A rival clan is forming!

I've been chipping away at all sorts of bits and pieces recently - one of the projects is a rival clan for games of Test of Honour (etc).  These are all from the Perry Miniature Samurai range and at most needed their sashimono and yari attaching.

First up, the Samurai to lead the force:

Very dynamic poses as you can see - as this will be my wife's force she picked the minis from the pack that she wanted to use 😀

I tried to make this a mirror of my own force options-wise - so added a bannerman and a conch blower:

I also added the three 'sergeant' types - one each for spears, archers and arquebusiers:

And finally for now, some yari-armed troops.  For these I didn't use the metal spears provided by Perry, I used some plastic spears from a freebie sprue of ashigaru that came with Wargames Illustrated:

I'll show the missile-armed troops soon (ish) - but I'm happy to have finally got the 'other' side of this project underway!

Perry Miniatures - Town People and Villagers

I've prepped a couple of packs of civilians for games of Daishо̄/Ronin/Test of Honour - both from the Perry Miniatures samurai range.

First up the Town People pack - 7 minis in total (the Perry website is a little misleading here - the child it refers to is a single piece casting holding the hand of, presumably, his mother).  Here's an old man, a traveller with a staff and hat, and a chap running (the implement? he is holding needed to be glued into place):

The rest of the pack is made up of a child with mother, a nicely dressed woman, a chap with a shouldered sword and a porter:

I also got the Villager pack.  This actually includes 8 minis.  First up a particularly obstinate child, a pointing woman (presumably trying to tell the kid to do something!), a Komusо̄ and a woman taking a break:

And finishing off the civilians - a worker carrying a basket, a worker leaning on a shovel, a worker swinging a pick and a sitting chap taking it easy:

The minis are all the high quality we all know and expect from the Perrys - average amounts of flash but nothing major to clean up. The porter from the Town People pack did need some gentle bending of the basket on the pole which was a little nerve wracking but I managed it!

These minis will really bring games to life - potentially inspiring some special scenarios (that Komusо̄ in particular seems to be begging for some rules!).

Journey into Kitton

So, it's Daishо̄/Ronin with a twist now... I received some stuff from Alternative Armies' Kitton range - yes, a feline take on Samurai!

First up, I received a selection Ronin - enough unarmoured masterless warriors to make a buntai! First up, three armed with katana - the right-most one needed his katana and saya attached but the others are single-piece:

And two with yari (one has a drinking cup too for extra ronin-cool) - both of these are single-piece:

For an opposing buntai I received minis wearing armour - clearly the forces of the local lord looking to keep these rowdy ronin from causing too much trouble!  First, a pack of Ashigaru armed with yari - the sashimono needed to be attached and they came with daishо̄ that I chose not to attach:

And to lead them, a couple of armoured samurai - one with naginata, one with katana.  Again, these had sashimono/saya to attach:

Finally I also received the pack of villagers for objectives/scenarios:

I think these will be a fun little side-project to the mainstream Ronin/Daishо̄ buntai!

Nagai Yasunari and friends

Back when Test of Honour was first a thing I got the starter set - but wasn't keen on the style of the plastics, so instead I put together a force from almost entirely Perry Miniatures wonderful Samurai range. 

Now, a while later and as we have an organise/clear out of our house I've found the force (one chap did make a guest appearance on the blog posing a little while back, see if you recognise any of them!) so thought I'd share them here as the mood strikes me.

Before I start, I feel I should make it absolutely clear that I paint my samurai and the likes as though they are in a Sengoku Musō game - colourful and without particular regard for historical accuracy of any kind! I'm really not sure why I thought circles would make good heraldry though 😅

That out of the way, what better way to start this series of posts than with the samurai to head up the force - and the leader is Nagai Yasunari:

He counts two boon companions - first Yamashita Takeshi, strong and true:

And Ishiwatari Kazunobu, a wily older warrior and mentor to Yasunari:

Finally for the samurai, and the only non-Perry miniature (it's the armourless samurai from Warlord that was part of the original Test of Honour pack - now found in a Warlords of Erehwon set I believe), Yasunari is sometimes joined by a master swordsman who eschews the use of armour; Amisaki Hyotaru:

I'll share more from this force when I've had time to check them over and photograph them - if you love blue clothes and armour you'll surely enjoy this project 😂

Wave Man Buntai (up to no good no doubt!)

