Dark Hammer - Undead Samurai

Undead Samurai
Company: Dark Hammer Miniatures
Part #:
Sculptor: Johney
Released: 2013

OK.  Dark Hammer is a brand new company, which again, seems to be more of a boutique outfit than a company making whole lines of miniatures to fill out your armies. This piece, which comes in both 28mm and 54mm scales, is a limited run.  Supposedly, only 100 will be made.  That's a bit of a bummer and I hope that we will see more cast, and more undead designs from Dark Hammer in general.  So why did I immediately buy this piece when I saw it up on Tabletop Gaming News (other than the fact that at a 100 piece limit I thought it wise not to tarry)?

1. It's flippin' epic!  It's just a great sculpt that captures the weary despair of eternal undeath.  See how the samurai sags in the saddle?  The bowed head.  The weary pointing arm. The nagita hanging limply in the other hand. The armor is intricately and beautifully sculpted. The mount a perfect mixture bone and rotting flesh.  The tattered banner attached to the crooked back. Just a winning piece all around.
2. I'm in the middle of putting together an undead medieval samurai force (brigade, but may be able to expand into an army depending on how much Wyrd and Zenit eventually put out). So this piece was a natural fit. The thing I need most is undead samurai cavalry. I have several of the Clan Wars Lost Moto, but not yet enough for a unit. I might be able to fit this guy into that unit but it would be a stretch. They just look too different design wise. But he'd make a good hero, or even a brigade leader. His weary pointing stance pressing on his skeletal compatriots onward toward their objective.

Dark Hammer has some concept art up of a skeletal Egyptian chariot on its web page so hopefully we'll see that soon.

Of course, skeletal Egyptians are as common as dirt.  I myself have an entire army of nothing but skeletal Egyptians.  So, I'd much rather see their talents applied to making more undead samurai.  It seems to be a growing niche.

Two Recent Acquisitions

I just recently snagged two old out of print figures from ebay.  I’m pretty sure I actually have these two figures.  My problem is I don’t have a database of what I have and my memory is fallible.  In some sense, I’m hoping to use this blog as a visual reference for myself.  In the case of these two models, I figure you can never have enough anyway.

First up is a zombie gnoll, from the now defunct Chainmail Miniatures line.

When they had the license for D&D, Chainmail put out a nice series of undead figures that were especially useful to fill out non-human races.  You don’t see many examples of non-human undead, which is a shame, since I believe that the best part about playing the Skeleton Legion is that you get to kill your foe and then make him rise up and fight for you against his former comrades!  Therefore, I’m of the opinion that every model released should have an undead equivalent. If I ever get adept at sculpting, high on my priority list would be a set of skeletal High Elf eagle riders.  One can dream.

In any case Chainmail made some nice undead meta-races like dwarves, orcs, and troglodytes (lizard men.)  I believe this is the only example of an undead gnoll ever produced.  So I can either collect enough to create a full unit (12 figs) or slip them into my Skeletal Chaos Legion as beastmen or weres.

Due to its unique nature, it gets past my “nothing but bone” rule.  As do a number of particular monsters such as dragons or trolls.  But that’s pretty much it. Strictly speaking, this is not actually a zombie gnoll.  It's a construct, specifically, a flesh golem.  Ergo, the four arms and two heads stitched together onto the model.  Of course, it could also be interpreted as an undead creature of chaos.

Chainmail miniatures were multi-part and unfortunately very fiddly.  But I think that can be overcome now that I use green stuff as bonding agent rather than just super-glue.

Next up is a figure from way, WAY back.  A Citadel miniature from before they had slottabases!  And before GW was the marketing steamroller it is today.

This is a skeletal samurai that I will incorporate into my Skeletal Medieval Samurai brigade.  Mostly made up of Clan War/Legend of the Five Rings samurai figs, but also a sprinkling from other companies; Grenadier, Ral Partha, Citadel.  I’m always on the lookout on ebay for that old Grenadier skeletal samurai command blister from the early 80’s (Fantasy Lords #173.)  It is one of the few blisters (maybe even the last) I do not own from Grenadier.  Also, I’m always on the lookout for the “Lost Moto” blister of samurai cavalry for L5R (#13-121.)   I have one blister, but that’s only 2 figs and not enough for a full unit of cav (8.)  Therefore, I am relegated to using them as brigade commanders.  Valiant has begun re-releasing the Clan War figs, but sadly, no Lost Moto yet.