Nippon Castle for Warhammer Fantasy Battle - Part V – Seven Years in the Making

The completed Nippon Castle

Note: Parts I, II, III and IV of the construction of the castle.

Also of note here is the real world castle this was inspired by: Kakegawa castle 

Boom, and just like that…well, not really just like that, as this was a lot of work; the castle of the Army of Nippon is finished. What started back in the winter of 2013 is complete, seven long years later. When I say complete, there is still some more stuff to add here and there (mainly the moats), but it’s ready for warfare.

In terms of the moats, I’m working on getting a darker shade of blue/green to make it look murky rather than the “bright” blue it currently is. An old broom is providing the rushes that I’m gluing down with my hot glue gun in small dabs.

In all, it’s fairly practical as the roofs are removable in the manner of a dollhouse and the interior is painted.

One of my oldest friends and one of the people I gamed the most against in the 3rd Edition days brought up a great idea of running some smaller games where ninja have to fight samurai! This is a great idea as I have plenty of both (although the last two samurai of my quest are surprisingly frustrating to get!)

Now that it’s finished? It’s time to clear it off the gaming table as Willmark Jr. and I are looking to get some 3rd Edition Warhammer games in over the upcoming holiday break!

As I noted previously, next for terrain is a more traditional European-style castle in the vein of the Warhammer Mighty Fortress (good write-up on the Games workshop kit here). It’s going to be a bit smaller in terms of footprint to fit on the table and more utility for siege games.

Like drawing inspiration for an actual Japanese castle for the Nippon one, I’m drawing from England for the next one — in this case, Harlech Castle in Wales.

Also of note, this will be the 2nd traditional-style castle I made for Warhammer. The original one was the one we used for our games of siege way back in the day. It’s long since gone. It survived many moves over the years and various storage closets/rooms when I was living in apartments. Somewhere along the way from my last apartment to my first house it was lost or damaged — or maybe both. Sadly, no photos exist of it either.

So on wards to the next project. Toothpicks, foam core, cardboard, masking tape, glue, hot glue, thin cardboard, milk cartons, scotch cartons, Popsicle sticks, and patience are all that are required. Hopefully this next one doesn’t take me seven years to finish.

So, how did I do on creating a Nippon castle set in the world of Warhammer?

Painting the Nippon Castle for Warhammer – Part III: Progress and Next Step

It’s been quite some time since I posted any progress on my Nippon Castle (or anything in general on the blog). So with that in mind, it’s time to show some progress. I completed the construction on the castle around the first of the year and have been working on painting it off and on. I was looking back through the photos of it and it appears that I started working on it in 2013, as outlined here. It’s well past time to wrap this up.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The painting on this is very much WIP.

The castle started out as just the base keep itself, and the layout was inspired by...

The great thing about a project like this is that for those who want to create something like this for their own armies — whether a Nippon one or not — is that it’s really not that expensive. The castle is really nothing more than the following: cardboard, white glue, super glue, craft sticks, balsa wood, toothpicks, masking tape, and duct tape. The base of the castle proper and the walls are formed from foam-core boards to keep it light. While it might not make the base as strong as say plywood, it does save on weight.

So with all that in mind, in order, the following are complete in terms of painting:

• The outer walls
• The towers
• The moat sections
• Both gatehouses

Now, a note on when I say “complete”: the large area painting is done, as is about 99% of the detail painting. With the moats there is still a bit more that has to happen with the water area, but those are pretty well finished. I anticipate having to do some more detail here and there to truly finish it up.

For the towers there is still a bit of work to do on the removable roofs. I’m also not sure if I want to add a contrasting color like blue to them. The idea of the color also applies to the roof on the main keep.

So what is all this leading to? My goal is to get this complete by the end of the year. I’ve been working off and on a traditional European-style Empire castle in the vein of the old Warhammer Mighty Fortress, which will be smaller and a bit more practical for siege games. The Nippon castle has also been going on for seven years — time to finish it up!

Only snag is, simultaneously to this, I’m also working on clearing the considerable backlog on the painting desk.

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Nippon Warband Mercenary Scum!

That's right as outlined in my thread over at Dogs of War Online I've been working on again/off again on my Nippon mercenary force. I've got a lot of stuff on the bench right now but as we are in the waning month of summer here in North America mt thoughts turn back to painting. So with that I finally finished up a unit for the Warband of Nippon: a unit of 25 samurai.

