Unboxing: "Oriental Blades" by em4miniatures.com

Some time ago I began collecting models in order to build an army based on one of the "Warhammer Armies Project" unofficial Warhammer supplements: The "Nippon" armies book.

Being largely based on Feudal 16th Century Japan, sourcing miniatures hasn't been too difficult. I've previously written a series of posts regarding:

• Wargames Factory Ashigaru Missile Troops
• Wargames Factory Ashigaru Yari Troops
• Wargames Factory Samurai
• Wargames Factory "Mounted Samurai"
• Perry Miniatures "Monks", "Samurai", "Ninja" and "Cannon" models
• Oni (a daemon) from rpgminiatures.com

Being a Warhammer supplement and not a true historical wargame, however, means that it's going to have its roots in Fantasy. That means magic, monsters and exotic troop types. And as you'd expect these are in plentiful supply in the book; Ki-rin, Oni, Kabuki Dolls, Wako Pirates, Kitsune and so on.

The problem is that they're not so easy to actually find models for. The rank and file of Ashigaru and Samurai are in good supply thanks to companies like Wargames Factory and Perry Miniatures. But finding monsters, Shugenja (wizards) and female characters (like Kabuki Dolls and Battle Maidens) is a bit more difficult.

A lot of searching effort has gone on by those of us who have an interest in this army book and setting and many good finds have been posted over on the "Models for the Nippon Army" thread on the "battlereporter" forum.

One of the finds we made was a UK company called "em4miniatures". These are a supplier of  RPG and Wargames miniatures and accessories who specialise in pre-painted figures. They have a number of ranges, one of which is the "Oriental Blades" range. "Oriental Blades" is a small range of just 10 different miniatures and when I first found them, these were split into two sets "OB1" and "OB2". Both were available painted as a job lot and the minis from "OB1" were available unpainted as individual models. After some emails swapped between Doug at "em4miniatures" I managed to agree with him that he'd cast up some unpainted models from the OB2 range and would be happy to sell those as individual models too.

Now that, in my book, is customer service.

So a few weeks later I now have in my possession 22 models, all unpainted, from the OB1 and OB2 ranges that I can add to my growing collection, so I thought I'd show you all what I have.

First up, some "Female Adventurer" models which I intend to use as "Battle Maidens". I purchased 10 of these so can easily show "front" and "back" views. One model is from the "OB1" range, the other is from "OB2":

OB1 Female Adventurer, front & back

OB2 Female Adventurer, front & back

Next up, some "Ronin". Again,  I purchased 10 of these so can easily show "front" and "back" views. One model is from the "OB1" range, the other is from "OB2":

OB1 Scruffy Ronin, front & back

OB2 Ronin, front & back

Lastly I picked up 1 Ninja and 1 Shugenja:

Shugenja front (left), Ninja front (right)

Shugenja back  (left), Ninja back (right)

The photos here really don't do the models justice. The flash on the camera in conjunction with the metallic shine on the models has washed out a lot of the details that these models actually have. All the models are nice, clean, detailed sculpts, mould lines are virtually invisible and there is a small amount of flash as you'd expect from any lead casting. It's minimal though - I've seen far, far worse that cleaned up well. The poses are dynamic and dramatic.

As just £1.50 per model I certainly can't quibble on the price. Each is supplied ready for insertion into a GW-style slottabase and comes with a 1'' round "Warhammer 40K" type base.

If I was to make any sort of a grumble about anything, it would be about some slight inconsistencies in the models' sizes. The Ninja is clearly smaller and "skinnier" than the others, whilst one of the female adventurers and the Shujenga are larger. This doesn't bother me overmuch - in a Wargame it's the base size that's of paramount importance not the actual dimensions of the figures, but it might put some people off.

Unboxing: Oni Night Haunter

One of the frustrating things about collecting a non-standard army from an unofficial army book (see my "Fan-Written Army Books" post) is sourcing the miniatures.

When I decided to begin collecting a Nippon army, it was fairly straightforward to find models from Perry Miniatures (see also "Unboxing: Perry Miniatures Samurai") to fill in some of the Rare, Special and HQ army slots. Also quite easy was finding the Wargames Factory models required to fill most of the Core slots (See also: "Unboxing: Wargames Factory Samurai", "Unboxing: Wargames Factory Mounted Samurai", "Unboxing: Wargames Factory Ashigaru Yari Troops" and "Unboxing: Wargames Factory Missile Troops").

But Warhammer is supposed to be a Fantasy game, not a Historical game, right? Right! So I want monsters and wizards. That's not so easy to do as those models are rare.

When Kensei get up and running (not sure how long that will take but their crowdfunding is complete now) I might be able to buy some of the more esoteric minis, but for now I'm left to scrabble around a bit and just "see what's out there".

I like Ogre-sized models so I was immediately taken by the "Oni" entry in the Nippon army list book. Oni are variously referred to as "Japanese Dae

mons" and "Japanese Ogres" if you look for them on the interweb. They're definately treated as Daemons in the army list as they are "unstable" and cause "magical attacks".

