With the completion of my first batch of Ashigaru completed, it was time to move onto my next batch of troops. I needed at least two units of Samurai to meet the mandatory minimum for the Warmaster Nippon army I am working on. Like the Ashigaru, I split the set in half, so I could have two different groups of Samurai on the tabletop, to give me options to split the army when I have more troops and to add more color overall.
Like the Ashigaru, I did not quite have enough foot troops to field three units (my target), so I did have to get an extra sprue off Ebay to give me the full six units (three red and three blue). Even with the extra sprue, I had to dip into the archer poses. That was fine, as I did not mind having a few in each unit, as this represents the Shogunate period better anyway. As with the Ashigaru, there is no command in this set, so I had to pull that from the Samurai command box set. That set gives more than enough to cover all the units I will ever make! The Samurai set also includes mounted Samurai, but painting those guys are for another time!
I decided to do these troops differently than the Ashigaru. Instead of priming the armor color base, I primed these all white. I wanted to make sure these were much brighter than the Ashigaru in my force. I also learned my lesson from the Ashigaru and clipped the figures off the sprues once I had primed them and then mounted them on stir sticks with white glue to facilitate painting. This allowed me to group them by unit and pose, to speed up painting.
I started by painting all the figures with some contrast red paint. Once that set, I hit the details on the different portions on the models with regular paint colors. I did the shirts green, as this was a contrast color for the armor. Next I painted all the pants and shoes tan. I hit the arrows with brown and the hands and faces with light flesh. I finished up the base painting by hitting all the weapons, mounting poles and flat gap areas with black.
Once all the base colors dried, I hit all the models with Agrax Earthshade wash. I hoped this would tie the paint style to the Ashigaru I did earlier. Once this set, I fixed some red areas that had a bit too much shade. I then painted the sash ties in the front white. Next I worked all the unit and back banners. I wanted these to tie to the Ashigaru colors (so they would represent retinues of each Samurai unit). So, I painted each unit a matching color (one red, one black and one white).
Once all the main painting was done, I started attaching the figures to the bases (which I had already sprayed tan). I glued down the back rank on each base. I then started flocking, by applying glue to the rear and middle of each base, then covering this with flock. I then added glue to the front of the base and affixed the front ranks and spooned flock on each base to finish the basing (at some point, I want to add 2mm flowers, but have not found ones that I like yet). I left that overnight to dry and then sprayed all the strips with Krylon mat to give a satin finish for the armor.
Once the clear coat dried, it was time to wrap up the units. First, I hit all the weapon blades with silver. I then affixed decals to all the banners, matching the ones used on the Ashigaru retinues. I locked these in with some Solveset. That pretty much wrapped up the units (Now that I have looking at the photos, I see I missed all the arrow feathers, so I need to do that before I put these away). With that, I have a base of Samurai and just need some command figures to finish my first 1000 point force. I think these are vey nice figures and am glad I picked them up. Then I need to paint the other half of each box…..
- Manteuffel