Finally, some real progress!

 I've had a baker's dozen of figures on my table, slowly chipping away at them one step at a time, one hour of painting time a night (if that). No reason for me to rush anything, so I chose to savor the process and really take my time and try to push myself a little bit on some of these. And as of last night, they're finished! I got them varnished this morning and now here they are.

First things first, here are the three Samurai from North Star that came packaged with the ashigaru I finished earlier in the month. Together, these nine figures make a 200-point warband, or buntai, for the Osprey game "Ronin." These are again painted as Takeda clan, and I used a fancier version of the clan emblem decals for the banners they're wearing. The armor got a little more attention plus the lacing picked out in different colors.

 Next up, a set of eight figures packaged as a set from Grey For Now Games for their samurai game "Test of Honour" - these are the Rogues and Ruffians, who can be played together as a thematic gang of bandits, or hired off individually into warbands to provide color and some unique abilities.

 Of these, my favorite is "The Witch" in the first picture, wearing the black kimono with the white sash and kabuki facepaint. She gains differing abilities in game depending whether she's wearing her mask or not, which is pretty cool. The kanji on her kimono reads "DEATH" if I drew it correctly. I decided, as a witch with an enchanted mask, she could afford to be a little extra flamboyant in her personal style. 

I also tried my hand at OSL on the lantern bearer in the last picture. I haven't done it in years, and with varying degrees of success at the best of times. I think this turned out solid, if not perfect. 

Next up, the "Ronin, Shojo" from Bad Squiddo Games. According to the description on their site, Shojo randomly arrives at inns, challenges everyone inside to a drinking contest, and by the time anybody wakes up the next morning, she's gone as if she'd never been in the first place.

 I think she's one of my favorites of this bunch - everything just worked right on her in terms of colors and placement. She's wearing more neutrals and desaturated colors compared to the Takeda samurai above, befitting her lower social standing, the the face half-hidden by the hat is a very neat "woman of mystery" effect. 

And lastly, my big favorite of this bunch. This is an "Ogre Mage" from Reaper Miniatures, but very clearly based on a Japanese Oni demon in appearance. I've had my eye on this figure for a very long time, and finally the time was right to paint him. I really tried to push myself to make him the best figure I've ever painted; I chickened out a little bit at the thought of painting a pattern onto his pants, but overall I'm really pleased with how he turned out, and was well worth 20+ hours at the painting desk to bring out every detail of the sculpt.

 To give an idea of size, he's on a 60mm x 40mm oval base - his pose made him overhang a 50mm round base by just a little too much for my liking! I'm really pleased with the depth of color I got on the shell of the kappa clinging to his basket. These little water goblins have a depression on their head filled with water; if this water is spilled, they're paralyzed until it's refilled. They're nasty little critters with a taste for human intestines but unfailingly polite - if you bow to one, it will automatically bow back, spilling its water. 

So that's 13 figures added to the "Painted" side of the tracker, 14 if we say the Oni is large enough to qualify as two. In fact, let's do that.

 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 112

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

 

The Hounds of...Maybe Not War, Exactly, But...

 Two more figures off the workbench - a pair of Pugs from Dunkeldorf, sculpted by the Pugmeister himself, Jason Wiebe. These were fast, easy and amusing to paint. I could see using these in a scenario where a VIP must not only be protected/captured, but their precious dogs as well. Having these move randomly across the board with player characters in pursuit...sounds like fun to me. 

 I've got a baker's dozen of other figures - samurai, bandits, the oni - moving along towards completion, slowly but surely. I'm only getting about an hour's time per night to work and I'm at the stage where I'm doing more of the detail work versus broad brush strokes. 

I've also had some terrain come in to work on: Three sets of Feudal Japanese terrain from Things From The Basement here in the USA, which will be combined into a single terrain tile. I've got a Buddhist temple, a Torii gate, and a set of prayer wheels that will all be attached to a 12" square MDF tile that will be textured and painted and flocked and probably have a copse of trees as well.

