Completed Samurai...Phew!

It's been a long break since my last posting due to the fact that I've been destroying my eyesight painting these blasted Wargames Factory Samurai  Figures.
I knew they would be bit daunting to paint  and to be honest they were a bit of an Everest for me...I actually yelled triumphantly "Ive knocked the bastards off" when I completed them, emulating our National Hero, Sir Edmund Hilary's, famous line on conquering the real thing....perhaps a trifle OTT of me.

The most difficult thing with these chaps is that, excluding the Ashigaru who are fairly standardised in their attire, each samurai warrior you pick up requires careful thought on what he will wear and choice of a colour schemes that match...a bit like interior decorating. Frankly this is all a bit too much like hard work and no I'm not going to even attempt to paint the eyes!

Anyway here they are... my first Samurai.
Please excuse the inappropriate rolling English dales and meadows in the background.

Ahigaru. I've just realised I haven't painted the leather forearm protectors

Aquibusiers

The Boss

Ive glued metal squares on to the base of the figures and these will fit into purpose built magnetic movement trays so the metal square wont be visible which should improve the look.

Now this lots off the painting desk I can potter away with a unit at a time which wont be anywhere near as difficult. My goal is to paint up a couple of Saga size clans. I think the Saga rules will do the job with a bit of tweaking. If anyone knows of any Saga Samurai adaptations I'm all ears. The other possibility would be adapting Kings of War but Id need much bigger units to make a decent game of it.

Ive just undercoated and drybrushed some lovely Perry samurai character figures which will be ajoy to paint. I particularly like the sepuku set.

Samurai, 1st attempt

Never let it be said I'm not open to new ideas and periods as long as it's even remotely Historical.
With that in mind I have taken a break from the little 20mm plastic men and decided to have a crack at Wargames Factories 28mm plastic Samurai.
Fellow Strategist, Tex Houston, planted the Samurai seed in my mind some time ago, and after much browsing on the net and research into the period....well I actually just watched a couple of samurai movies, I decided I'd give it a go.
I've always been a bit daunted about painting samurai due to the bewildering array of colours and detail so I thought I'd start with the Ashigaru, at least they had some semblance of standardised attire.

Here is my first foray into this fascinating period. Bear in mind this is just the preliminary stages of painting with the base coats applied and lots more detailing, shading and high-lighting to follow.

 As you can see they have a long way to go yet and I've only done the easy bits. I've decided to go with decals for the mons and standards because there's no way my hand is steady enough to make a crisp job of it.

I found assembling the figures quite simple but you do have to be careful not to catch your hand on the spear points as they have a tendency to snap off if you're a clumsy oaf like me.


My happy place.

All my vallego paints are in the drawer to my right for easy access and my brushes and tools are all in drawers. I like to tidy up at the end of a session, even if it's 1.00am so that when I recommence everything is ship shape and tidy...pathetic really, I bet Picasso or Van Gogh never worked like this.

I've found the gel computer keyboard wrist rest ideal for resting my painting hand on and the fluorescent overhead light is perfect for showing up my deficiencies!! I've given up looking at my figures under the magnifying glass...too embarrassing.