I found a good match for the illustration of Oni in an old D&D Miniature called an "Oni Night Haunter" and I fairly easily managed to pick three of these up from www.rpgminiatures.com for about £3.00 each.

They come pre-painted and are moulded in one piece out of a plastic that's soft and pliable. You won't snap these guys but you may find paint flaking if you abuse this property.

I've photographed the model next to one of the Perry Ashigaru and also next to a GW Chaos Bestman so you get an idea of the scale.

The paintjob shown on the model is the pre-painted effort - I'll certainly be re-basing and re-painting the model (but I do like the white hair so I'll probably nick that).

Unboxing: Perry Miniatures Samurai

In order to round out my budding "Nippon" army, I've purchased a few models from Perry Miniatures.

Perry Miniatures are an independent company owned by the infamous "Perry Twins" - two of the creators of  many, many Citadel Miniatures. For anyone interested in what they look like (the twins, not the miniatures), their photo appears in the original "Warhammer Siege" rulebook.

Anyway.

I don't know if they're still working for Citadel/GW or not, but their own company "Perry Miniatures" is currently making historical models in both plastic and metal. The Samurai range is only available in metal.

Needing among other things, some Ninja, Monks and a Daimyo, I decided to order some of their products.

The ordering process itself was simple enough, communications were good and the goods arrived in a very "rattley" taped up cardboard box within a few days.

Slitting the tape and opening the box revealed: More boxes! And the reason for the rattle.

And that's how there were - totally loose in the box. No additional packaging. Now that's not actually a problem as far as it goes, as each of the individual cardboard boxes is well packaged in itself. Each is taped shut and contains a cotton-wool backing and the miniatures you've ordered:

I'll show each of these sets one-by-one below, but just a general point on packaging. I hate excessive packaging. It inflates postage costs, means my recycle bin fills up faster and there's obviously more waste. However, I think these guys have gone slightly too far the other way.

The lead these models are made from seems to be quite soft, and there were a greater amount of bent swords and whatnot than I was happy with here. A bit more room in the boxes would have helped, I think.

I ordered two sets of Monks with Naginata (halberds):

The Naginata are clearly separate and need gluing into place.

Two sets of Ninja:

Ninja - 5 standing and one lying down (crawling, I guess, or suspended from a wire, Tom-Cruise-style). 

One set of Mantlets:

The set contains 6 Mantlets - I've only shown three here. These are really intended just to add to my "Siege Equipment" roster so you'll probably see them painted up on another blog post soon.

One "Flaming Arrow" (that's the Army list name for the item - can't remember the Perry name for it.):

This set contains the cannon (1 piece), 4 crew and 2 large Mantlets (only 1 shown. These will also migrate to my Siege equipment posts soon).

And a Daimyo:

The Daimyo is mounted...

...and comes with 2 standard bearers and a Samurai.

You'll notice from these hasty camera-phone pics two things:

1. The models are on bases which are moulded as part of the models. The legs are quite slender so I'll probably just glue these on top of slottabases rather than removing them and trying to fit pins in. The moulded bases are thin enough to hide.
2. Flash! It's been a long time since I've seen metal models with this amount of flash and mould-lines. It's a real shame as the models themselves really do look lovely, but they will require a deal of clean-up which may in a few places cause a loss of details.

My only other niggle is with the Ninja sets. I have two sets of these both containing identical models. That means I have two Ninjas lying down. Not all that useful. I have thought about mounting them on 40mm bases and using them as couple of "unit fillers" representing 4 models, but the Nippon rules state that the Ninja unit can skirmish so that might play a little strangely. I'll give it some thought.

Minor issues aside, I'd still have to rate these models as good value for money - you end up paying (not including shipping) just over £1 per model which is extremely cheap for metal 28mm minis. It's way cheaper than GW plastics! 

All told, these are a good buy and I'd recommend them.

Unboxing: Wargames Factory Mounted Samurai

Here is the fourth and final installment in the "Unboxing" series on the Wargames Factory "Rising Sun" range. This time it's the "Samurai Cavalry" box.

Unlike other boxes in this series, this set contains not 25 models, but 12 (fair enough as they have to be supplied with horses). The models are based on 25mm x 50mm bases so fit nicely into Warhammer games.

Riders and horses are supplied on separate sprues (which all still stack nicely - sorry if you were expecting to get away with me mentioning that this time) with six riders or six horses on a sprue. So four sprues for the models and a further sprue for the bases.

There's a bit more available to the Mounted Samurai in terms of weaponry than in the infantry set as they can  be equipped with Katanas, Yari or bows (bows did not feature in the infantry set). The parts seem to be easily interchangeable, so I don't see why you couldn't add bows from this set to models from the infantry set if you wanted.

The horse sprues are unremarkable - they contain the bits to make some horses. Not much to say, other than to point out the large, spherical items on the right of the sprue as pictured below. Apparently, these represent large leather bags that the Samurai would mount behind them and inflate with air. These provided an ingenious, lightweight armour from missiles being shot from behind them. After being pierced once or twice they might deflate, but otherwise formed an arrow-proof shield that weighed very little. If playing the "Nippon" rules, I guess these could be used to represent "Horo Cloaks".

