Ronin - First Foray into Wargaming and a Playset Complete! (Now with Paddies!)

[Keith]

What a wonderful thread!
Really inspired after looking through this.

[Elk101]

Great collection and I like your painting style.

[Cacique Caribe]

Amazing work.

Just one question, did you use some sort of softening haze-like filter when taking those photos?  Or are my eyes acting up again?

Thanks

Dan

[Jack Hooligan]

The Sohei are all Northstar games' sohei warband, while the Bandits/Pirates are all Perry miniatures (with some minor conversions to make them feel a little less like Ikko-Ikki and a little more like bandits!) with the exception of the senior ronin with forked Yari, who is a test of honour miniature. Also threw in a bonus shot of some probably incomplete parts of a bushi warband (still working on the red and might go back over the armor) and an unfinished unarmored ronin/sword school member.

Any suggestions for additions to my terrain collection, especially things I can make myself on the cheap? Beyond what I have shown I have some bamboo from ebay that just needs some painting and another 4ground peasant's house and Koryu Dojo, but I'd love to hear everyone's ideas to flesh everything out more! Thanks for looking!

Both Together:

I just realized, that I'll be using the same two buntai's to start my Ronin games with. Both will be from the Northstar sets though. What colors did you use for the skin tones here? They look fantastic.

[Charlemagne]

I just realized, that I'll be using the same two buntai's to start my Ronin games with. Both will be from the Northstar sets though. What colors did you use for the skin tones here? They look fantastic.

Thanks so much, and that's cool to hear! Metternich will probably tell you that for balance you should be allowed to take the ronin as a senior (which is what North Star describes him as anyways, and will make for a clean 200 points with the units in the box).

As for skintone my process is somewhat complicated but only involves 1 paint + white and 2 washes:

I basecoat in Vallejo Game Extra Opaque "Heavy Skintone", then apply an all-over wash to the skin with army painter strong tone, then paint progressively higher highlights (3-4 times) of increasingly large mixes of white and the original heavy skintone to the point where the highlights are "a bit much", then re-unify the skintone with a decently substantial wash of army painter "flesh wash", which acts almost like a heavy glaze to bring the colors back together. I hope that helps!