Ronin Project 7

Wargames Factory's Ashigaru with Yari

I went off the boil a bit with these. When I did the Ashigaru with missile weapons, I left puttin on the arms and weapons until I'd got the basic painting of the chest finished. That's not really possible with these if the figure was not holding the weapon upright. I found I had to clip the hands around the Yari and then manipulate them into place as I glued them to the torso. It seems the only way of ensuring the allignment.

This is the sprue

As with the guys with the missile weapons, I elected to do two sprues in the light blue/metallic costume and two in the light yellow/red scheme.

Ronin Project 6

Ronin Project 6

I was happier with the second five

Ronin Project 5

Ronin Project 5: The Samurai

The samurai are much more challenging to construct

Five figures again. The leg pairings are easy enough to work out and as with the ashigaru I began by matching pairs and fastening them to the base before I reasised that there was a lug on the bottom of the torso parts to fit within the legs. On the first five I had to saw it off as the lergs and base had set.

The main problems are the arms. It isn't easy working out which ones pair to make a reasonable pose. I also discovered when doing the first five that it is better to fasten the sword and scabbard to the torso lugs before fixing the arms as it is difficult to fit them under the arm once set.

However the arms have lugs that fit into the shoulders so tat i is fairly straight forward to hold a pair in place and work out how they might hold a weapon.  It is imporat though that the alignment of the hands set true to allow a weapon to be inserted after painting.  I found having the figure "grasp" a wire spear while the arms were setting useful

Here are the first five I completed

Ronin Project 4

Ronin Project 4: Completing the Ashigaru including "officers"

Having done five fire armed equipped and five bow armed ashigaru, I continued to do five of each again in a different livery

With the final sprue I elected to make one "officer" figure for each "faction" and leave four figures for future build adaptation

The Ronin Project 3

Ronin Project 3: Musket Armed Figures

With the next sprue I balanced up the musket/bow ratio with 4 musket ashigaru to one archer.

Pairing up the left and right arms was not too difficult and the loose musket offered the opportunity to paint the chest unobstructed before putting the weapon in place.

The Ronin Project 2

Completing the first sprue

Generally speaking, when building up plastic figures, I do a sprue's worth at a time.

So here are the other four. 

The arrow in the ground was one cut from the arm of another figure (see last below)

There are only four bows on the sprue so one had to be firearm armed. The first thing I did was look carefully at the sprue and mark left and right arms before cutting off the pair for the man loading. Note there is only one musket with a ramrod protruding to meet the arm with the top of the ramrod

One pair of legs give the kneeling position

This pair of legs gives this leaned over position.  Between the bow arm chosen and the arm with the arrow, I could not get the arrow to rest anywhere realistically against the bow. It got cut out and provided the one for the base of the top figure.

Ronin Project 01

The Ronin Project 1

The publication of the "Ronin" skirmish rules for Feudal Japan has given me the excuse to get some of the Wargames Factory "Rising Sun" 28mm range of plastic figures.

I'm starting with the Ashigaru missile men as this was the only box I could get readily.

It makes up 25 figures, archers or musket men, from five identical sprues with 5 figures to a sprue.

The leg pieces are obviously paired and matching a bow arm (top left) with a bow arm (bottom left) is straightforward however I expect some challenges matching appropriate left and right arms for the firearm variants.

It seemed sensible to paint the heads while they were still on the sprue

This is the test/first figure. Looks a bit odd with the head already done.

And here he is finished except for a design for the back banner.