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:
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.:
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:
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!
This looks interesting, I have some similar bamboo pieces on my work desk at the moment and was thinking the same as you. I wondered about raising them up on a bank first, perhaps this would make them taller?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThat may be an idea, perhaps do a mound shape instead of a bank, so that the outer bamboo stems are lower and you get a more natural bush shape? The outer stems would also hide the taller base in the centre.
VerwijderenI've solved it by ordering a second batch of taller bamboo stems and will be combining the two sets to get a more natural height variation.
Maybe I'll combine both approaches to get an even more natural look. Either way, I'll be sure to show pictures. :D
These bamboo stems look perfect, do you plan to paint them or are you going to leave them as they are?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI'm also curious on how you're going to tackle the asian skintone. Something I struggled with when painting my Bushido miniatures.
I'm thinking of matte varnishing them to kill the plastic shine and give some grip to maybe a wash or thin paint glaze, give them a bit more natural colour variation. I'll have to make a test stand first.
VerwijderenFor skin tone I simply started with a slightly darker, yellow/ochre brown instead of the regular Vallejo skin tone. Worked well enough for me.