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Yorkright wrote: Welcome back Theo, looks like your hiatus has not hurt your painting skills. Ninjas and ponies are looking sharp.

Thanks Yorkright , I may not have been posting, but I have gotten a little painting here and there in over the last few months.

JoshInJapan wrote:Welcome back. It's always nice to see more samurai models.

, I have been going through older threads with samurai for examples, and I will definitely be looking for any advice you have during this construction.

Red Harvest wrote:Interesting base cozies for the ninjas.

Also, nice re-start.

The base cozies on the Ninja are an integral part of the Test of Honour game. Samurai are bought individually, as are most other models, but retainers such as spearmen and archers can be bought in groups of three. If all three are alive then they get bonuses while performing actions. As they die then they lose bonuses. I like the design of the base and would love to make some like this for KOW.

Camkierhi wrote:Welcome home bud, truly wonderful to see you. Really missed you bud.

Fantastic restart too, loved your previous work in this area, and looks like you are bang on song for more. Love it.

Off to look at that box set, very interested. But also, I think I have mentioned this before, have you checked out Maniac_nmt, has a thread here...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/474587.page

Wonderful stuff, especially lately with Feudal Japan stuff.

Damn glad to see you boy. Made my day seeing a Theophony post.

I missed the interaction over the past few months, but too much was happening and not enough time to devote to the cause. I had to prioritize family over free time and friends, but things are settling a bit, so I will be crawling slowly back to life here soon. Also his stuff is great, as is your gargant build in the works .

Meer_Cat wrote:All the pieces are very well done- the ninja are great: you've done a terrific job of using many shades to give an overall impression of 'detailed black'. The basing system for them is quite clever as well.

Well done and welcome back!

Thanks Meer_Cat, the shading was an experiment, I’m glad it worked out. Your name always makes me think of the Cat from Red Dwarf

inmygravenimage wrote:Good to have ya back, brother.

It’s good to get back at it. Your Batman and TWD have been a great comfort to watch grow over these few months , hope I can get production back up close to your level. Also great ideas from your color choices and style will have an influence here.

My wife is on spring break this week and so are my kids, I was also able to get vacation time in this week so we have had lots of family time.... .

Spoiler for life events. Feel free to skip.

Todays Samurai

Mustache and all
Also a banner/objective marker WIP


Might get the brush working tomorrow night for a bit, but my new stress relief (our cats) demand attention . They are good for keeping my blood pressure down .

Thanks everyone again for the welcome backs, it means a lot.

"Borrowed" your idea for the reeds for Frostgrave thanks for it! Looking at that box myself to go with my "Rising Sun" goodies as rank and file for a Dragons Rampant/Kings of War project in the fullness of time....

 Llamahead wrote:
"Borrowed" your idea for the reeds for Frostgrave thanks for it! Looking at that box myself to go with my "Rising Sun" goodies as rank and file for a Dragons Rampant/Kings of War project in the fullness of time....

If you aren’t on the mailing list from warlord, then get on there, you get a discount for your first purchase , and occasional other goodies. Otherwise order from Miniaturemarket as they have about the best price I saw. I just got a better deal because of the exchange rate and a coupon....plus free shipping .

I bought the Samurai village file from Drivethrurpg.com yesterday and printed out a couple sets. It’ll help bulk out my terrain, and a good file to have if I wind up doing a demo game.

Assembled proof

Oh no! The village is under attack by Oni-Cat!

Terrible photography as usual

A couple of brigands.

Good to see you about these parts again, Theo'.
Sad to hear you are going through testing times, but it's good that it's easing up enough for you to have some "me" time.

Good job on your little samurai.

Effective card houses.
Not sure the giant cat (as realistic as it is) fits the setting quite so much.

Im pretty sure there are evil cat spirits in Japan. since I’m such an authority on Japan....I’ve eaten at an authentic Japanese restaurant after all .

Well I got one more knocked out before I leave for work.


He is a swordmaster and the instructor at the soon (arrives Tuesday) dojo, and he fights Ninjas....like the Tick . I might do some sort of pattern on his MC hammer pants, but not certain yet.

Really beautiful work. Consider your game raised, sir.

Loving the evil cat fig fits right in. Total agreement with Graven, your new stuff is exceptional.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been going through a rough patch, and I hope it evens out soon.

Your samurai look good. For the armor, you might consider going back over the plates with a horizontal line between the layers of plating to cover the lacing. The lacing passes through the back of the plate rather than the front, so it wouldn't overlap like that. Check out some of the photos in this GIS for ideas.

Really nice looking figures. Very tempting. Cats are not evil, they don't care enough to be evil.

Welcome back Theo, sorry for what your going through.

The samurais are great but that ONI CAT looks amazing super lifelike.

inmygravenimage wrote:Really beautiful work. Consider your game raised, sir.

