There’s an awful lot of noise about AI in the media at the moment. Depending on what you read, if the data centres involved don’t consume all the power in the country and leave us without any water, then AI itself will wipe out the Human race to prevent further global warming. I don’t particularly want to start a debate on the subject but I’m not inclined towards such pessimism myself. As far as I am concerned, there just as much chance of the above as that AI will cure all serious disease, solve world hunger and create a wonderful peaceful world of plenty for us all to live in. I guess it will depend on who gets to use and control AI to create the future that they want.
As far as I have found, it has been a great help to me, both in my hobby and with other issues. I’m not on it everyday but if I have a problem to solve I use chat GTP to look for answers and as you will know from a previous blog, I find it very useful for research.
And so to painting Onna-Bugeisha figures.
The last set of test of Honour figures in my lead pile was the Warlord Test of Honour Onna-Bugeisha figures. I had put off painting this set because I was worried as to whether I could make a decent job of painting them and I had no real idea as to what colour scheme to follow.
I decided to paint the figures in ‘batches’ of two and to follow the colour schemes on the box art, although I had to guess at the colours that were used by the Warlord painter and went with my own interpretation.
You can see the first figure that I completed above. I went for a mixture of purple, dark red and pink which seemed to match the colours in the box art.
The second figure was also a copy of the box art. I also did some freehand painting on her Kimono and I was quite pleased with the result.
The next two figures were wearing standard Japanese armour so I followed my usual method of Priming them in black and then drying brushing them with light grey to show up the detail.
I then painted one with purple stitching and the other with pastel blue just to make them a bit different.
With just three more figures left to do, I could have continued to follow the box art but decided that I wanted to do something a bit different. As I am not great at putting colours together, I thought that I would ask Chat GPT for some help. It came back with four possible colour schemes for the figure that I had primed ready for painting.
I think that Chat GPT has made an error regarding the hair but apart from that I really liked suggestion one. At Chat GPT’s prompting it offered a colour recipe and painting guide using Vallejo paints.
Once again, there are a couple of errors in the guide – not to mention the wrongly placed foot in the middle picture. That all said, It was very helpful and I pretty much followed the guide to produce my version.
I also used the green scheme for the sixth figure in the set and rather than freehand the kimono pattern, I used some nail art decals to produce the decoration that I wanted. I suppose that you could say that using nail art decals is a bit of a cheat over free handing the pattern. But I think that it is a clever solution and not only saves time but produces an excellent result. You can purchase these decals from Amazon or other online retailers and there is a myriad of choice.
The final figure was given a black Kimono with pink trimings and again, I used nail art decals to provide the decoration. These did not adhere quite so well and close up, you can see that I have used decals as the matt varnish has failed to disguise the decal film but the overall look is fine for the table top.
The gallery above shows the completed figures on finished bases. Note that I decided to add a striped pattern to the bows to make them more interesting and I also added an arrow to the figure drawing the bow. I simply cut an arrow from a spare plastic Fireforge arm and super glued it in place. It’s not perfect but it makes more sense of the pose to have an arrow present.
So that’s another boxed set completed and seven more figures to add to my collection. As for AI, I will continue to use chat GPT to help with my hobby where I think it’s appropriate. It’s just another very powerful tool to help me enjoy my hobby. I would recommend it’s use to my fellow hobbyists. If you are concerned about the environmental impact, well ask chat GPT what it thinks. It’s not all bad news….
Oh and by the way, my blog is written by me not AI, so all of the spelling mistakes and sloppy grammar errors are my own. I assure you that should I use AI, I will credit it or blame it as appropriate.
Happy Modelling!