I’ve been away on a short break over Easter, so progress on my various projects has been limited. A holiday, however short, is a good time to refocus and think about what will be next onto the workbench. Whilst idling on a sun bed in Gran Canaria, my mind wandered as I considered the unfinished projects back at home.
Oda Nobunaga primed
Before I went away, I had cleaned and primed a Wargames Illustrated Limited edition model of Oda Nobunaga. The original plan was to pretty much copy the colour scheme the the Wargames Illustrated painter had used.
Wargamies Illustrated Oda
The Oda model had been produced by WI as one of their ‘Giants in Miniature’ series but was also given a special card for the Test of Honour game that I am such a fan of at the moment! The card allows players to recruit groups of musket men for just 2 points a group – an interesting option for my next warband. You can download the card from the Wargames Illustrated site here:
http://www.wargamesillustrated.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/nobunaga2.pdf
To read more, you will need to get hold of a copy of WI335 or join the WI prime club – this will give you access to all of the WI articles and is particularly useful to recover older magazines and articles from their vault!
https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/?s=Oda+nobunaga&post_type=
Rather than copy the WI colour scheme, I decided to use a colour scheme based on the description of the fictional hero, Toranaga, from the book ‘Shogun’ by James Clavell. In the book, the ‘goodies’ wear a brown uniform and I thought that this would make a change from the usual bright colour schemes that I tend towards.
I also decided to use a slightly different Flesh colour scheme. It’s one that I have used before and is simply a case of starting with Vallejo 70804 Beige red as a base, adding in 70927 dark Flesh and then using off white 70820 to top off the highlights. I also tend to use at least one or two washes of Army painter soft tone ink to help with blending.
Toranaga Work in progress.
For the robes, I started with 70822 German Camouflage black brown, followed by 70872 Chocolate brown, with a top highlight of 70983 Flat earth. The Under shirt was simply Iraqui sand. It all looked a bit stark so I gave these area a good wash of Strong Tone, the dark brown Army painter ink and the result is as shown above.
Toranaga almost finished?
I then went back and using first a mix of Flat Earth and Chocolate brown re painted the highlights and then gradually added more Flat earth, with a touch of Iraqui sand to add in the top highlights. I also added some grey to ‘Toranaga’s ‘ hair, painted the Katanga silver and brass and added some red details to the scabbard and the under shirt. The socks are off white and the sandals German Cam Black brown.
Unusually for me, I’ve painted the eyes on the figure – I don’t usually bother but these are quite well sculpted and fairly easy to paint in. That said, by now my eyes were getting tired and as you can see, eye’s are not my strength when it comes to painting.
Toranaga ready for battle – well, nearly!
Not much has changed in the final picture, I have added some ink to the Katana handle to bring out the detail but as I mentioned above, by now my eyes were tiring and I always find that a break from painting and a look at the pictures gives me a chance to assess if anything else needs changing. I can see that the Katana handle will need a quick touch up with white and the red stripe on the under shirt needs a bit of definition – either a black line or careful wash of ink.
The most significant improvement will of course be a proper base ( without the blu tack!) and some grass tufts or flowers to add a bit of interest and Toranaga will be ready to take to the wargames table. Of course, I will still use the Oda Nobunaga card!
So the plan is to have him finished over the weekend and then it’s on to the next part of the Test of Honour project, nine Ashigaru armed with Teppo!
If you would like to read more about Samurai Arquebuses , or teppo, click here:
https://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Teppo
To read about Oda Nobunaga, click here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga
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