As with all of the units of this army I'm making them flexible enough to be used in varying editions of Warhammer:

• When used in 2nd Edition they will be fielded as ashigaru with hand weapons. 
• In 3rd Edition they fall under Empire as a "Count As" force. From that list they use the stat line for Eratzsolder with light armor and hand weapons. 
• For a true 5th/6th Edition Dogs of War force? Well... they don't really fit at all unless I used them as Norse Marauders but the base sizes don't really work. With that said I don't really think I can use them as is in any form really as the Core choices for  Dogs of War are pikemen and crosswbowmen. The only thing that comes close for the 20mm bases in the Special Choices are... dwarfs, not really helpful there GW.

So without further delay here are the ashigaru/ronin/lower class samurai as promised. They are not the best unit I've ever painted but considering the stop start nature of them at least they are complete. I tried to keep teh colors somewhat muted for most of the warriors as some later units will really stand out, these guys I wanted less, flash but still painted a few brighter colors.

More details are over at the thread at Dogs of War Online, including what is up next for the army and the Nippon Castle.

Nippon Castle for Warhammer- Part IV

Wow, the Nippon castle has been garnering a lot of attention on the web, keep up the comments guys and many thanks; especially the shout out here, thanks Scot!

I've stepped back and taken stock of where I am with the project at this point which is to say a lot further along then when I really picked it back up in October. Overall I'm pleased with the pace I've been on and have been enjoying the whole project. I've even found time to work on other projects like the siege equipment, paint a few units and other things that strike my fancy.

But, the title of this post says Part III so what am I working on right now in relation to the Nippon castle you ask: As I mentioned in Part II I've been re-reading my stack of White Dwarf magazines from the range of #220-235. In particular, in #225, Nick Davis' "Jungle Fever - Part 2" where he covers the creation of his Lizardman Castle has been of particular interest. #224 is where the rules appeared for 5th Edition Siege rules for moats which I'm drawing on as well, so here is the point of this post, moats.

As you can see, I've started on the beginnings of a moat for the castle. The moat will obviously surround the entire castle to simulate a Nippon fortress situated on the lowlands of Nippon (or Nihon?) near rice patties perhaps? I deliberately started at the most difficult part of the moats, the corner towers knowing the wall sections would be far easier. I also took inspiration from the corner board sections of 3rd Edition Talisman.

From there, once finished I also have been formulating ideas to create a way to raise up the entire thing so it will sit on a series of cliff walls to simulate a mountain top type of castle. That is further off and I will be using fair amount of paper-mache to make the mountainside.  In this, the 6th Edition High Elf Army Book has some interesting photos of minis and mountains so we'll see.

Note- my overall progress of my Nippon Army is tracked over here at Dogs of War Online.

Speaking of paper-mache, I took a brief side track to work a tomb/barrow, first seen in the 6th Edition General's Compendium on page 52. I started out when I looked at a barrow I created about 15 years ago. I was going to pull that apart but just decided to create something from scratch. Then remembered the barrow in the a fore mentioned General's Compendium. You'll have to excuse this photo as I remembered to take it as I was applying the paper-mache. But I digress, here is the barrow:

As you can see, the top will be removable because I'm insane apparently and need to add all kinds of stuff to the interior..

And if the barrow/tomb were not enough of a bonus, I've also been working on redoing the river pieces of the terrain that Jeff and Dave created 25+ years ago! I widened them a few years back but now I've added gravel to the river edges and will be painting them shortly. Need to add a few more bends and another river crossing part. You'll have to excuse the quick photo on this one too, I only remembered to take a picture after I had already started on it and undercoated one.

I think that's all for now. Good gaming in the new year everyone.

WM

Nippon Castle for Warhammer – Part II: From Real History to Fantasy Table

While I haven’t updated the blog in a bit, I have been plugging away and highlighting my progress on the Nippon castle for Warhammer Siege but also could be used with the rules for Warhammer Historical Siege and Conquest.

One of the things I’ve been trying to reconcile is that it’s not an Asian/Oriental/Japanese castle, but a castle set in the mythical Warhammer world. Those are two very different things, but it seems I have a hard time separating it!

As such, the walls and castle are very symmetrical, which is very unlike a traditional Japanese castle, which snaked back and forth with large sprawling grounds and multiple walls and moats. Since gunpowder was not widely used in medieval Japan, castles were for the most part made of wood and with very large moats. This had the practical effect of said castles taking up a very large amount of ground.

What I created, however, is a conceit to the physical limitations of building a castle at 28mm scale and my gaming table, which is 5x6 in terms of feet. It fits, but even with centering it in the middle of the table there isn’t a ton of room on the edges (note it’s not centered in the photos below). While rules exist for playing siege games across the editions, I’m planning on using the siege rules for 3rd Edition, warts and all.

