Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

Shojo is another of the four sisters like Akuba and Hikari below. In game, she gets to pool her Ki tokens with the other sisters giving some good flexibility on what to focus on each turn. She also comes with a short range attack (as do the other sisters) that if it hits, allows any of the sister’s to heal a wound.

She also has some interesting Ki Feats. Her first creates a 6” aura around her that, should any enemy model spend a Ki token while within it, that enemy model gains a control marker at the end of their activation. That would allow me to take control of that enemy model and take an activation with it as if it were part of my warband. So this could really put a dampener on the enemy within the aura, especially if they are heavy Ki users (like my son’s Temple of RoKan).

Her second Ki feat allows her to attempt to steal an activation from an opposing model and give it to a friendly model within 6”. As every model gets 2 Activations per turn, losing one is quite a blow but then having a friendly model gain it is doubly so. There are certain Cult of Yurei models that become a real problem with 3 Activations in a turn!

She also allows all models with the Burakumin key word heal a wound at the end of every turn, so useful for keeping them alive.

Painting wise, like the other witches, I wanted to bring some colour to the table, so red was the main choice here. I’m still experimenting with how to get a good red and I’ve been thinking that a dark base and highlight up is perhaps the way to go. I’ve started with a maroon mixed with a bit of dark brown as the base, applied only to the lower parts or areas in shadow. Over that, I’ve applied a thin maroon. I’ve then worked up using glazes of maroon/scarlet, just scarlet, scarlet/orange and finally a very fine orange over the top. Then, in an attempt to blend this together, I’ve used a maroon glaze for the recessed/shadow areas and scarlet for the lighter areas – a couple of applications of both. The white ‘petals’ along the hem of the dress are a decal I purchased from Mastercrafted.co.uk.

The purple ‘ghost’ was an imperial purple to start given a deep purple wash. I’ve then reapplied the imperial purple to raised areas and then through gradually adding in off-white into the purple, highlighted up. A couple of imperial purple glazes over at the end helps blend it together. 

White areas where a light grey base, thin luftwaffe grey glaze into the recessed areas and then Off-white highlights. The instrument was scrofulous brown with a wash. Skin was a Scale 75 light skin tone with a wash, then back in again with the light skin tone to highlight and finally a pale skin tone to pick out the raised areas. 

The rest of the ornaments and jewellery were a shiny bronze with a wash, interspersed with some other metallic colours to break things up. 

Akuba is one of the four sisters who were offered power by Yurei but with the caveat that all four had to agree. Three did but Hikari didn’t, so the other three killed Hikari (who I painted up earlier and posted up here). Akuba shares common abilities with the other sisters and they have a common ability card where all of their Ki tokens go, giving some good flexibility on who gets to use them (if you take more than one of the sisters). She also has a ranged attack that if it deals wounds, generates healing for one of the sisters.

Her special abilities are very useful if you are taking skeletons. Every skeleton on the board gets regenerate 1 while she is alive (meaning they heal a wound at the start of every turn). She can also summon a skeleton once per game. While this is quite a big Ki token cost, you can add a new model to the table! Very handy.

Painting wise, I wanted the four sisters to add a bit of colour to the battlefield. With this in mind, I opted for a yellow paint scheme and started with a base of scruffulous brown. This is already a yellowish brown and hopefully a good base. Yellow has always been my bogey colour to paint, so I’ve invested in some other brands of yellow to try to help out, so I’ve used a Golden Fluid Acrylic cadmium yellow (don’t lick the brush with this one!), Pro Acrylic golden yellow and a Vallejo ice yellow. To get the final yellow colour on the model (that I’m quite pleased with!) I mixed the cadmium yellow into the brown (with some glaze medium) to create the first highlight, then added progressively more golden yellow, adding each lighter tone to the raised areas. Finally, I’ve added ice yellow to the highest points.

The white was a light grey with a luftwaffe grey glaze applied to the deeper areas. The higher areas received an off white/light grey mix and then just off white.

For the skin tones, I’ve used Light Skin and Pale Skin from Scale 75 with a darker wash. 

The bones started as light brown, received a bleached bone highlight, a wash and then another highlight. 

The purple areas (to tie the model into my faction colour), strapping and other bits I’ve probably described before.

Game Write Up

Just a quick battle report for a fun game that my son and I played out. For this game, my son went for a Masters list. This is a Temple of Rokan list that primarily uses the Master Monks who are excellent in combat but come with a high price tag! My son used Master Enos, Master Akari, Master Po and Master Charlyn. 

