Salute 2012 (picture heavy)

Well, firstly an apology for not posting this sooner and secondly another apology for not posting more progress posts on the boards itself. It got rather busy towards the end, what with stock, pre-orders and boards but hopefully the amount of photos here will sort of make up for it.

I will also have a bit of a write up on various elements that were on the boards and a few thoughts on the show in general (not many though). I warn you now, there will be a lot of pictures at the end of this post :-)

For the board itself, it was decided long ago to make a town, or a portion of a town, that would have been typical of the period and location. Obviously for gaming scale reasons, the town itself had to be foreshortened somewhat but the elements were there.

Japanese towns were typically laid out in a grid pattern, altering around whatever terrain got in the way and having various districts such as a merchants one, a samurai one etc. There were also small religious districts or compounds that popped up.

The other reasons to have a town board was to show off the items available in my catalogue and the fact you don't normally see this sort of Japanese game being displayed. It also gave me an opportunity to try some different models for Japan instead of the normal fair that I have been doing recently.

All in all, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, much better than previous years which I thought were rather lacking in some way or another.

The boards themselves were a mix of previously  made ones that I've had for many years and specially built ones for the town itself.

An interesting fact about Japanese towns is the thought that goes into the planning, they don't just 'grow' but are laid out and constructed to an overall masterplan (of sorts).

One of the elements that must be included is the addition of drainage ditches that surrounded the various compounds.

They can be seen on some of the closer photos and were basically cut into the boards and either clad with stonework for the richer areas or just left as normal groundwork for the poorer areas.

As I mentioned, Japanese towns were laid out in a grid work, this made the designing of the town a little easier as all my boards are 600mm square so it was quite a simple case of having crossroads, tee-junctions and straight sections made. The only thing to be aware of is the different road widths depending on the location.

Generally, wider roads were in the more affluent areas and had a cleaner look about them, whereas the narrower ones were in the merchant districts etc.

The painting of the boards was kept simple and normal groundwork techniques were used but on the roads themselves, more drybrushing was implemented to give the impression of well worn thoroughfares.

A few bits of greenery were added here and there just to break up the monotony. 

Most of the various elements can be seen in more detail in other blog posts (roadside shrine, building bases, village base, paddyfields etc) but one thing I wanted was to have a pagoda in it's own little compound.

The construction of this was kept as simple as I could get away with but still with enough detail to make it 'work' as a recognisable structure. The top roof was from the roadside shrine that is in the catalogue but everything else was made especially for it.

Pagodas usually come in either two story, three story or five story. The two story ones are different to the typical looking three and five story ones but I'll be making one of them in the not so distant future...

The actual layout of a pagoda is quite straight forward, ever decreasing floors with projecting roofs but the trouble lies in the details, of which there are many! Most of the detail is in the roof supports so I had to find a way of keeping the feel but making it easy to build and paint (as time was running out).

I solved this by only having one 'strut' coming out at each wooden 'grid line' (you'll see what I mean from the photo to the right). The floors were simple enough to do, normal box construction, keeping the woodwork simple but retaining enough basic elements to be identifiable.

The roof were cheated a little bit and kept flat, whereas the slope was achieved with the corner pieces making the whole thing a simplish construction. Turned OK in the end :-)

The board got a lot of praise from those who saw it  (from what I can gather) and there always seemed to be a large crowd around it taking photos, which was nice. A few people came over to the stall (which was nearby) to comment on the board, which again, makes it worthwhile :-)

I've probably missed out quite a few things that should be mentioned about the board so forgive me if this is the case, if you have any questions then just leave a comment and I'll reply the best I can :-)

All the figures were Perry's, the vast majority painted by myself and a small faction by 'Janner', a nice chap who frequents various fora and whom I have gotten to know quite well (even though he does take the piss quite a lot :-)

As for Salute itself, it seemed a lot busier with more of a buzz than last year although of course I didn't really get to see any of it although what I did see looked good with a large variation of games on display (many, many pictures on the net now, for which I am rather thankful).

It's good to see our hobby progressing the way it is, ever onward. I'm not going to delve into the reasons and wherefores as others have done before with more clarity than I ever could, I'll just say that it seems to be a good time to be a wargamer :-)

My own little offering (Oshiro) is growing steadily and it's been a pleasure to be able to do what I can and coming up with new things to make and hopefully expanding the niche that I've found myself in :-)

I'm looking forward to the coming year as I have quite a few new things on the horizon and hopefully they will prove useful and popular. Just to be a bit of a tease I'll just say that there will be a new figure range (other than the Boxer Rebellion) and a couple of new building ranges (other than Japanese).

Anyway, I'll leave you now with a fair few more pictures of the game on the day and a big thank you to all those who came by, said hello, had a brief chat with and those I managed to inspire :-)

ttfn

A few bits and peices

Got a couple of smaller things and some web releases to show today.

First off, the releases. I've finally finished the roof of the 15mm odou which is now ready, I've also done a series of 15mm walls similar to the 28mm ones. Not much as to a write up about them I'm afraid but they are available now and will be on the site tomorrow (at some point)

The odou is 55mm square and 65mm high and the walls are 80mm long and 25mm high (the corner fills an area of about 40mm)

The prices will be on the site also and I'm madly trying to get stock ready for Salute.

I've got quite a few more things on the go for the website at the moment, generally range expansions and filling in gaps here and there but I'm not going to get them ready for Salute this year, I'll just work on them during the coming summer.

Below I've put a couple of pictures of some small commissions that I've recently done and will be using on the Salute demo board before they go to their rightful home.