One benefit of using the 3rd Edition rules for Siege is this lack of space is accounted for with Remote, Encamped, and Ready zones that are part and parcel of the rules. For those not in the know, these rules formed areas outside of the tabletop where action took place — essentially “off table” as it were.

As is depicted above you can see the corner towers are all complete now, along with the previously completed corner wall sections.The tops of all four towers are removable to facilitate the placement of war engines and miniatures as needed.

After I took these photos I began the process of gluing down stones an gravel in preparation of painting in the not too distant future. I'm also in the process of determining what the "inner" courtyard will look like so stay tuned.

Building My Nippon Castle for Warhammer Part I – A Long-Term Terrain Project

Hello all — Been a bit busy of late, but I’ve been working hard on Warhammer terrain. Case in point: over at Dogs of War Online, work on my Nippon Army continues. Or more accurately, work on my Nippon Castle continues.

At this point I’m so far into it that I can’t really stop (nor do I want to!). But I’ve also come to realize that it probably would have been cheaper to just buy some already-made terrain from various outlets online.

But therein lies my main argument against that: I work on the castle when I want to, at my own pace, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it. It’s relaxing and something completely away from technology — which I get plenty of Monday through Friday working in IT.

I originally started on the castle back in Spring 2013 and I’ve worked on it in fits and spurts ever since. About a month ago I picked it back up and have been diligently chipping away at it.

Here is where it stood around that time frame: 

What really kicked things into gear was taking a step back and starting on the outer walls, which are admittedly inspired by the walls from Siege & Conquest in the Warhammer Historical range. Strange as it sounds, that’s what spurred me on. I then went back and fixed some flaws in the main structure, and it keeps getting better and better.

Of course, here are some photos (this morning I started working on more of the roofs for the outer walls).

Here is where it stands as of about a week ago:

 

Here is where it stands as of a last night after about one week week of work between the photos. It may not look like much but I spent a lot of time fixing the roofs of the castle and strengthening the whole roof structure as well.

Dogs of War Online 3.0

Just a quick heads up, and sort of a shame-less plug... (hey it's my blog , right?)

I've been spending a lot of time dusting off the forum over at Dogs of War Online After years of neglect in my very busy life, the forum has been updated to the new version of MyBB, the CSS theme updated and new features added to the site with the Wiki and User Map functions updated as well.

Now, this may seem like a fools errand as Dogs of War was/are probably the least supported army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle out there and with the changes to the game via the Age of Sigmar, but... I look at the situation as no different then the state chaos dwarfs around 2007. For years we had a very vibrant community and were quite content to create tons of material on our own all free of GW, now that is even more magnified. Warhammer Fantasy Battle is now free of GW stifling anything they don't like, the community can really create what they want.

So with all this said the site has been dusted off after years of neglect from me. We still have a small cadre of folks who post there but are looking for more, to build up the community of like minded individuals. But its not just Warhammer or even Dogs of War, stop by and participate in the OT forums, discussions of other RPGs even. So whether you pay Kings of War, Age of Sigmar or 9th Age or even some other war game, stop on over.

I'm still an administrator over at Chaos Dwarfs Online and in a lot of ways we're "sister-sites" of a kind, sharing similar goals and outlooks. But given my newly freed up time I figured it would be best to devote my time to building a great community at Dogs of War Online as well.


As a personal note: its the only place you find my army blog as I assemble my force of Nippon using 2nd/3rd edition rules. I've blogged about Nippon here and here, as I've wanted a Nippon force since the late 80's and have been working ever so slowly to assemble one. Now with my renewed interest in Warhammer it's really gathering steam now. I'm building the force under 2nd/3rd edition rules, but I'm also looking to configure them to be able to be used in Kings of War, and 9th Age, possibly even as a 3rd edition "Count As" Empire force . Or even a 5th Edition Dogs of War force! Sky is the limit.

So as the bard said "Cry havoc and let slip the Dogs of War!"

"Yee-haw those Doggies are elusive!"

Not what this blog post is about...

"Get this Wagon Train a moving!" Hah, you thought this was going to be a western post, didn't you?

How about that? Combining a western phrase "Get on little doggies!" like an Old West cowboy when actually referring to the Temple Dog minis from 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I've had them on my radar for a number of years and back when we played 3rd edition I used a GW manticore sans wings to simulate one for my Dark Elf army. Game-wise they were fluffy, but as a war beast they were decidedly mediocre. The problem is the same with almost any other war beast or large models like giants: they attract an inordinate amount of artillery and magic. With a Toughness of 5 Temple Dogs usually dumped their ride very quickly. The problem I've always had is they are stone, they are divine powered and they fall over in a stiff breeze.

"I look fierce but crumble like blue cheese!"

As Cianty over at his blog noted, here is the flavor text from Warhammer Armies:
"Temple Dogs are stone statues found guarding temple entrances in the lands of Nippon and Cathay. They resemble nothing so much as a cross between a giant pekinese and a lion. In times of war, the power of the temple gods is channeled into these statues to animate them. It is a great honour to mount this divine animal, indicating that the rider has found great favour with the gods."

(Warhammer Armies, page 26, 1991)

Sounds like they should be made of sterner stuff.

As I move along in fits and starts on my Nippon army I've come around to the conclusion I'm highly unlikely if ever going to play my Nippon Army as anything other then a third edition one. That ;eaves me with the open endedness of being able to model the army however I want.

The temple dog was pretty much the same in each iteration (as near as I can tell as I've never actually seen one) and came with one of three different riders. The part I really like? I like the temple dog's tongue is hanging out just like a real dog. My previous golden retriever Teddy who passed away always did that... Each had a plastic spear/lance that was fairly common with models back then and the hand was molded to the spear. From the look of it they are on 40x40mm bases.

The three riders are as follows:

• A samurai rider- the one I'm most interested in, three in particular would be good...
• A hobgoblin rider- could be useful to me particularly since I have two full units of 2nd and 3rd edition hobgoblin infantry.
• A Dark Elf Rider, least interest. As I pointed out this would of been useful back in the day.

As a side tangent: I've been searching eBay and they pop up now and again, but remains elusive. The maxim of eBay is playing out here: "be patient and don't overpay." I've been known to rail against insane eBay price gouging, another good indication of relative worth as it relates to inflation. If we use the sale price listed and convert it to US dollars it was about $3.28 in 1991. In today's dollars its $5.74, a 75% increase when one counts for inflation. Often I've seen these in the neighborhood of $40-50 O_O that's insane. Sure any item on eBay is what the market will bear, but that sure is some markup!

An noted above, a great example of this excellent model is here from Cianty over one of the luminaries of Bordertown Burning. We interview him for Issue #1 of the Word of Hashut waaaaay back in 2008. Its more Kung-Fu inspired where I'm working more for a Nippon inspired theme. Either way its pretty cool.

In the end this has been one of the more challenging models to find. Its not super rare but I don't really ever recall seeing it here in the US shops I frequented.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oriental Heroes and the Lands of Nippon- Warhammer style

All kinds of amazing!

(Blog Note: WoooHooo! 100th published blog post — better make this a good one! Onwards toward 200.)

Much like my recent foray into Oriental Adventures, I thought I’d pause and retrace some steps back to Warhammer. I’ll be taking a moment to comment on Oriental Heroes and the line of minis for Nippon in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I’ve been working on a Nippon Army in an on-again, off-again fashion over the years.

But first, a very cool diorama (see to the right). I’m not sure where it’s from, but I found it while scouring the web for Nippon imagery for Warhammer.

Right now I’m in a bit of a prolonged lull in regards to Warhammer that has been going on for a number of years. After being burnt out with the Word of Hashut webzine and all that came with it, I’ve been largely uninterested in Games Workshop’s wares. I’ve found it’s far better to wait until my disinterest wanes and I’m interested again, rather than forging ahead for no reason other than to do it. This happens to me from time to time, but this one has been far longer. In the meantime, I’ve been having fun collecting minis from the Oriental lines of Games Workshop in the 1980s — minis I really wanted back in the day but was never able to secure more than three of them, being on the other side of the pond…

Nippon was a curious case for minis. They figured right from the earliest days of Games Workshop, appearing in the rules here and there, but never had their own dedicated army other than the mercenary contingent in the 3rd Edition Warhammer Armies book (see below). In the orange 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle rulebook it notes on page 205: “Lustrian, Steppeland and Cathan creatures and races are dealt with in sufficient detail for you to assemble armies of Slann, Nippon etc. but we feel that only by dealing with each area in a separate supplement can we hope to do them justice.” It became obvious when looking at the history of Games Workshop at the time that they were already underway with 4th Edition Warhammer and weren’t going to revisit these lands, at least not in the 3rd Edition
sense.

Nippon Army contingent from 3rd Edition

It was not to be, however. Aside from this blurb along with the Nippon mercenary force listed in the aforementioned Warhammer Armies book, that was it. I have a feeling it was a number of factors that led to this decision:

• The 2nd Edition Nippon army list in Ravening Hordes was enough?
• If they did a Nippon army, would they have to create a Cathay one as well? Would there be an outcry for Amazons? Norse? Pygmies?
• By the time the 3rd Edition Warhammer rules were gaining steam, the “ninja craze” of the 80s was already waning.
• Limited resources?
• The rise of Warhammer 40,000, which would become (and still is) its “breadwinner.”
• The oft-repeated line of “there are already two human armies in the game.”
• Some combination of these?
• Perhaps none of these?
• Too many manga/anime inspired fans?

