From SidneyR: “The Samurai, the Servant and the Demon” (Under Construction): 45 points

"The smoke curled slowly in the still air of the woodland clearing.  There was the scent of freshly-caught fish, cooking on an open fire.  The samurai’s servant, Akira, turned the freshwater fish on the wooden spit, the fire occasionally crackling and sending a shower of  sparks into the evening sky.

Across the clearing, the demon eyed the fire, enviously. The demon drew its grey tongue over its lips, salivating at the thought of the feast it might be able to enjoy in just a few minutes.  Akira was sure that if his master, Kazuko, lost the duel, the demon would be consuming more than just the huge river-fish which Akira had caught that afternoon.

Kazuko levelled his sword at the demon’s throat.  His hand was steady and he bent slightly bent forward in a stance long-practised in his family dojo. Despite his skill at sword fighting, Kazuko’s heart was racing.  Kazuko watched the demon draw an over-sized, enormous sword with a single, crimson-red, muscled hand.  In the demon’s other hand was an immaculately wrought katana - a trophy from another, older duel - but wielded as easily as if the sword was made of fly-wood, like a child’s toy.

As Kazuko circled around the clearing, the dust rose from his bare feet.  He was quick on his feet.  But was the demon faster?"

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I wanted to start off Challenge XIII with the chance to make something, however small. The ‘Under Construction’ studio seemed like a good place to do that.  I’ve spent much of my wargaming time this year building up Japanese terrain and painting miniatures for a skirmish ruleset, set in 17th Century Japan. 

We’ve played about a dozen or more games set in a Japanese historical background, but I wanted to expand the scope to create some games based on historical ukiyo-e prints and the rich tapestry of Japanese myths and legends.  So we have, for this entry, a samurai and his servant preparing for a duel against an Oni, a Japanese demon.

I wanted to equip the Oni with two swords, one a huge no-dachi and the other a katana.  The Oni and the swords are from the wonderful Dixon Miniatures range of 28mm “Legends of Japan”, sculpted by Mark Copplestone in the late 1980s.  Adding the swords into the Oni’s sculpted hands required a bit of brass-rod pinning - my first bit of ‘construction’ for the entry.

The samurai is from the former Games Workshop range of Samurai, now sold by Wargames Foundry.  I love these sculpts - created by Aly Morrison in 1984.  They have, to my mind, stood the test of time very well.  There are some commentators online who have mentioned that the figures look like caricatures, with the inference that this is a bad thing.  However, I had the pleasure of chatting to Aly about the figures a few years back, and his guide in sculpting the range were the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of artists such as Utamaro, Kunichika, Utagawa and Yoshitoshi.  Which makes the range well suited for the ‘feel’ of the game I’m looking to try and create.

I didn’t make any changes to the samurai, or his trusty servant (from Perry Miniatures).  But I did scratch-build a small campfire on which a large freshwater fish could be cooking.  I used a few scraps of wood, and a selection of 3D printed fish, one of which I could skewer on a brass-wire spit, and some large sub-tropical leaves cut from the metal foil of a wind bottle.  A small sprinkle of fiery-painted sand and foam completed the embers and flames of the fire.  

As my time is a bit restricted for painting at present, my hope for Challenge XIII is to create small collections of figures depicting duels, fighting engagements, and smaller companies for use on the games I’ve been playing.  However, dear fellow Challengers, that does not prevent the creation by me of supremely frivolous ‘character cards’ for the entries I’ll be painting.  The values and attributes on the cards make sense as part of the rules (hopefully!). So here are the character cards for the heroes and villain for this submission:

As to the points: for “Under Construction”, I’ve added 20 points, and 5 each for the 28mm samurai, the servant, and the Oni.  And I’ve added a single point for the fire and the steadily-cooking fish, as befits the objective of any duel.

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Oooh, this is just fabulous, Sidney. I love everything about this project. The excellently converted and beautifully painted figures, the wonderfully thematic terrain and the fascinating character cards - your amazing hobby skills do great justice to your vision of the setting and the game. Bravo!

I'm adding a few more points for the conversions and supplementary cards.

Inspiring work, thank you for sharing!

- Curt