Oni of Blood

hi all

more Oni fun...

The Oni of Blood!

an old etymology for "oni" is that the word derives from on, the on'yomi reading of a character (隠) meaning "to hide or conceal", due to oni having the tendency of "hiding behind things, not wishing to appear". This explanation is found in the 10th century dictionary Wamyōshō, which reveals that the oni at the time had a different meaning, defined as "a soul/spirit of the dead".^[9][10]

The character for oni, 鬼 (pinyin: guǐ; Jyutping: gwai²) in Chinese also means a dead or ancestral spirit, and not necessarily an evil specter.^[9] Accordingly, Chinese (Taoist) origins for the concept of oni has been proposed by Takahashi Masaaki [ja].^[11]

The oni was syncretized with Hindu-Buddhist creatures such as the man-devouring yaksha and the rakshasa, and became the oni who tormented sinners as wardens of Jigoku (Hell),^[12] administering sentences passed down by Hell's magistrate, King Yama (Enma Daiō).^[6] The hungry ghosts called gaki (餓鬼) has also been sometimes considered a type of oni (the letter "ki" 鬼 is also read "oni").^[6][10]

Some scholars have even argued that the oni was entirely a concept of Buddhist mythology.^[13]

This Oni was loads of fun to paint and I really went to town with reds, oranges and yellows to paint up the vast swathes of skin and clothing. The row of severed heads I painted in pale flesh and washed with purple, giving that recently dead look.  I'm particularly pleased with the warm gold look to the flails. I decided to go against the art work and make the "studs" embedded in the skin into pustules instead as it looked far more effective imho.

hope you enjoy 

dGG

Oni of Souls

hi all

I'm still painting up the huge monsters from the Rising Sun board game and this time I can show you - The Oni of Souls!

There are several different Oni in the base game and I'll show them each week with a little more information, taken directly from Wikipedia.  Now once again I know this is very lazy research as wiki isn't the most reliable source, but these days it seems I'm always strapped for time as I'm once again facing academia in order to push on towards advanced paramedic practice.

Anyhoo - the Oni

Oni (鬼) are a kind of yōkai, supernatural demon, devils, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are typically portrayed as hulking figures with one or more horns growing out of their heads. Stereotypically, they are conceived of as red or blue-colored (green-colored), wearing loincloths of tiger pelt, and carrying iron clubs.

They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature, and theatre,^[1] and appear as stock villains in the well-known fairytales of Momotaro (Peach Boy), Issun-bōshi, and Kobutori Jīsan. 

This "miniature" was a little more complicated than the others I have done so far (and this trend continues...) but still enjoyable to paint.  I started with a base coat of "Rotting Flesh" from Vallejoand covered it with green wash before highlighting it back to a lurid green/yellow tone. I then stuck with neutral colours for the rest of his attire - chestnut brown for the fur and grey/green for the breeches and finally Khaki for the leather pieces.  The corpses that he has on the Yari were painted with a pale flesh and washed with purple before highlighting back up to almost white and a little Taimya clear red for the gore, disappointingly I then matt varnished the model and it dulled the blood down... note to self...

anyway, hope you enjoy

dGG

Yurei

hi all

Happy New Year to you!

following on from my post last time showcasing the beautiful miniatures in the game "Rising Sun", I've completed another piece. 

This week I present Yurei, the Yokai probably most recognisable from films like "The Ring"

Yūrei (幽霊) are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include 亡霊 (Bōrei), meaning ruined or departed spirit, 死霊 (Shiryō) meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing 妖怪 (Yōkai) or お化け (Obake).

Like their Chinese and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife.

This Yurei is actually dozens of creatures coalesced into one manifestation.  I kept with muted white/greys and pale flesh colours with purple worm like tentacles protruding from their mouths.

*Edited post* here is a comparison picture or two.  The Bushido ninja is a 32mm mini (sorry I didn't have a 28mm to hand).

just a quick one this week

hope you enjoy

dGG

Rising Sun

hi all

I was thoroughly spoilt this xmas by my extended family and I couldn't be more grateful.  

Most of the bits are set-dressing pieces for a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign that I will be running in the Spring/Summer of 2019 so aren't particularly exciting to see in isolation but don't worry I will be showing the pieces with some photo sessions during game play as and when I get up and running.

One of the most exciting gifts that I received was "Rising Sun" written by Eric M. Lang and published by CMON. This "miniatures" board game is set in feudal Japan and as regular readers of this blog will know, that just about scratches most of my gaming itches!