First off is a roadsign or michishirube that would have been found on the main highways of  Japan. It would basically say that you are on the road to whichever town you were traveling to. I believe that generally no distances were mentioned, it was just an indicator of the direction.

The construction was pretty much the same as the other Japanese terrain on here and the sign itself was a heavily distressed length of balsa with the words kindly written on by my wife. Basic translation is 'The road to Sekigahara'

The next piece is of a rural toilet (kawaya). It might seem strange to have such a thing but a lot of the terrain around towns and villages would have been cultivated and workers in the fields would need somewhere to 'go'.

There would also be small shacks that would contain tools etc and also small shrines that thew local farmers would come to and leave occasional offerings for a good harvest.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of them.

ttfn

A thank you!

As the blog passes 10,000 views I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all the chaps and chapesses who 'follow', read and comment on my vacant ramblings, it is very much appreciated!

Here's looking forward to a year full of goodies, adventures, modelling, figures, gaming and all the goodness that makes our little hobby the joy it is.

cheers

James

The Japanese have landed

Well, come back from the casters anyway :-)

They are for the Boxer Rebellion and the early stages of the Russo-Japanese war (some units kept the uniform till the end of the war) and for the moment there are four infantrymen, three command and four naval crewmen.

The heads are separate (see picture below), they come with separate backpacks and the command pack comes with a banner pole and a simple flag (not shown here). The prices are as follows. £6 for the infantry, £6 for the command and £5 for the naval crewmen.

There will be a proper section on my normal website soon (after Salute) showing them painted, descriptions and general information.

In these photos they are mounted on 2mm thick, 20mm bases and there is a scale photo below with other manufacturers.

I have some normal marching troops on the go at the moment and plans for lots more, including cavalry, equipment, the odd vignette and some more naval types.

I will then be moving onto the other nations, probably Russia first for the Russo-Japanese war but we'll see what takes my fancy.

I'll also be bringing out a range of buildings suitable for the Boxer Rebellion and Russo-Japanese war during the course of the year.

If you would like some of these then drop me an e-mail using the address on the left hand side at the top (the side-bar). Paypal only I'm afraid for the moment but that might change.

The figures in order are, Copplestone Chinese, my infantry, my command, Perry Samurai and a Tsuba Miniatures officer

28mm Martians soon to be released

I'm turning into a lead baron :-D

Myself and a friend of mine have wanted to do these for a while now and at last they are starting to see the light of day. The basic premise is that Mars has started to be colonised (circa 1890-1900) and certain factions of the indigenous inhabitants aren't to happy with it (and who can blame them). The setting is basically for all the world powers to either have a bash at each other or at the Martians. The first set of figures will be Sky Martians, these are the tribal, earthman hating, canyon dwellers who fly fast wind powered skiffs on lightning raids of human (and city Martian) settlements and trade routes etc.

As you can see from the shot to the left, they are substantially taller than humans and are quite simple in their dress, finery and 'bling' would get in the way of speedy attacks. We have a lot of fluff that will go on a dedicated website along with a shop where the figures will be available from and the figures themselves will be appearing in one of Oshiro's demo games at Salute (table GA07).

They are also going to the casters tomorrow morning :-) I'm getting all excited!

The main type of transport, a skiff, is also being worked on at the moment and here are a couple of 'preview' shots. The 'eye' at the front is a harpoon launcher which the skiffs use to attach themselves to their target and allow the on board martians to quickly board the enemy vessel, do the business, and then make a quick getaway.

The sail configuration needs some work to get the positions and proportions right but it's almost ready to start making the proper ones which will then be cast up and available for sale on the same website that the figures are on.

The trooper martians are multipart and multipose as we felt this would give the right feel for the fast, haphazard nature of the Martians themselves. If the pose look a little odd, all will make sense when you see the final products painted and assembled.

The colour scheme we are going for is very dark skin with a very pale, almost pearleseant  armour which should give a nice, different contrast to the Martian landscape. There will be info as to why these colours in the fluff. I shall leave you with a few more shots.

ttfn

Victorian terrace house

Finally got the basics done on these now and what you see to the left is everything you will need to make one house (the roofing tile sheet isn't shown as I forgot :-/ ).

It comes ready primed and I'm working on an instruction sheet. It's not hard to put together but I thought some people would appreciate a how to sheet.

The windows and doors are separate for ease of painting and the chimney is pre-made and can be left off if you prefer.

The floors, once together, can stack and multiple floors can be added to the building to make it three, four or more stories high.

I've also made a test for a shop front which can be seen to the left. Of course, the windows and door are removable and there is sufficient detail for it not to require anything else to be done to it.

I'm also working on a different roof with the gable to the front and a small window in the wall and a few different shop types.

These (and some of the options, along with the Victorian warehouse in an earlier post and possibly something else) will be available on the website in next month. As mentioned before all the floors are separate and each one has an integral floor to it so figures can be placed inside.

In the pipeline for these are such things as a front and rear yard/garden attachment and also an outhouse that can either be butted up to the building or put at the rear of the back yard/garden. Rear walls will be thought out as well.

I haven't got any painted versions of this yet but I did manage to spray a couple red and put them together to get a feel for what an entire street would look like and I must admit, I quite like it :-)

These are available now and are going for £30 including postage to the UK (international will be a bit more) so if you are interested drop me a line using the e-mail on the left hand side bar or I can be PM'd through the Lead Adventure Forum.

I'll leave you with one or two more shots

ttfn