Scum and Villainy

Last night BBC 2 screened a documentary about the development of the World Wide Web in which it was stated that 90% of all blogs are dormant. This gave me the motivation I needed to return to the 10%.

Not that I imagine anyone was in any great suspense waiting for my return. I don't know that anyone actually reads this other than myself. I am not a great social networker and don't really do anything to promote this, beyond once posting a scenario on the Anima Tactics message board and leaving the link in my signature where I doubt anyone would notice it.

Strangely this blog is more for my benefit than the audience, which may be faintly narcissistic, but is not necessarily unvaluable. Like a diary, the act of blogging often helps to clarify thoughts and feelings by forcing you to verbalise them. In my case these thoughts may be constrained to encouraging me to get on and paint some models, but that still has some value in its way.

By imagining an audience waiting to see these pictures it encourages me to take them and, by extension, paint more models to photograph. So even if my audience is imaginary it still plays a useful purpose in providing me with a reason to get on and do something.

The odd comment would still be nice though.

These were taken some months back, but I never got round to posting them. With my Chaos army nearing completion (after only 15 years) it was time to provide it with some suitable leadership.Slaanesh Champion with flail

Certainly the oldest model in my Chaos army and one of the oldest in my collection. He actually dates back to before I even started collected Games Workshop miniatures in 1990. I kept the black and brass colour scheme of the army, but added the pink to give him a Slaanesh twist. I am actually very pleased with the contrast.

Slaanesh Sorcerer.

Actually bought at Games Day 1994, when he was a pre-release model. Given that I didn't paint him for fifteen years I'm not sure I gained the full value of the pre-release. More pink for contrast. The white and bone were something of an experiment for another model to see how well they would contrast with the pink and black. I am actually very pleased with the model, striking in a way that a Slaanesh model should be. The bold colours also give him a faintly cartoony look which suits the sculpting style.

Tzeentch Sorcerer

Another old model, this time from a Games Workshop sale where I acquired him for a pound. Again I added some brighter colours to show his allegiance, provide some contrast and make him stand out. This time the Tzeentchian colours of blue and yellow. Another cartoony look that I think works, I can imagine him as the villain from a 1980s cartoon series.

Chaos Champion

A more generic champion, though with the red cloak he can serve for a Khorne champion in a pinch. One of my favourite Chaos Models, I nevertheless made a few tweaks. The model used to have two slender horns curving upwards with a skull suspended between them that I thought were a little over decorative for a champion I imagine being quite brutal. The replacement horns are from a Chaos Space Marine. I also swapped the axe head in his right hand for the top of an old Chaos Halberd because I felt the old axe was a little too simple for a champion.

I added this shot simply because I was very pleased with the shading and highlighting effect on the cloak. I painted it red mainly to contrast with the Chaos Warriors, who all have grey cloaks, but I am actually quite proud of how striking the finished result is.

With so many models complete I thought it was time for a group shot of the entire army again
The Champions on the hill survey the whole army. Then from the back
Top Row: Chaos Warriors
Third Row: Marauders with flails, Dragon Ogres, Marauders with Hand weapons and shields
Second Row: Chariots, Chaos Knights, Marauder Horsemen
Front Row: Chaos Hounds.

I added the stormy background using GIMP (free alternative to photoshop, I urge everyone to download it and have a play) to give the image the right moody look.

As always, more pictures in photo bucket: http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/Humorous_Conclusion/Warriors%20of%20Chaos/

I won't promise more pictures at any particular time as its asking for trouble. As soon as I say I'm going to post something on a particular day it's a certainty that I won't do it. But I do have some more models to photograph and another big project to show off. So do check back, assuming you exist.

Chariots of Fire (and Brimstone)

When I started this blog it was certainly not my intention to see it dominated by one army or game quite as much as it has been, but since I have started painting my Chaos Army I have found it quite hard to stop. I have Anima Tactics models piling up and my Red Devils still have no opponents.

