Painting Challenge Submission #3 - Onmyoji for "Hametsu"

Carrying a tune en route to a confrontation with evil in feudal Japan...

If you peruse the archives of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and scan Curt's entries you will see a lot of cool stuff he has worked on over the years. One area he has explored in his hobby efforts involved medieval Japanese terrain and an amazing assortment of Japanese medieval fantasy heroes and demons. He uses these to play the excellent game "Hametsu" - a really cool, cooperative game featuring bands of heroes working to slay the evil Oni who threaten the survivors living in a post-apocalyptic feudal Japan. 

In 2025 Curt shared this game to a group of us scattered in Canada and Europe - Byron, Jamie, Nick and I have been pursuing a Hametsu campaign, with Curt hosting the table via Zoom! Zoom gaming came into many of our lives during the pandemic, and while the COVID nonsense is thankfully in the rearview now, use of Zoom-type platforms to bring friends together for a game is still with us. Not every kind of tabletop wargame will work well over Zoom-type set-ups, but "Hametsu", fortunately is one such game.

And what a break, because "Hametsu" is awesome! Our group of heroes has been pursuing their respective "Path(s) of Legend", confronting fantastical evil demons. I've been playing an Onmyoji, a spellcaster skilled in the manipulation of energy, and the campaign has been a blast! An electric blast, specifically...Onmyoji can manipulate electricity, and my character has really leaned into this ability, cooking a fair number of demons!

Assortment of supplies to keep things ticking along.

Curt has a beautiful and complete collection of figures for the game, and his Onmyoji figure has done sterling work. But I have enjoyed the games so much I thought it would be super fun to paint my own Onmyioji figure. So I asked Curt to 3D print one for me, and he kindly obliged, and sent it my way. I thought "Awesome, THIS guy is going to be my first figure for the Painting Challenge this year!".

Don't let that strange helmet fool you - this guy is coming to bring the pain...

Um...so...painting a single 28mm figure should be a pretty straightforward exercise. But in a kind of weird "art-imitating-the-campaign" sort of thing, this poor figure has experienced a level of abuse somewhat reminiscent of what happened to my Onmyoji in one of our recent "Hametsu" games, which saw the poor spellcaster take a tumble down a mountain.

For F*CK SAKES! I HATE IT WHEN I DROP MINIATURES!

I replicated this game-setting event in real life by finding a way to knock it over on the painting table - THREE times! Somewhere the evil Oni are celebrating! The 3d print figure was solid enough, but it still has a couple of delicate points, particularly the ankles - and it wasn't designed to be dropped - much less repeatedly. The figure duly snapped at the ankles. Again. And Again. And again. The hilts of his katana blades snapped as well, and so did the bell on his wind instrument. I was able to reconnect - mostly - the sword hilts, and to get the poor fellow standing on his own feet (three times)...but the bell of the wind instrument disappeared into the carpet, never to be seen again, I expect. 

Another step in the Path of Legend...evil will be slain and banished!

I almost gave up...but I didn't want to let the spirit of the sinister Oni win, so I buckled down and finished painting him. Thus he became my third submission, instead of my first, and his instrument has been, well, let's say "customized". Now I just need to find a way to get this thing safely off to Curt...needless to say, given what this miniature has already been through, I'm a little nervous trusting that process...

Stay tuned for further Painting Challenge updates!