From Barks: Taste the Rainbow of 20mm Samurai Cavalry (260 Points)

"Snowlord!" I croak. "Snowlord!"

"Barks? You're still here? I thought you were dead."

"I've done as you wished, at the cost of my sanity."

"Only a small sacrifice then. Show me."

The Snowlord doxxed me and found I was in Japan last year. I went to Nikko, which is a few hours north of Tokyo and famed for its World Heritage shrines and temples.

Off the tourist trail under the Untameshi-no-torii

One of the most famous is that of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who outmanoeuvred other daimyos to become Shogun of all Japan and ending the Sengoku period. One of his rivals was the Takeda clan, known for its strong cavalry and their four-diamond mon. Tokugawa Ieyasu suffered a defeat at the hands of Takeda Shingen at Mikata ga Hara (1573), and Takeda Shingen in turn was defeated at Nagashino in 1575- by Oda Nobunaga, who has already been on Snowlord's Peak.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's physical form was interred here in 1617.

I needed a bit of a kick-along for my years-long samurai project*, and I rashly decided to go large. Why paint a unit of four cavalry, when I could paint twenty-four? I might as well add a mounted commander. If I'm painting a commander, why not throw in a few more for economy of scale?

So, three and a half weeks later, I'm calling these guys done. They could be Takeda cavalry, but I make no claims to historical accuracy and they will be my Red force for Commands and Colors: Samurai Battles. The big flat flags with purple stripes are markers for that game.

I spent more time on my commanders

Daimyo

Messenger with horo

Taiko drummer

They're hard plastic multipiece 20mm kits from Zvezda and are a bit of a fiddle** to put together. They are nicely cast but there aren't a lot of variety in the poses. The decals come with the kits. I don't do horses often, and these are just basecoat/ wash/ mane and tail. No blazes or socks etc., and not all the hooves!

Yabusame is the art of mounted archery...

... which was superseded by the yari.

I was inspired by shots from from Heaven and Earth (1990 dir. Haruki), which show vibrant bold colours and bright red yari.

Heaven and Earth (1990)

The red is VMC 70.909 Vermillion and Army Painter Mid Brown wash. I have tried to hide it in my photos, but I've had frosting issues with some decals with Testors Spray Dullcote over VJ 73.212 Decal Medium. How can I salvage this?

15mm jinmaku curtains from Eureka.

So, this is:

25x Mounted 20mm = 200 points

4x Foot 20mm = 16 points

Scenic command base?

* Here's a link to my Yellow command stand from AHPC VII.

** Understatement. Each 20mm horse archer is seven pieces...

"I have decided, Snowlord, to continue my trip around this island and aim to tick off all the sights. If you don't mind, I'm just going to grab this frozen corpse and sled down to my next spot. Wheee!"

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Wow! These are just fantastic Barks. I have the original 'Command and Colors: Ancients', but didn't know about this game. Cooool. The Zvezda models are very nice, but 7-piece 20mm horse archers?! That's just cruel.

While you kept your cavalry simple, they still look the business, and the extra time you spent on the command vignette really paid off. It looks fantastic in that punchy red and black livery.

I'm a big fan of 'Heaven and Earth' as well. Much of it was filmed next door in Alberta as the rolling landscape fit the original terrain (which I understand has been encroached by urban development). I knew a few guys that served as extras in the big battle scenes. They ended up buying their kit afterwards at a big auction (full armour for $130, swords for $10...). Lucky sods.

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/the-alberta-shot-samurai-epic-and-the-epic-costume-sale-that-followed-1.4856933


Your math is good, except you forgot the location bonus, plus I'm going to give you another 14 for the flags to make it a nice even 260 points. Well done Barks!

And finally, last but not least, your Snow Lord Peak prize is... John's 'Pete the Pensive Viking'!!

Again, terrific work Barks and thanks for showing us your shiny new Samurai additions.

-Curt