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That's a nifty little pond. How are you going to keep the PVA from leaking out between the rocks?

Lots of great work here fella. Pond idea is good. As an idea have you seen those silly grip things people put on their mobile phones, like a little pop up thingy.

monkeytroll wrote:All looks great Theo.

Adding some koi to the pond?

I was trying to figure out how, but then I saw a post on the Test of Honour Facebook page where a guy did similar, only much better quality. His answer was tonpaint little squiggles that somewhat resembled fish and then do layers up. At this scale some details just don’t transfer (see below).

Maniac_nmt wrote:Your muted color scheme is very nice. Most folks go fairly elaborate for samurai, and this is a nice, realistic, change of pace.

Thanks Maniac_nmt, it’s more out of necessity due to my painting skills, but I chalk it up to the Minimoto Clan (bear clan) being practical and none too flashy.

CommissarKhaine wrote:Smart move on the pond. No water effects instead of PVA glue?

I have plenty of PVA glue, and it’s cheap

JoshInJapan wrote:That's a nifty little pond. How are you going to keep the PVA from leaking out between the rocks?

I’ll keep it in place with the simplest method....prayer . Lots of thin layers....eventually.

Camkierhi wrote:Lots of great work here fella. Pond idea is good. As an idea have you seen those silly grip things people put on their mobile phones, like a little pop up thingy.

That’s a great idea Cam , the pop sockets as my kids call them....I’ll look into those, I actually just left HobbyLobby having looked at a bunch of jewelry charms for inspiration. Nothing caught my eye for this project, but I saw some pins for DC and Batman fans that would make lovely signs. In particular I saw a pin that said “Wonderland” which had texture all around it like a little tea cup, a rabbit, a hat and a pocket watch. It gave me ideas for building a Gang for Batman if I ever did that .

Anyway as I said above, some details just don’t translate well into 28-35mm scale. One of those I’ve had trouble with is bamboo. We all know bamboo has segments and a little beveled spot at each junction, but when you take a stick down to this scale it is almost unnoticeable, yet we each look for it when we are starring at it. I think it’s one of those problems of the three foot rule. At scale and 3’ from the table your not going to see the bulges if it’s in scale, but when we photograph stuff from inches away it doesn’t look right without the bumps. I got a real taste of that last night at work when I looked at one of the fake plants (a bamboo plant pot 6’ tall). I noticed the bulges on the sticks were less than a 1/8” and the sticks being 1-1 1/2 inches wide meant there was nothing really glaring about it. And when I stood 20’ from it you really didn’t notice them, so why should I see it on the models on the table? When I was at HobbyLobby just now they had 6’ bamboo sticks which once again had detail to them, but the bulges were so small that when I put three next to each other there was really no discernible gaps between them. So with that in mind last night I had made a fence of “john’s bamboo” by cutting some dowel rod into 1.5” lengths roughly and sticking them into a base of air drying clay.

I have worked on it today but forgot pictures , I’ll remedy that when I get home. I have since woven them together using some thread across the top to reinforce the fence, added the joints by marking the bulges with a micron pen and stained the sticks to look like dried yellow bamboo.

I also played with some extra clay making a bale of goods, will get bound with thread/rope later, and some little plastic dodads to make some pots. One pot with a lid, the other pot has clay and microbeads that I had purchased for rivets to look like berries or fruit.

Hopefully paint helps sell the project.

Other smaller pieces have also been started, but I’m waiting on stuff to even show them off in the very early WIP phase.

Thanks for looking and sharing the comments guys .

Edit: home now, here’s the bamboo fence now.

What do you think? Be honest.

Edit2: also got this WIP up to a point worth painting.

Little zen garden. Yellow sand still wet. It will get painted once it dries, I raked it by taking 6 tiny finish nails and taped them together, hope it works out.

Bamboo fence looks excellent. Pots are just the wrong colour and need to be tied together.

 Llamahead wrote:
Bamboo fence looks excellent. Pots are just the wrong colour and need to be tied together.

Thanks Llamahead , pots are still WIP, and that’s all bare plastic colors your seeing. They will eventually get primed and painted black.

In the mean time painted the sand on the garden and added shrubbery. I hope Roger the shrubber is proud .


Edit: forgot to post the pic of the finished training posts.

That bamboo is looking real nice! Is all the detail painted on?