 

 Base colors for these will all be laid down with spray paint on sub-assemblies before weathering, and it should go pretty quickly and look decent on the table. I've never done a terrain tile before, always just had loose buildings so I can arrange them as I please. But I think it makes sense to combine these into one tile, since they'll always been fielded as a group on the tabletop. And since they're going to be combined, I'm treating them as a single terrain piece for the purposes of my tracker (already counted below).

 

 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 98

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Ashigaru - Takeda Clan

 I've continued to make progress, slowly but steadily, on some Feudal Japan figures, rotating back and forth between different groups of figures as needed while paint or washes dry. And I'm very please to report that I've finished the first batch.

 These are the ashigaru (peasant light infantry) from North Star's "Bushi Buntai" box set, one of several that were released in support of Osprey's "Ronin" skirmish ruleset. The three samurai that were also in the box may be the next figures I finish, sometime in the next few days. The sashimono back banners were completed with decals from Battle Flag, marking these men as serving the Takeda Clan. Both Perry Miniatures and Grey For Now Games offer miniatures of Takeda Shingen, lord of the clan during the height of the Sengoku Period, and I think eventually I'll have a small Takeda army. 

 Beneath the red armor, they're a little motley - shirts are either a dark blue-gray (basecoat Reaper "Midnight Blue," washed with AP Soft Tone, then highlighted with Reaper "Twilight Blue") or a desaturated green (basecoat Reaper "Jungle Moss," washed with AP Soft Tone, highlighted with "Highland Moss"), while pants are base-coated with either Reaper "Uniform Brown," "Shield Brown" or "Cloudy Gray," washed with AP Soft Tone, then highlighted back with the base color. 

I'm still really pleased with the winter bases. I'm looking forward to incorporating that look into some terrain pieces. 

Yesterday morning, my wife handed me her credit card and told me to buy myself some terrain to go with my samurai as a birthday present, and I ordered a few pieces from Things From The Basement that will be combined into a 12" by 12" board with some trees and scatter that can be placed on a larger tabletop.  

So let's update that tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 96

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

 

Ninja Attack!

 I'm pleased to report that I seem to have refound my painting groove and have a project going that I feel good about, I'm motivated, I'm enjoying the process. 

Back in 2024, I bought a handful of Feudal Japanese miniatures with an idea towards making that my big project for 2025, which ended up not happening beyond a few test figures. Having grabbed a few vintage figures for AEG's "Clan Wars" miniature game, I felt my interest in samurai gaming rekindle. As an added bonus, my home convention (Running GAGG in SUNY Geneseo) has announced the theme for the 2027 show as "Pirates Vs. Ninjas" and now I feel like I have a defined goal to work towards - put on a game with some ninjas in it! And it just so happens I already owned a couple of ninjas that were primed and ready to paint!

These are the "Shinobi Sisters" from Bad Squiddo Games. I've got a few more of their Feudal Japan figures waiting in the wings, and am looking forward to buying more because they're great characterful sculpts.

Rather than just going with black clothing with maybe a gray dry brush, I went with some darker colors that would actually blend into the shadows better - a very dark, drab brown (Reaper "Woodstain Brown," washed with Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed with Reaper "Powderburn Brown") and a dark blue (Reaper "Coal Black," which is actually an extremely dark teal, drybrushed with "Midnight Blue"). One of them I'd glued to a Renedra Cobblestone-patterned base; you'll see more of these as I continue through the collection of primed figures I've got for this project. I'm using them a lot for figures who are on tabs instead of puddle bases. I'm continuing the winter basing theme I started with the ghost samurai last week. 

What's next? Well, I've got some Northstar figures, designed to accompany the Osprey game "Ronin," half-painted that I'm hoping to finish by early next week. And I've started work on an Ogre Mage (inspired by the Japanese "Oni" demon) from Reaper Miniatures that I've wanted to paint for...a very long time. I think I must have seen it on their site when I first discovered Reaper 20 years ago and at the time I always passed on it in favor of getting multiple human-sized figures instead. Over the years I always had something else taking priority, but I finally bought him in 2024. Now I'm not just painting him, but giving him the absolute best damn paint job I can. Here's a WIP shot:

The fur vest he's got on is going to be painted as a tiger skin.

