Bought this one at the last AMSS show.
It's a 1:6 bust by mr. Lee van Quang from the Man-O-War range of Pilipili miniatures.
The box and contents.

The box-art.


Knowing the quality of his produce I opened the box awaiting crisp casts.
Well... one can see the molds are aging a bit but this is still a stunning piece.
So with a little cleaning and filling some small pinholes (only a few) I started the dry-fitting and... decided I didn't like the elaborate display Katana (meaning the huge dragon on the hilt).
I wanted to present him with a usable Katana so I decided to make a new one.
So I created the Shinken (blade) from aluminium and the Tsuka (hilt) and Tsuba (hand guard) from polyurethane with the Ito (wrapping) from lead-sheet. (the Kashira or end piece needs to be fitted later)


I want to try and paint the blade with Alclad in such a way that there will be a Hamon on the sharp end of the blade.
To explain, the Hamon is a waving line that's left on the blade after hardening in clay.
This line is sometimes enhanced by the master sword-maker through the use of an etching fluid.
The Hamon is seen as the soul of a blade but it doesn't say anything about the strength of the blade.
All in all this one is a challenge for the painter.

Groeten, Willem

Interesting post Willem, love your attention to detail and research.

Roger

Willem,
Nice conversion and neat idea.
Cheers
John

that sword is fabulous!

i have tamo gozen in my collection so i shall be picking up info eagerly

Mark

Willem,
excellent start.
Going by the terms used, you either researched this extensively, or are familiar with Iaido or similar sword art.

While the armours are colourful, the decorations of weapons can be slightly overdone.

It was still a weapon, and practicality beats pretty on the battle field

So your simple changes should look really effective.

Cheers

The sword is really well done - thanks for posting.

Dear Willem my friend , you have done a superb preliminary work on this piece, and i admire you for this. This is a bust that interests me a lot so i will follow your steps

Best Regards

costas

Hello, willem.
A wonderful sword.
Your scratch is amazing.
I'm looking forward to future's progress of your work.

Mitsutaka

Hello Willem,

You have done an excellent job on the sword! I especially like the way you did the wrapping on the hilt. Very neat and precise work!

Nevertheless you got a bit confused about the nature of the sword.

The sword is NOT a katana. It's a 'tachi'. Its longer and curved blade was used by mounted warriors to reach the foot soldiers (and vice-versa ).

The richly mounted hilt indicates that it's a court tachi (a ceremonial sword). Like on many Japanese swords, the hilt has a basic wrapping made from the skin of a ray ('same') giving it a pebbled, non-slip texture. On top of it is mounted an incrustation of silver and gold ('menuki') of various themes (here a dragon). Its purpose is to disguise and hide the blade/hilt fixture.

Keep in mind that arms and armour in the high nobility were revered like sacred objects and passed from generation to generation. That would explain why our daimyo can carry a sword dating hundreds of years before his time.

Hope that would clear things up a little bit.

Keep on the excellent job. I'm looking forward to the next step.

Quang

So Willem,
That's fast. Only a few weeks after buying this already on the workbench.
It looks a great figure to me. I don't know much about the Samurai but what you are doing with the sword looks great.

Marc

Roger, thanks (p.s. my father is back home after his surgery, he's recovering well)

John,thank you for your response

Mark,the next one I'll buy will be Tomoe Gozen or the Osage.
Tomoe is also a treat for the painter with a lot of different patterns to choose from regarding her clothing and the Sode (shoulder armour)

Jamie, always good to hear from you.

Brent, it's going to be a challenge to paint the sword

Costas, I can recommend it for it is a impressive piece

Mitsutaka, please feel free to give me hints on the clothing and patterns on the Sode.