Looking good - agree that painting bamboo is probably best at this scale, unless maybe you're creating a masterclass exhibition piece.

CommissarKhaine wrote:That bamboo is looking real nice! Is all the detail painted on?

No, very little paint. I used craft dowels and then an ink Micron pen, which bled a little giving the usual bamboo striations, then washed with sepia ink. The line that goes all the way across the wall is a dark green/black thread which was woven around each post one end to the other then back again.

monkeytroll wrote:Looking good - agree that painting bamboo is probably best at this scale, unless maybe you're creating a masterclass exhibition piece.

Hahahaha, that will never happen here In this thread unless someone else posts it hahahaha.

Well my order from GCTstudios is in royal airmail to me, hopefully next Wednesday at earliest with veteran day Monday. So the clan will be joined by Tetsu the Bear with his armor and Nuan the Blacksmith throwing cinder/ash and red hot metal.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Got home from work and still a bit wound up, so I knocked together a little Shinto graveyard. Nothing fancy, and might be technically wrong, but I found a picture on google using Shinto Graveyard and it looked like an easy mock up. Since I’m leaning towards Cult of Yurei as my next force I figured a graveyard would fit nice.

Also WIP statue. Just put stormhost silver on the ball it has its front paw on. I’m going to give it the red gem coating to see how that turns out.

Good work, Theo'.
Yeah, the bamboo fence looks nice.

 Dr H wrote:
Good work, Theo'.
Yeah, the bamboo fence looks nice.

Thanks Dr. H

Well took a bit tonight and got mostly done with my Shinto graveyard. Inspired by a picture I found with google of five grave markers which the ground over the centuries had buckled a little and cocked a few of the stones. I’m torn on trying to write kanji on the stones as I’d have no idea what I’m writing.

Though the humorous side of me wants to write sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, fried rice, General Tso and crab Rangoon on the different markers . Probably not ethically correct, but if tattoo shops can do it why not. Reminds me of an old friend who stylized symbols to spell out Jesus saves backwards on the pendants on his Eldar jetbikes . Being dyslexic I saw it pretty easy, but no one else saw it.

Still waiting on my order of Nuan and tetsu, should be any day now, but snowpocalypse inbound.

Wanted a small bridge to have on the board, not a nice ceremonial one, just a peasant bamboo bridge for over a creek.

Blue tape just a temporary hold while glue dries.

That's a wonderful bridge, great work.

 Camkierhi wrote:
That's a wonderful bridge, great work.

Thanks Cam , just a quick project to get juices flowing. Neither side actually reaches the ground as eventually I want to make a river bed for it to sit in and earthen ramps to meet the bamboo ramps on either side.

Well, ultra fine point sharpie marker and a coating or two of sepia wash later and the bridge is slightly more realistic.

Not the prettiest, but also doesn’t look like foamboard with printing on it either.

So far I have survived the Miniaturemarket Black Friday sale without a purchase. There are a few items that would be good for other projects, but my willpower roll was successful.

Still contemplating my next army for Bushido and now Temple of Ro-Kan is sort of in the lead. Not only do they have the monks, monk animals (fighting panda and trash panda with wolverine style claws) but they also have peasants who assist the monks. Lots of opportunity for terrain modeling with shrines and farms. Cult of Yurei still has a draw as being a fight anyone sort of force and I’d like an army a zombies, but something still just isn’t getting me to pull the trigger on them.

Ooh, I like that bridge. I'll have to try something like that myself.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Ooh, I like that bridge. I'll have to try something like that myself.

Thanks Josh , it’s a fun little project.

Reinforcements showed up today.

Nuan the blacksmith tossing molten lead and cinders at opponents and giving cover to units.

Also Tetsu the bear bringing some brutal beating down on the opponents.

Nice little bridge there

That blacksmith looks interesting - tossing molten metal around.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Nice little bridge there

That blacksmith looks interesting - tossing molten metal around.

Thanks Monkeytroll, he is a very interesting model and the artwork is great for him too. He is a pita to put together as the right arm and the spray of metal is one piece and the bucket and body are a second piece. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to pin metal, but they are together for good now.

And the bear is almost done.


Must do the basing, ring the base with Clan coloring I’ve done, and do a wash on the ropes and another highlight color on the ropes. Also need to try some stuff on the metals to make them pop more.

