Happy Holidays - Painting Challenge Underway

28mm Samurai from Perry - another amazing Perry sculpt

Nothing says "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" like a Samurai.  Right?  Actually I painted this figure for a reason - our friend Curt in Regina has kicked off another one of his painting challenges and each of the 47 participants has been asked to send in one painted Samurai (part of a "47 Ronin" project) as a sort of entry fee.  You can see more about the challenge here at this link.

Colours courtesy of a google image search and guesswork

The mandatory stuff is always the least fun, so I thought I would start off the challenge by painting the Samurai first.  This is a model from the Perry Twins' mind-blowing Samurai collection - "Mounted Samurai with Katana drawn".  This figure came from a pack I ordered years ago in a moment of delusion that I would try painting Samurai.  As soon as I got the figure, and as soon as I tried to read about Samurai armour, I was lost.

Samurai all had custom armour and weapons, I think - when you are that cool, you wear whatever colours you want

The "warring states" period of Japan, and Samurai that are part of it, are amazing, but very different for me, and the more I tried to read or learn about it, the less I actually understood.  Dave V even loaned me some wonderful books but the intricate laminate armour is incredibly tricky to paint.  Then try to understand the clouds of clans and sub clans etc. etc. and within moments I knew this was not a period I was going to dive into.  This gathered dust until Curt's challenge gave me an excuse to give it a try.

That speaks to the fun of these painting challenges (the Fawcett Conscripts did one of our own a few years ago) - they are a useful prompt to get painting something you otherwise would not, or would leave to languish.  Getting this darn figure out of my lost project pile is already a win for me.

The challenge has been underway since December 20, and the submissions are coming in fast and furious from all over the world.  I encourage you to check it out on Curt's blog.  I will post photos of my submissions here a while after they go up on Curt's page.  I hope I can crack the top five this year!

There were three Samurai in this package from Perry - I may screw up the courage to try and paint the other two before the challenge ends in a few months.