I stuck with my Cult of Yurei and went with Eldest Brother (an angry Oni), Mokoti (for some cheeky control markers), Animated Militia (cheap skeleton chaff), Fuwa Kaidan (some handy auto Ki feats), The Penanggalan (handy in combat and has a useful Hold ability), Ikiyro (for hanging back and burning opponents with her laser eyes) and a Kami of Chokking Fog (for some cheap debuffs).

The mission we played was zone control with the three zones spread diagonally across the table. To control a zone, you must have the most points in models wholly in the zone and more figures than your opponent. Whoever controls the most zones at the end of each of turns 2, 4 and 6 wins a VP. 

The initial deployment is below.

Turn 1.

The first turn was about getting position on the board. We both took control of the two zones closest to our deployment areas. I used an Animated Warrior and Ikiryo on my left and my son used Master Enos. My son also charged forward into the central zone with Po, Akira and Charlyn. I chose to arrange myself around the centre and also push up on my right toward my son’s closest deployment zone. Given the zone control conditions, his very low model count is a problem for him.

End of Turn 1 below from above and from behind my closest control zone. The Penanggalan advancing through the cherry blossoms, and Ikiryo and a skeleton in my control zone while Mokoti watches across the pond.

Turn 2

I used Fuwa Kaidan to Rage Charlyn who then treats all other models on the table as the enemy and must attack the closest. In this case, it is Master Akira. This combat ended with no damage but did waste an activation token for both.

Master Po attacked my Kami and killed it before attacking Eldest Brother, causing some damage there as well. I advanced The Penanggalan up into combat with Enos doing no damage but Holding Enos in place.

I tried zapping Akira with Ikiryo’s laser eye Ki Feat. This failed to hit, as it would every turn until the end of the game.

As my last move, I advanced my skeleton around the back of the central zone of control and then into it. This meant, at the end of Turn 2, I held the zone closest to me and the other two zones were contested. So 1 VP to me!

End of Turn 2 below from above. Then my closest control zone, my son’s master’s controlling the central zone and The Penanggalan sucking the blood of Enos in the last zone.

Turn 3

Po killed Eldest Brother and then headed off to deal with The Penanggalan who was still holding Enos (and now doing damage as her vampiric effect comes into play). Fuwa Kaidan repeated the Rage trick on Charlyn with the exact same effect. And Ikiryo again failed to hit Akira with her laser eyes. Sadly, Akira was able to remove my Skeleton from the board with an attack that caused a critical strike.

End of Turn 3 below from above. Ikiryo and Mokoti holding my closest zone. Charlyn and Akira holding the central zone while Fuwa Kaidan watches on. The Penanggalon and Enos while Po approaches from behind.

Turn 4.

Enos died from The Penanggalan but Po battered the Penanggalan to death shortly after. I pushed Fuwa Kaidan into the central zone but Akira was able to kill Fuwa Kaidan making the ghost respawn back at her spawning pot too far to further affect this round. 

Ikiryo again failed to hit Akira and Mokoti managed to place a control marker on Charlyn. I could have used Charlyn to attack Akira but, realising that this was turn 4 and a scoring turn, decided to Run Charlyn out of the central scoring zone, leaving just Akira in it. My son then used Charlyn’s second activation to walk around behind my closest scoring zone and get into a position to attack Ikiryo next turn. 

With my last activation, I ran Mokoti into the central scoring zone leaving me controlling my closest zone with Ikiryo, my son controlling his closest zone with Po and the central zone contested, so no VP scored this round.

End of Turn 4 below from above. Ikiryo in the control zone with Charlyn approaching from around the cart. Mokoti just sneaking into the central zone with Akira and Po holding the remaining zone. 

Turn 5

I started the turn by having Ikiryo use laser eyes on Akira. It missed. Again. 

It was now getting late and at that we concluded it would now be a draw. Ikiryo would have been killed by Charlyn and Mokoti would have lost to Akira which would have made it possible for my son to control at least 2 zones in turn 6 and claim the last VP. Had Ikiryo actually hit Akira, it could have been a different story but alas, she needs glasses.

Maiden of Sagoya

This model is all about Fear. Fear can be a very powerful tool in the game against the right enemies. Any model failing a Fear test and becoming Frightened cannot move into btb with an enemy model that causes Fear, loses a dice from their dice pool in combat and cannot roll more dice in attack than in defence, making combat more predictable for your models. 

