54mm Samurai finished

54mm Samurai

I made it.  A week before Cancon and my 54mm Osprey Men-at-arms Samurai is done.  Over the last week I finished off the details on the three yellow circles on the back which turned out quite nice.  I’m wishing that it was on the front to be honest.  I then did the usual few nights of poking a things which didn’t really need any work as it’s hard to stop.  But you have to, otherwise you end up ruining something by mucking around without any real purpose.

Side shot

Once the figure was glued onto the base (using two part epoxy glue) I did a quick tidy up to cover the glue and then blending the ground and the figure with some pigments to get a more soil like look.  I used some dark browns, light browns and black pigments dry and went for the “less is more” approach to avoid the ground becoming over worked.  Dry pigments make things look very dull and flat.  Great for dusty tanks, but on figures can kill all of your paint work and make the entire thing look very bland.

Lovely rear design

With two figures done I did a test fit into my new carry case and now I’m all ready to go.  I just have to wait a week.  Now for all those pesky 28mm figures that are sitting in the background and need to be finished off to satisfy the completionist in me.

54mm Samurai finishing parts

Quick post as I have to get back and do some more painting tonight hopefully.

Almost done

The naginata was glued in place (with 2 part epoxy glue) however some paint on the handle was scraped off so that area had to be primed again.  I first tried painting the handle in a light brown (VMC German Light Brown) but after shading it just looked like a tube, not a wooden handle.  So that was scraped and I went for a more bamboo wood look.  The base coat was a tan yellow with darker brown (VGC Bestial Brown) used to mark the bamboo segments.  An off white was used as the gradual highlight to try and represent some wood texture.  It breaks up the handle quite well and avoids the tube look previously done.

The metal blade on the naginata was highlighted up with VMA Aluminium and shaded down with VMA metallic Black and straight black.  Probably need to pop the contrast a bit more on this.

Start of the back design

I started on a design on the back as it was looking a bit plain.  I liked the idea of three yellow circles in the same colour as yellow trim on the front of the figure.  In the picture is the base coat down with more shading to occur.  The shade/highlight colours will be the same as the rest of the yellow on the figure.

Base completed

On the base the gap between the wall and the ground was puttied up and painted up to match the ground rocks at the front and plain black at the rear.  So the base is pretty much done.

So final push is finishing off the back design and the last few tidy up areas on the figure to make sure there aren’t any over paints, etc.

54mm Samurai base work

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and survived the new year parties.  I was off visiting family interstate for the last two weeks so all painting activities took an enforced break.  However just back and I cracked on with some of the base work for my 54mm Samurai figure.

Samurai base work

Cobblestones

I think I finally got the cobblestones the way I like.  I went for a very dark brown for the dirt colour and darker greys of the rocks with a few odd red/ochres for variety.  To tie the ground to the wall a filter of dark green/brown was done over all the rocks and dirt once the highlighting of the rocks was completed.  I wanted the ground to be quite dark so the much more colourful and brighter figure really pops.

Reeds and bushes

For the grass area on the side I first painted it with a dark olive green (Coat d’arms Russian Green) and then covered this with various scatter materials in the darker green/olive colours.  I also make up a few reed bushes to add some height variation.  Holes were drilled into the ground for these bushes to be mounted in.  Also I added a few brown grass tufts.  Again trying to get a wide variation of the ground cover.  When the glue is all dry I will paint the reeds and grass tufts to add some natural colours (e.g. the grass tufts having bits of green and yellow in them rather than being all brown).

Strangely the green doesn't really show

On the wall I finished the oil blends on the rocks and then did an overall filter of dark olive green with a second, heavier coat of the olive green down the bottom of the stone work.  I’m trying for a very wet and slimy look to the wall and ground.  Also I want both the wall and ground to be quite drab so all the attention is on the figure.

Of the figure, I need to finish up the naginata which I will do once it is glued in place.  The basic shading/highlighting is done but there will definitely be some scraps getting it into place.  I have to be very careful not to snap off the arms when forcing/assisting the naginata into place as they are just glued and not pinned.   Still thinking about doing a pattern on the back of the figure.

