Redvers and Son Get Into Bushido

Time to add some more small terrain elements. All of the following pieces have been 3d printed with the stl files coming from Thingiverse.

Japanese paper lanterns are a tradition and used to celebrate at festivals. They are often grouped together into racks to create a colourful display. I managed to find an stl file of the lanterns and printed this out. This then needed to be mounted as the racks did not come with legs. For this, I’ve just cut some wooden tongue depressors into the right lengths and stuck these to the rack. Once dry, it was primed and then stuck to a plasticard base and secured in place with and acrylic paste.

I’ve taken a quick approach to the painting. The wood was painted flat earth, then given a brown wash before an Iraqi sand dry brush. The lanterns were an off white with black for the writing. I’ve tried to copy some characters from internet pictures but the writing could be nothing, people’s names or something rude. Who knows but let’s hope I’m not about to start an international incident.

Sake racks are common to both display the barrels and allow for maturation of the drink. Drums are also used for both musical entertainment, war and communication, so both objects would lend themselves to the trappings of a small village.

The wood for both items was painted in the same way as the lanterns above. The drum skin and the sake barrels were then painted a bone colour and given a soft tone wash. The drum barrel is cavalry brown. You often see the drum skin gets discoloured where it is struck, so to replicate this I’ve used a watered down brown and gently glazed the area to reach the desired effect.

And job done (apart from the flocking – summer grass). Simple and easy.