Started assembling the rest of the figures ....

 The slow work of assembling the rest of the units has been started, today got the first or two elite samurai squads done...

One Elite samurai,  six spear samurai  and two mounted samurai units to go ....

Hoorah ! casting of figures completed ....

 A few casting sessions over the weekend and finally I have completed casting all the figures for the 40mm Samurai armies.  This weekend saw completion of casting the mounted samurai and the samurai squads.

Each side will have : 1 command groups with camp curtain, 3 mounted command stands, 1 unit of mounted samurai, 1 elite retainer samurai squad, 3 samurai squads armed with short spears, 3 ashigaru squads armed with long spears, 4  ashigaru squads armed with muskets.

Number of figures for each side is approx 150 figures; A total of 300, most of which are my my own home-cast figures, with Steve Barber figures used for the command stands.  All together this represents approximately 12kg of metal.

Lots of assembly to do - mostly the samurai squads.... need to work out a painting plan ....

Jinmaku - camp curtain...

I got a couple of 3D printed camp curtains one for each army's command group. I removed the front part to suit the 40mm figures, the commander gets a fold-up camp seat as well 😎

The seven something or others

For future games I don't need all the 20 mounted bandits used in the defend the village game. I've decided reduce the number of mounted bandits to seven. For each of these seven I have matched up some foot figures.  Useful for future small scale games.

The horses from the other 13 have been retained to be used for the mounted samurai in the armies I'm building. The riders went back into the melting pot.

Samurai Army Structure...

 I picked up some of the Samurai figure drawings from the Junior General images (for printing as paper soldiers - see https://juniorgeneral.org/index.php/figure/figureList/renaissance#10 ); they've been used to represent each of the groupings I'll be using for my Samurai armies.

Mounted Samurai (probably 16 per side in 4 groups of 4)

Each of the main blocks of Teppo (musket) and Yari (spear) will have their own group command

Then there will be squads for Elite Samurai (1), Samurai Spear Armed (3), Ashigaru Spear (3), and Ashigaru Musket/Archer (4).

The army could look something like this when deployed...

Casting the armies - phase 2...

 After a couple of casting sessions, along with what I already had done for the Samurai squads; I laid everything out on the table and organised them into their squads.

There are about 40 foot Samurai to cast (plus sashimonos); then when I've figured out the mounted figures I'm going to have then they'll be cast up as well.

Defend the Village (6)..The Finale ....

 The lead samurai decides it is time to let all the bandits into the village for the final showdown (numbers are about even on both sides)... they get into position ...

The bandits start their charge ...

Into the village ...

and then the fighting starts ....

then men on both sides start to go down ....

and the fighting continues ....

The bandits lose the edge and start to go down....

The bandit leader is one of the last still fighting ...

but not for long .... the struggle is over ...

the village is safe !

---oXo---

The final score:

7 samurai - ok but one is wounded, 10 villagers dead, 40 bandits dead.

(started with 7 samurai, 20 villagers and 40 bandits).