Sohei, Bakemono and Yurei.

Steady progress on the painting desk since the last post, with more additions to the oriental collection.

Someone's in trouble - the Sohei, or Buddhist warrior monks are armed and making their way down from the temple! These are AW Miniatures, led by Masahiro from the Warlord Games "Masked Men" box set for Test Of Honour.

A Bakemono (goblin) warband led by a large Dai-Bakemono on a village raid - could these be the reason the Sohei are on the march? The Bakemono are by Dixon Miniatures and I believe the leader is on old Oni from Citadel Miniatures (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Before anyone says "Bakemono aren't green", this warband has been put together to try and tempt an opponent into a game - he's previously only played Warhammer, so I thought greenskins would help win him over!

The spirits of the Yurei (ghosts) have risen from their graves - a portent of things to come? These are "Chinese Ghosts" from Black Hat Miniatures old Tales of the Dragon Kings range, but fit the bill in my humble opinion.

 

It's been a very busy week non-hobby wise but I've managed to acquire a new van, transfer the "mod cons" (carpet, bed, sink and cooker) and sell on the old van to its new owner! The process took about three weeks last time, so I'm well chuffed!!
Many thanks once again for visiting, the samurai bias is set to continue for a while yet, but I'm feeling the urge to visit one of the other projects by way of a short break / diversion so if "Nippon" isn't your thing just hang in there!
Your comments, criticism or questions are most welcome - especially if you can help me identify the leader of the bakemono gang. I really should have looked at the bottom of his base before gluing him to that circle of mdf and painting him!!!

Here Be (the) Monsters

of The Forbidden Fortress core set.

Despite it being "Birthday Week" - my own and the financial dictator's are six days apart, so we have an extended annual bash, it's also been fairly busy work-wise, but thankfully I've still managed to get the beasties for Forbidden Fortress painted up and ready to use.

First up are the Acidic Tentacles. These belong to a huge beast that lives beneath the floor of the fortress and are capable of bursting up to attack the heroes at any time!

 Next are the Dishonoured Dead - the skeletal remains of the fortresses mortal defenders who fell foul of The Darkness, and now reanimated to serve a new, foul, master.

The Tengu are the first of the truly "mono pose" mini's. That minor gripe aside, I do like these creatures and their ability to fly over any obstacles in the fortress will probably make them a dangerous foe!

More mono pose, this time in the shape of three large Oni, evil demons now serving The Darkness.

The largest of the horrors that the heroes will face from the core set is the Living Statue,

while one of the smallest (yet possibly most dangerous) is the ghostly Harionago, levitating while her long barbed hair weaves about her, ready to impale any of the heroes who might get too close!

As with the heroes, I've painted all the bases plain black as per the illustrations in the painting guide, but intend re-visiting them as soon as I come up with a plan that will make them look OK on both the game tiles and the table top.
Short and sweet progress report, but a post is a post. As ever, many thanks for dropping by and any C&C's are more than welcome in the comments section.

Heroes of the Forbidden Fortress

There has been no contact from a local fortress belonging to an allied samurai clan. Fearing the worst, Matsushita Akitane has sent one of his most loyal warriors to discover the fate of their brothers in arms.

The samurai Kawamura Naotomo departs on his mission -

At the same time, the head of the local monastery despatched sohei Hashiba Aritame to discover why a group of monks had not returned from the same fortress -

That night, the shinobi Sanjou Joko has been sent by the head of her clan to discover what has happened at the fortress to delay the routine report from their spy -

and the following morning, shugenja Azai Komako is traveling to the fortress in search of her master, who was due back from there two days ago, the old wizard is so punctual that she just knows something is wrong!

The four heroes from the box set are painted and on their way to the Forbidden Fortress. Their bases are plain black at the moment which is fine for use with the floor tiles, but the plan is to use them for table top games as well so I need to texture them in some way that they'll be compatible for both.
The "monsters" are on the bench and progressing through the paint queue, and the sharp eyed among you will have noticed some additions to the oriental terrain collection.

Many thanks for reading, and your comments,critiques and questions are more than welcome - no predictions about the next post (I'm still convinced my blog is under a curse!), but I'd like to get the monsters finished so that I can play my first game, and of course clear the bench to crack on with other projects.