Sadly real life has been getting in the way of my painting lately and so I don't have as much to show off as I would like. Still here's a couple of new models that have been sitting around unpainted for years.

I wanted a chariot for my army since 4th edition Warhammer, but the only model dated back to 3rd edition had to be mail ordered and looked pretty terrible. So when a new model appeared during fifth edition I snapped it up.

This model was assembled and painted pretty much as is, but I added a large monster base for the Chariot, it being released long before the advent of Games Workshop Chariot bases. The base really helps the model to feel like a coherent unit somehow.

The same Chariot from the other side.
This Chariot has had a few modifications, it's steeds and crew being swapped for different models

The steeds are actually from the long dead Games Workshop game of desert-based mobile Ork combat, Gorkamorka. The Gorkamorka expansion introduced a race of mutants who rode around on lizard like beasts. These steeds are two of the beasts.

Games Workshop's old sales pattern was to release a game, flog it for all it was worth and then get rid of it in a big sale before releasing a new game. If you were wise to this pattern you could get yourself a huge amount of material for a very low price. I did brilliantly out of the Blood Bowl mega sale and acquired about five teams.

These two beasts were bought for a pound each on the basis that they looked interesting and I might use them some day. I finally decided to add them to my second chariot to make it stand out a bit from the other.

The driver was a product of a much earlier GW sale. He is actually an old Marauder miniatures Chaos Hound handler. Marauder miniatures was an odd semi-autonomous spin off from Citadel back in the early to mid 1990s. At the time it was the only part of the company producing new Warhammer models and they were a great deal better than Citadels offerings of the same period.

The Handler came in a pack with two chaos hounds and I bought three packs for a pound each in the first great Games Workshop sale (around 1994 or 1995, I'm not sure). The hounds served me faithfully as part of my Chaos Army for years, before being superseded by the new plastics. The handler now lives on as a chariot driver as he fulfilled the crucial criteria of having his own whip.

The Champion is an old metal Chaos Warrior I bought during fifth edition to lead my Marauder unit, Marauder Champions were Chaos Warriors back then. He has been kitted out with a new plastic Chaos Warrior shield and now usually plays the role of an Exalted Hero in a Chariot.

More pictures soon I promise.

Charge of the (very) Heavy brigade

At the end of my last post I promised new pictures by the end of the week and spectacularly failed to deliver. It has been, not quite two weeks since then, so apologies. On the more positive side, I now have two new Chaos regiments painted instead of one, so that means a few more pictures.

My ten strong unit of Chaos Knights in all it's glory. The units were clearly not intended to get this big, as is apparent from the fact that the bulky tails make it impossible to get them to rank up. It is fairly unlikely I will every need to use all ten in battle. So why buy them?

Bit of an indulgence really. I am something of an obsessive fan of Chaos Knights. Ever since my first Chaos army in 1994, when I bought two box sets of the newly released knights plus a command group, netting me 8 models. Given that they were 80 points each with Chaos Armour, and the Standard twice that, it was an over the top unit back then.

But I have always loved the idea of large unit of the most powerful heavy cavalry in the Warhammer game pounding across the table. The psychological impact alone is huge. I got my first five of the new knights in the Chaos battalion box. But when I ended up at the annual wargame show at the Bovington tank museum a few weeks back and discovered a box for only ten quid I couldn't resist the opportunity to double the numbers. In retrospect I should probably have assembled them as two units. Still, the big unit has tremendous visual and psychological impact.

A close up of the rear rank to show a little more detail. My first Chaos Knight Unit were armed with lances. It always irritated me that the Knights were effectively neutered in the Hordes of Chaos army book by having their lances taken away from them. It always felt, to me, like an attempt to reduce the Knights status compared to other heavy cavalry like Empire or Bretonnian knights.

Ironic then, that I ended up giving my new unit hand weapons. I ummed and ahhed over this for a while, but I went with hand weapons, or rather ensorcelled weapons because they give the Knights +1 strength and count as magic. For 5 points more, lances give +2 strength which is lost after the first round and no magic weapons. Not much of a bonus as far as I can see given that you are required to lose the ensorcelled weapons and not take both.