The Maiden isn’t great in combat but does have the Vengeance trait against any Frightened model, meaning that she gains a dice when in combat against a Frightened model. She also has two very handy special traits, Cower, that is automatic and stops a Frightened enemy model from doing any action other than Disengage, Stand Up or Wait – handy for really stopping a model from doing anything useful. 

The Maiden can also summon Sagoya Kaidan, another model, as a ki feat. Sagoya Kaidan synergies very well – better in combat, but with some excellent ki feats. Firstly, Horrify creates a ranged effect pulse where all enemy models become frightened. Secondly, the Thanatophobia ki feat makes every frightened model in the range take a damage roll. So summon the Kaidan, get it to slap some Frightened markers down and cause some damage, then have the Maiden charge in with vengeance to remove what’s left!

For the painting, I wanted the Maiden to look very innocent, which also gave the opportunity to bring some colour and life to my faction. I wanted the Kaidan to be dark and menacing. Starting with the Maiden, I painted the white cloth with a light grey then applied a dark grey wash. I then reapplied the base grey and highlighted this grey up with off white, applying the lighter shades to the raised areas. The hair was a dark grey given a black washed and then carefully highlighted with a mid grey and a final, very light dry brush of light grey.

The blue cloth was a sky blue given a dark blue ink wash. Once dry, I reapplied the base colour to the majority to leave the ink in the shadows before adding off white to the sky blue to highlight up the raised areas. I applied off white to the edging as I wanted this to really stand out.

Skin was the same as previous models – I really struggle with this and have a basic formula that looks ok, so I’m not brave enough to change it.

The purple mist was a base of imperial purple with a 50/50 wash of black and imperial purple. From there, I reapplied the base colour and using off white, highlighted slowly back up.

To make the Kaidan ‘menacing’, I opted for a monotone approach on the main body. This was concrete as a base colour and then given several black washes. From there, a dry brush of concrete, concrete + light grey and finally a very light dry brush of light grey. The purple mist was done in the same way as the Maiden but to try to make the impression of the mist merging into the body colour, I applied several glazes over the transition to smooth it out.

For this game, my son went for his Temple of Rokan faction but a new list based around animals. In it, he took,

Kuma – the bo staff wielding Panda who’s very handy in combat

Biyba – A large shaggy dog

A silverback gorilla – not overly subtle in its approach and a ‘generic’ model in that it is not specifically named (like a lot of the other models in the game)

Kawa no Rojin – this is a peasant farmer riding a large and angry water buffalo

Koji – a small boy monk with an affinity with monkeys

Koji’s pack – an unlimited supply of small monkeys (although only two on the table at a time) that work very well with Koji

Kongu – a gorilla who has learnt martial arts

For my side, I thought I would lean into the fire token list, so went with,

Waku the Soul Collector – to slap fire tokens on everyone

The Wanyudo – this is the flaming wheel demon who also dishes out flame tokens

Hikari – a dead witch to boost my Ki generation

Akuba – the sister of Hikari who can dish our flame attacks and raise a skeleton during the game

4 Animated Warriors – these are cheap skeletons with my idea of using them to run interference with the enemy and allow my high value models to sit back and blast fire attacks out

We selected a scenario with 6 idols spaced equally around the centre of the board. All of the idols start as neutral but models in btb with an idol can use an activation to influence it and change the idol from enemy to neutral or neutral to friendly. At the end of Turns 2, 4 and 6, the player with the most friendly idols gets a Victory Point and most Victory Points at the end of the game wins.

We both had some small terrain and event cards to boost our warbands.

To add to the confusion of this game, my son doesn’t have the models, so he proxied a lot in, which is why the pictures may not make a lot of sense!

Turn 1.

This was quite an easy turn with models moving up the board to get into position. Kuma was able to get quite far forward and this allowed Waku to blast a fire attack off but while it hit, no damage was caused.

Below we see the initial deployment and the end of turn 1

Turn 3.

I moved my animated warriors out in front of my ‘heavy hitters’. This allowed the monkeys from Koji’s pack to launch an attack against one. As the pack is a ‘group’ the two monkeys get to act in tandem. Fortunately, they both failed their Fear tests (as skeletons cause Fear) which meant that they could not roll more dice in attack than in defence. This combat resulted in no wounds.

Koji then got involved and was able to cause a wound to one of the skeletons who then activated and returned the favour, dealing out two damage to Koji. This is good for me as while Akuba is on the board, she allows all Skeletons to restore 1 wound at the end of the round.

