separate covered L shaped walk to go from the villa to the baths. Then I can put together a small shrine and place it in that corner.

Interesting work here. I'm curious to see how the Roman Villa ends up.

Yay! Saga: Aetius and Arthur showed up today along with my blank purple dice.



Not my best, but they work just fine.

I have also been busy with my Romans.





And some legionaires:




The Gripping Beast plastics are decent models. Very low in terms of varierty, but the sculpts are decent and they go together easy enough. The Footsore cav and infantry are really nice and very well made.

I was able to get in a fair bit of time this weekend to work on my Late Romans. That helps, as I am a fairly slow painter. There are a few last bits to do (a few pupils, some crests, add some base elements), but these are mostly done.

I choose blue for the equites' tunics. Progressively wealth was displayed in a very open fashion. It was sort of a self full filling ideology. Well dressed, expensive clothes meant that people should pay deference to you, and if people paid deference to you they expected you to look the part. As such, I view them as having chipped in to purchase some expensive blue dye for their regiment. In particular, the general has kicked in some funds, as generals were known to do, in order to improve his men's loyalty. Caesar was known to put up his own funds at times to keep his legions loyal, and the trend continued long after he was gone.

My general:





I am still debating on the gonfalon. I like the three yellow bands, representative of the triune God. However, I'm not sure if I want to leave it like that, or make the rest striped as well.

The shields are Little Big Men shield transfers, a first for me. They work well enough, but I'm not sure I really dig them. I will use them for the rest of my equites, but my legionnaires may end up with some painted shields. It wasn't initially clear that they were for metal Gripping Beast shields when I bought them, and those are slightly smaller than the Footsore ones.





Overall, happy with the results so far, and with just a few bits to polish they'll be ready to hit a table top. The other four hearthguard are also nearing completion, and with luck I will get there by next weekend. Just in time to brew up a batch of Hefeweizen.

The first roof is done. So far so good.

Looks spot on matey.

Fantization Miniatures finally got Hanako back instock and sent it to me just before Easter. I managed to finish her up, and she is ready to act as a Ronin for my Daughter's Ona Bugeisha.

Nice . Excellent texture on the kimono, the waves look great too.

EDC

My second unit of Hearthguard are almost there. I will say that Little Big Man Studios' transfers are bizarre if I haven't already. They are more of a sticker than a traditional decal, and can be problematic if you get them wet before adhering them to the target, they have problems that you wouldn't normally associate with a typical decal. Also, the plastic layer over top, which keeps them from adhering prematurely can be problematic in getting off so that they can be applied. Lastly, I got some white/black shields for my warriors, and the white is not printed, it is clear which was not obvious upon purchase. With the black not being a strong/dark black, this can be problematic when applying to a white background/primed shield. In the end, I think the foot troops will just have painted on shields.

In short, nice designs, but I'm not sure I'm that keen to use them again.



Painting has also started on the villa. I haven't decided yet on the woodwork. I could go with a pale sand/buff/off-white for new wood, or go with something very dark for stained/treated wood. I want to avoid grey/weathered wood so as to maintain a visual appearance of a villa with money. New/pale would do that, but I worry it would look washed out with all the white.

Excellent work all round, the guard are looking very nice, impressive and have a natural vibe about them. The villa is looking fantastic, really great work here.

I got to field test a few of the new Ronin pieces this past Friday. There was only three of us, and I adapted a scene from Shogun.

The plot revolves around the dying Shogun having collected a bunch of hostages in order to coerce various Clan Daimyos into supporting his son. The concubine of one of these Daimyos and her son were quartered with a small chaperoning force in the suburbs. Her lord had decided to try and smuggle her out and thus relieve the Shogun of his hold over the Daimyo. A rival, mean while, sent in a force of ninja to assasinate the concubine and drive a wedge between factions vying for favor. Finally, the Shogunate Troops were ordered to bar the concubine from leaving. Each side had competing objectives that could see them support each other and then break apart as needed.

Things looked very grim for the concubines party as most of her guard were annihilated by the Ninja ambush. Fortunately the guards stalled the Ninja just enough for her party to make a break for it down the side of the table. Even then it was a near thing as the guards actually managed to capture her briefly before her bodyguard broke her free and the two made it off the board.