As far as painting is concerned I followed the same basic Colour scheme as my Chaos Warriors. Tamiya Nato black highlighted German grey for the plate armour with old citadel brazen brass for the detailed bits, of which there were rather more on the knights than the Chaos Warriors.

For the steeds I had some trouble. I wanted them black, but this did not contrast well with the armour. I considered red, but thought that might be a little too colourful for an army I wanted to look dark and grim. In the end I went with black, but painted them flat black and highlighted nato black to make them even darker.

I added some colour by painting the steeds hair red. I liked the idea that the hooves actually caught fire as they ran. These are chaos steeds after all, partly daemonic and not just conventional horses. This ended up taking ages because I couldn't bring myself to dry brush and highlighted each individual hair.

This is my 'bonus unit' the Dragon Ogres. Like the Chaos Knights, they have been a big part of my army since fourth edition. Unlike the Knights I am still using the same models. They have beaten the Marauders record and now hold the record for 'longest time between buying and painting a model.' 14 years in this case.

The Knights and these guys more or less sold me on Chaos back in 1994. Of course, as a 15 year old with very little income I had to buy them up a bit at a time. I started with three and added the other two over a year later (I honestly don't remember when). These guys had been sitting around in bits since I gave up on Chaos in sixth edition, but have been brought, deservedly, out of retirement.

They are showing their age, but for sheer bulk and character they are still some of my favourite models.

With summer activities getting in the way I have only managed to get two units down in the last two months. Hopefully I will get back into routine soon. I have my first Chaos character all but done, I still need to finish his base, so more pictures soon. I also have, potentially, something big to write about. Not a new model, but something rather different. I won't be any more concrete or set a definite date for posting more, because I am conscious of failing to meet it.

I will post more when I have the chance.

Something of a different style of entry today. So far this blog has essentially been a record of my modelling and painting projects, but I always intended to make it somewhat broader than that so this entry takes a more philosophical approach. I promise more Chaos pictures by the end of the week. Assuming anyone is actually reading this and I am not just writing to myself.

Back when Games Workshop released its fifth edition Warhammer 40,000 rules, designer Jervis Johnson wrote the following in his column for White Dwarf:

“When we started on the new rules we decided that we shouldn't compromise the new rules out of fear of over-competitive players (or “rules lawyers” as they are known in the trade), but instead we should develop the rules we'd personally like to use ourselves. As long as the rules worked well in our games, then all we needed to do was explain to other players how to use them in their games.”

This was widely taken as an attack on the more competitive tournament players and seen as a signal that the Games Workshop studio was going to shift its focus to cocentrate on 'fun' at the expense of rules balance.

I think there is some truth in that statement, but looking back on it now, over a year later, it seems more like a defensive statement justifying the change in presentation of the rules that was to come, not just in Warhammer 40,000, but in all Games Workshop games.

Allow me to present a specific example from the Warriors of Chaos army book (forgive me, but I have Chaos on the brain at the moment). The rulebook contains a rule called 'Eye of the Gods.' This requires Chaos characters and champions to issue challenges to personal combat whenever they are able and accept them when offered. This strikes me as a pretty characterful rule. Chaos characters are the worshippers of vengeful Gods whose motivation is based entirely around attracting there attention and there is more glory to be gained in defeating enemy heroes than in slaughtering the nameless rabble.

This is how the rule is presented in the army book exactly as written:

“Chaos models that may issue challenges must do so whenever they are able. Furthermore, such is their thirst for glory that Chaos characters may not refuse challenges.”

That isn't the whole rule, but it is the most important part for the example I wish to discuss. On the face of it this is all pretty simple. A Chaos character or champion must issue a challenge whenever he can and accept a challenge when offered.