Once again, the models are of a very high quality though are a little smaller then you'd expect in a Warhammer game. They're certainly great value at £16.00 for 12 models.

All in all I'd have to give this series of models a big "thumbs up" - my only issue is that you can really only field your rank and file from these sets. There's nothing you can use for your HQ, Specials or Rare troops.

In the near future, I'll hopefully be picking up some models from other sources which I'll use to grow my fledgling Nippon force and will report in on them.

Unboxing: Wargames Factory Samurai

The third installment of my "unboxing" series on Wargames Factory's "Rising Sun" range of 28mm 16th Century Japanese miniatures.

This time I'm looking at the "Samurai" boxed set.

Once again, we have in our hands a box containing 25 detailed miniatures on 5 neatly stacking sprues.

On the sprues themselves, we have a lot to choose from: there are 10 heads, for a start. The troops can be built in a number of different ways - either armed with Yari (spears), Katanas (swords) or Katana and Wakizashi (smaller swords as a second hand weapon). In addition, there are six body types on each sprue (though only five pairs of legs), one of which has a flowing cloak and could be used to denote a commander model.

There are a number of optional helmet-crests which can be added for decoration or left off, as well as the usual Sashimono (personal banners) which can be added or not.

I've not built any of these models yet, but it's clear that some great degree of thought has gone into the build process. Each arm ends with a sort of "Nail-head" shaped pin which gets enclosed by the body - this means it's going to be virtually impossible to have an arm that ever falls off (unless actually broken). It should also assist in posing the model when the glue is still wet meaning you don't need three hands with seven fingers each to hold everything together.

A note about scale: all of these Wargames Factory models will stand smaller than a Citadel model which purports to be the same scale, 28mm. Now that doesn't bother me (as far as I'm concerned base size is key, height is less important) but you may want to bear it in mind.

Again, at 25 models for around £16.00, these look like great value for money to me.

Unboxing: Wargames Factory Ashigaru Yari Troops (Spearmen)

This is the second in my series of "Unboxing" articles of the "Rising Sun" range of Japanese Samurai-period troops from Wargames Factory.

As in the previous article about the Ashigaru Missile troops the sprues in this set are designed to stack - I'm probably going to mention that in every post in this series: I love that feature!

The sprues themselves in this set are a bit more sparse - not as many "bits and bobs" to play with. You get enough items on each sprue to build 5 Yari troops (though oddly you get 6 Yari). Each can have a Katana (sword) and Sashimono (small, personal standard). There is a variety of heads to choose from and also a standard on each sprue (which is very useful as the missile troops didn't have that feature so I'm no longer short of standards for my archers and riflemen).

Bases as before are simple 20mm x 20mm tiles.

So this set isn't as much "fun" as the Missile troops set, but it still does the job. The sculpts are clean, the quality is high and once again you get 25 models for about £16.00 so the value is great.

No complaints from me.

Unboxing: Wargames Factory Ashigaru Missile Troops

I recently posted about the amazing resource that is the repository of fan-written Warhammer Armies books.

Well, I have become obsessed (as I am wont to do) with one of these: "Nippon" by Mathias Eliasson.

It's an amazing piece of work, beautifully illustrated and provides great "fluff" as well as a full army list. Moreover it has started me on a path to collecting a new army.

Models for the "Special" and "Rare" sections of the army will take some finding, but those nice people at Wargames Factory have nicely supplied pretty much everything required for the army "Core" as part of their 28mm "Rising Sun" range of models.

This post is the first in a short series and deals with the "Ashigaru Missile Troops" box set:

I'll start with a quick note about the sprues themselves - a rather neat feature is that all the sprues in the box are designed to very neatly stack and have pegs and holes in the corners to support this. This means they fit neatly into their box and there's no danger of sprues becoming entangled in one another, rattling about or damaging each other when picked up. Very neat.

The box contains either 6 sprues (5 sprues of models, one of bases) or 5 sprues and a bag of loose bases. The bases sprue stacks in the same way as the sprues of models.

The bases are simple 20mm x 20mm square tiles with the Wargames Factory logo embossed on the bottom.

The model sprues contain parts for 5 models with each arm, leg, torso-front and torso back being a separate piece. This enables a variety of possible poses. Coupled with the fact that each sprue contains a surfeit of heads and equipment (katanas, quivers, ammo pouches and so on) and there's lots of scope for assembling the models in a variety of ways. So there are enough parts in the box to assemble 25 models.

The only limitation seems to be that the number of weapons supplied is sufficient to assemble only 20 archers or 20 matchlock riflemen (so you can build 20 of one type and then have to "mop up" by building 5 of the other). This is a little odd, but for my purposes doesn't really matter as I've bought two boxes.

The quality of the models is good and given that you get 25 models for an outlay of around £16, this set represents excellent value for money. Well recommended.

Other posts will follow in the next few days regarding other Wargames Factory products from their "Rising Sun" range.