Thanks Graven, a true complement considering all your great work

Yorkright wrote: Loving the evil cat fig fits right in. Total agreement with Graven, your new stuff is exceptional.

He’s an old cat 17 years old and feeling every day of it, especially when our new kitten tries to get him to play. But he is such a loving cat for being the evil world destroyer that he is .

JoshInJapan wrote:I'm sorry to hear that you've been going through a rough patch, and I hope it evens out soon.

Your samurai look good. For the armor, you might consider going back over the plates with a horizontal line between the layers of plating to cover the lacing. The lacing passes through the back of the plate rather than the front, so it wouldn't overlap like that. Check out some of the photos in this GIS for ideas.

I will definitely clean up the lacing, thanks for that insight. Also I just picked up some more paint to do another highlight layer. Still need to get some red tone from army painter, but the FLGS was out .

Camkierhi wrote:Really nice looking figures. Very tempting. Cats are not evil, they don't care enough to be evil.

He is only evil in the fact that I’ve been sick this week (just body aches) and using a heating pad on my sore joints. When I got up to get a drink he climbed on the heating pad and got comfy. I didn’t have the heart to move him and he fell asleep on it, so much so that I began eating him and he didn’t move only purred louder. I even got to pet his feet (he was declawed as a kitten and doesn’t let anyone touch his feet), about twenty seconds into rubbing his feet he realized what was happening and hissed at me....he doesn’t do that so I backed away......quickly .

JoeRugby wrote:Welcome back Theo, sorry for what your going through.

The samurais are great but that ONI CAT looks amazing super lifelike.

Many layers of grey, I think I made him too fuzzy in spots, but wouldn’t change it. Thanks

Well I received the test of honour Dojo early this week, it’s laser cut MDF and was simple to assemble. Even though I like building my own stuff this looked too nice to pass up and I will eventually get more kits for the table.

Unassembled 3mm sheets.

Assembled with a brigand for scale

Side angle with doors opened.

The brigand

Thanks for all the kind words guys. More coming this weekend....hopefully

Truly, the sengoku jidai is brought to life! Getting jealous now, between you and Gits. This can't end well...

Excellent work all around- the figures are terrific, but the buildings are really top notch.

And cat? A bit early for a stand-in for Gojira, isn't it? At least until your samurai have the option for Tesla-coil disrupters to back up their katana, naginata, etc.

Nice work, Theo'.

inmygravenimage wrote:Truly, the sengoku jidai is brought to life! Getting jealous now, between you and Gits. This can't end well...

I can’t say that mine will be anywhere near his quality, but I’m glad to see more of the feudal Japan style games getting some love.

Meer_Cat wrote:Excellent work all around- the figures are terrific, but the buildings are really top notch.

And cat? A bit early for a stand-in for Gojira, isn't it? At least until your samurai have the option for Tesla-coil disrupters to back up their katana, naginata, etc.

Well I could slip into Konflict 47, warlord games alternate timeline WWII game, but this year I’d like to focus on samurai as I’ve always wanted that army. The building is better than I expected from any MDF material. The FLGS I go to (never get to play, only to buy) doesn’t have any MDF kits, they have the Mantic/walking dead kit for sale, but none out to use. I may have to eventually get them to let me show mine off and get them to carry this stuff. Oh....and see below for the cat....

Dr H wrote:Nice work, Theo'.

Thanks Dr. H

So digging through my piles of old figs for my future samurai army I ran across a scorpion clan samurai from the ‘Ninja’ board game. He had to get painted up, and it’s ‘PURFECT’ that he has a pet cat that is just as fluffy as our cat ‘Smokie’ who graced my picture up above. This is obviously him in his younger days, but I couldn’t resist painting it up this morning.

There is some sort of design on his clothing, but I cannot make it out, so I’m going more with just letting the wash bring out the detail which would look more like embroidery than using multiple colors on it. Hopefully it works out.

Love the buildingTheophony, and this samurai with the cat has me interested in the game too. Must resist...

Yorkright wrote:
Love the buildingTheophony, and this samurai with the cat has me interested in the game too. Must resist...

Unfortunately the ‘Ninja’ L5R game came out 10 or so years ago and since L5R has been bought out by FFG I don’t think we will ever see a reprint. An almost direct copy of the game came out a few years ago called Rise of the Kage, it’s made by the same company that makes Bushido. I almost bought it from miniaturemarket a couple months ago on clearance for $40, but as I went to order one of their last 8 copies they went on a maintenance break . 20 minutes later they had 0....0 copies , they changed their inventory numbers and they didn’t have it anymore .

Bushido really tempted me, but they are 32mm models and no one stocked them, so I ordered more of the Test of Honour which allows more variety, but no fantasy what so ever. Watching Gits blog is tempting me back.

Got some more paint tossed down.

Another sword wielding bandit.

I love how this green turned out. Pale lichen with a waywatcher green wash.

You know he’s a bandit because he stole some ladies purse.

