Painting Challenge Submission #3 - Onmyoji for "Hametsu"

Carrying a tune en route to a confrontation with evil in feudal Japan...

If you peruse the archives of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and scan Curt's entries you will see a lot of cool stuff he has worked on over the years. One area he has explored in his hobby efforts involved medieval Japanese terrain and an amazing assortment of Japanese medieval fantasy heroes and demons. He uses these to play the excellent game "Hametsu" - a really cool, cooperative game featuring bands of heroes working to slay the evil Oni who threaten the survivors living in a post-apocalyptic feudal Japan. 

In 2025 Curt shared this game to a group of us scattered in Canada and Europe - Byron, Jamie, Nick and I have been pursuing a Hametsu campaign, with Curt hosting the table via Zoom! Zoom gaming came into many of our lives during the pandemic, and while the COVID nonsense is thankfully in the rearview now, use of Zoom-type platforms to bring friends together for a game is still with us. Not every kind of tabletop wargame will work well over Zoom-type set-ups, but "Hametsu", fortunately is one such game.

And what a break, because "Hametsu" is awesome! Our group of heroes has been pursuing their respective "Path(s) of Legend", confronting fantastical evil demons. I've been playing an Onmyoji, a spellcaster skilled in the manipulation of energy, and the campaign has been a blast! An electric blast, specifically...Onmyoji can manipulate electricity, and my character has really leaned into this ability, cooking a fair number of demons!

Assortment of supplies to keep things ticking along.

Curt has a beautiful and complete collection of figures for the game, and his Onmyoji figure has done sterling work. But I have enjoyed the games so much I thought it would be super fun to paint my own Onmyioji figure. So I asked Curt to 3D print one for me, and he kindly obliged, and sent it my way. I thought "Awesome, THIS guy is going to be my first figure for the Painting Challenge this year!".

Don't let that strange helmet fool you - this guy is coming to bring the pain...

Um...so...painting a single 28mm figure should be a pretty straightforward exercise. But in a kind of weird "art-imitating-the-campaign" sort of thing, this poor figure has experienced a level of abuse somewhat reminiscent of what happened to my Onmyoji in one of our recent "Hametsu" games, which saw the poor spellcaster take a tumble down a mountain.

For F*CK SAKES! I HATE IT WHEN I DROP MINIATURES!

I replicated this game-setting event in real life by finding a way to knock it over on the painting table - THREE times! Somewhere the evil Oni are celebrating! The 3d print figure was solid enough, but it still has a couple of delicate points, particularly the ankles - and it wasn't designed to be dropped - much less repeatedly. The figure duly snapped at the ankles. Again. And Again. And again. The hilts of his katana blades snapped as well, and so did the bell on his wind instrument. I was able to reconnect - mostly - the sword hilts, and to get the poor fellow standing on his own feet (three times)...but the bell of the wind instrument disappeared into the carpet, never to be seen again, I expect. 

Another step in the Path of Legend...evil will be slain and banished!

I almost gave up...but I didn't want to let the spirit of the sinister Oni win, so I buckled down and finished painting him. Thus he became my third submission, instead of my first, and his instrument has been, well, let's say "customized". Now I just need to find a way to get this thing safely off to Curt...needless to say, given what this miniature has already been through, I'm a little nervous trusting that process...

Stay tuned for further Painting Challenge updates!

Some 15mm 30k Characters - Part 2

Some 15mm characters ready for action with the VII Legion Astartes.

A couple of days ago I posted some of the 15mm Sons of Horus character figures I had painted up for my crazy little 15mm 30k project. Here we have some Loyalist counterparts to go with them - a Praetor, a Champion Consul and a Librarian - all wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" power armour. These are 3D prints courtesy of Byron, and all are in the colours and symbols of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists. 

"I am right, because I have a big sword! And also a blaster if you still insist on disagreeing..."

Swish cloak too...

The Praetor is a faithful tribute to the "sword Praetor" who came with the 2.0 edition of GW's Age of Darkness box set. An excellent, whacky-looking commander, this 15mm rendition is a brilliant version of the original figure, and gets all the key points just right. The blaster. The sword. And, of course, the over-the-top cloak that one wears as part of the appropriate formal attire when smashing the enemies of The Emperor. 

You will soon feel the SPOOKY POWERS...

But there is a handy axe to settle things

In fact, all three of these figures are wonderful little tributes to their 28mm inspirations. The Librarian has the same "I'm about to blast you with some cool mind-stuff" pose as his larger cousin - and of course is also carrying a big axe that will sort things out should mind tricks fail. 