Actually this second part is less clear. If you read quickly you can easily gloss over the crucial word in the second sentence “Chaos characters may not refuse challenges.” Champions are not actually characters, they are actually an odd kind of hybrid regular trooper that uses the Character rules for challenges and being hit by missile fire, but they are not, strictly speaking, characters. I have to admit that I didn't even notice this second point until I read it in the FAQ published on the Games Workshop website.

So, strictly speaking, the rule states that all Chaos Characters and unit Champions must, when they are able, issue a challenge. When a challenge is offered, characters must accept, but Champions may (but don't have to) refuse. So far so good.

Now, to cite an entirely un-hypothetical example.

In a recent Game I played my Warriors of Chaos against my brother's Ogres. In this game I used a unit of Chaos Warriors including a Champion and accompanied by a Chaos Sorcerer. The unit was charged by a unit of Ogre bulls.

As per the Warhammer rules only one challenge may be issued per combat round. The procedure is that the charging player may issue a challenge on behalf of one character or champion in the charging unit, which may be accepted or refused. If they do not issue a challenge one character or champion from the unit receiving that charge may issue a challenge.

The Ogres did not issue a challenge requiring my Champion and Sorcerer to issue a challenge as per the 'Eye of the Gods' rule. Of course they can't both issue challenges, only one challenge can be issued per combat phase and in any case there weren't enough enemy characters of champions to go around. So I issued a challenge on behalf of my Champion, not wishing to see my Sorcerer ground into a soft meaty paste by the club of an Ogre Crusher.

I assume that this is acceptable as both characters are obliged to issue challenges, but only one legally can. If the Champion issues a challenge the Sorcerer is no longer 'able' and, as written, there is no pecking order.

This wasn't really a problem, a loop hole or an error, just an ambiguity that I would have liked to have seen clarified. However, the plot thickens had the Crusher issued a challenge.

If a challenge is issued the player on the receiving end has two choices, accept and nominate a character or champion to fight the challenge, or refuse and allow the challenging player to nominate on of his champions or characters to sit out the fight.

My Champion is not obligated to accept challenges, but my Sorcerer, as a character is. Does this mean that I cannot refuse the challenge as the Ogre player could nominate the Sorcerer, who may not refuse, to sit out the combat or does it mean that I can refuse, but that only the Champion can be nominated to sit out the combat? What does that mean if I accept. Can I accept with either model? Or must the Sorcerer accept as he is obliged to accept and the Champion is not?

The thing is, this situation is not uncommon. Most units that contain a character will likely contain a champion as well and many may contain two characters and a champion. What happens when two units are involved in the same combat? Or when a character fights seperately but is drawn into another combat involving a unit containing a character? This must have come up in play testing.

It isn't a situation that is hard to clarify. The first minor ambiguity could be resolved with a single sentence of the form:

“When a combat involves more than two models capable of issuing a challenge the controlling player may choose which one issues the challenge.”

The second is slightly more tricky, but can still be resolved in a single sentence.

“If a combat contains a chaos character and a champion, a character must accept any challenges issued.”

Or, alternatively:

“If a combat contains a chaos character and a champion, the Chaos player may choose whether to accept with a character or a champion, but one model must accept.”

Depending on the interpretation you prefer.

The fact that Games Workshop chose not to clarify the rule says something about their policy towards rule design and presentation.

I think that when Jervis Johnson was writing about not 'compromising' the rules he was really referring to making them unambiguous. I think that the GW design studio believe that unambiguous rules look complicated and that complicated-looking rules, while appealing to so-called 'rules lawyers' were actually putting off more casual, and particularly, younger players that Games Workshop are trying to attract.

They may not be entirely wrong in their assessment. Here is a quotation from the rules for De Bellis Antiquitatis (or DBA) an historical wargame to cover ancient and medieval wargaming and so not a million miles from Warhammer in style. They are also described as “simple” and “fast play.” This rule refers specifically to bonuses to combat rolls:

“Pikes add +3 and Warband +1 when in frontal close combat against any enemy except Cavalry, Light Horse, Scythed Chariots, Bows or Psiloi, and Spears add +1 if in frontal combat against Knights or Spears, if in either case they are supported by a friendly element of the same type lined up directly behind and facing the same direction, and neither supported nor supporting element is in bad going.”