Also WIP of another bandit

Started work on the dojo last night/this morning. Sorry for the mess, but a large shelf on my desk collapsed , many broken things in the process. Roof has been blocked in with red and slate grey tiles and a creamy off white section below the ridge line.

I’m using Walmart apple barrel paints for the building as it’s absorbing a good amount and price is an object.

Sorry to hear about the accident hopefully the broken bits will be salvageable. On to brighter things the building is looking good, your color scheme really looks like feudal Japanese architecture. As for Walmart paints I have used them too and have found they cover quite well.

Thanks Yorkright , no major losses, just scared the out of me as I was sitting there and had just thought about redoing that shelf to put my Test of Honour stuff on. Luckily I was lazy and didn’t do it .

Speaking of ToH, I took Cams suggestion again and quickly went through Nmt’s thread and liked his idea for a water trough/washing tub deal. So I nicked it.

I used floral wire to put the band around it. I will eventually give it a bath in Agrax earthshade or its equivalent, but for now it is almost done. I plan on making water effects (it’ll be my first try) in the top, and possibly make a lid for it. Either way it’s another piece of scatter for the table

Also worked more on the dojo

The wood colored sections of the door got covered. The trim area on each panel will be in the same red as the roof and frameposts.

The decking that surrounds the building got the same wood color to it. Touch ups are needed on the off white areas, I think I may go darker a tone or two as it’s too light to me, I’ll see later.

Here it is with the roof back on. I might pick out the long lines on the roof in red as well, suggestions for or against are welcomed.

The Walmart paint is working great.the MDF sucks up any first layer and doing it in GW paintwould bankrupt a small nation, and I have two Oni-cats and three Oni-teenagers to feed. I need to restock on those paints though as I was using colors I had bought for other projects and these are low now.

Thr dojo is much better looking painted. Maybe in the futuee seal the mdf? I am crazy though.

That's a nice dojo! Would sealing the mdf with spray varnish help with the soaking up of paint?

cormadepanda wrote:Thr dojo is much better looking painted. Maybe in the futuee seal the mdf? I am crazy though.

I thought about priming it, but I e had the worst luck lately with that, and since I planned on using really cheap paint I just figured I’d let it soak in.

CommissarKhaine wrote:That's a nice dojo! Would sealing the mdf with spray varnish help with the soaking up of paint?

Thanks CK, it would keep it from absorbing more paint, but as I stated above, it was just easier and cheaper to just do multiple coats. Besides the fact that it sucked in paints at various levels really makes the wool look more natural with how it would absorb stain.

While thinking about the dojo and the ninja attack scene from “The Last Samurai” I came up with the idea to possibly slide sheets of metal underneath the roof so I can magnetize the ninja bases. No in game use, but would just look cool. The roof is pretty well hollow anyway and no disassembly would be needed.

Ha! Love the figure with the cat- life imitates art!

The sword wielding bandit is also very nice- like others I'm resisting the urge to dive into the world of samurai, ronin and daimyo......must-not-give-in....

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Ha! Love the figure with the cat- life imitates art!

The sword wielding bandit is also very nice- like others I'm resisting the urge to dive into the world of samurai, ronin and daimyo......must-not-give-in....

Come to the Dark side...we have Oni....and a health plan

 Theophony wrote:

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Ha! Love the figure with the cat- life imitates art!

The sword wielding bandit is also very nice- like others I'm resisting the urge to dive into the world of samurai, ronin and daimyo......must-not-give-in....

Come to the Dark side...we have Oni....and a health plan

pretty sure killing yourself is not a health plan...

 cormadepanda wrote:

 Theophony wrote:

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Ha! Love the figure with the cat- life imitates art!

The sword wielding bandit is also very nice- like others I'm resisting the urge to dive into the world of samurai, ronin and daimyo......must-not-give-in....

Come to the Dark side...we have Oni....and a health plan

pretty sure killing yourself is not a health plan...

you don’t have to kill yourself for our health plan....unless you took the lower level one .

Anywho....

Assembled the lanterns which came with the dojo, sword has been assembled a few days ago, all has been basecoated since the picture was taken.

The sword is a measuring stick, the blade is marked in 1” increments and is a total of 6”(normal movement distance for foot sluggers) from tip to the hand guard. The handle is 3” which means overall is 9”( movement distance of cavalry figs).
I think I’ll eventually order another pack or two of these to use.

Painted the red parts of the doors, the top and bottom tabs won’t be seen in the building. I think the inside will be a light brown color.

Doors installed across the front. The rectangles above the doors all away around have a darker tone now too.

The dojo is looking good for water effects just use several coats of PVA glue. Cheap and effective.

That measuring stick is how i am going to train cats to be ninjas.

The dojo is where i am doing it.

I like how the dojo is going, but how about a creamy white? With dark brown red accents. Maybe some plants to spruce the place up too.