Obama the Samurai

Although these figures have been out for a while now, they still manage to intrigue me. I really wish I had bought a few while I was in Japan, but it seems that they sold out pretty fast. Definitely one of the most amazing action figure that I've seen in a long time. It's our president wielding various weapons like the katana, light saber, pistol and more. He even faces up against Darth Vader and takes a nap in a kotatsu (a short table with a heater built into the bottom and a blanket layed over the top to keep the warmth in). He can be your hero too!

I'm thinking I just might have to make a samurai Obama figure for my army, just for the fun of it. Though, its 15mm so it's not like anyone will notice. I'd have to come up with a cleaver sashimono (war flag worn on the backs of samurai warriors, sometimes conveying messages but usually used for army identification).

Samurai Commander w/ Naginata

I've spent way too much time painting my last two mounted samurai. I coverted this one to wield a naginata薙刀 as the naginata is basically a katana type blade with an elongated spear like shaft. Seems to me that BAW doesn't have rules for a naginata so I'll just have to use it as a spear or as a normal samurai katana, or make up some house rules for it. I converted 2 of my mounted samurai to wield the naginata. Not sure if I'll convert more or not.

Also, I play tested the game a little with my friend the other day. We had a good time running though the basic combat system and my friend really enjoyed the AP (action point) system for units. We only played a small game, around 4 units per side, not even enough to really get the feel for a large battle, but it did give us a feel for the rules. This system only has me worry in one respective... will it be too random in larger battles? With the pre-battle re-arrangement, the AP system (rolling a D6 for each unit to see how many AP they get) and Generals issuing motivation checks per unit (basically a moral check from Warhammer) per turn, I wonder if it will get too random. On the same token, I really think that this game plays smoothly and was a blast to play with our little skirmishing troops. The AP system really keeps you on your toes and gives you a reason to plan your motivation checks in order not to leave the rest of your army in the dust. I can't wait to play another game! In the mean time, paint paint paint!

Mounted Samurai w/ yari by Peter Pig

I started painting late last night. I spent a few hours thinking as to how I wanted to paint the entire army and then I remembered that I'm painting samurai and, for the most part, they didn't all wear armor of the same color. For this mounted samurai with Yari (spear) I went with enchanted blue with a purple wash. It didn't come out as I wanted. The next one I try will be with Iced Blue (sky blue) with the purple wash followed by a quick highlight and a gloss varnish. I hope this will work better for making blue armor.

I think I will base my army off of Uesugi Kenshin. Ultimately, I still need to do some research on Kenshin's troop's and banners. I'm currently having trouble getting a hold of the Samurai books that I want and I've been going off a lot of unreliable sources. It's becoming noticeable as they often contradict one another.

Bought BAW today. Still have yet to read it through, but it looks like my 40x30mm bases will work out great for this rule set. More on that rule set later. Off for some more reading I go!

Samurai Miniture Games

Along with a lot of hard core studying of Kanji in preparation for my up coming Japanese proficiency test, I decided that it would be fun to create my own Japanese army - something I've been wanting to do for quite some time - form the 15th -16th century. That means samurai (or bushi)! All my friends play model with 25-30mm models for their games so I looked into getting some figs and the cheapest ones I could find were going to cost me a pretty penny just to get 3-4 units... Needless to say I found that I could buy enough models for 2 armies by using the 15mm scale. Hence, 15mm it is! But this site is what really tied me in to doing a smaller scale.
Samurai in 10mm
Pretty huh!

So here I am, trying to find a rules set that my friends and I can try. I really like the free Bushi rules that are available online, but they seem to lack depth... or... I just can't figure out the deployment system and I'm not a fan of the giving orders. But I love the "oneness" even if it is way too multiplier heavy. That's the good and the bad of it.

Battles in the Age of War (BAW) by Peter Pig, available at my local hobby shop for about $39. This rules set looks promising. Found some semi reviews here. But have yet to talk to anyone who owns it and plays it. Guess I need to do some more web browsing. Don't want to shovel out $40 for a game that is too complex for my friends to ever want to jump into. Then again, I could always mix and match. (^@^)

Tiko! rule set runs about $25. Seems that a few people like it but I have yet to see it in action.

Looks like I'm just going to have to go out and splurge. I know there are some people who play the BAW rules set at my local hobby shop, so perhaps I'll start their. Until then, I need to figure out how to paint my army.

Japanese TV

After returning from Japan I thought to myself, "Being able to watch Japanese TV on a regular basis would really help me to understand more." When I got home the first thing I did was google 'Japanese TV.' By doing that I found the greatest tool and it just so happens to be free.
It's called KeyHoleTV3.13. The video quality is a little bit better than youtube. Its good enough that you can make the screen larger and not feel like your looking at a bunch of talking squares. The frame rate can be slow at times and other times its not too bad.

Because KeyHoleTV streems live from Japan, there is no time time change. This means that when its night time here you're watching morning news/shows. Luckly for me, I enjoy the Japanese morning channels. Though, if you wanted to watch the night time shows get ready to pull an all nighter or wake up at the butt crack of dawn.

Also, KeyHoleTV has both TV and Raido stations and not all of them are consistantly avalible.

Find out more here: http://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/

Japanese Prank Show

Hillarious Kids vs Zombie