Tag: Ikiryo

Ikiryo – Geisha of Yurei

Hello fiends! As I sit here with the tempestuous skies closing in on Chicago, and the tumultuous rumblings of thunder, what better to get into the spirit than to post up my newly completed Ikiryo, one of the miniatures from the Cult of Yurei starter set for Bushido?

I have to say, that I’m really excited about the prospect of getting a painted warband for Bushido. Each of these miniatures has a lot of personality, and I’ll confess that more than once while I was painting Ikiryo, I wondered what her story was. On a whim, this was what popped in my head:

“Many nights she wonders alone with her thoughts, lamenting the day she gave herself to the Cult of Yurei. With each passing Autumn she loses a little more of what humanity she had left. Ikiryo serves a different master now.”

Now while the Bushido rule book is rich with background of the Jwar Isles, and of the different factions overall stories, there’s no actual details of the individual characters. I suppose this is a good and a bad thing, good if you want to create your own narrative for the characters, bad if you don’t, and would be happy using the supplied ‘fluff’. Your mileage may vary.

All that aside, I agonized for a while on what colors to use. I decided to keep the palette limited, with two main colors – jade and another whose name escapes me right now, but a very complimentary pink color.

Autumnal leaves succumb to frost…

I did toy with the idea of putting a pattern on her kimono, but decided against it, and opted for simplicity, and just going for a design on her parasol instead. I made her face slightly paler than the rest of her skin, as a sort of ‘it could be makeup or could be a mask’ feel, emphasizing the facial wounds and stitches. I painted the eyes completely over with a pale blue, and highlights white to give that supernatural feel to her.

I love that the miniature and the posing is so demure, but looking at her face you know that she is quite possibly terrifying to be up against on the field.

A few moments of tomfoolery on my phone and I added some fog for atmosphere:

Within the fog she waits…

Completing Ikiryo also knocked another dent in my D20 painting table. I also painted up a Deep Wars figured as well from the table, but haven’t had chance to get any pictures yet. Stay tuned, and thanks, as always, for reading!

 

Terraforming – Bushido style

I was in Chinatown over the weekend with the family, and I picked up a handful of the little red Buddha figurines, thinking that they may work quite well as objectives or just straight up scenery for Bushido.

A mere $6 later and i’d picked up these little fellas. I washed them in warm soapy water and then based them up with some cork and MDF bases I had kicking around:

After the glue had dried, I textured the base with some modelling pumice and left overnight to dry (I prefer using this than the PVA/sand option, as I feel this has more resilience).

A quick blast with some grey car primer and a wash with some Agrax Earthshade, then random washes of the GW green wash (forgot the name!) and we’re on the way:

I used a splash of green to simulate the weathering and discoloration of stone through being left out in the elements. I didn’t want to get too crazy with the paint job on these, just something quick and easy. I grabbed a couple of different shades of grey and drybrushed the little fella, followed up with a last light drybrush of white.

After painting the soil and drybrushing that up too, I hit the base up with some static grass and added some flowers, and voila! a quick piece of terrain to dress my Bushido board. I’ve put my Cult of Yurei Ikiryo figure next to it for size comparison. I didn’t want a huge statue, just something that could be like a roadside shrine or something.

I can’t wait to get the Bushido board finished!

Cheers!