I have spent much time in debate over how to prepare my samurai army for an epic battle. Originally, I planned to build my army based on Uesugi Kenshin in the fourth battle of Kawanakajima where he fought against Takeda Shingen. Kawanakajima was a very bloody battle, filled with masterful maneuvering, brilliant generals going head to head and ending with both sides taking over 60% casualties. Pretty epic I'd say. But then I stumbled across a biography on Tokugawa Ieyasu. It just happened to be one of the six books based on Japanese history that I found in Barns and Noble, and only one of the two based on samurai. Needless
to say, they had a very limited selection. I took a fancy to this Tokugawa character. Raised in captivity of an enemy waring state, he lives a life of day to day survival and makes his way to the top of Japanese society. Yep, I was hooked. This is the man I want to command my army in to battle! And what better a campaign to do then the Battle of Osaka Castle. I took plenty of pictures of the castle while I was there in Osaka and can't wait to begin constructing Osaka-jo (jo = castle). I currently own a Osaka-jo in 1/300 scale. A bit small for 15mm battles, and yet this model is still pretty large. Glad I'm not doing 25mm. \\(^v^)//
Before I chose the Osaka campaign and Tokugawa as my general, I had started on a small Japanese village. To be more specific, I began construction of a gassho-zukuri village. I started with a paper model and googled gassho to see what I could find for pictures. I had recently seen a show called Being Japan that showed the gassho-zukuri construction process and functions. I found it fascinating and thought it would work great for the Uesugi Kenshin battles. Here are a few pictures of the hoses and the one's that I began construction on.
to say, they had a very limited selection. I took a fancy to this Tokugawa character. Raised in captivity of an enemy waring state, he lives a life of day to day survival and makes his way to the top of Japanese society. Yep, I was hooked. This is the man I want to command my army in to battle! And what better a campaign to do then the Battle of Osaka Castle. I took plenty of pictures of the castle while I was there in Osaka and can't wait to begin constructing Osaka-jo (jo = castle). I currently own a Osaka-jo in 1/300 scale. A bit small for 15mm battles, and yet this model is still pretty large. Glad I'm not doing 25mm. \\(^v^)//
Before I chose the Osaka campaign and Tokugawa as my general, I had started on a small Japanese village. To be more specific, I began construction of a gassho-zukuri village. I started with a paper model and googled gassho to see what I could find for pictures. I had recently seen a show called Being Japan that showed the gassho-zukuri construction process and functions. I found it fascinating and thought it would work great for the Uesugi Kenshin battles. Here are a few pictures of the hoses and the one's that I began construction on.
I have a template made out so I can easily make more. I'm not sure if the scale is correct, it was supposed to be a two story house when I started (with the 3rd window being for the attic), but I'm not so sure now. It's constructed out of cereal box cardboard and the roof has yet to be done (the roof being the most important part and key element of the gassho-zukuri house). Still trying to figure out if I want to use putty to make the thatched roof or find some straw like material and glue it on or perhaps a mix of the two. At the moment I can't find any straw type material at my local Hobie shop. Next stop, Michale's. The windows and doors are just cuts from the cereal box and yes, I know, the door opens on the wrong side (as my wife so enjoys to point out to me). I based the door off of the Japanese sliding door and I'm thinking of placing a noren (a cloth that hangs down in front of a door way) to help hide my "glaring" error or perhaps just to appease my wife.
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