The Marvelous Miscellany of MMcV

[mmcv]

Thanks chaps. Following on from the previous unit, this is a later "sonae" style mixed arms unit from the Sengoku Jidai.









I just went with painted mon (the banner symbols) as I've never got on with transfers and my printer wont print anything that isn't black, white or yellow at the moment. I may replace them with printed ones down the line for a crisper look, but then most of my flags on other projects are painted too so fits with my amateurish aesthetic!

[pierre the shy]

Those look very good MMcV 

Respect for your patience in sucessfully adding the back banners 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

See why you were having problems with back banners. Good stuff again.

[Steve J]

Lovely work and I wouldn't fancy tackling the banners at all!

[Techno II]

Really good stuff, Matthew ! 

Cheers - Phil.

[fred.]

Good work on both the early and later period bases.

That really is a lot of banners on the later period one! I feel the need to add more banners to my bases now!

[mmcv]

Thanks  they're very nice figures to paint, I'm still a bit rough and ready with them but hopefully will get better as I paint more.

Good work on both the early and later period bases.

That really is a lot of banners on the later period one! I feel the need to add more banners to my bases now!

To be honest, the number and variety of back banners could vary pretty widely as it was largely up to the individual clan leaders how they wanted to fit out their troops. They became more common in the later parts of the Sengoku Jidai though as the increase in gunpowder use, larger army sizes and changes in tactical doctrine made being able to identify your troops more important. Even then though there was a lot of variances. In reality, since troops often acted as the baggage train themselves, you might have one in a group with the banner, one carrying the food, one carrying the camping equipment, etc rather than every single troop with one. Ashigaru would often have the mon painted on their breastplates too. Then there'd be plenty of flag bearers about as well. Does make for some interesting units though. For the next one I might go with a slightly different formation as just like the "uniform" and makeup of the units, the deployment formation of the clan could vary pretty widely too. I'll need to order some more banners and other bits and bobs for that though, so next few will likely be early period ones, which can be a lot more colourful!

[mmcv]

Nothing much to update on, just the units already shown and some blether:

https://mmcvhistoryhome.wordpress.com/2021/08/02/progress-update-july-2021

Have a few more early feudal Japanese under the brush and an order in for the bits needed for a few more of the big units.

[mmcv]

Some more Early Feudal Japanese:





These boys have a mostly red theme to fit into a Minamoto army, but will likey see service elsewhere too!

I've some more in progress but think I've run out of bases. Have some in my next order along with some more figures to round things out.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Those are fab! 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Nice stuff

[Steve J]

Great work once again .

[Techno II]

Lovely stuff, Matthew ! 

Cheers - Phil. 

[hammurabi70]

Great stuff and most impressive.  However, previous posts have suggested ALL such troops should be in black armour [bar the troops of Ii Naomasa].  Is it a bit of historic/artistic licence to use blue armour?  Asking for me!  I have yet to do my samurai.

[Ithoriel]

Most armour was laquered black or brown. Red as you say was associated with the Ii clan though they were not the only ones to use it. I have seen Blue, Green and Gold armour in the pictures my aunt and uncle brought back from their four years in Japan. These were original* Sengoku Jidai suits of armour but were all owned by big name samurai, not rank and file.

Most troops would provide their own equipment so uniformity would be unusual.

One clan, darned if I remember which, issued their ashigaru with blue-black armour.

Personallly, if I live long enough to eventually paint my 3mm Samurai, I intend to use black, brown, red, blue, yellow and green armour. Because they are 3mm and it will make them easier to identify!

*Possibly "original" in the same sense as Washington's Axe and The Ship Of Theseus