Wars of the Samurai: Ikkō-Ikki

I'm back with another resurrected Warhammer Ancient Battles project.  Originally abandoned when Warhammer Historical dissolved and the Divine Wind supplement was cancelled, I completed some of the figures about 13 years ago for Osprey's Ronin game. But the majority have sat unpainted in the pile of shame at the bottom of the hobby closet. With Warlord Games releasing their Wars of the Samurai supplement for Pike and Shotte, I figured it was time to get this project out of mothballs.

As no other players around here are into Samurai, I'm going to build two smaller forces:  the Ikkō-Ikki Buddhist rebels and forces loyal to Oda Nobunaga in the late 16th Century.

First up are the sohei monks.  I painted these a while back, but basing materials have improved since I last worked on them, so I've refurbished them to a more modern standard, similar to my old Hail Caesar armies found elsewhere on the blog.

The figures are Old Glory and The Assault Group (TAG), with a Perry miniature thrown in as well. There were no sohei bannermen available at the time, so I tried to create one from an Old Glory samurai using greenstuff.

I had a few of the peasant figures painted back in the day, but the majority came from the unpainted lead pile.  These are a mix of Old Glory peasant infantry, TAG peasants and followers, Perry's dedicated Ikko-Ikki, and a few wako pirates from the old Cavalcade line.  The sculpting styles vary widely between the lines. The TAG are thick and a bit characterized, the Perry are thinner with realistic faces, and the Old Glory are somewhere in between the two in size and style. The Cavalcade are the smallest and weakest of the sculpts  and my least favorite out of the mix. If I were to start over today, I'd likley go a different route, but at the time TAG and Cavalcade were available at the local shop and I was able to get the budget friendly Old Gory figures at a convention flea market for pennies on the dollar. 

These eight stands will form the backbone of the force, but I am looking to supplement them with some teppo (matchlock) and yumi (bow) ranged units and samurai from the allied Mōri clan.