While at a family wedding in Bolton recently, a grand nephew's, I saw my sister and brother in law freshly back from Japan tracking down where that branch of the family is from, that part of Yokahama was mostly destroyed in the earthquake in 1929 and anything left got flattened by US bombers in WW2 and although my great grandmother and the one remaining great aunt stayed their extended family moved to another treaty port, Nagasaki. My dad was in the invasion fleet in Sydney in 1945 and would have been in the first wave had we not dropped both bombs, so I feel a little ambiguous about the bombing but that's not the point of this post!
I got a present from Osaka Castle.
My wife said at the dining table in the hotel when I got the book ( so I have witnesses)
" why don't you paint a samurai army as it's part of your heritage " well with such an unusual intervention from my wife what can I do but acquiesce? It won't be immediate but I'm thinking of the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari so another pike and shot army or two, I've been put off Warlords plastic range by Ray's mate Steve who told me how hard he was finding it when I saw him at Partizan! So maybe it's going to be a metal Perry army? Obviously I'll have to do a bit more research but this will be a long term one, after Montrose's army and two hundred years war armies and my early Imperial Romans otherwise I'm pretty good with Napoleonics ( although I can't stop painting them?!) Great Italian wars are back on the agenda for some reinforcements and the late Romans and dark ages are bumping along nicely so obviously all I bought at Partizan was WW2 Soviets! I also chatted to Andy from the friends of general Haig and they're really nice 1691 pike and shot battle, even if it wasn't in 28mm!
KV1/2 warlord T34/76 Rubicon, tank crew and tank riders from bad Squiddo. I'm currently up to my eyes in a flat refurbishment with an imminent deadline so I apologise if I'm not commenting on your blogs and probably won't be posting until next month, partizan was my only day off for the foreseeable future, added to 14 hour days doesn't leave a lot of time for a hobby!
All the best
Iain
What an awesome gift, and interesting history from your family heritage as well, and sounds like it will be a great army to collect as well. Nice little haul from the show, and hopefully you can get the refurbishment done in time.
ReplyDeleteWonderful gift! You ought to be diving straight into building Samurai armies.
ReplyDeleteCool gift! My kids are mixed heritage, too, which makes WWII history class here in New Zealand a little tricky. My wife's family tradition has it that her grandfather was going to be pressed into service as a mobile landmine had the war had not ended when it did; my family tradition has it that my grandfather was glad to be fighting the Germans rather than the Japanese!
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew more about gaming Samurai (for lack of a better tag), but it's probably best that I don't (temptation and all of that). If I were going in that direction, I'd probably do it in metals (for the reasons cited, as well as just being my preference, being a fellow of a certain vintage). Lovely book and present, certainly!
ReplyDeleteInteresting family story and such a lovely gift to get, If it was me doing a Samurai project I think it would be the Perry route, lovely figures and pretty well cover all you would need.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very nice present and given your heritage, it would be madness not to explore it games wise. With Dutch and Welsh heritage too, I always tend to faovur these if at all possible in my games. I'm due to be decorating our son's old room to become my games room, but the recent lovely weather put a stop to that. All change now with it being wet again, so back to the decorating, which I really should do so I can resume gaming!
ReplyDeleteA brilliant gift and a new project... life is sweet.
ReplyDeleteGreat gift sir!
ReplyDeleteA samurai project sounds great Iain. Perry are probably the best option as you can get stuck straight in. Steel Fist also look good, but much pricier from memory.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Second the Perry metals as the best option for 28mm Samurai, there’s Fireforge plastics as well that are a lot chunkier…
ReplyDeleteThat's quite an interesting consideration, both the heritage and the mixed feelings. Anyway now you cannot but build that army, that's a fact!
ReplyDeleteJust popping in to say, "sounds cool, from various angles".
ReplyDeleteNice present, nice idea for an army. One of the first armies on the table I saw at a convention was a Samurai force whose beauty is still imprinted in my mind,
ReplyDeleteYour wife probably had a lot to drink but what’s spoken is spoken! 😀
ReplyDeleteVery cool gift.
Good luck with the construction.
You have an amazing family history, Iain! As for samurai figures, I have dabbled and have some Perry's painted up. They look great but I just don't know enough about the period to create units with any confidence yet. I was at Partizan too, (I went last year for the first time). It was amazing but so busy! It would have been great to have met you. Hopefully next year. Good luck with the flat refurbishment!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Jason
That story about your wife suggesting your next project rem8nds me of our gaming mate Chrus, whose Korean wife inspired a Perry 25mm Korean army, to take on Mark's (1866 and all That) Samurai!
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvellous connection 'tween your family history, hobby interests and a recent trip!
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether you'd consider 1/72, but Zvezda produce a fine range of Samurai figures and there is some nice artillery from Redbox (see https://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/PeriodList.aspx?period=8).
Regards, James