Rather than create oodles of threads with my idiotic numpty questions I thought I would create one thread to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them etc etc

Here is my starter for 10.

From the little bit of stuff that I know about the Wars of the 3 Kingdoms I cannot recommend the Osprey Men at Arms books as anything other than fire lighting material.

Are the 'samurai' men at arms books equally pants?

Thank you in anticipation.

More tricksy questions when I think of them.

There is lots of decent sites online about Samurai. You can probably find copy to download online too.
This site is great
http://www.geocities.ws/kazenaga23/crests4.htm

"Everyone paints a Samurai army once..."

I tend to view Osprey's output as being a primer for people who know nothing about the period/ theatre in question. Being slim volumes there's not much room for nuance. They are almost the definition of Terry Pratchett's "Lie to children" theory" * giving a baseline understanding that isn't entirely right but which gives you the basis on which to build a better grasp of the subject. If you knew nothing before you started you will have a better grasp by the end.

Sites like the one Will linked, there are plenty of others, will give you more info on clan mons (heraldry), flags and other standards and indications of armour colours. Samurai are not necessarily a sea of black armour. I offer my own favourites, the "Red Devils of Ii" as an example.

In print, I have a number of works by Stephen Turnbull, though nowhere near his entire oeuvre! In addition to his many books he has also worked as historical consultant on a number of documentaries and the 47 Ronin film - I'll leave you to decide if that's a plus or a minus.   

There is a huge amount of information ( and therefore misinformation too) out there.

In battle samurai armies seem to have been divided into clan groupings called sonae. These were anything from a few hundred to almost a thousand strong. Sonae are further divided into kumi of 20 - 30 (-ish) men.

Right, enough prattle from me for the moment.
 

* Lie to children

I think these online sources are worth a look:
Tenka Fubu
Sengoku Period Warfare
Sonae
And our own MCMV who I hope will forgive me for posting a connection to his blog
Rules for Sengoku Jidai

Thank you one and all.

Finally got my first test figure painted. Thoughts?

Feldgrau base coat - was looking for a dark grey, didn't read the label. Got home, thought "whoopsies". But I quite like it as a base. Then block colour highlights, finished with an Agrax wash.

Wash is gloss, and still wet. Will be finished with a matt varnish

First 10 mm figure I've ever painted. Took a wee while to paint something not 15mm.

Looks great

Thank you. Problem is they look really shonky biggerified on screen. Thought that was a problem with 15mm, even worse with 10mm.

I'm mostly pleased with it. Would like some more definition/lining from the Agrax, but I guess that might be due to it being a teeny figure. Don't really want to use black ink or wash. Might try W&N nutbrown ink on next figure.

This is also an excellent site with a huge amount of 6mm inspiration in particular.

https://tenkafubu608971038.wordpress.com/

Thank you glorfindel. As Bill & Ted would say "most excellent"

The man begins 10mm with Japanese? Phew, much respect.

The tsubo (hand guard) on the sword would seldom if ever be yellow metal. Blackened iron seems the norm.

The historical hand guards are mainly black iron to be sure but gilded ones aren't impossible.

Also, aren't they tsuba? I was sure tsubo was a measurement of area of around 25 sq. ft. 

Bleh! I don't speak Japanese, what do I know?

Tsuba tsubo, all Japanese to me.

Hand guard - didn't have a clue, went gold for a bit of bling. I approve of nitpicking: I shall change it to black, thank you. (Better to find out now, than 250 figures down the line. When finding that out would really really annoy me, and eat away at my soul until I had to get up at 2am to rectify it) Gold might come out for terribly posh people.

Seeing as it's blown up umpteen times bigger than real life...That's really good.

Quote from: Ithoriel on 29 June 2026, 10:22:27 AMAlso, aren't they tsuba? I was sure tsubo was a measurement of area of around 25 sq. ft.

I stand corrected. Well spotted.

As an extra, unlike 95% of posters on FB, I don't take refuge in abuse when I'm wrong (I've just been spoiling the taste of breakfast....).

As I continue to play around with my sample packs, and receiving a few packs in celebration of successfully completing another lap of the sun my thoughts turn to army composition and basing. (I ignore all rules stipulating how I should base figures and compose armies - aesthetics are my main driving force, with pack sizes coming a close second).

As I freely admit to having got just a little bit carried away with my Wars of the Three Kingdoms armies (that's ECW in old money), these are going to be smaller forces. I intend to raise two forces based upon the following sonae illustrated on the Gunbai blog



I've settled on each icon being 4 figures. Played around and it seems to work with 2x2 foot on a 20mm x 20mm base. Same base allows 2 horse. The horse icons would be double bases so effectively each icon = 4 men.

I must confess that I am really attracted to Simon Miller's wiggly edged bases, so much so I do occasionally think I need to rebase all my Civil War figures, then I quickly kick that idea into the long grass because it is a stoopid (sic) idea.



Whilst perusing a different purveyor of MDF (apologies, hangs head in shame), I noticed that they produce wiggly edged bases considerably cheaper than those on the TtS/FK&P shop, and they also produce the size I want.

I've settled on this sonae, as I think it is fairly manageable and I won't be tempted to go further. With each icon being 4 figures costs are just below £100 for each army which is doable, and more importantly won't take up masses of shelf space.

Thoughts on 2x2 foot or 2 horse on 20mmx20mm bases?

As for basing materials - my 15mm Napoleonics (which have a very old school look) have a basic scatter on a green background, with the occasional tuft or rock on command stands: very much in keeping with the style of the figures and how I've painted them. My 15mm W3K figures I'm much happier with: as I'm incredibly lazy they are based with Citadel Stirland Battle Mud (yes, ridiculously expensive, but I tried making my own and no matter how accurately I replicated my recipe it was different every time) with 2mm static grass laid as scatter (rather than with a static grass applicator) and MiniNatur short tufts to prettify everything.



But these little blighters look plain wrong with that recipe. I've discovered that I can get static grass in 1mm which I think would work better with 10mm, and I'm guessing 2mm tufts would be better too? As I know nothing about soil colours in Japan with my main points of knowledge being 'Ran' and the seminal '47 Ronin',  I'm thinking of swapping from Stirland Mud to something lighter, possibly technical armageddon dust (this is abroad so I was thinking something a bit lighter). Thoughts?


As always, thank you in anticipation