My son continues his aggressive approach and charges the Silverback into the Wanyudo. I would have preferred this to be the other way around but it’s not the worst result. The silver back, despite being quite a big boy, fails his Fear test, so is restricted in its attack dice pool and fails to cause any wounds. In return, Wanyudo causes 3 wounds and sets the silver back on fire, handing out some fire tokens (with damage taken at the end of the turn if the tokens are still there).

Kawa No Rojin gets in on the act of attacking Wanyudo. This isn’t great for me as being outnumbered starts to reduce your dice pool and this is telling as Wanyudo takes 2 wounds from Kawa No Rojin. 

With two opponents close, Wanyudo activates his Ki feat of inferno. This causes a fire blast and all models within 2” get another fire marker, so that’s the Silverback and Kawa No Rojin with markers.

Waku shoots his fire attack at Kawa No Rojin giving out another fire token.

The Silverback is able to leave combat and attacks Waku. Waku has a special ability allowing him to swap with another mode, so I do this with Wanyudo but this just results in Wanyudo taking some wounds and is removed from play. The only upside here is that the Silverback picks up another fire token – its now a very angry gorilla!

Kuma, Biyba and Kongu spent the turn trying to either get around the melee or getting into btb with an idol.

As the last part of my turn, Akuba uses her once per game Ki ability to summon another skeleton and I use my ‘Crush the Oppressed’ event card which doubles all of the tokens that enemy models have – so that’s now a lot more fire tokens on the Silverback and Kawa No Rojin!

At the end of the turn, we calculate the fire token damage. Kawa no Rojin dies and is removed from play. The silver back takes 4 wounds but it’s not enough to remove him but he still has two fire markers left (you always remove 1 token of each type and if more than one exists, you remove tokens until you have two left).

No idols had been interacted with, so it is a draw at the end of Turn 2 and no victory points are scored.

Turn 3.

Koji’s pack continue their attack on the skeleton and cause a wound. The skeletons are cheap because they have the ‘critical wound’ weakness, which basically means that if a double is rolled on the wound roll, it’s an auto kill. This is what happens here and I remove one of the skeletons. Koji is also able to do the same to the other skeleton that is on my left flank, so within quick order, I’m two models down!

Hikari is able to attack Koji and the poor lad is scared. He’s not able to hold off the dead witch and Hikari butchers the lad. But removing Koji enrages his pack of monkeys who all attack Hikari. Fortunately, Hikari is able to hold them off for now.

Akuba, still behind the skeleton wall, is able to cast her Ki ability on Biyba and causes 3 wounds. Biyba doesn’t like this and attacks and kills the skeleton in front of it. 

Kongu moves into attack Waku and delivers an almighty blow, killing the soul collector. I try to respond by attacking Kongu with a skeleton but Kongu kills that as well with some handy dice rolls. 

In very short order, my left flank is collapsing and my right flank is gone. Kuma is still standing next to an idol and turns it friendly. 

At the end of the turn, reduced to a single skeleton, Hikari and Akuba, I offer my resignation, I’m not going to be able to hold off the hoard of animals AND turn enough idols to win the game. 

Overall, a fairly brutal defeat for me. 

The house move drags on and with my hobby stuff still in boxes in the garage, progress has been very slow. I did get bored and raided some of the boxes to at least do some hobby while we wait.

As the game fluff goes, Hikari is one of four sisters (the other three are Akuba, Josei and Shojo) who were Shugenja, or spirit mediums. One day, the demonic Yurei presented a deal to the sisters. They would all be granted great power but all of the sisters had to agree to such a deal. Akuba, Josei and Shojo agreed but Hikari refused. Enraged at the potential loss of the deal, the other three turned on Hikari and murdered her, leaving the remaining sisters to accept Yurei’s deal. Hikari, while killed by her sisters, survived as a Kairai (effectively a zombie) and retained some of her original power.

In game, the four sisters can share their Ki pool (used for special abilities, magical attacks and boosting stats) and can draw on a communal set of abilities as well as their own special ones. Hikari, being a kairai, can rise again if killed and causes fear in opposing models. She also has a useful Ki feat that forces an opposing model to activate next and take a walk action directly toward Hikari – great for pulling opposing models out of position or off of objectives!

Hikari is part of the Yuta of Yurei boxed set that I received as a present some time ago. The other three sisters are also in the box and these are primed and ready to be painted.

