Ronin - Swords-for-Hire Update

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice painting.

[Cat]

Very nice looking indeed!

[Mr. White]

Thanks, all, for looking and the positive feedback!

The last of the mythological creatures for Ronin. L to R: Kitsune, Jorogumo, Tengu

[Hobgoblin]

Superb! I love the skull-filled niches in the rocks too!

[Kikuchiyo]

Where are the buildings from, I'm wondering if I could get away with using them with 40mm figures

[Lost Egg]

I like your idea of painting the terrain before the minis and a great selection of terrain you have.

Your minis are great too and everything ties in together so well. Cracking job all round.

[Mr. White]

Thanks for the kind words!

Yeah, getting terrain done first motivates me a little more to work on actual minis because they have somewhere to stand around and hang out while waiting for the others get their coat of paint. Doing terrain last feels kinda anti-climatic to me and I found I drug my feet. So, get the less exciting stuff done first and when models are painted their table is ready.

Speaking of terrain, I'm using the Mountain Village set form Oshiro: https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/28mountainvillage

[Mr. White]

The Rampant series from Osprey is another ruleset I’ve become enamored with in recent years. While painting Ronin models, I’ve kept an eye on what could be combined into a larger force so I could flex the same models between both rulesets. So, without further ado, here’s the 24point Dragon Rampant warband using three Ronin buntais and three mythological creatures, the Yami No Taiyo (or the Dark Sun). Starting with the Jorogumo and going clockwise:

• Lady Kage (Leader): Light Riders (Single Model Unit – 4pts)
• Shuten-Doji & the Amanojaku: Bellicose Foot (Reduced Model Unit – 4pts)
• Shadow Dancers: Scouts with Invisibility (5pts)
• Bandits of the Dark Sun: Light Foot with Mixed Weapons (5pts)
• Hypnotized Swordsmen: Elite Foot (6pts)

Even though Jorogumo don’t work with Bandits, officially, in Ronin, I painted them in similar colors knowing they were going to be her general foot troops in Dragon Rampant. Also, Jorogumo can lead Koryu in Ronin by entrancing them. Here, I’m using them hypnotized as her elite guard. The Oni, Amanojakuo, and Ninja…well they’re up for working in her employ for their own shadowy goals.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice work again.

I like the ideas on scaling up to Dragon Rampant.

[Mr. White]

Thanks!
I think their first opponent as a Dragon Warrior warband might be my friend's.... fantasy Greek DR warband. ha. I guess it'll be a "Deadliest Warrior the tabletop wargame" kinda-thing.

In the meantime, for Ronin proper, here's three Swords-for-Hire



A pair of Ronin and a Shugyosha looking for work. Any of these models could be used as either a Ronin or Shugyosha, but in my mind while painting, the two on the left were Ronin and the Ryu-looking model on the far right is the Shugyuosha looking to test his skills against the greatest warriors of my dining room table. The center model with yari (or nagae-yari) is from Warring Clans, the other two are from Bac Ninh Miniatures.

[Muddlingthrough]

Anyone have a better skin color than what I’m using for my bandits? It’s Vallejo Sunny Skintone but is maybe a bit more deeper yellow than I’d prefer.

Hey! I'm a little late here. Only recently joined the forum (and rejoined the hobby). On the question of skin-tone, there is a fellow that paints on Youtube called Sonic Sledgehammer Studio and he's painted a couple samurai. He's says that with east Asian skin tones it isn't a matter of adding yellow, but rather subtracting red. Living in my town's Chinatown, I would tend to agree. Most people tend to have an olive, almost mediterranean complexion.

He uses Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 Peachy Flesh on his samurai, which coincidentally, I've been using on my Republican Romans (mostly because it's the only flesh-tone that came in my starter set). I don't know if he posts here, but going by his tone he seems like he'd fit right in:

[Muddlingthrough]

The two outside ones look straight out of Seven Samurai. They look great!

Thanks!
I think their first opponent as a Dragon Warrior warband might be my friend's.... fantasy Greek DR warband. ha. I guess it'll be a "Deadliest Warrior the tabletop wargame" kinda-thing.

In the meantime, for Ronin proper, here's three Swords-for-Hire



A pair of Ronin and a Shugyosha looking for work. Any of these models could be used as either a Ronin or Shugyosha, but in my mind while painting, the two on the left were Ronin and the Ryu-looking model on the far right is the Shugyuosha looking to test his skills against the greatest warriors of my dining room table. The center model with yari (or nagae-yari) is from Warring Clans, the other two are from Bac Ninh Miniatures.

[EnclavedMicrostate]

For my Japanese figures what I've generally gone for is a 50-50 mix of Vallejo Flat Flesh and Dark Flesh, and, if I'm doing individual fancier figures instead of whole units, either going over with a Dark Flesh-based wash or using it for lowlights, followed with drybrushed highlights in Flat Flesh, and finally just a general, but quite thin, black wash over the whole figure. If I'm doing up just a whole unit, then it's just the blended base colour followed by the wash.

That differs if it's a figure with quite a large area of skin, because that changes the skin from something that's a highlight on the model to something that needs a lot more texture unto itself; in those instances I use the same base colour but swap out the Dark Flesh with Army Painter Flesh Wash.

[Mr. White]

Thanks, all, for the flesh tone tips!

For the last couple of models in the project (the Koryu and the Swords for Hire), I've been using AK Interactive's Radiant Flesh then doing a wash with Citadel's Seraphim Sepia wash, followed by a few highlights of Radiant Flesh again. The results are much better than the formula I used on the Bandits. Still quick though which is what I need.
I'm racing the clock to get all my minis done!

The two outside ones look straight out of Seven Samurai. They look great!

Thanks! I need to give that a re-watch. It's been over two decades.

[Muddlingthrough]

Not just one of the best samurai movies ever made, but one of the best movies ever made. Looking at the miniature company's website, the fellow on the left is, indeed, the "seventh" samurai.

Thanks! I need to give that a re-watch. It's been over two decades.