I should note that in DBA several models are placed on one stand and referred to as an 'element' or a particular type.

If you look closely at that sentence, everything you need to understand when to apply the bonuses is there, though the multiple clauses make for difficult reading and understanding.

I mean this as no slight to DBA which is an enjoyable game that justifies its claim of being simple and fast play and which, admirably, includes all the rules, army lists, a campaign system and terrain set up all in 52 A5 pages for only £5.

But in an attempt to avoid any ambiguity and to minimise the possibility of situations not covered by the rules, the designers have managed to write some sentences that take serious work to decipher.

In contrast, Games Workshop would rather maintain superficial simplicity and the appearance of a fun and simple game than avoid situations not covered by the rules. Personally, I think good wargame design lies somewhere in between, but if given the choice I would rather try and decipher a difficult sentence to find a rule than to discover that no rule exists to cover a common situation.

Chaos Rising

In my last post I mentioned that I was taking a break from Samurai to paint some Warhammer Warriors of Chaos. Here are the results so far (with a few random games and action figures from my hobby room in the background):


Between four and five units complete so far. Four if you count the Chaos Hounds as one unit, five if two, I will probably vary them depending on circumstances.

My Chaos army actually dates back as far as 1994 and was actually the second Warhammer army I ever collected. The models have changed a lot in that time, but I still have a few left overs from my original army.

I was inspired by the battle report in White Dwarf 176 when the newly released Chaos army took on the Dwarfs. Two major components of that army were a unit of Chaos Knights and a Unit of Dragon Ogres and it became my goal to get big units of each for my army.

The Dragon Ogres had to wait as they were £9 each and back then that was a lot for a single model. My initial army was bought at the 1994 Games Day with birthday money and contained 8 Chaos Knights, one unit of 12 beastmen (including a Shaman), one unit of 10 Beastmen (plastic) and a Chaos Sorcerer riding a disk. Thanks to a generous birthday present from a friend I added 8 Plague Bearers. Back then the Chaos Army was a wild mix of all different kinds of troops with beastmen, daemons and warriors mixing freely. Marauders hadn't been thought of (actually they had, but were pretty different from what they became).

My army grew pretty rapidly, adding plastic Chaos Warriors, more daemons and, eventually, my Dragon Ogres. I started with three, but eventually upgraded to five. My army remained almost entirely unpainted, however.

In 1997, Games Workshop decided to rejig the Chaos Army dividing it into the separate Beasts, Warriors and Daemons we see today (though all three were covered in one army book). They also released the first multi-part plastic regiment box in the form of the Chaos Warriors. I snapped up two and set about reworking my army adding Marauders and two Chariots. My beastmen were quietly retired.

I never got on with the 6th edition army list. Partly it was the use of 'of Chaos' left and right. No Chaos Warriors or Chaos Knights any more, now it was 'Warriors of Chaos' and 'Knights of Chaos.' This always sounded pretentious and the fact that only one unit of each could have Chaos Armour really irritated me as did the removal of the option for Chaos Knights to carry lances. Despite attempts to revitalise my army, including the purchase of a Giant, my Warriors stayed in the draw for fifth edition.

The new Warriors of Chaos book is a huge improvement in my view. Not too happy that Daemons have been given their own army (it never made sense to me that armies of Daemons would be wandering the countryside) but I didn't really use them anyway. And my Dragon Ogres were well and truly back where they belonged. So with a new Army book and a battalion box acquired I set about reworking my army once more.



The Chaos Warriors were completed first and were a good test for my planned colour scheme.

I like my armies to have a consistent look and so keep to the same palette of colours. With a very uniform army, like my Dwarfs, I will stick to the rule that the same types of things are painted the same colours. So all cloth red, chain mail and metal metallic grey, leather black, fur brown. Though hair colour is always varied for some added realism.