Quang, thanks for the info on the Tachi (immediately did some research on it) and I know you wanted to show a him with a court tachi.
With further reading I found other types of "long swords" f.i. the Nodachi or Odachi, the blade being approx. 5 feet (152,4 cm) in length.
The Tachi blade being 76 to 106 cm in length.
And the later Katana or Nihonto blade being approx. 72 cm in length.
As you said the first two were created for the 'reach' the latter for the speed of the draw and personal defence.
So you see that a bust can lead to a new world of knowledge, so I thank you for this.
(I hope you're not offended by me crating a new blade and hilt )

Marc, this one is just begging to be painted (and I can't resist its call)

Willem

Willem,
good research.
Quang has a reputation for doing his research. Tony Dawe painted up the Jack Aubrey bust, and queried the colours of the trim on his hat.

When Tony did some further research, he posted here on the planet that Quangs research was accurate.

Tony does his research,and if he says that Quang is right, I'd back him

Quangs choice to depict such an ornate Tachi is correct. I would liken it to General George S Patton's nickel plated Colt 45 automatic pistols. When you are the top dog, you can show it.

Willem, you have done your research too, it shows.

Google searching 'samurai armour' gives the usual flood of data....
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=...ial&hs=sRe&q=samurai armour&btnG=Search&meta=

and Dr Stephen Turnbull has done some very good research on this topic too.
hope this helps

Cheers

Quite the contrary. I appreciate your will to push the envelope a bit further. Creativity is the key word to this hobby. Research is another.

Jamie: You're giving me too much credit . It was Young, not I, who did the Jack Aubrey bust. Wish I've done it though!

Jamie, thanks for the info and I'll certainly will look in to it.
It was never my intention to question Quang on his research. The other bust that I painted, Celt with Carnix, already showed his skill to do precise research on the subject he wants to depict. My choice to give him a new sword is purely one of personal taste. (and the urge to create )

Quang, I hope I can give this one an even better paint-job than the Celt. (you might remember seeing it at the AMSS and our conversation on daring to use more contrast and richer colours)

To all that like this bust, I recommend it, it's one of Quangs best. Lots of character good fit and only minor clean-up to do.

On with the show.... the first paint on the face and hair. The final tones and shadows/highlights will be done later also the hair will be done in several painting sessions to create a deeper and richer colour.





Hope you like the first steps,

Willem

Ooh, very good Willem.
great start.

Looking forward to the development of this bust.

Quang, my apologies. I got it wrong.
I do have, however, the "Belle of the Nile" and "Sam Stone", very good, and well researched. I'll drop a visitor message, this is Willems thread.

Back to the Daimyo; looking forward to seeing how you bring him to life. Excellent work so far.

Cheers

Nice start, Willem!

The tones look commendably rich and warm. Too bad we cannot appreciate properly because of the slight orange cast to your photos. Better check the white balance on your digicam.

Looking forward to the next step.
Quang

Quang, after looking at the bust in sunlight I agreed with your statement on it looking to orange and decided to tone it down a bit and.......
it went wrong.
The risk of my preferred method is the quick drying time of the base colour.
If I try to blend in a new colour on a dry spot the pigments will not mix and adhere to the primer.
The face ends up being spotty with patches of the primer shining through.
So the only solution is to clean up, primer again and start over.
I've decided to see this as an extra training exercise.

Willem

AARGH!!! There's a BIG misunderstanding here.

I was talking about your PHOTOS whose colours were not perfectly true to the reality (you can see like a transparent orange 'veil' over the pictures). Otherwise your skin tones were very good!

I'm so sorry that you have to do it all over again because of my remark.

Quang

Quang, don't worry it was no misunderstanding. I wasn't too happy about the effect of the basic colour. I am in the lucky position to be close to the "Kinderdijk windmills" and as always there are lots of Japanese visitors. One thing I noticed is that they seem to have a complexion that is closer to the European than other Asian skintones. As said I'll see this as extra training.
p.s. thanks for following this one so closely.

Willem

One quick tip for light Asian skin tones is to replace the Titanium White in your usual mix of Caucasian skin by Naples Yellow.

Also tone down the red on the cheeks and the lips.

HTH
Quang