Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 (edited) The following is from Wikipedia Tomoe Gozen (巴 御前?, pronounced [tomo.e]; 1157?–1247) was a late twelfth-century female samurai warrior (onna-bugeisha), known for her bravery and strength.[1] She fought with Minamoto no Yoshinaka in the Genpei War.[2] Here's the link to the complete article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomoe_Gozen By all accounts, she's a huge cult figure in modern Japan. My own white metal version isn't quite as huge, although at 90mm she's a bit larger that the more usual 54mm and 75mm sizes I normally do, This is going to be photo-heavy, and there's a bit of a story to it as well. So I'll do it over two or three posts, otherwise It'll take forever and a day to load up. TO BE CONTINUED Edited February 8, 2017 by Cadman changed a bit 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 (edited) So, with Ms Gozen done I decided to do a small vignette featuring her and some other 90mm figures. The Italian company Pegaso had two Samurai in their catalog that I always liked the look of, and a couple of years ago they added a third to the lineup. So all three models were promptly ordered up from the UK. Delivery time for international orders usually take three to four weeks, and I knew that painting the things would take ages, so I reckoned I had plenty of time to find a nicer miniature display table than I normally use for small dioramas. But reckoned without the wife who came home one day with the perfect example. This one here:- The top is 200mm diameter -- so for her next trick -- I got dragged around the local IKEA, and found a wooden place holder that fits on top of the miniature table. Right, so now I've got the figures, the table and a base to build the vignette on. Trouble is, four 90mm white metal figures is a fairly hefty lump of iron to be supported on a table like that with just the slightest lip around the outside edge to keep the base in position. So how to stop it from sliding around? And how to protect that varnished surface on top of the table itself? Wife comes home with the solution -- beeswax. That's what the waxy looking stuff is in this next photo. I really plastered the stuff on the top surface of the display table and the grip it has on the vignette base is rock solid. And now I could get on with building up the simple groundwork on the base. In common with most of my stuff, the groundwork is celluclay with some cheap paint mixed into it, then some static grass shot on and a few other details. The figures are supported by some pretty strong pins taken off large bulldog clips and glued into holes drilled up the legs of each figure, then two-part epoxy was used to fix the pins in place, being careful not to drill all the way through the vignette base. TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST WITH PHOTOS OF THE FINISHED DISPLAY Oops -- forgot to mention. Painting all four figures took something like two years, although I worked on other stuff at the same time just to get a break from Samurai. Edited February 11, 2017 by Cadman Added a comment 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Lovely job,the first photo's fantastic.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 I'm aware this has been more of a WIP thread up to now, but the display was done a couple of years ago now. Here's a few snaps of the finished project:- 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 That's absolutely lovely Cadman... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Just now, Vince1159 said: Lovely job,the first photo's fantastic.... Took several tries before I got the shading and highlights just right on her face -- not helped by trying to make it look like she's wearing rice powder makeup. The sheer quality of the sculpt made things a bit easier though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Just now, Vince1159 said: That's absolutely lovely Cadman... Thanks Vince. Yeah, this worked out fine and it's still one of my better efforts. Cheers H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 I've just read about her and 'as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand'.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Just now, Vince1159 said: I've just read about her and 'as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand'.... She was a really interesting character. Of course separating fact from fiction after all this time isn't that easy. From what I can make out, she was better known as a swordswoman, so I never could work out why the sculptor armed the figure with a naginata instead of a sword -- artistic effect I suppose. The Wikipedia article is a pretty good read and there's quite a bit of info available on-line about her. Naturally, she's a pop-culture icon in Japan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Thanks Cadman i'll have a look and read about her,i'll also see if i can find a book or two... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 4 minutes ago, Vince1159 said: Thanks Cadman i'll have a look and read about her,i'll also see if i can find a book or two... This is a good article:- http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Tomoe_Gozen This one actually states that her weapon of choice was the naginata -- which just goes to prove (once again) that I don't know what I'm talking about.... http://www.historyoffighting.com/tomoe-gozen.php 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Thanks for the link,i wouldn't say you don't know what your talking about,it was 800 yrs ago.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Just now, Vince1159 said: Thanks for the link,i wouldn't say you don't know what your talking about,it was 800 yrs ago.... Yeah, 800 years ago -- and close enough to 03:00AM my local time -- definitely time to crawl off the bed. There's a bunch of further links in that samurai wiki article -- enjoy the read. Cheers H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Stunning! I wouldn't like to be the one to tell them to keep off the grass. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaddad Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Very tasty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadman Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 2 hours ago, Darby said: Stunning! I wouldn't like to be the one to tell them to keep off the grass. 19 minutes ago, spaddad said: Very tasty. Yeah it was really enjoyable doing this one. They're the only 90mm figures in my collection. Once you go up to that size the postal costs start getting prohibitive cos the white metal figures are just so heavy. I think 90mm works out around 1/20 scale, my more usual 75mm is about 1/24 scale and 54mm/60mm comes in somewhere around 1/32 or 1/30 scale. I suppose it depends what they're being measured against as a reference. This snap does give some idea of the figure size in comparison with the 54mm examples on display. I'll try and get better and close-up photos later today once the light improves a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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