Four or five years ago I decided to buy and paint a 28mm
Samurai army. I choose the excellent Perry Miniatures. Samurai proved
challenging to paint up, but the results were impressive due to the quality of
the animation and sculpting of the figures. I initially based them for
Warhammer Ancient Battles (which I played a few times, and quite enjoyed), but
I have since remounted them individually on 2p bases. I now play using the
Impetus rule set, and the figures are moved on standard sized MDF movement
bases. In total I have just over 600 points of troops, which splits neatly into
two 300 point armies for Impetus. Unfortunately this split creates two almost
identical armies, which can be rather boring. Therefore I want to add a few
more units to enable more variation to be achieved. I particularly need more
mounted samurai, and 12 mounted figures would allow 3 more units to be
assembled. Using Perry Miniatures this would cost £34, but at the Warfare show
I noticed a box of 12 Wargames Factory figures on sale for only £16.50 (less
than half the price), so I bought them!
I did have some concerns because I had not been particularly
impressed with the standard of Wargames Factory plastics when I had previously assembled
and painted their Gallic cavalry. Anyway I thought that at the price I paid, I
could not lose. I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by the figures. They
assembled easily, and showed that good variation and animation could be
achieved. The only problem I encountered was the horses; they had to be glued
on to separate bases and often the poses had only 1 or 2 hooves in ‘flat’
contact with the base/ground. I used various methods to ‘prop’ the completed
figures while they dried/hardened over night. Unfortunately by the morning a
couple the horses had ‘sagged’. I did consider removing them from the base and
re-gluing, but I instead decide to keep them and model them as casualty figures
by the addition of arrow impacts. The box did allow for archer figures to be
constructed, but as I was focussing on late period Samurai, I did not use any
of these arm combinations and instead used only the yari/naganta/katana arms. I
also did not use any of the ‘balloon’ type of sashimono, nor any of the
non-helmeted heads.
As a wargamer I was rather slow to move from metal to
plastic figures, possibly I was put off by the 40K/Warhammer genre that
plastics previously catered for. I now find I like plastics more and more. I
enjoy the process of constructing the figures. The ease of conversion and
addition of minor variations between figures to create an individual, unique
figure is rewarding. The reduced cost, and weight, is also a major attraction.
I can see plastics dominating my 28mm purchases in the future, with metal
figures supplying the more unique and command elements of my units and armies.
The
next step was to prime the figures using black primer. By using black primer
the later painting of Samurai armour is greatly simplified, especially because
I decided that I would not have any figures wearing red lacquered armour, all
would wear black lacquer armour. As I like to use the 3-tone method of painting
for 28mm figures, the next step was to ‘block’ out the main colours, and also
to paint the horses. I hate painting horses! Ideally, I would have
liked to have had a good number of piebald and skewbald horses but my previous
efforts at painting these types of horses have been far from convincing. I end
up with horses that look more like Friesian cattle than anything equine, and
even then, they are less bovine than the infamous Milton Keynes concrete cows!
The sashimono flags were left white and only painted up after all the rest of
the figure was completed. I decided to paint generic sashimono designs rather
than use recorded, historical mons (I was being lazy!).
I find the ‘blocking’ out step to be the most time-consuming
stage and the dull appearance of the figures at the end, to be most
off-putting. Now comes the stage of applying the main colour and highlights. I
love the way that the figure suddenly starts to come to life at this stage. I
even enjoyed the task of painting the lace on the armour, although with these
figures I did not repeat the multi-coloured, intricate patterns of lacing I had
painted on my earlier Perry figures.
Instead I used a single colour on each section of armour, which was much
quicker to do and still gave the visual affect I was looking for. Finally,
after vanishing and highlighting the metal areas, I based the figures in units,
rather than individually, because I can only see me using them within Impetus
games.
Overall, these 12 figures took just over 3 weeks to
complete, from assembly to based units. I am happy with the results and plan to
get a box of Ashigaru missile troops from Wargames Factory in the near future,
to further expand my army. The figures do mix well with my Perry miniatures,
and if I had my time again, I would have used these plastic figures to
construct the entire army rather than the more expensive metal figures I have.
That is not to say I am unhappy with my Perry army, because the quality of the
Perry figures is top notch.
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