Lion Clan Samurai and the Start of a Temple

 One of my local gaming stores has quite a bit of old stock left over from a previous owner; some of the Reaper miniatures and paints on the rack are very old, some of the paint colors having been retired more than a decade ago. The current owners have some of them marked down to get them cleared out, and I grabbed probably 8 or so blister packs of "Clan Wars" miniatures from the period circa 2003 when Reaper Miniatures had the license. 

"Clan Wars" was a rank and flank miniatures game of fantasy samurai, set in the world of Rokugan, made popular by the "Legend of the Five Rings" collectible card game, roleplaying game and associated novels. The Reaper figures in 2003 were my first introduction to the setting, though I never had any at the time. I fumbled through playing the card game a bit in college and have enjoyed some of the novels, though I still haven't made my way into playing any edition of the RPG. 

Here are the first couple I've painted. On the left, with the two swords, is "Lion's Pride female samurai" while on the right with the naginata is "Lion Clan Heavy Elite Infantry." Both members of Rokugan's Lion Clan, the most militant and valor-minded of the seven clans. The middle figure is an unaligned "Samurai with Polearm" but painted in Lion colors.

 I've also begun work on the last piece of samurai terrain I currently have, the Temple kit from Things From the Basement. I've got it built up into sub-assemblies for spray painting, hopefully tomorrow. I also opened up a pack of 12" MDF squares I'd bought a while back with an eye towards seeing if I could cut a base for the temple. 

Well, when I opened it up, I discovered that it's not MDF like I'm used to, these squares are more like really dense, 1/8th inch thick cardboard. I marked out the size of the base I wanted with a pencil and used a saw to cut it, though next time I might be able to just score my way through it with a box cutter. Then I used a file to chamfer the edges. It's not a perfect rectangle but it's good enough for my purposes and I'm pleased that I put the work into it myself.

 The second pictures gives you a bit of an idea of what it's going to look like, minus the roof tiles, railings and the timber frames on the building. I think I might make a gravel path leading up to the front steps, plus add some bushes and the like during the flocking process. 

In other news, I still haven't been able to pick up the Wargames Factory zombies my friend Dave found in his pile of shame and set aside for me - he got a case of Con Crud from going to Gen-Con, and so the usual Monday night get togethers he usually hosts have been on hold. I'm hoping for this coming Monday - I'd like to be able to get some assembled and painted in time for Wargames Among the Warplanes! 

I did add some more figures to the leadpile, but I'm still in the green - some figures I'd ordered a while ago from Heresy Miniatures finally arrived, along with a Reaper "Bones USA" ogre mage I intend to paint up as a second oni for more fantastical samurai gaming. 

I've also placed a small order for some Japanese terrain from Oshiro Models. I've decided I'm going to go with James' resin-cast pieces for as much as I can going forward - it's a bit pricier but I think it's worthwhile. 

 

So let's get the tracker updated:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 191

Miniatures Painted: 198

Terrain Acquired: 3

Terrain Painted: 8

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 12

 

Planning Ahead for 2025

 First things first...Goblins are still in progress.

With October being "Orctober," my immediate goal for October 2024 is to finish off the unit of 40 goblins, plus shaman and three "Lurking Skulkers" that, under more recent versions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (and now Warhammer: The Old World), can hide in regular goblin regiments and leap out when melee begins to try and shank the front row of the enemy unit. I'm also aiming to have my 2002 Ruglud's Armored Orcs regiment completed by the end of the month.

Beyond that, I'm looking forward towards 2025 and giving myself a dedicated project to work on in the new year. My wife and I just watched the new FX adaptation of James Clavell's Shogun, and enjoyed it very much; between that and listening to the Yarkshire Wargamer podcast interview with Trevor Dixon of Dixon Miniatures, my thoughts have circled back towards a long-standing desire to paint samurai.

So I placed an order with North Star for a couple of skirmish rulebooks - Ronin, from Osprey Games, and Daisho, from the Ministry of Gentlemanly Warefare - two prepacked warbands for Ronin, and then another order with Badger Games here in the USA for a couple packs of Bad Squiddo Feudal Japan warrior women. 

These will get me started for samurai painting and wargaming; eventually I'll pick up "Test of Honour" as well and start expanding my forces and building terrain. I've also dug a few samurai I bought in 2016 out of my bits box - a couple from Reaper Miniatures and a pair of AEG "Clan Wars" samurai archers, long out of production, that I'd bought off someone on Facebook. From there I'll start adding Perry and Dixon Miniatures samurai and retainers to the mix. 

Samurai Archers Rebased

I recently picked up a pack of Reaper Samurai figures from their Dark Heaven line of metal miniatures - I saw them on the rack at Just Games and couldn't say no.  And I immediately began planning *yet another* Frostgrave army.  I haven't decided yet if I want to go with Sigilist (for the calligraphy connection) or Enchanter (for the almost mystical amount of work that went into forging a katana) as my wizard's school, but I do have an army list drawn up, one composed of, appropriately, Seven Samurai.  Just about the only thing I needed to track down was a pair of appropriate archers.  Nothing I was turning up on Google appealed to me, so I put out a call on the Frostgrave Facebook group, and a kindly gentleman offered me a pair of samurai archers, from the "Legend of the Five Rings: Clan Wars" miniatures game, now long out-of-production, for $3 apiece plus shipping.  I swiftly took him up on this, and they arrived yesterday.

Today, I trimmed away their metal tabs (I'm not a fan of slotta-bases), cleaned up the flash and mold lines that I could find/access with my X-acto, and glued them down to my preferred bases, 25mm Renedra flat rounds.

I can't keep the cat away long enough to open the porch door (our apartment has a screened-in porch where I do my priming) and prime these fellows, so hopefully tomorrow morning I'll get them out there and get a quick coat of primer on them.

I think with this I'll have all the Frostgrave warbands I intend to paint - I have a primed-but-unpainted Witch warband based on the 1982 CONAN THE BARBARIAN, these samurai, the Choosers of the Slain, the Undying Host of Sutekh-Ra and the Diabolists of Belphegor.  How many more warbands do I need?

Don't answer that.

I might hold on to the Seven Samurai and the Cult of Set warbands until the Painting Challenge begins this year.  I think that might be a good beginning to my participation this time around.