Lord Imran Kairugawa

Finished the Hatamoto yesterday. Love the pose especially with the naginata.

I've finally managed to paint the Tokugawa crest using masks. Nothing super special but it works I think.

I added the lines on top and below on the banner because it looked too plain with just the crest. The lines on the bottom indicate what level of warrior they are. Ties in with the gold dots on their scabbards.

So 3 samurais done and I need one more to get my 125 points buntai ready for battle this weekend. This will be my list.
Hatamoto Leader (level 4)    38 points
- naginata, naginata bujutsu, powerful

Samurai A (level 3)       27 points
- kenjutsu

Hatamoto B (level 4)    32 points
- kenjutsu

Samurai B (level 3)      27 points
- kenjutsu

Comes to a total of 124 points. Why 125 points? It was a number suggested by good friend Mark. At 100 points there's not much you can get from the Bushi Buntai. The FoC is rather restricted if you want to have level 1 and/or 2 Ashigarus so I'm going to try an elite all samurai list. I'll be vulnerable to shooting so I'll stick close to cover until the time comes to close into combat :)

Wish me luck. Am going to need it as I'll be going up against the dreaded Warlord Arzmi Killalla!

Lord Umari Kairugawa

Just couldn't resist painting another North Star samurai although I'm in the midst of my Skaven project.

I wanted this model to look darker compared to the one I painted earlier and I'm not quite happy with the final outcome.

I wanted black to be the prominent color but I think the dark red cloth ....for want of a better word, disrupts the overall effect I was looking for.

But it is another figure done so at least it's something. I still haven't decided on a crest for the back banners and that's the reason it's still not there.

My 2 samurais protecting a village from some rowdy bandits in a recent game :). Suffice to say, heads rolled.

Japanese rural building

I was researching the net for more samurai models to get when I stumbled upon this site.
http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t1828-my-alternative-japanese-mordheim
I never planned to make terrain/buildings for playing Ronin but the steps taken by Lilljonas to build his buildings seems doable enough so I gave it go. And here's my journey to making my first ever building for this hobby that I enjoy so much. Which really is a feat because all my friends know I'm just a lazy bestard when it comes to terrain.

Step 1. Keep it simple and follow the instructions. As much as possible I followed how Lilljonas did his building with some very minor tweaks in terms of materials and the roof. For the walls I used foam board glued to a placticard base. In hindsight I should've used a stronger material for the base as it warped when the glue dried up.
Step 2. Glue all wooden structures and such.

I used ice-cream stick and pre-cut balsa strips for the lower walls and windows. Then I completed the base by gluing rubble and sand.
Step 3. The roof.

This was made using some cardboard I had lying around. I didn't follow the cut straw style as I know this would be time consuming and opted for the old wash towel technique.

Not too bad if I do say so myself :)
Step 4. Painting and drybrushing and some weathering.

I used Army Painter Warpaints and Washes primarily for this project. Also their tuft.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I truly enjoyed making this house/building. More to come as I'm planning on making a full town to play Ronin :)

If you guys want to see some hardcore master terrain building skills check out monsier Scott's blog.
http://scottswargaming.blogspot.com/2013/09/victorian-terrace-completed.html
This Victorian Terrace building he built puts my rundown house to shame hahaha.

Cheers everyone. Thanks for reading.

Lord Kairugawa

This figure is from North Star Military Figures. It was a new release which was made together with Osprey's Ronin rulebook written by Craig Woodfield.
http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=152&page=1
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Ronin-%E2%80%93-Skirmish-Wargames-in-the-Age-of-the-Samurai_9781780968469
I was extremely lucky to get myself the rulebook, the Bushi Buntai and Koryu Buntai set a while back. I'll write a review later when I've played a few games but today is just about painting one of the figures.

This one is from the Bushi Buntai set. Again, I'll write a proper review of the set because the presentation and figures are really really nice. 
http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=5452 

Some green stuff and grey resin casting and we have horns.

 I got the idea for the horns from a book I bought in Tokyo all the way back in 1996 when I was there for training.

And I really liked the red armour also from the book.

And to make sure I was able to get see all the details of the armour during painting I decided to basecoat grey followed by a thin wash of Dark Tone of the Army Painter wash.

And so Lord Kairugawa of the Tokugawa clan is ready for war.

I haven't painted the back banner yet because I'm still musing over how best to paint the Tokugawa clan crest.

If you guys have any suggestions or even know where I can get 28mm size Tokugawa transfers/decals I would be eternally thankful. 

Thanks for pooping by and appreciate any and all comments :)

Have a good week ahead.