Samurai pond

I made a koi pond for my Japanese Samurai project.  I started with a kit from wonkyhead3dprinting.

The kit had so many elements, it seemed a shame not too use them all with the small pond provided.  So I cut the pond up to make a larger one by placing edges on a thin piece of plasticard and adding some Tetrion.

I painted up the pond and placed the koi, turtles and stepping stones.

The dents mark the position of the MDF bridge I planned to use instead of the small one that came with the kit, which was too narrow for the bases I use with my figures.

Next step was my first foray with mixing and pouring resin.  I did a trial run in a plastic lid first and then poured the pond the following day.

I then decorated the pond with moss, flowers, reeds and grass, and added the lanterns and lilypads that came with the kit.

Japanese Pagoda

I kept it until last as my reward for painting all the Japanese figures but I've now finished the pagoda that Andy bought me a while back.

This is another excellent MDF and card kit from Sarissa Precision with the optional additional storey and the extra height will really make the model dominate the table and the proportions look better.

This is the biggest kit I've made with 13 and a half A4 pieces:

The additional storey:

After pressing everything out, there were dozens of pieces:

I then did a test fit:

Before priming each separate part of the structure:

After priming (with our apple blossom in the background):

Lots of fiddly red paint to apply and I also added washes around the edges of each white panel to age them and give them some depth:

The cardboard roofs were spray painted and rolled slightly to fit to the curved roof supports:

The kit has the steps sticking out from the base so to protect them I based the whole thing again, adding grass, flowers and some lanterns on the corners.  The finished item:

The pagoda comes apart into five pieces - the top roof and the four storeys - so that figures can fight in and around each of the rooms:

The final elements of the Japan project were some accessories from TTCombat and a Sake temple offering from Oshiro to be used with the shrine and pagoda.

I was particularly pleased with the Sake barrels and the Buddha statue, aged with turquoise washes as used by Adrian with the Samurai DBA armies:

So after almost exactly five years, all the Japanese figures, buildings and accessories are now finished.  I have designed a set of figure stat cards for the Ronin ruleset and will get them professionally printed when my chosen printer re-opens for business post-lockdown.

And then, one day, hopefully soon, we will get them out on a table and play together again.

 雨降って地固まる (ame futte chi katamaru)
Literally: after the rain, earth hardens
Meaning: Adversity builds character / After a storm, things will stand on more solid ground than they did before.

Japanese figures finally finished!

I finished the mounted Samurai yesterday - a present from Adrian some time ago...

I painted them up to match the six armoured Samurai I have so that those characters each have a mounted and foot version.

I had painted a few more figures that hadn't made it to the blog so for completeness, here's the rest. 

Tokugawa Ieyasu and his loyal retainers

Taiko with drummer and conch player

Villagers

Unarmoured Samurai

And here's all the figures for this project in their box:

It's only taken five years to get to this point!  My reward is to build the Pagoda that Andy got me last year.  And perhaps we'll get a game when we're out of isolation...

Japanese ladies, palanquin and a shop!

The impending Salute prompted me into some more painting last week.  I finished off the bearers for the palanquin:

and painted several Japanese ladies, one in the same kimono as that inside the palanquin so she can be represented on foot or carried.

I also put together another MDF kit from Salute....

...this time a shop in the machiya style of a traditional wooden townhouse.

As usual, the roof is removable.

Temizuya

Another building for the Japan project - a temizuya from TTCombat.  A temizuya is a Shinto water ablution pavilion for a ceremonial purification rite known as temizu, where worshippers wash their left hands, right hands, mouth and finally the handle of the water ladle to purify themselves before approaching the main Shinto shrine.

The kit is 3mm MDF and cardboard.

After construction, I masked over the floor and used my airbrush to spray the wood the typical bright red colour.

The water-filled basin, called chōzubachi, come with a set of water ladles:

With removable roof in place:

In addition, I constructed a pair of standing lanterns from Blotz.  So many pieces for such a tiny pair of items:

And they complement the temizuya well:

Japanese House and Shrine

Adrian got me a couple of great buildings for Christmas from Blotz, who have an extensive range of MDF buildings and accessories.  The first is a Japanese house with removable roof.  These kits go together really well and have a lot of detail.  I added some greaseproof paper to the sliding doors to make them look like proper Japanese shōji doors.

The second is a small Shinto shrine to which I added some thread to represent the Shimenawa, lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion.