15mm Samurai Camp and Baggage

 After having painted so many ashigaru I was very much looking forward to getting stuck into a camp and seven baggage elements. Of course, most of the figures are ashigaru porters and attendants, but at least there was only a handful of them and there was some nice variety in the poses:

The camp and most of the figures are from Eureka Miniatures, with the drum and drummers, baggage and the ashigaru holding the umbrella from Museum Miniatures. There is no doubt the latter are larger and more rounded than the more slightly-built Eureka figures, but I don't think the difference is too noticeable here:

I found the samurai feudal symbols online and have used the circle with the three spokes on a few banners, so decided to use it for the camp as well. I hope in retrospect that it hasn't ended up looking too much like a Mercedes Benz trade display at a motor show:

The baggage elements are exclusively Museum Miniatures. They are great figures to paint and certainly a lot more robust than I was expecting them to be. First up is a trio of ashigaru having a drink and something to eat:

Next some baggage mules:

Some ashigaru porters, in two different poses:

And finally two ashigaru carrying a palanquin, which looks rather uncomfortable for the occupant:

That's the samurai baggage elements completed, with only twenty-one elements of sohei monks now left to finish. With any luck I'll be back into some 28mm French Napoleonic cavalry within a week.

15mm Ashigaru with Bow

These sixteen elements of bow-armed figures represent the last of the ashigaru. I enjoyed painting these much more than the previous kneeling and running ashigaru armed with yari and naginata, mainly because these poses are more straightforward and all parts of the figures were easily accessible:

The DBMM rules allow an upgrade to four elements protected by pavises which were also fun to paint:

The figures are again Eureka, and are supplied in a standing and kneeling pose:

I purchased the pavises separately from Museum Miniatures. Quite a straightforward rendition of a pavise which were sometimes decorated but apparently often left unpainted when used by ashigaru:

I also completed the maximum allowable two elements of arquebus-armed ashigaru:

Another 71 figures achieved toward this project then, with completion now in sight:

Next off the production line will be some baggage and camp figures. These contain a fair bit of variety so should be even more fun to paint.

15mm Ashigaru with Naginata

 The first batch of figures completed for 2022 is twenty-four elements comprised of 72 figures of Ashigaru armed with the shorter naginata pole weapon. These figures really should be double-based with the samurai cavalry in DBMM as followers. I wanted to keep them separate to give myself flexibility for other rule sets however and have made separate sabot bases to combine them for DBMM purposes:

The figures are again from Eureka Miniatures and the poses are the same as the already completed yari-armed ashigaru, with standing, running and kneeling figures:

With essentially 234 of these figures across the three poses I again did a few in black armour, just to break things up a bit:

As to my final 2021 figure tally, this came out as 910 foot and mounted riders with 355 horses, so 1265 figures in all, so not a bad effort. There were 292 28mm French Napoleonic cavalry horses plus 169 riders completed in this lot, so on a points basis that equates to a total of 3913 points.

Not a bad effort considering I had also crammed some extra study in to complete my law degree to the point I now only have four subjects left to go, and we had our brush with COVID between Christmas and New Year. 

With regard to the latter, the two children still at home tested positive first, followed by my wife a few days later. I then started waking up in the mornings feeling exhausted, followed by a general lack of motivation where even the smallest of household jobs seemed insurmountable. I essentially spent the week on the couch watching the Ashes cricket test, so my other half was not impressed when my PCR test result eventually came back negative. 

Next up the last of the ashigaru, this time armed with bows.

15mm Ashigaru with Yari

 Another 54 elements comprised of 162 figures completed toward the Samurai army. This troop type is classified as Fast Pike in DBMM, which I think is quite an apt description. 

As with the remainder of the army the figures are all Eureka, and have three basic poses; kneeling, advancing and standing. I thought about mixing the figures up on each base but decided that might look a bit silly, so kept the different pose types together. Given that they will be operating in three ranks anyway, this was probably the most sensible approach:

I painted most of them in red armour, with a smaller proportion in black armour for variety:

I gave most of the figures sashimonos but left a few without, to make them easier to pick up during a game. regardless of this I have a feeling I'll be gluing a few back on after each encounter:

Next up will be some more Ashigaru with naginata who will be used as followers, to essentially provide close support to the already-completed samurai cavalry.

15mm Japanese Peasants

The samurai army list has an option for up to sixty elements of "horde", either as Japanese peasants or the more useful Ikko Ikki fanatics. The latter are rated 'superior' in DBMM and, while they only have a factor of 2, they can attract a plus 2 if scoring higher than the enemy. They also only cost 2 points each which, given most foot elements are 7 to 8 points and we normally play 400 point games, seems like good value to me. Quantity does have its own quality after all, and so I decided to go for the maximum and paint 300 figures:

The figures are all Eureka with a choice of four poses, so each base has a double-up. 

They were not unpleasant peasants to paint and certainly a lot less fussy than samurai, but with this many figures it turned into a bit of slog.

Three hundred figures is almost like a mini army within the army, and I'm looking forward to picking my moment and springing a surprise when the samurai force first goes into battle (none of my group are active in the blogosphere so I'm fairly confident of preserving the element of surprise):

Next up some ashigaru with yari, which should be a lot more interesting to paint.

15mm Samurai Cavalry

 It was a long weekend last week and I managed to get the Samurai cavalry for this project completed, with 18 elements of cavalry and three elements with mounted generals:

The figures are again all Eureka Miniatures, and are a true 15mm. I'm hoping three mounted generals will be enough, but alone with the three foot that will be six generals in total:

Generals aside, there are a mixture of nine poses among cavalry with three each of bow, katana and naginata:

The sashimonos are also a pain to glue on and won't withstand rough handling, but I think are worth the effort:

That's all the samurai, mounted, foot and bow, now completed for this army:

Next up some peasants. They look a lot simpler to paint, but I have 300 of them to do which will no doubt take some time so will split them into two lots of 150, interspersed with some ashigaru to help preserve my sanity.