For a more undisciplined army, like my Greenskins, I will stick to the same palette of colours, so blue, brown and black and the same shade of each, but vary where the colours are painted. So one Orc might have a blue tunic and brown trousers with black boots and another will have a brown tunic, blue trousers and black boots, with a third having a blue tunic, black trousers and brown boots. This helps the army stay coherent, but makes them look unruly.

For Chaos I wanted my army to have a dark and grim look. The other approach is to go very bright and colourful, but I preferred grim and forbidding. With that in mind I stuck to black and grey with leather in dark brown. Although the uniform look might not seem appropriate for a Chaos army, I reasoned that it was more an effect of necessity. My Warriors simply didn't have access to dyes and had to make do with what they could. I did, however, decide that scraps of cloth, including banners could be painted red to add a little colour.

This Chaos Warrior close up shows a little more detail.

I learned recently that the best way to paint smooth, plated armour of the type used by Chaos Warriors is to highlight the edge of the plates, as well any ridges. I'm not sure why this works, as I always assumed that you should highlight the raised areas on a model and the edges are normally not raised. But the effect seems to work.

Painting black has become immeasurably easier for me since I started using Tamiya paints. Games Workshop only produce Chaos Black and their darkest grey, codex grey, is not particularly dark. When painting a single model this isn't much of a problem as the colours can be mixed. But mixing large quantities in order to paint an army is a major chore and maintaining colour consistency across a unit, let alone a whole army, is impossible.

Tamiya, however, produce a colour called Nato Black, a slightly off black colour that doesn't dry as glossy as plain black and looks more real. They also produce German Grey, a much darker grey than Codex Grey. The Chaos Warriors armour was painted Nato Black and highlighted German Grey.


The Chaos Marauders show rather more brown and flesh tones thanks to being more lightly armoured. The metal areas were painted terracotta, a red-brown colour that Games Workshop, criminally, discontinued a while back. Fortunately I stocked up. After the terracotta they were drybrushed boltgun metal. The traces of red-brown produce a quick and easy rust effect.


This Marauder unit is made up of models that date back to the fifth edition Chaos Army book in 1998. I waited weeks for them to be released and the release date was put back by two weeks, forcing me to make an additional trip to Games Workshop. I bought up 20 in one go on the day of release.

There were actually four different models, but some how I managed to not get any of one of them. Consequently it's pretty tricky to arrange the unit so that two identical models are never next to one another.

Having bought these in 1998, they have had the longest gap between purchase and painting of any of my models. Though my Dragon Ogres will over take when I get to them, they date back to 1995.

Each unit of Marauders took over a week to finish, in contrast, the Chaos Hounds took two days. The bulk of them is fur and that was drybrushed. A little highlighting covered the bare skin and that just left scales, tails, scars and bone to paint, none of which took long.

I am currently hard at work on my ten strong Chaos Knight Unit. In painting time they sit somewhere between the Hounds and the Marauders. More pictures when they are done.

As usual, these pictures plus more can be seen at photobucket.

The Red Devils march

After more than two months of on and off painting my Warmaster Medieval Samurai army is complete.

Well I say complete...

This army is made up of the miniatures from Baccus Samurai starter army for Warmaster Medieval, with the exception of me leaving out one unit of foot Samurai. The reason for this is that Baccus actually make two types of foot Samurai, advancing and charging. A 1,000 point Warmaster army can contain 4 units of foot Samurai and I want 2 of each. However, the starter army came with 3 advancing units. So, with the first batch complete I now have to order 2 more Samurai units.

This is actually only the beginning of my plans. My Red Devils need someone to fight and so I will have to start work on a second samurai army, again of about 1000 points. My current plan is to do one based around the Shimazu clan of Satsuma who were famous for the feigned retreat tactics and made good use of snipers. It was a shimazu clan arquebusier who gave Ii Naomasa the wound that ultimately killed him.

