HotT Army Showcase #5: Wakizashi Slashi!

Sheesh! What a crap title.

This particular HotT army grew out of a fascination with samurai Japan, the movie Ran and taking more than a passing interest in Luke Ueda-Sarson's army lists. Zvezda, as before, provided most of the figures and their Samurai range even has a portable shrine coming soon. Ikko-ikki anyone?

I decided that I would best be served by adapting one of Luke's list to my own idea of what a fantasy Samurai army should contain. That is a solid core of infantry plus some fantastical/heroic elements. I still feel I should add one of Dixon Miniatures Oni to the list; we'll see. I also created a sheet of labels for each element's stand.

The colour scheme was fairly easy to settle upon. I used the movie Ran as a source of inspiration. So, red armour; the light blue banners of the hero Saburo, and LOADS of polka dots on, mostly, bright contrasting fabrics.

With the above in mind I bought a box of Samurai commanders reasoning that an army needs a general and the other figures would come in handy elsewhere. Which they did.

1. Blades (Samurai) General
Seen here with his bare-headed bodyguard which shows how hard they are.

2. Blades (Samurai)

3. Knights (Samurai)

4. Shooters (Samurai)

5. Spears (Ashigaru)

6. Hero (Samurai)

Seen here with his pitch-fork wielding bodyguard, Nakka, and his loyal servant, Mushi, who gets to hump the lunches and The Heroic Deeds Record Book.

7. Lurker (Ninjas)

Seen here dressed as peasants ambushing some unfortunates from the cover of a rockery.

8. Lurker (Ninjas)

Seen here in their traditional black garb assaulting some other unfortunates from the cover of a smoke-screen. Although it now resembles one of Shelob's webs. That is not necessarily as bad thing though.

9. Dragon (Ryu)

The only figure in the army that isn't Zvezda. I got this ryu from a Chinese gift shop near Birmingham Market. It came with a base but I managed to separate them without shattering either. Quite a feat of engineering let me tell you. I painted it up as per this image and I think it came out pretty well. It was only on closer inspection I noticed it only has three legs instead of the traditional four. I put this down to a near-death encounter with a naginata-wielding Hero and the well-known animal ability to make light of amputation.

10. The Stronghold

I did think a Japanese castle model would make a fun stronghold but then the need to build my own, ok, I'm cheap and cheerful, took over. The lads will, when defending, be looking after this shrine-like stronghold.

11. The Army in Review Order

And finally...

A picture of a cat's head cushion under a pink blanket for no reason whatsoever:

What patchwork. Such pink. WOW!

Welcome to new blog members Mike and Uncle Brian they both run super blogs and you should go and have a look asap.

Updates as they happen!