Pond Wars Frogs and Samurai Rabbits

Eureka Miniatures makes a lovely Pond Wars range, consisting of anthropomorphised frogs, terrapins and samurai rabbits (the full range can be found here: http://www.eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_126_191&sort=3a).

I bought some of these miniatures years ago (since 2005 I think!), they were for a short-lived Mordheim campaign (I remember playing 1-2 games with them unpainted). They lay in the lead pile unloved, until I realised I could use them for Tribal (that would be probably have a Samurai expansion in the near future) and games like Ronin which catered for small-scale Samurai skirmish wargaming.

The range is sculpted by Kosta Heristanidis, who was inspired by Japanese Chōjū-giga (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dj%C5%AB-jinbutsu-giga), which has plenty of examples online (search for "Japanese art frogs", etc).

I bought a few extra bits before Christmas and spent the last two or so weeks painting them up to match the artistic style in preparation for a game of Tribal with Ara. Colours I used were Vallejo Germ. Cam. Beige (70.821) with White (70.951) for the bellies, and US Dark Green (70.893) with German Cam. Dark Green (70.979) patches for the backs and legs. They were not easy to paint, with plenty of large smooth surfaces and large eyes - but I'm pretty happy with the results. I also managed to paint an aquarium Torii and a John Jenkins Designs stone lantern.

Here's some pre-game photos (the Samurai rabbits are painted to represent my two dogs, with the Sashimono symbols matching their collars):

Their first outing was against Ara's Perry Miniatures' samurai in a game of Tribal. We played the 'Revenge' scenario from the main rulebook. I would be tasked with defeating Ara's yari-armed samurai. We also tested some cavalry rules, so it would be interesting how these would influence the game.

Some photos of the chilled Sunday session game:

I did manage (after an earlier, failed attempt) to take out the samurai:

I ended the game by once again sniping away (at point blank range!) to stop Ara's Chief from overrunning my tanegashima (matchlock)-armed Warriors by always winning initiative and shooting first (asking questions later). 16-8 Honour, good times.

I love these Pond Wars miniatures, they are just so damn cute. I just don't know why I took so long to paint them.