1/72 scale Kamioka Castle

[pocoloco]

Thanks for the clan pics Snake777, they are looking mighty fine 

[Snake777]

Hallo All,

Thank you again for the comments My apologies for causing some confusion with my first pic! It's amazing what a good camera angle and some natural light can achieve Just to clear up any confusion, here are a couple of pics of the real thing...

Best wishes,

Snake

[von Lucky]

Pretty close match in look and feel.

What are those trees in the foreground in the first photo? They look like grape vines (ie for wine).

They're probably some fruit tree, but I am getting ideas.

[Snake777]

Pretty close match in look and feel.

What are those trees in the foreground in the first photo? They look like grape vines (ie for wine).

They're probably some fruit tree, but I am getting ideas.

Not sure... could be heavily pruned Cherry trees...

[Duke Donald]

Blimey, it's a bit uncanny when it becomes difficult to distinguish between 1/72 miniatures and the real thing!

[archiduque]

Amazing work!

[Snake777]

Many thanks Duke Donald & archiduque, I've always thought that much terrain that you see is way too neat and pristine, a bit of grime adds to the realism I find, I'm sure that even the most resplendent Samurai would probably start to look a little ragged after a few weeks of campaigning

Best wishes,

Snake

[carlos marighela]

That really is exceedingly good work. I was almost fooled by the first photo too. Real craftsmanship.

[Snake777]

That really is exceedingly good work. I was almost fooled by the first photo too. Real craftsmanship.

Many thanks Carlos, much appreciated

[nash]

That's some amazing work.
Please can you share how it's made?
I'm working on a castle myself but your put my projects to shame
The detail work is  incredible !
How many hours did you spend on it?
Please post a how to guild

[grant]

Absolutely stunning work!

What make are your figures?

[parcival42]

I too thought that first pic was of the real thing.  All of your terrain is amazing!  You really should make some tutorials.

What are you tatami made of?  Are your shrines hand made?

[FramFramson]

Hot damn that is aces! Amazing colours and textures - are those paper buildings with additional detailing/cutaways? It's hard to tell.

[OSHIROmodels]

Missed this the first time round, glad I've caught up 

cheers

James

[Snake777]

Hallo All, my apologies for being a tad quiet of late, but I was re-arranging my attic and came across a box of H&R 5mm Franco-Prussian War figures that I'd started to paint about 20 years ago... I suddenly found myself veering off to Alsace-Lorraine... GAH!

Many thanks for all the recent comments, I'll try and answer your questions as best I can... I've included a screen shot of mu patterns for the castle, if anybody is interested I'm happy to share the files, just pm me here with your e-mail and I'll get them to you, no instructions I'm afraid, so you will just have to use your ingenium!!

That's some amazing work.
Please can you share how it's made?
I'm working on a castle myself but your put my projects to shame
The detail work is  incredible !
How many hours did you spend on it?
Please post a how to guild

Thank you nash, all of this is made out of paper and card, my basic technique is once I've decided what I want to build, I try and find as much photographic reference as I can, Google Maps was quite useful for seeing the layout of the castle, they even have a 3D reconstruction of it, there are few very good pics but enough to get the overall idea and cross referenced with similar castles in Japan you can end up with a passable copy 

My next step is to collect as many hi-res textures as I can, CG Textures is a great source they have many purely Japanese examples as well as generic wood, stone, dirt-tracks etc... they can be found here:

http://www.cgtextures.com/index.php

Once I have everything together, I put it all into photoshop and snip, clone, twist and overlay furiously, until I've got the main elements textured and separated out, then comes the fun part of putting it all back together, this usually involves quite a bit of re-adjustment, trial and error as it is mostly done on-the-fly. When construction is complete the model is severely weathered and distressed with a combination of beeswax furniture polish and ash from my fire, finally a good coating of matt varnish seals everything in... Overall this took me about 3 months to build off and on... Hope that helps! Snake...

Absolutely stunning work!

What make are your figures?

Thank you grant, the figures are 1/72 Zvezda Samurai some quite chopped about :-)

I too thought that first pic was of the real thing.  All of your terrain is amazing!  You really should make some tutorials.

What are you tatami made of?  Are your shrines hand made?

Many thanks parcival, I should make tutorials, but I never seem to find the time!!! everything is made from paper and card including the tatami, the small shrine in the wood was built and textured in the same way as the castle, the larger shrine is a pimped up freebie from the internet with added ground work...

Hot damn that is aces! Amazing colours and textures - are those paper buildings with additional detailing/cutaways? It's hard to tell.

Thank you FramFramson, the models are I suppose 2.5D with  the details just printed and weathered...

Missed this the first time round, glad I've caught up 

cheers

James

Thanks James  I must tear myself away from the FPW and get back to old Japan!!