From KentG: 28mm Ninja’s and monks + Samurai (125pts)

Firstly I’d like to apologise for not commenting much

On so many wonderful submissions, normally I do this at 

Work as my iPad I just can’t seem to be able to.

Work has been crazy with very few moments to do anything.

I love commenting so hope to be able to soon

This week I’m back to my Feudal Japan project thought I’d paint up 

Some worrier monks, ninjas and a couple of Samurai in civilian clothing

These monks(Sohei) are Perry Miniatures metals painted to be in the service

Of Taira Clan UJI(KYOTO) June - 1180

It wasn’t till I took the photos that I realised I had painted many of the

 figures exactly the same, I’m really please with these fellas,

 I have a few more to do but the figures are from grey for now games.

Next up 10 ninjas and for some reason I had been put these ones off

They are painted up in the service of Uesugui Kenshin summer of 1559

This is another of the Perry figures, didn’t realise how many I had bought

Still enjoy them, I decided I needed to do a few that were not so finely dressed

This is a footsore miniatures figure from their Ronin set, 

I decided the complete opposite with this miniature 

Decorating him up as much as I could, but hopefully 

Not to much

Here they are mixing it up together 

Points 

There are 25 x28mm foot @ 5pts each

Total 125 pts

From Millsy:

Oooh! These are just gorgeous Kent.

The black clothing on the ninjas has plenty of depth and your yellows and browns are rich and warm. All of that, despite how good it is, pales in comparison to your lone Ronin. His clothing is spectacular and matches so well to his basing.

And that final picture. What a wonderful way to showcase your work this week. It makes we want to crack out the old Shintaro shows and dive right in.

Right up to your usual standard mate and fully deserving of 125 points.

Cheers,

Millsy

From StuartL - Spider-Woman - Lady Sarah's Star Yacht - 35 Points

Hello again,

For my second post for the free fire period, I have painted up a Spider-Woman. No, this isn't a character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but one from Japanese Mythology. 

The Jorougumo (lit. Woman-spider) is a spider like creature from Japanese legends that can shapeshift into the form of a beautiful woman. There is a common breed of spider over here in Japan, (and I believe in parts of the US now) known as the Jorou-gumo (or Joro Spider), that is a large, brightly coloured spider that is perhaps the origin of the myth. While the spiders do look kind of creepy, they are harmless to humans and only prey on insects. The mythological version is not as benign and lures humans to its lair to devour them. 

The model is from Reaper Bones and was fairly quick to paint up. Assembly was made a bit easier due to the flexibility of the Bones material. Each of the legs has a peg on the foot that slots into the base. If this model were made of metal like Reaper's usual figures, it would have been a lot trickier to line things up.

I will be using this model to pay for my passage on Lady Sarah's Star Yacht (I hope Lady Sarah doesn't mind a few cobwebs in the cabin), which will take me back to Solaris. I have already finished off all my planet related entries, but I had some alternative models for a few of the planets that I decided that I would paint up anyway.

Following the theme of Japanese culture, what could be more appropriate for the themes of deception and illusion than a pair of Ninja?

These two stealthy assassins are from Zenit miniatures in Spain. I picked up a big box of used Zenit figures a few years ago and I have been very slowly assembling and painting them. The figures are very well cast, but tend to be very delicate, with small connection points between parts.

So, for 3x 28mm minis I should be able to add 15 points to my total. This is also my first trip aboard the yacht, so I can claim 20 bonus points there, for a grand total of 35 points.

I hope to be back later in the week with some more minis. See you then.

___________________________

Good grief, more spiders! 

Seriously, that is a very interesting figure, Stuart, and I like the way you've painted her with the white garments juxtaposed against the creepy spider legs. I did a Jorougumo a year or so ago from the Rising Sun wargame. Very cool mythology. The Ninja look excellent as well - I especially like how you've done their black garb. Great models those.

Well done Stuart!

- Curt

from Paul O'G: Shadow Warriors in Greyscale (70 points)

This submission was totally unplanned but became quite an absorbing (and distracting!) experiment.  Recently I have been revisiting Samurai skirmish gaming with the Ronin rules. Back in AHPC VI I painted a small force of unarmored Sword masters and thought I might surprise Reilly but adding some Ninjas (surprise Lad!).  As I saw the greyscale entries for the Chamber of Darkness, I thought it might be a great opportunity to give this very different style of painting a try. Stealthy Ninjas by moonlight would be dark and monochrome anyway, right? How hard could it be? Boy did I learn a lot.

