碁盤！ My new Go board

I recently bought a Go board! To be honest, this does take away from my painting hobby but it is a great way to feel connected to history and it is an incredibly fun game!

最近碁盤を購入しました。囲碁を打つには時間がかかります。ペイントに時間を割けなくなりました。にもかかわらず、日本の歴史に触れている気がして、とても楽しいです。

Ink wash painting 墨絵

It's not samurai, but I did paint it so I think that is ok.

I think this helped inspire some new ideas for painting miniatures though.

まぁ、これはミニチュア侍じゃないんですけど、僕の作品だから許してください。

墨絵を体験したおかげで、ミニチュアの世界で使える技を発見した気がしました。

Samurai Village sneak peek

Working on a base for one of Oshiro Model's houses.

Holy Tree Showcase

Here is my finished shinto holy tree!

It will make it's wargaming debut this Sunday at the West Tokyo Wargamer's first Ronin game! 

Holy Tree preview

Holy Tree 御神木

I'm trying to make a Holy Shinto Tree, but I haven't yet figures out how to make the rope that goes around it yet. The rope will signify that there is a god inhabiting the tree (that the tree is a god?).

注連縄をまだ作っていません。

Bamboo!! ウォーゲーミング用の竹（背景）

Finally I have made my first prototype!!

やっと、初めての試作品を完成させました‼

This is the reason I had not posted in several days :-)

しばらくの間何も載せなかったのは、これを作っていたからです。

I would like to thank Shallow Diver for the original inspiration on how to make this kind of bamboo tree.

このアイデアをくれたシャローダイバーさんに感謝します！！彼のブログはこちらです：

http://shallowdiver.at.webry.info./

Cyberpunk Samurai 6/6

Cyberpunk Samurai

サイバーパンク侍

Progress Report #4

第四進捗状況報告

Using retarding medium I started on his "power sword".

リターディング ミディアムで雷刀を塗り始めました。

Cyberpunk Samurai 6/3

Cyberpunk Samurai

サイバーパンク侍

Progress Report #3

第三進捗状況報告

I'm imagining my samurai dude as if he is in some imperial hall devoted to Eisen (Eisen is a famous sake).

この背景はまるで榮川帝国大広間です。

Sengoku Townswoman

Just a quick post to show off a woman from the town people set from the Perry Miniatures samurai range.

The background is from an empty sake carton. 

The lantern is from Oshiro Model Terrain.

短い記事ですが、このペリー・ミニチュアの村人セットにはいっていた女の人をお見せしたい。

背景は清酒の紙パックです。

灯籠はOshiro Model Terrainから購入した物です。

Book Review: Ikkojin 一個人 No.158

This is my first book review but actually it is a magazine.

I really just want to put some information out there on internet about the resources I use to learn about samurai.

This magazine can be bought at most convenience stores and has themes like "The Truth of the Imperial Household", " The Castles of Sengoku Busho", or "The Mysteries of Japanese Shrines".

They aren't heavy hitting scholarly research but they do have really cool illustrations showing stuff like how castles were built or what a battlefield scene might look like. A lot of the illustrations are CG and show battles in action which I think is really cool.

Here is their website: http://www.ikkojin.net/magazine/monthly/

Cyberpunk Samurai 6/1

Cyberpunk Samurai

サイバーパンク侍

Progress Report #2

第二進捗状況報告

 I'm using these two pictures as inspiration.

手本として、これら二つの写真を使用しています。

I really hope I can paint the red wave pattern like in the above picture :-)

もしできれば上の赤い波を塗りたいなと思います。

Cyberpunk Samurai 5/30

Cyberpunk Samurai

サイバーパンク侍

Progress Report #1

第一進捗状況報告

Primed and ready to go!

I used black gesso for the base coat.

黒ゲッソで下塗りしました。

The background picture is by:

背景を作った方は:

Steven Chagnon, Ilya Nedal, & Alina Gal

Russian Field Officer Showcase ・Next Project

Perry 28mm Russian Field Officer ペリー・ミニチュアの２８ｍｍ露帝国軍の騎馬佐官

I finished the base today, and tried something a little bit different than normal.

Using the advice from one of the West Tokyo Wargamers I used crushed coral for the rocks on the base (as well as balast).

I painted that all brown first like usual, but then I went back over the rocks in a gray color, and I really like how that looks.

Also, I did not use any static grass or flock, but instead just put a few tufts here and there.

For my next project I'm going to be moving back to samurai.

This model is from Urban Mammoth's game Urban War. He is official called a Triad Boss I think, but to be honest I hate it when people mixed Chinese and Japanese culture for no reason, so I'm going to call him Cyberpunk Samurai.

Russian Field Officer 5/27

Perry 28mm Russian Field Officer 

ペリー・ミニチュアの28ｍｍ 露帝国軍の騎馬佐官

Progress Report 5

第五進捗状況報告

Russian Field Officer 5/26

Perry 28mm Russian Field Officer 

ペリー・ミニチュアの28ｍｍ 露帝国軍の騎馬佐官

Progress Report 4

第四進捗状況報告

Russian Field Officer 5/25

Perry 28mm Russian Field Officer 

ペリー・ミニチュアの28ｍｍ 露帝国軍の騎馬佐官

Progress Report 3

第三進捗状況報告

Russian Field Officer 5/23

Perry 28mm Russian Field Officer 

ペリー・ミニチュアの28ｍｍ 露帝国軍の騎馬佐官

Progress Report 2

第二進捗状況報告

Russian Field Officer 5/22

Perry 28mm Russian Field Officer 

ペリー・ミニチュアの28ｍｍ 露帝国軍の騎馬佐官

Progress Report 1

第一進捗状況報告

New Samurai!!

Hello!

This is a re-write of an earlier post, now with more details and better pictures.


MRF is a company here in Japan that wants to create a fast past samurai skirmish game in 32mm.

The models are based off of designs from Suwahara Hiroyuki 諏訪原 寛幸 (Japanese name order). He is a Japanese illustrator who has worked on Koei Video games like Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors,  Kessen etc.  Suwahara Hiroyuki's homepage (Japanese)
Koei gameography (English)

The actual sculpting and production is being done by Andrea Miniatures.

The game system is currently being designed and I couldn't get any details to share but I can say that the Japanese have their own way of romanticizing samurai history which has constantly been a huge hit in the west. I am personally hoping for a 32mm scale version of the Samurai Warriors video game haha, but we'll have to wait and see :-)

I took some of the photos MRF had posted to Cool Mini or Not and will re-post them here:

武将列伝　（ぶしょうれつでん）　The Lives of the Bushō