Just in time for Hanami!

This has been a productive weekend! Also, this post requires a song:

The cherry trees have been finished (I just need to let them dry for a couple of days, and then fixate the flocking). While the flock was out, I also finished up the bamboo bases and the sacred rock.
Here's a FIP (Flock in Progress) picture:

Bright, aren't they? :D

During Hanami, Tamiya-san and Ronin Hasegawa re-enact the impromptu duel that led to their years-long friendship, as Katsunaka the priest and Kageyori the Miko look on from a safe distance.

And a slightly more top-down shot:

That's all of my currently finished Japan-specific scenery, as well as some of my "universal" rocky hills being almost completely obscured by the bamboo groves. I think they might be decent line of sight blockers... ;P

See you next time!

Holy Stone

I had a spare hour, in which to knock out a quick scenery paint job. Here's the results:

The rock is, surprisingly, made from rock... The Shimenawa is sisal, hardened with thinned PVA, the Shide are foil from a tube of foodstuff (mayo or ketchup or somesuch).
Painted up quick, looks the part.
All in all, Easter has been productive.

See you next time!

Oriental flora

Well, the bamboo got finished yesterday, but the light was gone already gone so far, I couldn't get decent pictures anymore. So these had to wait until today:

Daimyo Tempura finds his entry into Miso-Ji isn't quite as uncontested as he expected...

Today, as an added bonus, my wife joined me for painting, the first time in years (She used to be a very skilled and enthusiastic painter, but that hobby had fallen somewhat by the wayside for her.) It was really nice to be sat next to her and sharing a favorite activity. I got some progress done on the first batch of my Samurai villagers, but didn't quite get them finished

Also, earlier this week the tiny cherry trees I ordered online finally arrived:

A bit brighter than I had anticipated, but they'll server their purpose just fine! They're about 40mm tall, which works just fine for my purposes. I'll just put these on as inconspicuous bases as possible, so I can plant them wherever I like them to be on the table. Half of this batch will go to Gunbird.

I don't think I'll get these done before Hanami is over, but then again, with these, my samurai can go cherry blossom viewing whenever they want... ;D

See you next time!

Bamboozled!

So, today I assembled and based the remaining stands of bamboo:

 The PVA can dry overnight and paint should occur shortly. :D

As I had a spare base, some time and inspiration left, I decided to build a little extra:

A simple sacred rock. It's about twice as high as a 28mm miniature, so it's suitably impressive on the table.
My usual foamed PVC base, an actual rock, hot glue, basing sand and ballast. With a PVA-drenched length of sisal as Shimenawa and foil from some tube of foodstuff to make the Shide.  I hope to paint it alongside/after the bamboo.  With the trees I already have for (western) wargaming and the Torii I painted recently, I should be able to do a reasonably convincing small Japanese forest/wilderness table. Now I just need to get sufficient minis painted so I can give some rule sets a trial run, Daisho being on the top of that list.

See you next time!

Trial of the Grasses

Well, the trial set of bamboo is done, except for some growies (flock, some small plants, such things)  on the edge of the base:

Looking at this, I'm ready to go into mass production, I think.

I misted the bamboo stalks with some matt varnish and then spray-primed the base in black. Naturally, this hit the lower part of the bamboo as well, but this wouldn't be a problem.
Then I painted the base with Vallejo Burnt Umber and drybrushed German Camouflage Orange, Desert Yellow and finally Iraqui Sand. Again, this hit the lower sections of the bamboo, neatly covering up the primer overspray, as I had planned. There was some minor flaking of the paint on the thinner bamboo stalks, but nothing too noticeable. Finally I roughly hit the bamboo stalks themselves with very watery English Uniform, to get rid of the uniform green colour.
Looks good to me, I'll be cutting bases for the larger bamboo bushes tonight or tomorrow, hopefully I'll have a complete grove by/over Easter.

See you next time!

I want another shrubbery!

And who am I to argue with the Knights who say Ni? :D

My second order of scale bamboo has arrived:

Twice as tall as the batch I already have, plus these have a wire core. I should be able to build a fairly decent bamboo forest now.
That is all, carry on...

Daï-Bakemono, Die!

Today a package arrived to correct a years-old mistake of mine. You see, years ago, I missed out on the chance to buy a brand new box of Rackham Daï-Bakemono.

With the feudal Japan flame rekindled, I went on a search and found a site that still sold them, but in resin. A transaction was made, and today the fruits of that exchange arrived:

3 big 'orrible ogres, together with the goblin samurai that I ordered at the same time (shown in the top of the picture) they will form the command and muscle of my little band of Bakemono. The troops will come from the Goblin Ashigaru command that I did manage to snag some years ago.
The miniatures are great sculpts, full of character and detail. I'm especially pleased to finally get my mitts on the Daï-Bakemone, wonderful figures! A few details are less "Japanese" than I would like, but that is what conversions are for. One of the Goblin Samurai will get a backbanner and a more fancy helmet and will be the commander of the warband, with the other two armored Goblin Samurai becoming his lieutenants.

These may be next on the list, once I finish my villagers and get started on some terrain....

Trimming the bush and skinning the villagers

When Samurai/Feudal Japan reappeared on the radar locally, a few weeks ago, I ordered a set of blossoming Sakura trees ( to share with Gunbird) as well as a set of bamboo. The bamboo arrived earlier on this week, but turned out a bit on the small-ish size:

Sufficient, but not quite imposing enough for the bamboo maze/forest I had in mind. So an extra set of larger bamboo stems was ordered the same night...
While waiting for those to arrive I set about trimming the excess flash off these bamboo stems. I've got a hundred of them to go, so I'm doing it in little batches, clipping a few every time I have a spare few minutes, like when waiting for the teawater to boil, etc.:

 I'm already a quarter of the way through the bag...
Once they are all clean (enough, with this soft plastic, I can't expect to get it perfect, and they're supposed to look good en masse, not being inspected individually up close), I'll start making a test bush, so I can start serious production once the larger stems have arrived. I'm hoping they'll arrive in the next week, so I can do this in a couple of days off I have heading my way.

Today, after a leisurely stroll in the forest, I painted the skin on my first 5 villagers:

The painting is a bit rougher than I would have liked. Apparently, I'm more out of practice than I thought... Still having a little bit of the shakes from a flu earlier this week may also have contributed.
I'm not too worried as they're essentially just set dressing/ objective markers.
The wash on the hats and woven basket are currently drying, maybe I can just finish those before supper?
Hopefully next weekend I can get the most of them dressed.

See you next time!