Comments as always are welcome .

that bamboo of yours is very good looking...please share how you did if...especially these ridiculous small strips....i need to nick that idea....

the bridge looks amazing too...

i dunno why everybody gets better with painting but i´m still stuck in the pour-paint-over-model-stage.... well...i always construct only and seldom paint...might be a clue here^^

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
that bamboo of yours is very good looking...please share how you did if...especially these ridiculous small strips....i need to nick that idea....

the bridge looks amazing too...

i dunno why everybody gets better with painting but i´m still stuck in the pour-paint-over-model-stage.... well...i always construct only and seldom paint...might be a clue here^^

Thanks Vik , I think my painting has gotten better because of watching some videos, but mainly the paints and practice. The new washes and dry paints are great. I wouldn’t have gotten the fur on the bear looking anywhere near as good trying to individually paint the highlights.

Also taking time to do each model as this is a low model count game means I’m not trying to get 40-50 models done quickly and having to assemble them as most of these are single piece it two piece models. ALSO ALSO, models have gotten SOOOOOOO much better sculpting wise in the last 20 years. Textures are possible and just basic base coat, highlight, wash bring some out such great detail that just wasn’t there back then. ALSO ALSO ALSO, basing materials and texture paints are making good basing and hence the models, more realistic.

I’ll do more bamboo this weekend if I have time. Left work early last night to go to the ER with my mom. Two visits in two days to the ER . She’s fine and home now, but will have to schedule a minor surgery for next week.

In the mean time I finished up Tetsu the bear last night when I got home. Here he isn’t with the Samurai Champion.

Tetsu looks great, a really characterful miniature well painted. Wishing your Mum the best of health after her surgery.

Subbed so I can shamefully take your Minamoto color schemes and attempt to apply them to my own models!

I'm going to have to show the terrain bits you've been making to our dad, as he enjoys building terrain too. Hopefully it'll get him inspired to build some terrain for us since we're too lazy!

ListenToMeWarriors wrote:Tetsu looks great, a really characterful miniature well painted. Wishing your Mum the best of health after her surgery.

Thanks Ltmw, moms surgery is really basic, her feeding tube has popped out multiple times this week, and being the weekend before thanksgiving lots of doctors have started vacations . Usually just general anesthesia, yesterday’s reinstalling of the temporary tube she declined any pain medicine and it went well.

highlord tamburlaine wrote:Subbed so I can shamefully take your Minamoto color schemes and attempt to apply them to my own models!

I'm going to have to show the terrain bits you've been making to our dad, as he enjoys building terrain too. Hopefully it'll get him inspired to build some terrain for us since we're too lazy!

Steal away, I was trying to emulate the artwork from the website. I think it’s a good scheme too. I hope your dad gets inspired and becomes more involved with it. Bushido seems to be a really quick game and loads of great models.

Speaking of Bushido I decided to look for alternative sources for getting the models. Luckily Nobleknightgames carries them (I think that’s Gits gaming local, or one of them), so I placed an order just a few minutes ago for the Temple of Ro-Kan starter set, the monk(Ette) Yuuki, and Kaito the peasant. That will give me about 50 points of rice with them.

I decided to go with them as they have a lot of crossover with mercenaries, like Hisoka who I already have and will just change the base trim to be a standard Mercenary color trim, and the grey pilgrim who I really would like to get but was out of stock. Also my zen garden terrain pieces, koi pond and training terrain can work for Temple themed tables as well.

Thanks for looking guys. Any ideas for terrain pieces would be great. One that I have to build for Kaito’s model is a tilled field. As a special ability on his card after set up I get to deploy that piece wherever I’d like it, which makes some sense, but if I’m fighting on a demon world board, it would look kind of out of place with a field in the middle of a blighted world.

Minis are looking good . If you want some random terrain, have you read Lone Wolf and Cub? They give a very nice view of feudal Japan. Things like food seller stands, a travelling theatre... Might be nice to model?

Bear and samurai looking good.

For the tilled field you could possibly also model strips to go round the edges of the field that show a transition from various terrain types to the field?

Obvious ideas include torii gates, but I think you already have at least one.

Camp accoutrements - banners, partitioning curtains (maku), armour boxes, camp stools, commander's standard (uma-jirushi), head viewing boards (both filled and empty).