Photos here:

http://www.wfhgs.com/friday.html

I enjoy the duplicitous nature of things that you can setup with a little creativity. It really helps capture the free for all, stab you in the back politics that characterized various parts of Feudal Japan.

For a follow up scenario one of our members has a bunch of mounted models and I think I will setup a chase scene, with some ambushes, through a forest. One side chasing another with a few log jams/delaying forces on the road.

I really love the aesthetic of your gaming world, you need to invest in a mat or something such brilliant models and scenery deserve better than the butt jointed boards.

This game sounds brilliant too, not a straight out fight, but something to get your head into. Not the usual toe to toe slug fest.

Thanks for posting really enjoyed that.

We played at the local game store on Friday and those were their old tiles. I like the idea of tiles in that you can vary the layout, but it does lack a little with the seams.

You can see where I've experimented with some laminate floor tiles with my Greek stuff. Currently I am experimenting with interlocking floor mats and teddy bear fur. Essentially you glue the fur down to work floor mats and then shave the fur to make roads, fields, grass. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it is worth a shot. The mats have an interlocking mechanism to hold them together, so that will help. One gamer that I saw using this let the fur hang off just a tiny little bit so that it masked the seam somewhat.

Here is a full mat made from it, I'll see if I can find one of the interlocking mats

Lots of wip going on right now.

Roman Scorpion for Saga using a combination of Gripping Beast and Warlord plastics. I haven't decided if I am going to putty pants on the kneeling trooper or just paint his legs as if wearing pants.







I'll have some clean up on the cloaks, but not a ton. Then I need to add basing material for it. I may cut the rope off the end. I've been trying to get it to dangle down, with little success so far.

More work on the villa:



I decided to add color to the wooden parts as a way to display wealth. I don't think I will do the checker pattern windows, but will do two yellow and one blue on the second floor. The checker was a good idea, but is being a pain to implement as the yellow and blue do not cover well.

The bath house is nearing completion. Some touch up and the windows and it will be good to go.




Unfortunately the subtle weathering doesn't show well in the photos.



The warriors are coming along nicely. I've used a red tunic with off-white trim for the guys in armor, while the unarmored levy will be off-white with a red trim. The off-white/unbleached white with a red trim seems a popular pattern, and would have been cheap to produce. Perfect for what was progressively seen as the inferior soldiers manning garrison forts, i.e. levy in Saga. Meanwhile, the real soldiers have a more expensive, dyed kit, with mail to go with.



Lastly, my current dabbling for terrain. Interlocking tiles with teddy bear fur covering. I'm leaving some of it long, and will shave around it to hold my hedges so that It will have fields that I can remove for storage. I would have prefered a more honey colored fur, but this was given to me as a gift and I think it will work once I start painting it. I'm just going to do the one tile, and see how it looks for now. Then I will come back and add to it if I like how it turned out.

Absolutely brilliant work all round. The field there is fantastic, love it, looks so real, the men are all looking great. That villa is stunning bud, really love that, knew it was going to be good.

the feld reminds me of that dying scene of "gladiator"... the flowing ears of wheat ...looks very dynamic...

gotta ask... my son is interested in romans... what do you think about the warlord games figures....are they worth it? i am thinking of getting a set for him...thoughts appreciated...

Warlord's Romans look very reasonable from a sculpt/detail perspective, but they are small vs other manufacturers. They are closer to true 25mm scale than most of the 28mm figs from other companies.

As a comparison, here are some shots vs Victrix, Footsore, Gripping Beast, and even a Warlord Greek. The bottom sprue being the Warlord Greek, the top being their Imperial Roman Veteran sprue, and then as follows:

Victrix Greek Hoplite:



Gripping Beast Late Roman:



Footsore Late Roman:



You can see that the Warlord Greek Hoplite is smaller than most of the other company's figs, and the Imperial Roman is smaller still. I think they would do fine by themselves, but not mixed with other manufacturers other than maybe Old Glory.

Thanks for that comparison shot, that is quite some food for thought, as one could never underestimate that they could end up next to some GW IG troopers...so I have to be carefully planning purchases...they're planned as stand alone...but you'll never know...