I wanted to give the model a little bit of colour, so opted for a green dress. This was a goblin green given a dark green ink wash. From there, I’ve reapplied the goblin green, more as a glaze, to the raised areas and then slowly added an off white to the green, applying this increasingly to just the areas that are ‘catching the light’. I’m hoping this will create a faded look on the dress. 

The white sash was a light grey given a grey wash and then highlighted up. The skin I wanted to look pale, so I’ve just used a base of light skin with a soft tone wash and then highlighted with pale skin.

Given that Hikari is a zombie, she’s probably not too bothered about keeping her clothes laundered. So I applied a watered down typhus corrosion around the feet and lower dress. This adds a little volume as the GW technical paint has some ‘bits’ in it. Once dry, I’ve applied a couple of thinned dusty earth enamel layers over the top. I like using the enamels as you can use thinner to ‘drag’ them up the model to gradually fade them out. But you just have to remember to not lick your brush when using them!

I wanted to try something different and, like a lot of games, there are always different ways you can put together your faction. In this case, I wanted to really lean into the fire aspect, so selected Wanyudo and Waku the Soul Collector as they both dish out fire tokens like confetti. I also took Ibara, a low cost model that can also dish out fire tokens. Mo Ises and Mokoti provide some useful Control shenanigans and Rokuro rounds out my faction, providing some combat abilities. I’ve also given Rokuro a couple of upgrade cards to improve his combat. 

In addition to the above, I’ve taken a terrain card called refuse pile that generates a small rat swarm whenever someone wins a victory point. I also have the Pariah’s Voice event card, that allows, once per game, for one of my models to reduce an opponent’s Ki ability prior to making an opposed Ki challenge – handy for the Control Ki feats that I have. I also have the Crush the Oppressed event card that, when played, automatically doubles all of the tokens currently in play on enemy models. Given that I’m planning on dishing out a lot of fire tokens, this will get to double them when played – think of it as a big can of petrol!

My son took his Temple of Rokan force with a lot of monks, all led by Master Koju.

For this game, we have three shrines deployed along the centre line of the board at 6” internals. They all start neutral but models can expend an activation when in BtB with the shrine to influence it from unfriendly to neutral or from neutral to friendly. At the end of Turns 2, 4 and 6, whoever has the most friendly shrines will gain a Victory Point.

Below are the pre-game deployments. And as Rokuro gets a pre game scout move, I advanced him up the middle through the Tori Gate.

EDIT

There would be photos of the battle here, but for some reasons, the OTT site is blocking the uploads and giving me a ‘security breach’ web page. Apparently my photos are an attempt to derail national security by bringing down this site. This is a shame as they are very nice photos but if you’ve read this far, you’ll just have to use theatre of the mind to imagine the battle and the fun we had. If I figure out how to upload the photos without GCHQ getting involved, I’ll add them later.

Turn 1

Most of turn 1 was the usual moving into position and getting into cover. However as Rokuro was deployed forward due to his scout rule, I looked to move him up the table to threaten an objective. This unfortunately put him in range of Saruka who used her Dance of Dragons Ki feat to launch a fireball toward the erstwhile Rokuro. This hit and while I was able to use some defences, it still caused Rokuro 2 fire damage.

Apparently GCHQ and the OTT security filters are only worried about the setup photos, Turn 1 photos are not a national security issue.

Turn 2

Turn 2 is where things really start to get interesting and this was no exception. Looking to lean heavily into my fire theme, I started with Ibara using his dark fire Ki feat to give Kira 2 fire markers (so no damage now, but at the end of the turn, you apply damage based on the markers on each model). In return, Saruka again uses her Dance of Dragons and Rokuro is burnt to a crisp (being a Tengu, perhaps this is a tasty chicken like crisp?). So first blood to my son and like similar battles, Rokuro gets it early – perhaps I’m being too aggressive with him.

Wanyudo uses its Soul Fire Ki ability on Saruka who gets 2 fire markers as well as a Ki block marker (meaning Saruka cannot generate ki in the next turn, which is very handy in stopping Saruka using Dance of Dragons again. In return, Saruka uses her last activation to Wait and remove the fire markers, so a handy way to tie her down with the net result being that Saruka still has the ki block marker.

Mo Ises tries to use his Obey ki feat but Kira is able to resist this.

Once again, Wanyudo Soul Fire’s Saruka and this time gets a level 3 fire marker. At this point I use my Crush the Oppressed event card which doubles all of the markers currently in play. This means that Saruka gets another level 3 fire maker and another Ki block and Kira picks up another 2 fire markers.