I was a little bad, though, and bought more figures today at Harlequin Hobby. I knew they had some Warlord Games samurai stuff on the little historical shelf they've got (which is mostly Bolt Action and a little bit of Victrix Dark Age plastics) and I decided to take a look. Along with boxes of plastic samurai and ashigaru (which, if I was a plastic figure kind of guy, I'd probably order Fireforge's sets instead), they had three boxes of metal figures, all branded for Warlord's "Warlords of Erewhon" fantasy game that I think has largely flopped. Two of the boxes were plain olive drab with the Warlord Games logo, with only a sticker describing what was inside. The third box was "Bandits & Brigands," with a characterful assortment of ten figures. This last one came home with me today.

Having opened it, it looks like the figures fit well size-wise alongside the figures I've already got. There's some bent swords that I'm hoping I can straighten without breaking, and some of the figures have separate arms to glue on. I'm looking forward to mixing them with the Grey For Now Games "Rogues & Ruffians" I have primed and awaiting my attention. 

Miniatures Acquired: 135

Miniatures Painted: 90

Terrain Acquired: 3

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Breaking the Rut

 So I've been in a painting rut for most of the month. Either I've struggled to find enough enthusiasm to even pick up, much less paint a given thing on my workbench (the Mesoamerican buildings, the handful of Maya awaiting paint), or it's a frustrating painting experience (I've got a Wargames AEgyptus chariot mostly assembled and painted, but something went funny with the primer and even the most careful handling is causing paint to flake off, necessitating seemingly endless touch ups). I needed something fast and easy to break me out of feeling like I'm just not accomplishing anything during the time I'm sitting at my painting bench.

Casting about, I found this "Skeletal Samurai" from Reaper Miniatures that I'd mostly primed last fall; I'd sprayed one side of it white, I think a sudden change in the weather stopped me from priming the other side. Either way, I took advantage of the nice weather to finish priming, and then set to work.

Rather than paint him as a corporeal animated skeleton, I opted to paint him as a ghost to make things simpler on myself. A nice coat of GW "Nilakh Oxide" was allowed to settle into the various crevices, creating a very nice "Force Ghost" look - painting ghosts is actually the entire reason I bought a pot of this paint in the first place! 

Once that was dry, I painted the base with my usual brown, and flocked with my regular "dirt" flock from Woodland Scenics. Rather than go with my usual grass patches, I applied a few dry-looking tufts, splodged (technical term) some more PVA on and dipped it in some Army Painter snow flock. 

While I was at it, I touched up the primer on some samurai I've had sitting in a box since 2024, as well as primed a few additional ones, including a set of "Rogues and Ruffians" from Grey For Now Games that my wife bought me last time I got the bug to do some samurai wargaming. I've been seeing some really nice samurai figures on social media lately and been starting to feel that flutter of excitement for a new project again. Thankfully, I have all the unpainted figures from the last time I got the flutter for this particular project, so I can dabble without spending more money. 

Naturally, I ordered the rulebook for "Test of Honor" today anyways. 

Miniatures Acquired: 125

Miniatures Painted: 88

Terrain Acquired: 3

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Gangs of Rome - Twice!

 I took Friday off work, and drove up to Niagara Falls to meet up with my friend Chris - he was on vacation all this week and hoping someone would be available for a game or two, and I was more than happy to take a day off work. He was gracious enough to reserve a room at the local library and set up to teach me Footsore Games' Gangs of Rome. 

For those unfamiliar, Gangs of Rome is a game of... well, exactly what it says on the tin! Players take on the role of gang-leaders in Ancient Rome, sending henchmen out to engage in various crimes and rumble with rivals to ensure their own gang's status and influence. It is, as Chris explained, a game that truly shines in scenario play, and games go quickly enough that you could probably run a decent campaign of linked games over the course of a single day. We played two games in slightly under three hours. 

