"I hate painting samurai - which 28mm are the best?" Topic

I've painted samurai for clients, and I haven't liked painting any of them that much. But one day I'll go for it (as a period) myself.

So far, I'm thinking Dixon Minis. They are very stylised, but painting is easier than with any others I come across.

Your thoughts, please.

I always try to go with easy. That being said, I've never found Samurai easy. Dixon are "less difficult" than others.

What era Samurai are you looking for? I personally find TAG's samurai pretty good, though they are from an earlier era than Dixon's. I with the typically full-lace armor, I think they're easier to paint than ones with sparse lace armor. Osprey has several good books on lacing patterns, and I didn't find them too difficult to do…

Damon.

try mine they are really hard! but really i think it depends on how you paint, i will be doing tutorials quite soon.

fistofsteel15thc.blogspot.com

steelfistminiatures.com

Having to paint samurai figures is perhaps the only war gaming period that makes painting Napoleonics or Medieval figures look easy. I have always wanted to collect and game the era but was just put off by the challenge of doing it right. Perhaps one day after I finish all those Medieval figures.

If I was going to collect 28mm Samurai I think I would go with the Perry Figure range as it is quite extensive. There are some others out there that are as good but I cannot remember who the manufacturers are at this time.

It depends a lot on how much you get into the details. But barring that, most later ashigaru are quite simple to paint, as there is much less lacing to do.

Don't forget the Wargames Factory plastics link – not bad, and a great price; being later period armor, minimal lacing.

I picked up a large Perry Samurai order last Saturday. The plan is to take my time over each and ever miniatures in the army. I see it as long term project and I don't envisage finishing it until 2015.

Raglan

As Dean stated the Wargames Factory plastics are very nice and appear to be easier to paint in some ways. The ones I have seen painted up seem to rely on a judicious use of washes to suggest the lacing and it works very well.

I will confess a well painted Samurai force on the game table is an incredible site to behold.

THE ONES IN THE ROBES :)

Another vote for TAG. I have most of them and found them pretty easy to paint.

I think the secret for painting samurai is to find the early armor with lots of lacing. Prime WHITE, paint the lacing, black wash. Lightly drybrush the lacing with the original color (if you darkened the lacing too much). Done.

The later samurai with less lacing seem to be harder to paint!

Also, don't tell anyone, but the secret to painting samurai in the least difficult way is to paint them in as small a scale as possible.

As an overall look I think the Old Glory range come up very well, I'm about half way through an early period army. Haven't painted in too much detail either as the figs don't hold a hell of a lot, but with the dynamic 'action' poses typical of OG one seems to balance out the other….. strangely. Using Impetus ( large ) basing has helped as well.

Samurai, ha! I've painted 28mm samurai. I now have over 250 28mm samurai and 136 Royal Koreans. Believe it or not, the Royal Korean army was easier to paint than either of the two samurai armies I own. I did late period 1550-1615. That helped a bit. Washes and inks also helped. And gold trim. Lots of gold trim with copper plating on their helmets.

God, samurai. If I'd only kept my 15mm Two Dragon Samurai army for DBA, I would have never had to have painted any more samurai. Thank God, I don't have have to now!

I looked at Dixon and Perry mainly but went with Perry as they have more variety I believe and a large collection of Perry figures came onto ebay cheap so that sealed the decision for me.
The Cav were easy for me as well as the Ashigaru but I am trying to finish off the Samurai foot which are a little harder for me to do for some reason, so will go slow and maybes in small batches with some other stuff inbetween. Mabes finishing off some Roman's as well as the acheson creations Roman fortifications I have just to break things up a bit.
Here are mine that I have recently just done and as I said just need to do the Samurai foot to complete them.

link

Good luck with what ever you choose, they are truly worth it once finished and on table, will hopefully get mine into a game this summer.

I just finished 100 Ashigaru from Wargames Factory for a client. Way too much work for a painting commission. I could not charge enough to cover the work, not to mention the assembly time added in. I found several very weak spots in the finished figures. The blade on the pike is very fragile, as well as the katanas. Broke several just painting them! I would replace the plastic pikes with steel wire. The figures are nice, but in this case, I wonder if the lower cost is a balance for the delicate finished product.

Don't forget the Wargames Factory plastics

They are nice but…….Strictly metal, I'm afraid.

Samurai, ha! I've painted 28mm samurai. I now have over 250 28mm samurai and 136 Royal Koreans.

Most of my collections are at least 1000 figs strong – a recently finished project below (2120 figs) – not including animals –

I just finished 100 Ashigaru from Wargames Factory for a client. Way too much work for a painting commission. I could not charge enough to cover the work, not to mention the assembly time added in. I found several very weak spots in the finished figures. The blade on the pike is very fragile, as well as the katanas. Broke several just painting them! I would replace the plastic pikes with steel wire. The figures are nice, but in this case, I wonder if the lower cost is a balance for the delicate finished product.

I paint professionally too. I hate samurai for the reasons you state. Also – why pay X$ to have someone paint plastic -that makes no sense to me at all.

Dean needs to put up pictures of his early Samurai army, truly beautiful and great brush work! One of the secrets to painting Samurai is don't over do it, let inks and washes create most of your shades and hi-lites. Example for red armor use a red base coat and a chestnut or light brown wash and don't try to pick out every piece of lacing at first.

I look frward to the Steel Fist painting tutorial!

The figures are well detailed.

Z

@Olicana: great googly-moogly!

Not that I'm any better, recently started a Northwest Frontier project which is shaping up to be at least 800 Brit/Raj troops, and about double that in tribesmen.

I'd say Kingsford Miniatures samurai were the best but then I would! Very crisp delineations between lacings and plate. Inking can help tremendously in popping out the lacings.

David
kingsfordminiatures.org

I just finished 100 Ashigaru from Wargames Factory for a client. Way too much work for a painting commission. I could not charge enough to cover the work, not to mention the assembly time added in. I found several very weak spots in the finished figures. The blade on the pike is very fragile, as well as the katanas. Broke several just painting them! I would replace the plastic pikes with steel wire. The figures are nice, but in this case, I wonder if the lower cost is a balance for the delicate finished product.

I can't speak for all (or really any other) gamers, but the reason I went with Wargames Factory is because its a cheap and dirty way to get figures for my 17th C. Pulp setting. Personally I don't think they'll ever look half so good as Perry or TAG or whoever, but they're cheap disposable and relatively easy for transportation. Whether its peasants or minions, I'm often happy to accept the convenience trade-off.

(I also wonder how many boxes of those 'eh' sculpts have sold just on the basis of there being no other plastic samurai stuff. It feels like a big gap in the market to me…)