"Advice or Suggestions on Samurai figure" Topic

I was looking for some advice on a large scale (90mm) samurai figure I've just begun. It's a Heian period samurai who I'm loosely basing on Minamoto no Yoshitsune. In case anyone is curious, the manufacturer is Pegaso Models.

I was hoping to get some help with possible patterns to use on his clothing and the white panels on the front of his torso and helmet. I've been looking around online and found a number of examples, however in many cases the pictures are not close enough to really see the details on the clothing. I'm also not a subject matter expert, so I could definitely use some guidance from people who are more knowledgeable on Japanese history.

You can take a look at what I've done so far. The painting is all in acrylic. It's a big figure (90mm), so there's a lot of room to work in those details. I plan to use orange, green, and purple as my main colors and have already started to work on the background for some of the clothing. He's obviously missing quite a few pieces, but those were intentionally left off to make it easier to paint.

Thank you for your help!

Terrement's second photo is taken from the costume used in the 2005 "taiga" drama for Minamoto Yoshitsune and is a very good reproduction of the style of clothing and armour worn by a commander such as he.

In the 12th century it was usual for warriors to wear an armored sleeve ("kote") only on the left arm with the baggy right sleeve of the armour robe (yoroi-hitatare) hanging loose to facilitate drawing a bowstring.

The backing fabric of the kote was usually a different colour and pattern to the robe. The style of kote in use at the time is often called a "Yoshitsune-gote" nowadays:

Although faded over time the backing colour appears to originally have been a bright sky blue:

Armour robes worn underneath by a general were traditionally silk brocade, ie a backing colour such as gold, red or blue-black with a raised pattern in gold and other colours. These patterns are associated with the late Heian/Kamakura eras:

The leather panels with stencilled designs are called "egawa" and would match on the torso and helmet parts on a suit of o-yoroi armour. Repeated geometric lozenge designs were most common but there were looser floral patterns and more ornate examples with animals and mythical beings.

Examples:

Archery gloves (yugake) came in different colours and frequently had a small repeated dense pattern

link

Thank you both so much. Great reference pictures and explanations. Thank you!

Good luck with all that intricate painting – hope you show us the final result! :)

Some other bits and pieces I found:

A model depicting a general wearing the most luxurious type of armour robe; "Nishiki Kinran" which was a gold design on a silk cloth-of-gold base

Gold brocade on dark blue ground:

A general in half-armour (ko-gusoku) showing more of the robe

Thanks, MikeO!

Well, I'm certainly not done, but I've started the design work so I thought I'd share my progress. Here's what I've got so far. I was very tempted to try and do the Buddha design above, but decided to go with something a little simpler in the end.

Very nice progress so far on that tricky subject, dpowell – keep us updated.

I thought that last photo of the general model in ko-gusoku might be of particular interest as you wanted an orange, green, and purple theme. The armour on his right hip shows that the lacing colour is graded purple, light to dark from top to bottom ("murasaki susogo"). One of Yoshitsune's armours is said to have had this pattern in the Heike Monogatari chronicle. Good colour plate in "The Samurai" (Osprey Elite 23) by Anthony J Bryant/Angus McBride.

(PS – Being limited in skill and patience, if I was doing a big figure like this I'd be tempted to cheat. Resizing the stencil photo, printing out at highest res and then glueing to the model – then claim it was all my own brushwork! )

Thank you for the help and advice. I wanted to hop back on and post an update for this figure. There's still a long way to go before I finish him, but I think he's coming along pretty well.

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Just a little more work and I can add the rest of his upper body armor (the shoulder plates and the rest of his helmet). When that's done I'll finally be able to move on to his lower body.

This is by far the most detailed model I've worked on. I've moved on to the shoulder plates. Even the undersides are getting design work. I'm repeating the chest design here. It won't be easy to see when it's assembled, but it will be visible from certain angles, so it needs to get done!

That's just gorgeous, I'm amazed how smooth details you managed on the patterns!

Here are a few more pictures. The upper body is pretty much finished (with the obvious exception of his left hand). I'm now moving on to the legs. I'll paint the pants first and add the same design as the one I used on his right sleeve, then I'll add the rest of the armor panels.

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This forum needs a "jaw dropped" smilie!

'scuse me, I need to pick up all the pieces of my jaw after it hit the floor and shattered…

I know it's a big model, but damn, that's just stunning work!

Here's a look at the finished figure. Thank you, everyone for all of the advice and reference help!

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I say again, this forum needs a "jaw dropped" smilie!

and maybe a "bow down" smilie while we're at it…

Just AWESOME work, man!

Absolutely stunning work! The skillful photography has captured it superbly too.

I also hope 28mm gaming figure manufacturers are paying attention as none of them have really managed to capture the panoply of the 12th-13th century samurai correctly as this large scale model does.