In any event GW showed no inclination to move on an Eastern themed army. I don't see them ever doing it either. I don't have an inside info, this is more or less just a hunch, a hunch backed by 25 years of watching Games Workshop. NOTE: they would eventually release a Cathay army for Warhammer Old World.

Here is a partial list/number of links of the actual GW line of minis, at least enough to give an idea for those not in the know.
Oriental Heroes at the Stuff of Legends
Ninjas at the Stuff of Legends
Ninjas at the Stuff of Legends
Ninjas at the Stuff of Legends
Older Oriental Heroes at the Stuff of Legends
Temple Dog Riders

Onto my oft delayed Nippon Army, as of right now it has a serious amount of lead for it as chronicled here. I'm hoping as the weather turns colder in the Fall to get back to working on it. In the meantime I'm continuing to trade for minis at the excellent site Oldhammer Forum. I'm a big fan of the guys and the excellent work they are doing there. In fact I just secured some more ninja bringing me closer to having one of every GW ninja from the Oriental range.

Unlike in the past when I've worked on an army I've always been in a rush and with an eye towards playing. In reality I get to play so infrequently that its no my prime concern. So with that in mind Im working on my Nippon warband in terms of how they might have looked or been configured for 3rd edition warhammer using the 3rd edition Mercenary contingent as a guide.

In the meantime while I get my act together regarding my Nippon army here are some great images to get inspired by (I found the thread here).

 What are your thoughts? Tired of the same old pseudo-medieval European campaign worlds? 

The Dogs of War Nippon Army Style

Years ago I created a Nippon army list, its fairly crude and I have updated it a few times, but never really play tested it.

Somewhat because of this I starting to formulate a strategy for my own Dogs of War force, but one based on Nippon.

I've been a big fan of the Nippon forces since back in the 3rd Edition Warhammer days and always liked the look of them. Plus I've never really seen a good assembled force or really many at all. It's always been a shame that Games Workshop never released an actual army for them. But no matter, between the old range being available (somewhat) on eBay and these guys from Curteys Miniatures I think I'm going to be OK for the kind of force I want to assemble.

While the GW range was/is nice for 5th/6th edition Dogs of War its never really held my interest. Plus add to the fact that in order to get them now its either crazy prices off of the GW UK website or crazy prices off of eBay. Not willing to do either really. As I mentioned that's where these Mounted Samurai from Curteys come into play: 12 metal minis for $47? Yes please, GW should take note.

One of the coolest artillery sets in Warhammer

 

So with all that as I noted above I'm formulating a plan as most of my Warhammer stuff is packed up in anticipation for a move to a new house. So what I'm doing is seeking out all of the parts that I'm looking for before I start my force. This will be a novel idea for me as I usually acquire minis as I'm painting. Starting off I'm going with the Nippon Rocket Crew from Games Workshop back in the 3rd edition days. and thanks to a few chaps over on Chaos Dwarfs Online I think I'm set with that part. I will be getting the Rocket Launcher and 3 out of the 4 crewmen which is fine with me. Fine because when I run these guys as Dogs of War I plan on using it as a "Count As" Halfling Hot Pot, when used as a "Count As" Empire force I'll use it as a undersized Hellstrom Rocket Battery.

My buddy Baggronor over at Chaos Dwarfs Online (now Chaos Dwarfs Online) also has informed me that he has some 3rd Edition Games Workshop Ninjas as well. After all, even a renegade warband of Nippon mercenaries is going to have some ninjas squirreled away inside of it!

Other ideas include: a mounted Geisha for a wizard along the lines of the PC game Shogun: Total War; a band of mercenary dwarfs, a converted unit or from (Curteys line) of crossbowmen from Cathay. I don't see the Nipponese Samurai or their retainers using crossbows but a mercenary force? Sure in the right hands. This opens up possibilities of a renamed Marksmen or Miragliano renamed as well. Other ideas are a giant, but not as a Eastern giant per se, rather painted up like normal. The reason for this is I want to tie into the Old World as well. This as yet unnamed force has been fighting all over the continent and is made up of various parts. At its core is the Nippon forces yes, but other elements as well. It will be weird painting the giant in such a manner will make him appear unusual because his supporting troops will look so different.

That's it for now. Drop me a line ion the 3rd edition Citadel Oriental line of miniatures or the army in general.