This is a unit of mounted Samurai. In Warmaster they count as shock cavalry which means they are based facing the narrow edge of the base. This allows more stands to get into combat for extra impact. I have two of these painted up, the maximum allowed in a 1,000 point army.

They have been painted with completely red armour, like the foot samurai, but I tried to vary the colours of the horses with a few different shades of brown or grey and one or two black.

Ii Naomasa himself, though he could also represent his son Naotaka if necessary. He is shown here with an attendant carrying his gear in a horo, or large sack and accompanied by a messenger. In reality a Samurai of his rank would have been accompanied by a hundred or more attendants, weapon bearers, messengers, etc. These two are just a sample.

The golden horns were an addition to the model made with green stuff. They look a little crude, but work well at a distance. Remember this model is 6mm scale and is less than a centimetre tall. The horns were absolutely compulsory, given that Naomasa is famous for wearing them.

Naomasa is based in the traditional Warmaster character fashion on a 2p coin.

Kimata Morikatsu, one of Naomasa's closest retainers. He was assigned to him by Tokugawa Ieyasu himself and served Naomasa then Naotaka for the rest of his life.

His official role was as commander of the Red Devil vanguard and the most senior Taisho. This term doesn't translate perfectly, but can be considered equivalent to general.

In Warmaster terms he is a Samurai hero. He is based on a 2p like Naomasa.

The army here is arranged in an approximation of the Hoshi formation. This was a common attacking formation were missile fire would break up the enemy before mounted Samurai charged in in a wedge formation.

At the front we have three teppo formations, mixed missile troops with hand guns and bows. Directly behind them in the centre are two Mounted Samurai units acting as the vanguard. Their commander, Kimata Morikatsu, is directly behind them. They are supported by a second division of foot samurai directly behind on the left and right.

On the left and right behind the teppo are Yari Ashigaru, low class fighters with long spears who fought like pikeman and guard the flanks.

Behind the Samurai is a middle division of more Yari Ashugaru, with the commander, Ii Naomasa behind them. This was quite common for Samurai armies. The general would rarely engage in front line combat, instead watching the unfolding battle from a camp at the rear and issuing orders.

This was not a question of keeping him safe, but more about ensuring that the battle was well directed. If the battle was lost the losing general would probably commit suicide in any case.

Of course Ii Naomasa had plenty of opportunities to see front line combat, as he would usually command one part of a larger force usually under the command of Tokugawa Ieyasu. This formation shows how they might have fought if the Red Devils fought alone.

At the back is a supporting Teppo Ashigaru unit to guard the rear.

I don't have quite enough units for a proper Hoshi formation. There should be a clear bodyguard covering Naomasa on both sides as well as two rear flanking units and more missile troops at the back, but it gives some sense of how the army might have deployed. Whether this would be an effective formation for Warmaster is less certain.

As before, I have more pictures on photobucket. Take a look at them here

With the Red Devils finished I am taking a break from painting 6mm. I have actually started work on painting a Warhammer Chaos army. Most of the models have been hanging around unpainted for ages so I thought it was about time I got them finished. Once they're done I'll be ordering more Samurai and hopefully soon have enough for a full scale battle. Watch this space.

Hikone castle rises

Ever since I decided to put together a Samurai army I wanted a castle to go with them.

When I decided on 6mm scale it became even more important. The reason for this is that, while I have a lot of scenery for 28mm scale, much of it isn't really transferable to 6mm scale. The hills are fine, they just become bigger hills or even mountains. But 28mm forests don't work so well. I have seen people use large scale trees with their small figures and while they are fine for gaming purposes, they never look quite right.

Most importantly, I needed buildings, specifically Japanese style buildings in the right scale. This is easier said than done. Not many manufacturers make 6mm Japanese buildings. In any case, I was keen to save some money and wanted to do it myself.

Starting with the castle was probably not a sensible idea. But I like a challenge and loved the idea of my army of Samurai lined up with the castle in the background.