Lets just say it was lucky I had 10 figures in this project so that I had multiple opportunities to improve.  I think trying to keep the figures' dark and sinister look meant that I further reduced the available desaturated palette.  I started with a Grey Seer undercoat and then used the GW Black Templar contrast paint as starting point. 

I was challenged in thinking about light direction while also using highlights to achieve a pseudo metallic finish for weapons glinting in the moonlight - but I'm pleased overall with the effect. I also added a few discrete spot colours through bloodstains and red flowers on the leader’s base, thought the latter doesn't work so well as it distracts the eye from the figure (maybe it is a Ninja stealth technique!). These discrete bloodspots are quite different to the usual messy blood stains on my beastmen's axes!

Along the way I was heavily inspired by Michael Awdry’s fantastic Seven Greyscale Samurai from back in AHPC III (http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/2013/02/from-michaela-seven-samurai-in.html) and Curt’s greyscale WW1 project (where I learned the term ‘chiaroscuro’!).

Overall, I did not fully achieve the look I was after but am happy enough. I appreciated the challenge of trying something new, which I wouldn’t have otherwise done, and I would welcome constructive comments and ideas.  This submission is ten metal 28mm figures from Warlord's "Ninjas of Iga" range.

For a bit of self indulgence, this is what I have painted during 14 days of isolation - the only TV I watched was the news and both seasons of The Mandalorian (how good is that!). Then again the whole ‘working from home’ thing really got in the way :-)

The Ninja look quite at home slinking at the back next to the monchrome wall!

From RossM - 15mm Undead and 28mm Ninja (27 points)

Last of the scheduled posts and last of the undead this side of the Challenge, this time its a stand of ghouls.

These were painted with table top gaming in mind and most definitely not award winning standards.

Out of all the figures in the Undead army for some reason these are my least favourite which is why there are only two stands in the whole army. Can't say why I just don't like the figures much. Perhaps that is why the paint job was rushed on these as there is still time in the challenge to do more.

Now on to the Ninja, which came as a special request from Thursday's Minion JamieM who suggested that due to the Rule of Cool Ninja's top Romano Brits and guess what - they do.

The figures are from Dixon Miniatures and although older figures still have a huge amount of character and are well posed.

Some of the hands are a bit on the large side, that said this isn't a major issue when you consider the size of some weapons on other figures.

Have to say that not only black a sod to paint, its not easy to photograph under artificial lights as well.       Some of the highlighting on the black is a bit lost in the pictures.

Although its not easy to see the black started as well black and then was layered with Vallejo Dark Grey and Foundry Charcoal B/C mix. The whole figure was then washed in a wash of Nuln Oil to a 1:4 ratio with water and Army Painters Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium to knock the highlights back a bit.

The hex bases fit in with previous Ninja painted and as they will be mostly used for skirmish gaming a hex is as good as a circle. Contentious or what.

Overall very pleased with these dark assassins.

For my point tally here are the scores

3 x 15mm infantry - 6 points

4 x 28mm infantry - 20 points

Sub total 26

Challenge total so far 267 out of 300. The WWII German armour and perhaps another Ninja or two will see this successfully completed. 

Cheers for now, 

Ross

It warmed the cockles of my dark minion heart when I saw you'd popped some ninjas into your last Thursday post Ross, excellent work indeed!  I agree with you on ghouls in general, they're just not as snazzy as massed ranks of skellingtons for some reason.... but you've done a top job on these ones, the pallid flesh and lank hair reminds me of my university days......

The ninjas are the pick of the bunch though - I wholeheartedly agree with you on the trials and tribulations of painting black, I find myself constantly knocking back the highlights and then re-applying them.  Lovely job on these, I'm especially impressed with the basing, hexes get extra kudos from me and the shrubbery looks great.  I like the mix of weapons and poses, but the unarmed chap seeming to taunt his opponent is my favourite - you can just imagine them all dancing around a Bruce Lee type figure before attacking one by one in true film tradition!  I'm going to give you an extra point for having given in to the voices and painting them before the Romano-British (who are no doubt sulking about being passed over), so 268 points done and only 6.5 28mm figures to go!

Thanks for your submissions this challenge Ross, the nostalgic old school figures have been my favourites.... and the ninjas too of course!