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.

French 15th Dragoons

This unit has been sitting patiently awaiting the arrival of some replacement GMB flags for a couple of months, until I realised that I had a spare chasseur flag with essentially the correct battle honours and so was finally able to complete it. 

The 15e dragoons are the last of the four line dragoon regiments for my French army, and along with the Empress Dragoons makes five regiments in all. I used a lighter shade of pink for the facings on this unit than I had applied to the cuirassiers earlier, and think it contrasts nicely with the green uniform:

As for the flag, well all it is potentially missing is Albuera. Who knows whether that battle honour was ever actually applied alongside the others  and, in 28mm, who will really ever notice anyway?

I'm eagerly awaiting a replacement order from GMB so I can complete the last nine regiments of French cavalry, including four units of lancers where the GMB lancer pennons should work very well.

I'm currently trudging my way through sixty or so 15mm samurai cavalry and will hopefully them completed within the next few weeks.

15mm Samurai Bow

 The next tranche of figure for this project are eight elements of samurai bow, comprised of 32 figures:

There are two different poses, with one shooting and the other looking as though he's about to draw another arrow from his quiver:

I did a few less sashimonos for these, primarily because they would only sit correctly on the shooting figure:

I initially gave tried out a few bowmen with the traditional red and black hoops on the bow, which took me ages to do but ended up looking too busy so I painted over them and reverted to a basic red. At least the red bow is itself a traditional colour:

The figures are again from Eureka and have a nice amount of detail for "true" 15mm sculpts:

I'm keen to get stuck into some samurai cavalry, but will complete another regiment of 28mm French dragoons before I do. I've grown a little tired of waiting for the replacement flags to arrive so will use a spare chasseur standard which has roughly the right battle honours, just to finally move them off the painting queue. 

15mm Samurai

While awaiting the arrival of some flags to replace an order from February which appears to have gone astray, and which I need to complete the last ten regiments of French cavalry, I thought I'd get started on a 15mm Samurai army for DBMM starting with twenty-seven elements of samurai foot:

I went with Eureka Miniatures which are a true 15mm, so look quite small next to my other Xyston DBMM armies but will fit in nicely alongside my Khurasan Tibetan army:

That said, the details are certainly still there:

I found them quite fiddly to paint, not because of the sculpts which are very nice, but because of all the lace on the samurai armour:

I stuck with a few basic designs for the sashimono banners to keep try to keep things somewhat muted, essentially just black, white and red:

There are six different foot warrior designs:

Plus a general and standard bearer figure for the command stands:

 

That's a total of 110 figures in all, with two left over for a camp:

Next up, some samurai bow.

French 1st Chasseurs

While I await the arrival of a GMB flag order to complete the last of the dragoon regiments I remembered I have a few chasseur flags on hand, so thought I'd get stuck into the first of three chasseur regiments with the 1e Chasseurs:

Probably not the most exciting of French cavalry uniforms, but no French army would be complete without them:

The reverse trumpeter at least adds a little bit of interest, and the GMB flags always look effective:

That's fourteen regiments now completed since January. Not as many as I had hoped for by this stage, but at least I am over the halfway mark in terms of French cavalry:

Next up will be the dragoons. We have been subjected to a short four-day (so far, anyway) lockdown here in Brisbane during which postal deliveries have been suspended, so I am hoping  next week will see their arrival. Having said that it has now been four months since they were posted so I may end up just using one of the spare chasseur flags, if I can find one with roughly equivalent battle honours.

French Grenadiers a Cheval

While I have only one dragoon regiment to go, I thought it was time get stuck into another Guard regiment with the Grenadiers a Cheval:

I purchased these in around 2008 and undercoated them two and a half years ago, so they have been patiently awaiting their turn:

The figures are from Foundry, and the flag again from GMB:

's

That's thirteen regiments done, so over halfway to the twenty-four I have planned:

I ordered a bunch of GMB flags back in February and am still eagerly awaiting their arrival so I can complete the last of the dragoons. I fear it has gone astray, but am clinging to the hope it might still turn up. 

French 2nd Dragoons

It's back the red facings of the 2e Dragoons for the third of four regiments, this time with Perry figures:

The flag is from GMB as usual, and I have again included the elite company for a bit of variety:

I'm not quite sure what I did with the camera settings on this one as they came out looking a bit shinier than they are in reality, having had a couple of coats of Testors Dullcote (which seems to be in short supply here in Australia at the moment). I always seem to magically find a new setting on my phone camera each time I use it, just to keep things interesting:

I have the last exam for the semester coming up this Friday before a four or five week break so I am hoping I'll be able to step up my output, for the next month at least.