I love this pose...at once "ready for duty" and "I can't wait to hit someone with this sword!"

Not a ton of detail to show, but pretty great considering it's a 15mm figure!

The Champion Consul still manages to exude an air of tightly-controlled fanaticism, waiting to be unleashed at the appropriate time and against the appropriate heretic(s). His bolt gun is present, but tucked away, as this fellow clearly relished sorting things out with his blade.

The loyalist characters face off against the Sons of Horus characters in my previous post...

All of these were fun little projects to paint up over the summer, some extra flavor for the whole "just because it's fun" 15mm 30k project.  

More 30k in 15mm - SoH Reinforcements

Sons of Horus tactical marines wearing Mark IV armour - 3D prints in 15mm. 

More 30k-themed models have been crossing the painting desk through the summer, but I've dipped back into the 15mm project once more. Here we have a nice pile of reinforcements for the Sons of Horus - a big 20-man tactical squad and a 10-man assault squad. All are clad in Mark IV power armour. These are all 3D prints from Byron, with assorted decals sourced from various GW sets. 

Tactical Squad

Officer on the left, with customary scary pistol an scary sword; Vox-equipped trooper on the right.

No matter what scale you partake, when it comes to the Horus Heresy, these huge 20-man tactical squads are all kinds of fun. 

Closer view of a couple of the tactical troopers.

The 3D prints of the Mark IV armour really turned out nicely. The only real hiccup with these guys is the size of the integral chunk of resin at their feet...I find removing them to be fraught (as the resin can snap in funny ways) and I lack the hobby infrastructure to safely sand/grind them down, so I resorted to doing the best I could to shave them down with a hobby knife...not the smartest decision, and this was abandoned after a couple of the figures! 

Horus for hope!

Anyway, they look fine, and will be even better after I re-supply on grass tufts and can go on a little binge adding them to these figures. 

Assault Squad

Assault squad ready to jump into the action!

It's good to get the classic jump-pack craziness of the Horus Heresy going in my 15mm collection. I had actually started painting these guys...I dunno, a while ago, such that I was sure I had already put photos of them on the blog? But I couldn't find them...anyway, in the event I've doubled up, my apologies in advance...

Fancy weapons for the officer, as per usual.

Working class bolt pistols and chain swords for the rest of the lads!

I do love the look of the Mark IV armour on the jump pack-equipped assault marines, and I also like the style of the jump packs themselves, based around a single large jet - a layout that seems somewhat more sensible than the huge twin-jet set up of the classic armour packs - but for all that the Mark IV jet pack itself it still large enough to be very dangerous, and therefore "fit" properly with the setting. 

Lots of fun to work with these little castings!

So that's another 30 troops for cause of the Warmaster! I guess I'll need to do something to balance things out for the Loyalist side...stay tuned for more on that at some point later this summer...

Summer Painting Update Pt 1 - 15mm 30k Bits

Reinforcements for my 15mm Sons of Horus. 3d printed 15mm sized resin figures.

Well...hey, I'm still here! I'm still puttering about the hobby painting desk! I just find that once one "takes a break" from posting to the Blog then...it is very easy to keep "taking that break". A body at rest staying at rest...you know how that goes...but I have been painting since the end of Curt's Analogues Hobbies Painting Challenge, and it's past time to share some of the work. Up first, another couple of bits for my 15mm 30k project. 

These are 15mm-sized 3d prints provided by Byron M. There are two different units to share here, both from the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. We have some sinister Justaerin Terminators and then a devastator squad equipped with autocannons. Watch out, loyalists!

Justaerin Terminators

"We're heavily armed, heavily armoured, and...really grouchy!" It's the Justaerin, the elite of the XVI Legion Astartes!

The Justaerin are one of the "elite" formations found among Horus' own Legion. They are noted for their dark armour, preference for spikey-type adornments and a generally dour attitude that seems to find joy only in hitting other people. Now, I recognized it can be confusing, given that this describes like 80% of the Space Marines at the time of the Horus Heresy, but I credit the GW armour designers as the Justaerin armour manages to look quite grouchy, and so they still manage to stand apart in what might fairly be considered as a crowded field. 

Power axes for everyone!

These chaps carry combi-bolters and big, scary power axes. For a firepower boost, one fellow is equipped with a multi-meta, but note that he ALSO has a giant axe to smash people. Because 30k, right? For the power axes I went with a bit of an extreme color contrast, to help the blades stand out. It looks a bit silly up close, but from "gaming distance" it comes across nicely.

