Another army, another thread. I've been painting a JSA army for a friend of mine over the last two years. I've originally shared some of it in my Nomads thread last year, but since that's exclusive reserved to Nomads now, they need a new home. Also, I just finished the project, so I thought it would be nice to share. In order to not overwhelm readers of this thread with a wall of pictures, I'll post them bit by bit over the coming weeks and months. To know what's coming though and to give an overview of the army, here are group pics of the three waves they were commissioned in. It's about 60 models in total. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Hey guys, thanks for all the kind replies! The terrain is from Crimson Stone and Kaldstrøm, and the paper mat is indeed from icestorm :) Before we get into the unit pictures, a few more words about my process for this army. The color scheme came to be after I painted a single JSA mini for my friend and just wildly experimented with some colors. The result was some vaporwave-themed cyberpunk stuff: My friend was very happy with it and asked me if I could do his whole army in that style. However, since I didn't have the time to paint everything at that same level (the Ryuken was all done by brush), I needed a method that allowed me to get similar results, just much faster. To that end, I decided to try an oil color method taught by Marco Frisoni (here's a link to the specific technique). Basically, you start with a zenithal white primer over black, then create the gradients by wet-blending oil colors on the models. After letting it dry for half an hour, you dab away the excess paint to get the volume from the zenithal highlight to shine through again and give you some easy shades and highlights. I'm sure I didn't execute the technique perfectly, but it worked well enough to allow me to paint most S2 models in 1-2 hours (the bigger ones took longer of course). Alright, enough theory. Let's begin the unit shots with the basic line infantry, the Keisotsu. I painted six of these in total, as well as Yuriko Oda, who I decided to paint in the same color scheme. Compared to the rest of the army, it's very basic, with only two gradients: Red to yellow and green to purple:
Hey, those traitorous Keisotsu are still wearing Yu Jing colours! Jokes aside, being able to paint S2 models in 1-2 hours is fast! I will need to check out this technique. Your paint scheme works very well. I've been thinking about doing something similar to this for Aleph, whenever I get to finish my Yu Jing. I've been looking at the CB cardboard terrains as some simple budget terrain. Are they worth getting?
Very cool concept! I see that you have reposed the SMG to .. hem ... show more of the torso on that Ryuken Spoiler I've done the same :p
Well, it was so hard to paint her... accurately otherwise... Since we're talking about Ryuken – here are the rest of them. Apologies for the bad picture quality of the old one, I didn't get a chance to reshoot them since then.
Those ryukens are lit and I love the way the pattern looks on the HRLs! Also I find it intriguing that your friend also reached the same line of thought that I once did that you only really need 1 SMG ryuken-9... but you may need up to 3 HRL ryuken-9!
Thanks! And yes, at some point my friend decided he wanted to try and play JSA as an all-camo/HD list. So he went all the way up to 3 HRL Ryuken in the process ;) Speaking of hidden deployed models, here's the first of his characters, a Saito Togan converted from the Outrage ninja Nakadai and the old Saito Togan head. Gave him a unique gradient with a red/green contrast:
If there's one thing you can't have enough of in a JSA army, it's bikes. Which is my friend got himself four of them:
Happy new year everyone! Let's kick this year off with the most iconic character of the faction who's never put on a table except as a proxy – Miyamoto Musashi:
More blade wielders that have a hard time justifying their points costs: – the Shikami (I painted a second one, but unfortunately I lost the pictures):
Let's share the big boy now, shall we? Here's the new O-Yoroi, complete with Koalas and the LE stripper uuuh pilot:
That O-Yoroi looks lovely, also reminds me I still need to do my V1 Achilles to O-Yoroi pilot conversion.
To be entirely honest I am amazed by the colour theme, I would have never dared to try something so complex and easy to go wrong at each brushstroke.
Can you go wrong easily though, or can you not go wrong at all? XD Seriously, if you decide to paint all the colors of the rainbow, you basically can't mess up. At least that's what it felt like to me during painting.
I will say that by using oil colors, it actually kinda is. You choose a gradient, mix the tone you want on the palette, and then wet blend it all on the miniature. Afterwards you just have to go back and fill in the details. But I'm afraid I start sounding like a humblebrag, so I'll stop here. Speaking of color theory, however, I'm curious to hear what you think about the colors used on this Dragon Lady's umbrella. It was a last minute choice to add a freehand to the original green-yellow gradient, and I like it, but every time I look at it I'm not sure if it's not too crazy.