Rising Sun is a board game for 3 to 5 players designed by Eric M. Lang^[ and published by CMON Limited in 2017^[. Rising Sun is a game about strategy, negotiation, and warfare in a feudal Japan where the ancient gods (Kami) have returned to rebuild the empire. The game was originally released via Kickstarter, raising over $4,200,000. Rising Sun received positive reviews, and was awarded with the 2018 RPC Fantasy Award Tabletop & Miniatures Game Winner. 

This blurb is lifted from the ever reliable Wikipedia...

Anyhoo, the most exciting part of this game is the superb range of miniatures (used in the loosest term as they are huge!) that come with the base game.  That said I have got some expansions coming too...  So far I've decided to just paint the monsters (and later the Kami, when the expansions arrive).  This is mostly so I can get it onto the table quicker.  Because it's a board game, I'm going to introduce it to my board gaming group and hopefully get some games in shortly.  In the meantime I will showcase the monsters as and when I get them painted.  Each one will come with a little bit of Wiki knowledge if I can find it...

bottom left is a 32mm Rise of the Kage miniature just to give you an idea of scale

Today's offerings though is a 2 for the price of 1 as the first one was so simple it took minutes rather than hours.

I've tried to keep things simple as possible due to the fact that they are going to be handled by those that are less used to picking up miniatures

First up is Komainu

Komainu (狛犬), often called lion-dogs in English, are statue pairs of lion-like creatures either guarding the entrance or the honden, or inner shrine of many Japanese Shinto shrines or kept inside the inner shrine itself, where they are not visible to the public. The first type, born during the Edo period, is called sandō komainu (参道狛犬 visiting road Komainu), the second and much older type jinnai komainu (陣内狛犬 shrine inside komainu).^[1] They can sometimes be found also at Buddhist temples, nobility residences or even private homes.

As you can see I went with a very basic gold colouring based on the game art rather than the traditional stone.  I think it looks very striking but it was also dirt easy to paint and all told it took longer waiting for the inks to dry than actually painting it.  I did use some basic weathering in an effort to "sex it up".

Next is my favourite "mini", the River Dragon.  My love for dragons is well documented so I won't go into it here., but this piece is stunning and I was desperate to do my best with it, however the miniature is much simpler than it looks and there were only 3 different basic colours in the whole piece (exc base).  However each colour has multiple shades and highlights which has produced a pleasing scheme and I'm really happy with the results.

Japanese dragons (日本の竜 Nihon no ryū) are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India. The style of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon. Like these other East Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. The modern Japanese language has numerous "dragon" words, including indigenous Tatsu from Old Japanese ta-tu, Sino-Japanese ryū or ryō 竜 from Chinese lóng 龍, nāga ナーガ from Sanskrit nāga, and doragon ドラゴン from English "dragon" (the latter being used almost exclusively to refer to the European dragon and derived fictional creatures).

That's it for this week.
hope you enjoy
dGG

Merry Xmas

Hi all

I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish the readers of this (sadly intermittent of late) blog, a really Merry Xmas and a prosperous New Year. I hope to post a swag pic at some point but in the mean time here’s a quick (and rare) pic of me before I dip into the Xmas booze...

All the best

Andy aka da Gobbo

13

Hi all

despite my post only two days ago claiming that I don't have the time to "hobby",  I have managed to scrape together a quick post.

I was asked by a club member to paint up some minis for a Dr Who RPG he's running for some of his friends in a weeks time. It was a quick commission and I was happy to help.  So here she is - Number 13.

Available from Warlord Games with the Tardis model, she was an interesting one to paint with very similar colours for the majority of the mini but with rainbow stripes to break up the monotony.

I posed her here with my own 1st Doctor and Sara Kingdom one of his companions facing those classic Daleks.  My miniatures are from Black Tree and I have quite a few sitting in the painting queue.

After taking these photos, I've realised that my backdrop is not very good for photography. Sadly I can't do anything about this at the moment, because the only reason I have managed to carve out the time to do this is because I've pulled my back, so no heavy work for me for a few days.

hope you enjoy

dGG

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Hi all

My apologies once again for the absence on here and my fellow bloggers pages. No I haven’t abandoned blogging but with “winter pressures” at work and a multitude of home improvement projects, hobby time has been a bit sparse. That’s not to say I haven’t done anything only that I haven’t been able to capture it in the written form. 

I have however been recording some of my efforts which centre around terrain building rather than playing but hopefully are a little interesting none the less. I uploaded them to YouTube and have supplied a link to the first part, if you subscribe you can watch all 6 parts that I have done so far.

https://youtu.be/OCnQ891y5Eg

Now I’m gonna try to catch up on my favourite blogs, I may even get to comment 

Cheers

dGG