Sengoku Japanese: First models

Having built a few test Fireforge Games miniatures last week I've been taking some time to try and work out how I'm going to paint them up and how I want to organise the troops for Never Mind the Naginatas. As I'm going to base each model individually then I don't really need to worry about organising them for Test of Honour as I should have plenty of options

Yumi left, Teppo right

Half the troops on each side are going to be Ashigaru so I'm going to be painting them up with a fairly uniform paint scheme for the major components. Armour will be black with white lacing for the most part and I will vary the colour of the clothes underneath but aim to keep mostly with neutral / earthy tones. I think troops armed with ranged weapons wouldn't normally have a sashimono but I wanted to try out the transfers I bought from Battle Flag. These need to go onto a white background so I added the transfer and then painted the colour onto the sashimono afterwards.

The bases are 25mm Renedra plastic squares as I thought I would struggle to get the models onto 20mm's, they are quite chunky. I've topped that off with some Vallejo mud effect and some tufts from my collection.

Once the project is complete I should have two armies each consisting of lots of infantry and a couple of cavalry units:

2 Samurai blocks = 20 Yari + 20 Yumi

3 Ashigaru block = 30 Yari + 30 Yumi

1 Monk = 10 Naginata + 10 Yumi

2 Cavalry units = 12 Cavalry

Various leaders mounted and on foot from leaders box.

Left over infantry will be armed with Teppo for skirmishing gun troops.

For the Samurai I will be making them a bit more colourful and varied with my initial two sporting reddish-brown and pure red armour. I plan to also include dark blue and black to the mix as well. Their cloth clothing items will also be more varied and for the red armoured chap I've used a nail-art tool to make some dots of white to further enhance the look.

I've got transfers for both the Mori (red) and Shimazu (green) clans so I can use the sashimono to pick out unit leaders/generals and then the rest can just be a mixture of colours as I feel fit at the time.

So I've only got about 250 models left to paint, should be done in no time!

An Eastern Adventure

Since watching Shogun last year (if you've not watched it then make it a top priority) the embers of playing a wargame set in Japan have been smouldering away with me looking around for a game system to use. I had wanted to do something a bit more mass-battle than Test of Honour / Ronin and if Studio Tomahawk had released a Samurai universe book, that would have been perfect. I then came across Never Mind the Billhooks which is due to have a new book out next year with a Japanese conversion, Never Mind the Naginatas. The rules are for around 100 models a side with blocks of units being moved around and seem tailored towards more of a fun game than a strict simulation, which is what we prefer.

This was then coupled with announcement from Fireforge Games of a Kickstarter for warrior monks, as they already have a good range of other troops I then had the means to match the motivation.

Whilst I wait for the Kickstarter to complete and be produced I had a couple of boxes of ranged troops picked up from a show and located the buildings I backed last year on Kickstarter. I've also been having a look around for 3D files I can print off to add some flavour to the table.

The Fireforge models have plenty of detail on them so I've made up one of each type I currently have to try out painting techniques and colour schemes. Wish me luck!

We've also been building up towards a Deadzone event so my Nameless hit the table on Friday to kick sand in the eyes of the Forgefathers. It was a convincing win in the end to the followers of the Old Gods.

Silver Bayonet: Johnny Turk Finale

The last of the models for this mini-project are some Bashi-Bazouk cavalry, I've painted these up in the same scheme as the foot versions so they can be used to represent the same person mounted or dismounted.

That concludes all the models I've got for the squad in Silver Bayonet and should give plenty of options for building a balanced force.

Next up a four more Halo models to complete all of those that I have.

0200: Havoc

After a couple of weeks off playing we got back into 0200 this week with the Havoc mission. This sees the attackers split their forces to attack a base with 5 objectives which need to be destroyed. The defenders can only claim a major victory if all the objectives survive.

The scenario is 30 points a side so involved the largest number of troops we've played so far. It also introduced grenades which could be used to blow up the targets from 6" away, making life much more difficult for the defenders.

The game started with a stealthy approach towards the objectives and then the SAS went loud throwing a grenade onto an objective and raising the alarm.

It proved to be a good call as first one and then a second objective went up in smoke. However by concentrating on the objectives it allowed the defenders to shoot back mostly unmolested and the SAS started to take casulties.

SAS Officer eyes up the range for a grenade toss

With three objectives down it was looking promising for the SAS but the DAK reinforcements where also starting to pile into the fray.

Casualties kept mounting and with the aid of an LMG that had come on from off table the DAK managed to kill the six attackers needed to complete their secondary objective. As neither side had completed their primary objective it was a draw.

Silver Bayonet: Johnny Turk Part 2

In between the waves of extreme heat that have sapped any will to paint over the last couple of weeks I've managed to complete some more Turks for Silver Bayonet.

The first group are mostly holy men and mystic types with a halberdier and water carrier thrown in as well. As per my idea of painting each group of six in a different scheme these chaps are in a rather fetching purple colour.

The last of the infantry are European irregulars which I used Perry Bashi-Bazouk models for, I have in my mind that these chaps are more used to skirmishing so went with a more subdued colour scheme for them.

I have three matching cavalry for the Bashi-Bazouks which are currently part done and waiting for the temperature to dip. Once those are complete then the whole force will be done.

Silver Bayonet: Johnny Turk

A while back Mr T made a purchase of some new rules The Silver Bayonet for us to play. These are for a gothic horror skirmish game set during the Napoleonic wars. Mr T was keen to play the Russians so I had to have a look around for some opponents. As it happened the Perry brothers had just started to release a range for the Ottoman Turks of around the right period so I purchased a few packs to make up my team of investigators. The team sizes are only around 8 models but I purchased several packs to allow a nice variety of models to represent the various different classes available in the game. I don't think an Ottoman list has been released yet so I will probably need to play as a different nation.

I've opted to paint each pack with it's own uniform to add even more colour into the mix and they have been loosely based on the paint jobs on the Perry website. These are half of the infantry I have and then I also have three cavalry to paint up as well.