Samurai army thread

[Theblackprince]

Greeting all, I have decided that for 2014 I will be taking on a few gaming modeling projects and I want to share the experience with everyone. The main project will be a new counts as Empire army. I love the look of fantasy armies and the ranked up units. The look and feel of fantasy is something that 40k just does not have, for better or worse.*

To start off I have a fascination with the history and culture of Japan. I've been there twice and love the sites, sounds and taste. So the challenge for this year is to create a Samurai themed counts as army and display board. Hopefully one that will look and feel like *a well done GW army.

Now many of you will undoubtably know of the warhammer armies project and the Nippon book. "why don't you build an army from that book?" The main reason is that not all players will play a game involving a fan made army book. I want this army to be able play against everyone with no hang-ups.*

[Theblackprince]

Planning,

* Well the samurai army project is up and running. The first step to making an army like this a reality, is planning.*

The first step of a counts as army is to figure out which units are going to represent what. There is nothing worse then trying to play an army that looks nothing like what it represents. I will be doing my best to make sure that mine is easy to figure out.*

My lord at the moment is a perry brothers samurai warlord on horseback. *I'm not sure how to kit him out yet but right now at this stage I try to keep thing generic.


My first unit is a unit of wargames factory Samurai horsemen. *These should be fairly easy to figure out as empire knights. This will allow me to have a highly moble hard hitting unit, that should also look great.

I also ordered two boxes of wargames factory ashiguri archers/ gunners. These will become longbowmen and imperal gunners. Not sure how many of each I will use but I know that having some range will be helpful, and the models look great!

Finally a box of samurai also from wargames factory. These will be used as empire greatswords. A smaller hard hitting unit. *While they may change to a few other units later that will be what they are to start.

I plan to get several more units but that will supplement my units but that should give me a good place to start on the initial force. Now I will start planning on the display board and the bases for the miniatures.

[Dave Bone]

I'd say if you're still in a group of players that haven't figured out that GW sucks at making games with rules, you might could cast around for players that don't tow the line for GW.

I'd go with the Nippon rules. If someone won't play you that's their loss - the Warhammer Armies project is street legal at the Wargate.

[Theblackprince]

Hopefully when I build this I can swap out and use them as both. That way I can get a 2 for 1 value out of the army.

[Theblackprince]

Well, the first part of the army is now under way. My brother picked up some Perry miniatures samurai figures for me. Thanks Mark!
661866196620

This will form the core of my HQ unit and inner circle knights!

[Theblackprince]

Planning,

* Well the samurai army project is up and running. The first step to making an army like this a reality, is planning.*

The first step of a counts as army is to figure out which units are going to represent what. There is nothing worse then trying to play an army that looks nothing like what it represents. I will be doing my best to make sure that mine is easy to figure out.*

My lord at the moment is a perry brothers samurai warlord on horseback. *I'm not sure how to kit him out yet but right now at this stage I try to keep thing generic.


My first unit is a unit of wargames factory Samurai horsemen. *These should be fairly easy to figure out as empire knights. This will allow me to have a highly moble hard hitting unit, that should also look great.

I also ordered two boxes of wargames factory ashiguri archers/ gunners. These will become longbowmen and imperal gunners. Not sure how many of each I will use but I know that having some range will be helpful, and the models look great!

Finally a box of samurai also from wargames factory. These will be used as empire greatswords. A smaller hard hitting unit. *While they may change to a few other units later that will be what they are to start.

I plan to get several more units but that will supplement my units but that should give me a good place to start on the initial force. Now I will start planning on the display board and the bases for the miniatures.

[Ian Mulcahy]

Just in case you're looking for more samurai minis, you might want to look into the Legend of the Five Rings miniatures game. They called it Clan War. I picked one up a while back and only painted up a few of the minis, but they were pretty decent quality and about the same size as GW's stuff--even fit on the slottabases. Came with a mix of archers and swordsmen. I saw one up on ebay-- here's the link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clan-Wars-Legend-Of-The-Five-Rings-Miniatures-Base-Set-Opened-In-Box-/171201494485?pt=Games_US&hash=item27dc677dd5

[Theblackprince]

Thanks for the Link! I did not know that they were still making those models. I will defiantly check them out some more. I may grab a monk or two to counts as a battle priest.

[Theblackprince]

Look what came in Today! 6696

[Theblackprince]

I got a lot of work done on the models and they are starting to come together. I do want to give everyone a heads up if they are thinking about doing the same type of project with the wargames factory models. The bases that are provided (which just happen to be the same size as GW bases) come in different heights. You will have to put in some extra work to build them all up to the same height.

More pics coming soon!

[YourSwordisMine]

Neat to see someone else doing something similar. I ended up with 70 of the Wargames Factory plastics, so I am making a Samurai army for SAGA that counts as Anglo-Danish.

[Theblackprince]

Quick picture update! I have some color on the Samurai horsemen and have started to work on the others. I'll make a more detailed post about all of it later. 6868686968706871

[Theblackprince]

So a quick update on the project. I am about half way finished on the Samurai cavalry unit and have the block of 50 spear men primed. I also picked up some great looking buildings for the display board this week and have a few photos of the early stages of there painting. So far the project is going along at a good pace and I am really enjoying the work that I get to put into it. 707470757076

[Theblackprince]

Well it looks like I'm going to be snowed in for a little while. So that means that I have time to work on the project. Here is a picture of the WIP display board. 7113

[Theblackprince]

The display board is mostly done now and I am moving onto the models themselves.




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[Theblackprince]

It has been awhile since I updated this thread and I apologize for that. Since my last post I have moved twice and gotten engaged! (To a Japanese woman strangely enough)

Here are a few more photos of the work I have done so far. 1158311584

[Theblackprince]

Sohei warrior monks.
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