The first game was the basic "here's how to play" scenario; Chris and I each took control of a small gang and tried to claim as many (out of three) objective tokens before the game ended; every game of Gangs of Rome is a strict five turns, encouraging you to get a move on and engage instead of faffing about! 

The game swung pretty wildly, and ended with me in control of one objective token and Chris taking two; I'd had two, but in the last turn he managed to off my gang-member who was carrying the second one and jumped on the token! One of the entertaining points was I had a character trying to climb the side of a building to get the token on the roof; she kept failing her activation rolls, meaning she sat at the foot of the wall getting more and more stressed about it! 

The second game was a scenario involving a smuggling run - my gang started the gang moving contraband through the city, and Chris' gang had to seize the goods from me. Again, I held on to my objective tokens pretty well until turn 4, and suddenly Chris was taking them from me right and left. Ultimately he managed to seize all three objectives and wipe out my entire gang. 

Best part of the second game was making good use of the game's rules for crowds. Rome is, of course, a crowded city, and the scenarios call for multiple crowds (five civilian figures in a group sabot base) to be on the table. They move around and react to the gangs fighting, which is very cool. At one point, two of Chris' figures attacked one of mine to seize a token (see above); I got the opportunity to activate a crowd and got it to attack Chris' gangsters, killing one and giving my guy an opportunity to run away, buying him a little bit of time. 

I had a great time, and we're discussing our next meet-up - somewhere closer to me, and maybe playing A Fistful of Kung Fu. We were thinking maybe hitting up Casual Dragon (less than ten minutes from my house) and seeing if we can reserve a table. I paid them a visit today, but the guy manning the front counter was a new employee and seemed a little overwhelmed so I didn't ask about table reservations. I did clear out some vintage "Clan War" samurai figures that Reaper made 24 years ago that they had marked down. I maybe feel a little guilty about that, given how little I've accomplished in terms of painting this month, but not so guilty that I didn't buy them, you know?

Miniatures Acquired: 121

Miniatures Painted: 87

Terrain Acquired: 3

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Faffing About

 I've been puttering away at plenty of things, and not completing hardly any of them. I did finish the jungle terrain with the Olmec head:

I'm pretty well pleased with how it turned out. 

In other news...

My friend Chris sent me an early birthday present. I'd enthused on BlueSky about the old I-Kore "Celtos" line of Celtic fantasy miniatures, having discovered it's still in production through Brigade Models. I'd been eyeing these models since the early 2000s, but never had a good justification for buying them (and especially back then, when I was in my late teens and didn't have meaningful money coming in). Chris pulled a whopping collection of Celtos Sidhe figures (basically elves) out of his own pile of shame, including archers, swordsmen, mages and dragon riders. 

I may or may not rebase them, but either way I'm overwhelmed by the generosity! 

Besides that...

I found out a local friend of mine has a Wargods of Olympus army from Crocodile Games, which inspired me to dig out the Wargods of AEgyptus army I painted most of back in 2020; the two games are cross-compatible so it's entirely possible I might actually get a game of Wargods in without having to drive to Historicon or Adepticon for it. 

Having been dissatisfied with the contrast paints I used on the Basti Archers (leading them, and the army, to be left unfinished back then), I stripped the paint off them to start fresh, and I cleaned up one of the chariots I'd bought and built some sub-assemblies for painting. 

Once painted, the horses will have their tabs trimmed off and the entire assembly glued just to the 50x100 chariot base. I've misplaced one of the chariot runners in the past six years, which is annoying but not insurmountable. 

I'll do these with contrast paints to match the rest of the army, though the Basti will be getting a blue and white color scheme instead of the turquoise and red look I tried in 2020, and probably some more variety in their fur colors. Also, all of the bases in the army are getting redone to replace the awful "baking soda and superglue painted as sand" thing I tried to do back then. 

So let's update that tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 116

Miniatures Painted: 87

Terrain Acquired: 1

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4