Wooden shields - the big rectangular type with a support arm on the back that were placed for protection from archers.

War drum.

Observation platforms

Tombs - the pillar type

Wooden bath tubs, simple carts, palanquins and crop sheafs would all make good scatter terrain.

Bridge is really outstanding, great effect! Congratulations!

That terrain really came out nice. And I love terrain like that that looks good but is obviously designed for use in game too.

CommissarKhaine wrote:Minis are looking good . If you want some random terrain, have you read Lone Wolf and Cub? They give a very nice view of feudal Japan. Things like food seller stands, a travelling theatre... Might be nice to model?

I’ll have to try and dig up a copy, I remember seeing the comics when I worked in comic shops decades ago. Thanks for the reminder

monkeytroll wrote:Bear and samurai looking good.

For the tilled field you could possibly also model strips to go round the edges of the field that show a transition from various terrain types to the field?

Obvious ideas include torii gates, but I think you already have at least one.

Camp accoutrements - banners, partitioning curtains (maku), armour boxes, camp stools, commander's standard (uma-jirushi), head viewing boards (both filled and empty).

Wooden shields - the big rectangular type with a support arm on the back that were placed for protection from archers.

War drum.

Observation platforms

Tombs - the pillar type

Wooden bath tubs, simple carts, palanquins and crop sheafs would all make good scatter terrain.

Lots of great ideas, I will have to write these down on my projects lists, many things I had not considered. I will pick your brain with the idea of using the new WizKids deepcuts Iron Maiden. I remember seeing a similar device in the movie five deadly venoms, what do you think?

Wirecat wrote:Bridge is really outstanding, great effect! Congratulations!

Thanks Wirecat,now I just need to do the river section to make it useable.

Da Boss wrote:That terrain really came out nice. And I love terrain like that that looks good but is obviously designed for use in game too.

Definitely asim not making just a diorama, must be functional as well.

So bit of painting last night/this morning. Nuan the Blacksmith is done...for now. Not really impressed with my work, but then again I couldn’t feel how to paint him, and no color shots of him except his face, which led me the wrong way . Good enough for tabletop though in my book.



I like the metal spray the best off of the whole model. It was a pita having to pin the arm in place, but such a great sculpttobe sure. Just trying to wrap y head around howto make his colors fit with the rest of the clan yet still look somewhat fire retardant,so he got another color(dark brown) added to his palletfor a treated leather effect. He also got white yellow orange and grey in the molten metal, but otherwise his palette is the same.

I also redid the front of Hisoka base to black since he is a mercenary and can be used with my Minimoto and my on order templeof Ro-Kan.

So this f ishes off all of the Minimoto Clan that have been produced so far, sogroup shot with Hisoka.

If it's good enough for the Shaw Brothers it's good enough for gaming terrain The crest on the headpiece looks like it could be painted to suit. Obviously it needs to be amongst suitable terrain, but I see no reason why not.

I may have to pick one up myself now and

Good job on the smith, the molten lead looks cool.

Thanks Monkeytroll, the Shaw brothers were pioneers.....even if they were not accurate and the blood effects looked like tomato paste

Had free time (what the is that) today so I drove out to Miniaturemarket and picked up an order I had sitting there. Nothing fancy, some Japanese grave markers and some pvc sheets both from plastcraft games. Plans for both of those in the works. While I was there I grabbed some of their in house terrain bits (Tiny Terrain), 6 crates, not very Bushido style, but useful for many games.

While piddling around this morning I decided to take some pics as a step by step to show just how easy the bamboo effect was. I’m going to look for a brown sharpie ultra fine tip now as I think that it would look even better.

So step 1. Get some cheap dowels, I think this 50 pack cost me $0.94 at Walmart, definitely less than a buck, but that’s what stuck in my head.

Step 2. Cut to size no picture here, approximately 1.5” for my purpose.
Step 3. Get an ultrafine point sharpie marker

Step 4. Randomly draw rings around the length of the shaft.

Step 5. Liberally apply a coat of Sepia wash to the stalk


That’s how I did the bamboo for the bridge, this was a left over piece from its construction.

Alternatively you could use a green wash if you want living bamboo.

while i love the sepia bamboo....you have to simply adore the green bamboo...
and i was secretly expecting this way of achieving that look...but it is still magic even tho you have had a look behind the veil...

*bows*