Another pair of "regular"" Justaerin fellows.

View showing some of the engineering bits on the back of the armour. You can see the fellow on the left lost his axe handle...had an unfortunate encounter with the floor...

The chunky 3d-sculpts have lots of fun little details, capturing the assorted engineering bits on that back of the suit, the recessed helmets and the flashy top-knots. One fellow lost the handle on his axe when the miniature fell to the ground and it snapped away, but I just covered the damage with paint, and figured he would go forward as an extra-grouchy fellow. 

Heavy Support - Autocannons

Mad minute, anyone?

I painted a few autocannon gunners for the loyalist side of my collection, and so naturally the Sons of Horus needed some as well! These guys are wearing the Mark VI "beakie" power armour, and there is now a whole lot else to say...I love how they look! 

Lots of ammo to keep those weapons going!

Lovely details on these 15mm figures...the 3d prints give a great result that paints up rather quickly!

Five autocannons will come in handy when the time comes to mow down some of the new loyalist figures I painted back in April during the Painting Challenge. 

That's all for this post - but stay tuned for more, on this project and several others! I hope to get at least one more painting up shared later this week. Thanks for reading, and have a great summer. 

AHPC XV Submission #12 - Early WW2 German Kradschützen

 My last submission for this year's AHPC consisted of two squads of German Kradschützen for a total of 28 men on 24 motorcycles or in sidecars for Bolt Action.

Kradschützen, vorwärts!

 These are all 3D prints using STL files purchased from MyMiniFactory of German motorcycle troops either as single bikes or bikes with sidecars. Of the various sources for 3D prints I have seen, I thought these did an excellent job of rendering the Mauser Kar98k rifles and the M35 helmets. Where they fall down a bit is in depicting the standard German ammo pouches, which look more like the German Army flashlight. A few figures even had them positioned where the flashlight was often hung from the Y-straps. There was one figure that had pouches for MP40 magazines (yeah!) but was still equipped with a rifle (boo!). Also the motorbikes don't quite look like either a BMW or a Zündapp, primarily in the position of the muffler.

All the bikes were mounted on popsicle sticks using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo German Panzer Grey Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done primarily using Vallejo acrylics (Army Painter colours indicated by AP) as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; jackets - German Fieldgrey; trousers - AP Uniform Grey; canteen covers - Flat Earth; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Charcoal Grey; belts, jackboots, ammo pouches, and bike tires - Black; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; metal weapons parts - German Grey; motorbikes - German Panzer Grey; motorbike seats, and goggle straps - AP Leather Brown. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Once the Quick Shade was dry, the bikes were mounted on bases that are either Warlord Games cavalry bases, or larger ones cut from old plastic restaurant gift cards.

 Thus concludes my painting challenge projects. Thanks for stopping by.

AHPC XV Submission #11 - More Polish 10th Motorized Brigade

 For my penultimate submission for this year's challenge I painted up some more troops for my 10th Polish Motorized Brigade, also known as 'The Black Brigade'. 

10th Polish Motorized Brigade

Ten of the figures are from a box of Warlord Games Polish Infantry Squad in Greatcoats that I bought last July at Historicon. After I got back home I decided I would rather have a fourth squad of Black Brigade motorized troops and did a bit of conversion work, carving away the gas mask bag and replacing it with a German style canister, and swapping out the heads that came with Polish helmets for spare German ones. The M35 helmet doesn't have quite the same profile as the M16 helmet, so I added 'ventilation horns' characteristic of the earlier helmet. 

The remaining 24 figures are 3D prints using an STL from MyMiniFactory of Polish motorcycle troops wearing the black leather coats that gave the formation the nickname of 'The Black Brigade'. I am generally pleased with the look of the prints, but again there are a few niggling errors - the bayonet looks more like a belt knife, being rather small and mounted too high, the profile of the helmet is off at the back, rising much like a Soviet helmet, and two of the figures have 'carrying straps to nowhere', running over the shoulder, but with nothing suspended from them like a haversack or gas mask canister.

All the figures were mounted on 25mm round bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done using Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; greatcoats and trousers - Green Brown; haversacks and equipment straps - Green Grey; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Brown Violet; belts and ammo pouches - Flat Earth; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; leather coats and metal weapons parts - German Grey; jackboots - Black, bayonets - Gungrey. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade.

