Japanese SNLF Force

Slightly different post to my usual today, this time I'm talking about putting a small army together and a quick review of Warlords 28mm Japanese SNLF boxed set.

Way back in April I had just completed a large Bolt Action US Marines commission for a client as well as some of Warlord Games plastic Japanese. At the time I was struck by the vast amounts of character in both sets, and I'd enjoyed painting both so much that I resolved to one day collect a force of both. With these thoughts lurking in the back of my mind I made the annual pilgrimage up the road to Salute 2014 and as part of the rucksack full off goodies I picked up I grabbed a box of SNLF from the guys at the Warlord stand.Over the following months I've slowly added more bits to the army, until the point where I could field a sizable Japanese Army and Navy platoons.

Between my bro Jay building some jungle terrain for us to play on at the pub, and my painting him a Chindit force I decided it was time for my Japanese to get some love. I'd initialyl decided to start off painting some of Warlords metal Japanese army figures, however when I sat down to work on them they were nowhere to be seen, so out came the SNLF force. I worked out a probably very uncompetitive 500 point force on Bolt Action Easy army and starting work.


The SNLF set from Warlord is mostly plastic, however also includes alternative heads in Pith Helmets, a couple of extra metal figures, a good size sheet of flags and bases for everyone. The plastic included is the standard Japanese army plastic boxed set, and includes 32 figures.

What impressed me was how the figures were full of character and had great natural looking poses, without being a struggle to assemble. I was doubly impressed that the faces weren't offensive caricatures too!

To paint them I used a limited colour palette of Russian Uniform for the clothing, Brown Sand for the skin tones, Flat Earth for all the leather work, Middle Stone for helmets, gaiters and canvas webbing, and a flat earth, orange leather mix for the rifles. I shaded the models using Army Painter Strong and Soft Tone inks, and then layered on highlights using increasing amounts of white mixed into the base colour.









Basing plants are chopped up palm trees I found a Chinese seller on Ebay, and cost a few pounds for a big sack full!

PS I did find the missing metal models once it hit 02:30 and I'd glued the last figure together. They were in a box next to my chair...


As ever more of my work can be found at Volley Fire painting

More of Warlords great gubbins can be found here http://www.warlordgames.com/