"Help setting up a 6mm samurai table?" Topic

Hey all!

So, working on my first samurai/Japan table, and I have to say, it still looks very European…

Anyone give any advice for setting up a convincingly-Japanese table? Avoid certain field types of scenery?

Advice more than welcome!

Sounds like you need buildings.
link
Wrong scale, but stuff like that, and castles and temples, rice paddies, bridges…I'm sure your tables are outstanding.
Good luck.

Treat yourself to a holiday in Japan. That aside, Mura Miniatures make a good range of wonderful 6mm buildings for Japan.

hlj.com/product/DYS10152

Pink cherry blossom. Don't know why I always associate samurai with pink blossom on cherry trees

If you are going to have hills consider terraced rice paddies. Also take a watch of the Last Samurai for some terrain inspiration.

Hah! Just put the varnish on that exact castle model, and I've got an order for like fifty buildings from mura. Oh, and I just finished some rice paddies:)

But looking at the hedges and forests and the like that I have, I am struggling with them… wheat fields, empty fields… it doesn't feel Japanese for some reason…? And I don't get why?

Watch "Ran", "Seven Samurai", and othe Japanese movies of the period and take notes on the scenery.

Add a couple pink sakura (cherry) trees!

I took a trip to Japan back in 2011, have a few photos. This set of photos is from Tokyo to Kyoto, end of July 2011. link

Rice paddies were bright, bright green with darker green edges. Terraced paddies had totally overgrown terraces at that time of year.

Thanks Lion! Good photos:) Hm, tricky… I'm not seeing anything that stands out, compared to what I've done…?

Can I ask… do they have A) wheat fields (or something similar) or B) empty dirt fields? I mean, EVERYTHING isn't a rice paddy, right?

Dumb questions, I know, but after 35 years of setting up American and European battlefields, I'm struggling a bit!

I went for the 'battle screen' look. So sandy brown ground with green hilltops. I think once you add some buildings it will look more Japanese. Also bridges are quite distinctive, as are torii of course (the bridges and torii here are actually 10mm from Castle Arts in Italy):

Try adding some open weave fencing, a small road side shrine, and for sure a tori arch. Japanese peasant buildings look a lot like European of the same period. A house with the roof turned up at the ends will make it look more oriental.

Honshu looks like western Oregon with different architecture. I was often surprised by how much it looked like home. Ridge after ridge of mountains. Occasional wide river valleys. Rolling green foothills in the spring, tending to dry grass in the summer. I'm not sure that some similarities to western Europe would be all that bad.

I've been starting with a Cigar Box grasslands mat, adding hills under the mat, and making sure there are plenty of forested settings. Including pine trees is a good idea in mountainous areas. Dirt roads, of course, for the era. Saw a lot of wide rivers in the flat river valleys. Feel free to include agriculture other than rice paddies, which are dry a large part of the year. Millet was a common crop back in the day.

I second both of Sobieski's suggestions.

Nice table, Rabelais^^