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So hey, I've known you guys for years. Kinda dropped off when we had kids, but I think everyone here is pretty level headed and only a handful know me IRL. This is rambling, and long. The whole mess is this. I am obsessed with Japan. Literally obsessed. I had a wonderful two week trip with my wife there. Before that I spent a few months learning Japanese so that reading the signs, knowing kinda the gist of what people were saying, etc, was somewhat possible. My interest actually started around back when I was teen, around bonsai and arts and craft, and the influence Japanese design had on it. The language is brutal. I want to know more. The culture is fascinating. The food in general delicious. The food? Eatting it, cooking, drinking green tea and matcha saved my guts. I shed 20 lbs, kept it off, my digestion improved. My IBS improved, my sibo went away. The wife had a blast, and she's like "You know, if an American firm gave you enough money to work there, I would be for it". She's in love with the quilt books and fabric stores. A Japanese bookstores is like US bookstores in their heyday. They're stocked and wonderful. The craft stores have everything you could need. Our only concern would be navigating the possibly brutal Japanese education system, or finding a expensive foreign school for our kids. So here I am making good money as a software dev. But I'm kinda of tired, doing basically glorious rest apis to backend datastores. I tried my hand at a Japanese joint for carpentry and didn't 100% flub it up. And it was enjoyable. I helped my parents prune some trees, chop up wood, and the immediacy of the feedback was refreshing. I told them "Man, I hate mowing but I could do this all day". And when I learned of temple carpentry and saw what they did, it stirred something deep inside. Like maybe I missed my calling, but it just could be my late midlife crisis. My parents are loving, and good. But sometimes I feel I am needled more for my interests than my sister. I don't need to have jokes, no matter how good natured, made about every project I want to do. Like yes, I am weird, and odd, and I have been for 40 years, I don't need to hear it again. You all enjoy my cooking, so kinda cut me some slack when I want to build a hibachi or irori, and try my hand at some really old school robotayaki/yakitori. No one looks at you too weird if you're a fan of french cuisine and buy french wine and cheese, and maybe visited Paris. But start talking about buying your own block of dried aged smoked bonito, and a proper plane to shave it with, and they look at you funny. It's been ten months since the trip. I still have dreams about it. I think the covid isolation is making it worse. Because of the commute, and now covid, I really don't have anyone to talk to. There is a Japanese Culture center just up the road, with the local university, and a Japanese Language group. But basically, its entire focus is around their yearly anime convention. So I don't have any cooking/culture outlet there. Why not call it an anime club? Don't be misleading. The Culture center doesn't seem to have many programs beyond being festooned with a garden and supporting the Japanese language program. Oh well, they do offer language classes, and since we will be working from home for the foreseeable future, maybe I should sign up. I don't know what I am looking for. Just venting more than anything. I keep saying I don't want to feel bad for enjoying the things I like, but I still do. Why does everything need a comment? "Oh, you could go into special FX" said during the last dot bomb by my mom. "Well, I had an interest in that kind of stuff, but you didn't like me drawing monsters, or telling me what I liked wasn't true art." I know some of it she probably got from her dad about her interests, but sheesh.

For my Nippon Land of the Rising Moon Project. WIP Here: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/79416-nippon-land-of-the-rising-moon-by-glitterwolf/&page=2 @Jasper_the_2nd send me a bunch of Clan Wars minis for my project at a bargain. Here is the first one. The metal on the blade looks better in real life than on the pics, it is not that harsh at the 28mm scale... Anyway, first one of the Undead Toda Army is done. Hope you people like it. Likes, Comments and Bacon are welcome!

In just a few hours, I'll be flying out to meet up with my mother, and then come Sunday morning, we'll be spending 18 days in Japan! Ergo, my presence on the board will be sparse, and I'm missing ReaperCon. With the travel group, we'll be going to Tokyo, and then go south. With stops at Mt.Fuji, Nagano, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Kobe, Hiroshima, and several other places. I plane on bringing back oodles of uniquely Japanese souvenirs. I'm particularly curious about their 200 flavors of Kit Kat bars. If I can find myself a nice nakiri vegetable knife, I'll be happy.

Was asked to paint this up for a friend who loves Japanese stuff and is planning on running a game based around Asian stuff. Not sure of the company, they just handed me the mini. The base I had was a teeny bit smaller then the actual mini. So I moved the limbs a bit to make it look like it is creeping off the base. Actually really like the effect. Kind of wish it was my mini to keep.

In order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of animation in Japan the National Film Center has opened a site that will let you view some of the really old animation from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Some are old enough to be completely silent while others do have sound. In either case, all of the one's I've taken a look at have the option to toggle English subtitles so you can read along. If you don't read Japanese I recommend using Chrome and activating the page translation feature to navigate. http://animation.filmarchives.jp/index.html Enjoy reliving the golden era of animation.

WWII was a major conflict and as such there are many model kits and miniatures out there. However it has always struck me as odd that there are so few Japanese forces made. Sure, there are some airplane kits, and some Chi-Ha tanks and a few infantry kits. But is like they were a minor force if we compare it to the abundance of German, Russian and Allied troops. I mean you can buy models from a lot of regular trucks, half tracks and such, but the Japanese only get a Tank or two? Maybe I've been looking at the wrong places. And I must admit I haven't been following new releases for WWII kits. But lately I got a little interest again. So I'm curious, I prefer 28mm metal miniatures for this, what is out there depicting Japanese WWII forces? Preferably vehicles. Anyone know of a few nice metal kits?

Part of the Stonehaven Half-Orc Kickstarter were these lovely Tengu, or Japanese bird-goblins. I am in a game with many bird people, including a PC, so there's a real use for these. There's a little mystic, dwarf-sized, and two warriors, a male and a female, more human sized. They have a lot of gorgeous detail. At this point I've prepped them, removed flash, glued them to bases, primed white, and washed them, first with straight Burnt Umber, then with a bright deep purple mixed from Phthalo Green and Quinacridone Magenta. The purple isn't quite dry in a few places (like under their feet) and looks shinier and more opaque than it actually is. I next used a technique of mixing in warm yellow-white highlights to a very wet wash of purple shadow color to produce a monochrome toned effect. The highlight color is a sort of opaque warm pale cream-banana yellow-white out of Yellow Oxide (= Mars Yellow = Yellow Ochre = Yellow Iron Oxide = Reaper's "Palomino Gold") and Titanium White, not thinned down at all. As I said on the Half-Orc thread, you have to work fast to do this in acrylics. The highlight / blending brush needs to be cleaned frequently. It's really more of an oil technique. But if you can manage it, you can get really nicely blended colors. The thing that makes it work is to use a totally transparent shadow color and a reasonably opaque highlight color which are different, possibly even opposite colors. Also, keep it light and fast. At the moment, using a bright purple and a creamy yellow, they are basically grisaille (I haven't done the mystic yet).

The private moment of a squatting dog captured for eternity in a colorful figurine made of Sofubi in Japan https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1887824999/squatting-dog?ref=nav_search