A blazing Kira moves into melee with Mo Ises and using a special attack pushes Mo Ises back 2” and leaves him Prone. Koju attacks Wanydo and manages to apply a bleed marker (I’m not sure how given that Wanyudo is a flaming wooden wheel, but there you go). If Koju remains in BtB with Wanyudo, he’ll get a fire marker next turn as standing next to a flaming wheel isn’t healthy. 

Kiru now attacks Ibara. In defence, I roll 3 1s and Ibara gets slapped around taking 4 wounds. Still alive but not looking healthy.

Riku tries to attack Waku the Soul Collector but fails the Fear test leaving him Frightened and unable to complete the action. Waku uses his Dark Magic ranged attack and hits Riku handing out 2 fire markers. This forces Riku to use an activation to wait to remove the fire markers. 

Yim finally attacks Wanyudo using his Fist of Iron Ki feat and does 2 wounds but takes a fire marker in return.

At the end of the turn, Wanyudo take a wound for having a bleed marker. Yim takes a wound for having a Fire marker. Saruka takes 4 wounds from the fire markers and still has a fire marker left. Riku takes 2 wounds from fire markers and still has 2 left. So overall, a fairly destructive round for my warband.

But the end of round 2 is a scoring round and my son controls 2 shrines so he gets 1VP. My enhancement card means I get a small rat swarm generated, so an extra model and an extra irritation for my son to deal with.

Turn 3

As Yim and Koju are in BtB with Wanyudo at the start of the turn, they both win themselves a fire marker each. Wanyudo loves the hot cuddles.

Riku attacks Ibara. I gamble here as Ibara has Reach meaning that he will attack first in combat and I put all of my melee dice pool into attack with the hope of getting a killing blow. I only manage 2 wounds and Riku is able to finish Ibara off.

I use Waku to give Riku a Death Sentence marker (meaning that any of my models attacking Riku will get an extra melee dice – Ibara could have done with this). 

Waku then attacks Riku. Riku uses the Parry Ki feat and the combat ends with neither party managing to cause any wounds.

Sakura then gets into combat with Mokoti. This isn’t really a fair fight and Mokoti gets absolutely murdered. Things aren’t going well for my warband now.

At the end of the turn, Sakura and Kira both succumb to a fiery death with their remaining fire markers. Koju and Yim both take a further wound each from their fire markers.

Turn 4

At the start of the turn, Koju gets another fire marker for being in BtB with Wanyudo. I activate Wanyudo first and use his Inferno ki ability that hits all models within 2” and gives each of them 2 fire tokens. But this isn’t going to be enough to kill anyone. It’s not looking good for me now and with Wanyudo and Waku locked up in combat, they won’t have enough activation points to get free and get to a shrine to turn them back to my side. The small rat swarm has the special rule of insignificant that means it can’t perform scenario actions, so isn’t going to help me win this scenario. It’s at this point that I have to concede, my son wins.

Life often gets in the way of things we enjoy. In my case, we are looking to move house and what we thought should be a reasonably straightforward house purchase and exchange, has proven to be anything but. We were expecting such a straightforward move that we started boxing things up, especially all of my gaming stuff which has meant that all of my models are packed and stored in the garage. This has greatly reduced the painting that I’ve been able to do. But it was supposedly only for a few weeks. Six months later, we still haven’t moved and things drag on, so much so, I’ve started opening boxes up and getting models out to paint. At least this is my excuse as to why I’ve not had an update on this project for such a long time.

Enough excuses, I painted a model. 

Tadaoki is a ronin, so can fight for a number of the factions in the game. He’s a fairly simple model with very few special rules and a simple Ki feat that gives him the Brutal rule for a short period of time, greatly improving his melee combat skills (which aren’t bad normally). A handy model to add to the ranks and fairly cheap points wise as well.

To paint him, I thought he made a good subject for me to carry on using the speed paints that I have. His robes got a Burnt Moss which I then lightly dry brushed with a light green. The armour was Hardened Leather (which I’m having mixed results with at the moment) and when it dried, I was happy enough with the outcome to leave it. 

I used a Holy White for the cloth head wear with a light white dry brush. I painted the skin with a light flesh tone and then applied a wash. Once dry, I highlighted the raised areas. The blue was Royal Robes and then a light blue highlight. I think the model took a single evening to paint, so given the time investment, I’m very happy with the outcome.