Polish motorized infantry squad (front)

Polish motorized infantry squad (side)

Polish motorized infantry squad (back)

Closeup of conversion work (gas mask canister)

Closeup of conversion work (ventilation horns added to helmet)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (rear)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (side)

 Since getting these troops painted, I acquired another STL from the same designer for motorcycles with sidecars and the field car similar to the Kromlech miniatures I painted up last year, but I haven't got them printed yet. A project for AHPC XVI?

Thanks for stopping by.

AHPC XV Submission #10 - Reinforcements for the 4th Indian Division

 

During last year's painting challenge I painted up several units of the 4th Indian Division in North Africa. However I felt that they needed some additional troops. For my tenth submission I  added another six-man section of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment, two Sikh Vickers machine gun teams, two Sikh 3" mortar teams, two Sikh two-man forward observer teams, and four Indian Pattern wheeled armoured carriers, each with a three-man crew inside. The final figure is a bit of a conundrum - an Italian NCO lost somewhere in the desert.

The section of Punjabis are from an 8th Army multipart sprue by Warlord Games. All the Sikhs and the armoured carriers are 3D prints using STL files from MyMiniFactory. Some of those figures were also multipart. While I liked the general animation and sculpting of the 3D prints, the designer got a number of the small details wrong such as buckles were there shouldn't be any, and missing buckles where they should be. Also the Bren guns are a little stubby, and the 'Lee-Enfields' look more like a Mauser than the SMLE used in North Africa. These complaints are just my OCD for historical accuracy kicking in, but most people probably won't notice when the figures are deployed on the tabletop. 

All the single figures were assembled and mounted on 25mm bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. In the case of the support weapons and their crews, and the crews of the carriers, they were glued onto a popsicle stick with a small dab of PVA glue to give me something to handle while priming and painting. In the case of the carriers, only the wheels were separate pieces, and these were glued on after painting, but before any washes were applied.

All the figures and vehicle were primed with Vallejo Desert Tan Surface Primer using an airbrush, expect the wheels which were primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer. This made painting the tires so much easier than trying to do it with a paintbrush. The soldiers' uniforms were left the base colour of Desert Tan. I then painted the rest primarily with Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces, arms and legs - Cork Brown; webbing - Iraqi Sand; canteen covers and ground sheets - US Field Drab; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; boots, beards, bayonet scabbards, and metal weapons parts - German Grey; socks - Khaki; gas mask bag - Tan Yellow; turbans - Dark Sand; machine gun water jackets and tripods - Camo Olive Green; mortar tubes - Tan Yellow, bayonets - Gungrey. Once completed, everything got the ol' "Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade" treatment. When that was dry, the support weapons and crews were glued to their bases using Super Glue. Here's the final result.

Reinforcements for the 4th Indian Division

Section of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment

Sikh Vickers machine gun teams (front)

Sikh Vickers machine gun teams (rear)

Sikh 3" mortar teams (front)

Sikh 3" mortar teams (rear)

Sikh Forward Observer teams

 

 One of the more interesting items in this submission are the four Armoured Carrier, Wheeled, Indian Pattern (ACV-IP), known also as the Indian Pattern Carrier or other similar names. It was an armoured car produced in India during the Second World War based on the Canadian Military Pattern truck chassis. It was typically armed with a Boys anti-tank rifle and a Bren light machine gun. Those produced by Tata Locomotives were called "Tatanagars" after the location of the works. A total of 4,655 were produced, and used by Indian units in the Far East and Mediterranean and Middle East theatres, typically in the divisional reconnaissance regiments. My friend who did the printing for me only produced five storage bins for the back of the vehicles, so I filled in the space on three of them with various tarps and fuel cans I had in my bits box. I also had to do some trimming off the back corner of the seats of the driver and anti-tank gunner in order to get them into their slot inside the vehicle without breaking something. These were painted using the Caunter camouflage scheme similar to the vehicles I did last year. The Vallejo colours used, going from lightest to darkest, are Ivory, Stone Grey, and German Field Grey. The vehicles then got a wash consisting of a mixture of 3 parts Citadel Seraphim Sepia, 3 parts Citadel Agrax Earthshade, and 4 parts water. When that was dry, they got a liberal application of Vallejo Wash FX Desert Dust.

IWM photo of an Indian Pattern carrier with Caunter camo dated April 1942

 

 

The last figure in this submission is one I was gifted by fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscript, DallasE. It is an old Battle Honours mini he acquired two decades ago from either Bartertown or eBay with the purchase of a mixed bag of what was advertised as British 8th Army and German DAK. When I got him, he was still shiny metal. He was painted using a method similar to the Indian troops, and will now join my North Africa Italians from last year's challenge.

 Thanks for stopping by.