I ummed and ahhed for some time before deciding on a castle to model. I thought about creating a generic castle, but was worried that it wouldn't look authentic. I considered Gifu castle, because the Red Devils had fought there and seen some action.

But in the end my eyes were drawn to Hikone castle. This was the castle of the Red Devils themselves and, fortunately, one of the few Japanese castles to still be substantially authentic. Most are reconstructions. This meant I could find lots of nice photographs of the castle for reference.

Of course when I say 'castle' I am really referring to the keep, the large central building within the castle compound. The whole castle is made up of dozens of buildings surrounded by walls. I plan to do more buildings and some walls, but I had to start somewhere.

Hikone Castle keep as it appears today

Hikone wasn't constructed until after the battle of Sekigahara, and was not completed until after Ii Naomasa's death, so it was almost certainly never besieged. Using it in battle would be necessarily anachronistic. But I decided I didn't care. I could play an 'alteranate history' game or use it to stand in for another castle. The chance to build the Red Devil's own castle to go with the army was too good to pass up.

Unfortunately I had a great deal of trouble finding any plans or blueprints for the castle. In the end I relied on a dodgy translation of the Hikone city website, that stated the castle was 21 metres tall and measuring numerous photos to work out the scale of everything. The results are less than precise, but should do for gaming purposes.

I also wanted to be able to put models inside, so I decided to build it with three seperate detachable floors. I am clearly insane.

I started by making the walls of each floor using foamboard (two thin layers of card with a layer of foam in between). Foamboard is nice and thick and can be pinned easily for extra stability. I then gave the first two floors a flat roof. This allowed the second floor to sit on top of the first and the third to sit on top of the second. The flat roofs were made using 1mm thick card.

After that I made the curved roofs out of more thick card. These had to be carefully cut to match the design of the castle and still allow each floor to be detached.


This work in progress shot shows the keep at this stage. At this point I made a major blunder. I measured the heights for each floor, taking into account the added depth needed to clear the roof of the floor beneath. Unfortunately, I screwed up the second floor and made it 10mm too short. It dissapeared under the roof of the first floor. I ended up having to scrap the whole second floor and start again.

After that I neede to texture the roofs. I spent a lot of time looking around for appropriate thin round objects to stick to the rooves to give them an authentic look. In the end I settled on barbecue skewers, which were probably a bit too thick, but look okay in this scale. I cut them into small pieces and glued them on to the rooves covering up any visiable card.

I added windows and wood panels with more card. Finally I had to build the base. All Japanese castles are built on a mound of tightly packed stones for added defence. These mounds are fantastically tough and in many cases the mound of stones is now all that remains of the castle. I build my mound using more foamboard with a flat card 'roof' for the castle to sit on top of.

Completed, but unpainted castle.

Finally I painted it. This wasn't too hard as the castle is mostly black and white. I gave the whole think an undercoat of black primer before painting the walls in two coats of white. The roofs were touched up with more black, to give them good coverage before being drybrushed, first with Tamiya Nato black and the German grey. Finally, I gave the windows a quick go with German grey to simulate pains of glass.

Painted Keep

So far, I have only partly textured the mound, by gluing a layer of small stones. I intend to add smaller stones to fill in the gaps before painting.

Painted keep with partly texture, but unpainted mound

This was an ambitious project and took the better part of a month to complete. I still need to add more, I think a few extra details, like the gold stars on the original castle would look good, but I have to figure out to do them. I also intend to add more buildings, the keep has at least two further buildings attached, and no castle would be complete without some walls.

First, though I think I will do some smaller buildings that I can use as a village. After the Castle that shouldn't be too challenging.

I am very pleased with the three level effect. It means that a good six warmaster stands can be placed inside the castle ready to defend it. Given that Warmaster Medieval has siege rules, this is quite a tempting prospect.

The three levels of Hikone castle keep

If you're interested in seeing any more pictures of the model you can find them here: http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/Humorous_Conclusion/Hikone%20Castle%20model/

Hopefully, I will have pictures of my completed Ii Red Devil army soon.