Finally I repainted the base in the gloss black to hide any bumps/scuffs that have occurred along the way.

54mm Samurai arms and display base work

Serious air guitar

Well despite the Xmas silly season being well underway and a late night party that became a early morning party good progress was made.  This is my last weekend as the next two are out with holiday activities so definitely into the business end of getting this figure done.

Putty work

Repaint done

Both arms were glued on (using two part epoxy glue) and the gaps puttied up.  It’s a bit odd after a few months of seeing the figure without any arms.  He suddenly looks a lot squatter.  After 24 hours the putty was undercoated and again left overnight to dry.  I was a bit worried about trying to blend the new sections back in with the rest of the figure but it worked out to be easier than expected.  I think this was because both sides of the arms where the putty was were in the lighter sections and the highlighting up was easier than the shading.  I found that the first two coats of paint over the undercoat had to be thicker than normal but after than the blends were as normal.  Also I made sure when I was blending in the new section that I blended over some of the existing painted section as well.  This overlap would help hide the new paint work, as you will never get a paint mixture exactly the same as the first time you did it.

New wall

On the base I painted up the wall section much like my test piece from earlier.  On the test piece I also started trying out some oil paint blends and washes to see if that improved things much.  It did a bit, but I also want to do a little bit of pigment work too while I have the chance as the test piece and the real piece are very close.  I’m pretty much sold on always doing test piece for terrain bases going forward.

Many trials, lots of error

On the cobblestones still no luck.  Many attempts but all don’t really seem to work with the rest of the piece.  I’m currently trialling a very light dirt/mortar colour with the rocks being the same range of greys that make up the wall.  Hopefully next week I’ll get this sorted out.  Also I need to complete the naginata.

54mm Samurai arms and Dungeon Saga homemade case

This week was arms, a wall and a whole lot of styrene card and glue fumes.

Arms

First up I worked on the arms of my 54mm Samurai.  Using my new green colour scheme of using VMC German Uniform Green as the shade colour (with some VGC Night blue for the final shades) for the Jade Green base coat worked a lot better.  The figure does have some limitations.  The arms have a pitted surface (deliberate, not bad casting) to represent a cloth texture.  However it just looks like someone stuck a pin in the putty while the figure was being made.  I know, I’ve done the same and this is exactly what it looks like.  Never a good look, just comes off as poor sculpting.  Odd as the gauntlets are really well done.  So it just detracts from the figure somewhat.

Glove love

The gauntlets I base coated in VMC Beasty Brown and shaded down with VMC Smoke.  The highlights were done in VGC Khaki and VGC Dead white.  I was really happy with the gloves.  I never get brown highlighting right but this time things came together and in a very small area (3mm x 3mm) I got some great blending and real contrast.  Pretty chuffed to be honest.

Next will be the naginata and then glue time and tidy up.  I might just make Cancon.

Base colours on the wall

At night I blocked out the base colours of the wall section using 4-5 different greys and some high impact (i.e. different from grey) colours.  After all the stones were done I did the pointing in VMC Tan Yellow.  My only problem is with so many greys when I was doing the second coat I’m pretty sure I mismatched the second coat compared to the original.  I’m going to call that deliberate as it add more variation.  Next step is to start the shading work and there are a lot of stones to do.  Gone are the easy days of 28mm terrain and the quick two stage dry brush.

Flat card + glue = box

Now that I have my Dungeon Saga kickstarter I need something to put all the figures in.  The game comes with a cardboard slip case and the wife mentioned I should make a box to go into the the slip case to hold the figures.  I needed something light so I got some 1mm styrene card and some styrene square tubing and made up a box to fit the slip case.  The square tubing is used in the corners and on the bottom as reinforcing.  I cut a hole in the front so you can put your finger in and pull out the tray.  Since these pictures I’ve undercoated the whole thing black ready for some final colour (undecided as yet).  Now I need to find room on the shelf to put it.

Like it was made for it