I've previously posted the Onna-Musha and Ninja Buntai I've prepped - well here's the last (for now!) Buntai - a Rōnin Buntai.  I've deliberately gone for a non-romanticised version of these masterless warriors for this force - these are dangerous and desperate men, not honourable, tragic figures.

The bulk of the Buntai is from Footsore's Warring Clans range.  First I picked up a selection of rōnin and unarmoured samurai models to use as 'average' types:

L-R these are: Walking Samurai with Katana, Yoshito the Rōnin, Rōnin and Travelling Samurai.  Obviously they'll get cool names when they are painted!

Also from Footsore I picked up a couple of my favourite miniatures from the Warring Clans range - these I intend to use as the 'lieutenants' of the Buntai:

On the left is Akagi Kazki, Rōnin Swordmaster and on the right is Banzuiin Chōbei.  I replaced the metal pike that was included with Chōbei with a plastic spear from the Warlord plastic samurai sprue that I found in the old Test of Honour box.  Again, these will get cool names when they've been painted.

Finally, for the leader of the Buntai I picked up one of the (now) Warlord of Erehwon Samurai Heroes from an eBay seller I frequent:

This nodachi armed chap is the the only one in the Buntai to wear a bit of armour - but he's clearly also the most bad-ass as he is strolling around bare-chested! I liked this model back when it was first released but just didn't have a reason to pick it up before - I think he makes a suitable boss for this Rōnin Buntai!

Ninja Buntai emerges from the shadows

So, one of the other Buntai I have recently acquired for Daishо̄ (and Ronin etc) is a Ninja Buntai - these are all Warlord Games minis, which have been repurposed from their time in Test of Honour back when Warlord still had that title into the Warlord of Erehwon range.  Now, I didn't need many - certainly not a box full, but I had a look and one of my favourite sellers of random single Warlord minis/sprues had the range available as singles... of course I snaffled one of each up!

The first is the 'Ninja Master' from the Samurai Heroes box - as he's the only one without a Zukin covering his head he can be the leader of the Buntai:

First from the Ninja box a couple of minis armed with dual swords (Ninjato) - one is more heavily armoured than the other but both have nice poses that differ quite a bit:

The final three are armed more exotically - L-R Tekko-Kagi (style claw weapons), Ninjato and Kama and Shuriken:

This gives a nice mix of weapons across the Buntai.  All the miniatures have lots of other gear - grappling hooks, kunai, kama and sai tucked away.

These will get the base texture dip before awaiting prime time!

Bad Squiddo - Feudal Japan minis

When I was contemplating what to spend this month's hobby funds on a couple of suggestions got some support on Twitter - one being Samurai in 28mm.  Well, I'd been reading the Daishо̄ book and connected with the 'as fantasy as you want it to be' setting and the low model count so thought I'd collect up a few Buntai (warbands).  I was already aware of the Feudal Japan range by Bad Squiddo and thought this was the perfect project to give me an excuse to pick up a couple of packs!

First up I got the Tomoe Gozen & Bodyguards pack - although she'll get a new name in our games (would be a bit of a tall order to live up to the real Tomoe Gozen on the table!):

Three really cool minis - they'll get the base texture dip and then when I can source some primer some day they'll move on to that stage!

I ummed and ahhhed a little on the second pack but eventually settled on the Onna-musha pack - this was for two reasons; first they are all wearing awesome heavier armour than the Onna-bugeisha packs, secondly the pack included a really nice naginata-armed mini:

Again, these will be base texture dipped before moving on to priming some day.

The sculpts are all really nice - lots of character but nothing over the top.  I like how out of the six minis in this Buntai, three have helmets - these women mean business!

I've got a couple of opposing Buntai making their way to me so keep an eye out on the blog for more Feudal Japan minis.