It's official...

... well it basically is official since last November as that's when I registered Tsuba Miniatures as a Kleingewerbe (small business) with the local autorities. But no company is official as long as it hasn't got it's own logo! (At least to me. ;-))

The Tsuba Miniatures logo was done by a young artist named William Kirby, who is also known as Chamonkee. You may have come across his work in Irregular Magazine, that's what I did, especially his 'Tuk Tuk' story and drawings are awesome. You can see more of his work at his web journal or even get a printed copy of 'Tuk Tuk' at his web store.

But back to the logo. Here's the centrepiece, an ornated Tsuba (Japanese sword guard). It's a stylised version Will did after a crude sketch of yours truly not based on any specific historical piece.

Will also did two versions of a possible final logo using this Tsuba, one again based on a sketch of mine and the other one is purely his idea. After having seen them both I'm a little bit torn, which one to use, tbh.

Version 1:

 

 Version 1 (variant):

Version 2:

 

Miniature-wise, I got a message from Stewart Griffin, stating that the castings of the Russian Command set should be despatch early next week, if everything goes well. So I hope to receive them soon and be able to show you some photos here.

Both HMGs should also be done by now (the guns themselve) and Paul has already scheduled the sculpting of the crews for mid/late July.

Russian Comparison photos

Here's a comparison photo of Tsuba Miniatures Russians (and also some Japanese) with a Musketeer Miniatures WWI Scot to show how they scale up with Paul's other work. (No Musketeer Miniatures WWI Russians, I'm afraid, still waiting for a delivery of those.)

Even more interesting, I assume, for most people are the comparions with Marc Copplestone's 'Back of Beyond'-Russians. (The Copplestone Castings' Russians are from the 'BU41 Russian Partisans' set, if I'm not mistaken.)

Comparison Japanese <-> Russians

As announced, here are two comparison photos to show the height difference between the Japanese and Russian miniatures:

(What one has to bear in mind is that the Russian miniatures, so far, depict soldiers from the western, i.e. European, part of the Russian Empire.)

New Castings!

I'm sorry again for the lack of posting! (University and my job are demanding quite a lot of time, not to forget my girlfriend... Hey Beaky!)

Fortunatelly, Stewart Griffin and his team haven't been idle either and I've therefore received the castings of the greens shown last time.

Here they are with nothing but a quick ink job to show of the details better (apologies for the bad photos :-/ ):

 

RJ-J01 Japanese officers & NCOs

RJ-J05 Japanese troopers firing I

RJ-J06 Japanese troopers firing II (with gassai-bukuro)

 

RJ-J07 Japanese casualties and medical orderlies

 RJ-R02 Russian troopers advancing

 

 RJ-R03 Russian troopers firing

Here's also a photo mock-up of the Japanese 'command upgrade' set available for those, who have already bought the original command set before the reorganisation of the moulds:

Paul has also been busy and is currently working on the Russian officers and NCOs, one of each to accompany the advancing and firing troopers respectively.

Important note for those thinking about ordering: To ease the handling and not to put those on a disadvantage who would like a different ratio between their troopers and command miniatures, the 'unit set'-deal is no terminated. It is replaced by a '5-4-less' resp. 'five for less'-deal. This means you can pick just any five sets priced 7.50 Euros (that includes all the current sets) and get them for 35.- instead of 37.50 Euros.

I'll post two comparison photos with Russian and Japanese troopers as a seperate post shortly, to keep it easier to navigate through the blog.

 As always, any comments (good or bad) are welcome!

The first Russian greens

As every army needs an opponent, here are the preview photos of the first two Russian sets:

 

RJ-R02 Russian Troopers advancing I

 

 RJ-R03 Russian Troopers firing/loading I

As you can see, these are rather well equiped soldiers. In contrast to the Japanese the Russians used to have their bayonets fixed permanently to the rifles, therefore they also didn't carry scabbards.

Although I've been struggling at first to do the Russians at all, I'm very pleased with how these have turned out and my compliments to Paul for his great work! (I hope this doesn't sound snotty. ;-))

As to the question what will be next, well, if everything goes as planned we'll see a HMG with crew for both the Japanese and the Russians and also a command set to go along the Russian troopers later this year. (Maybe even more variants of the Russian troopers, but that's not definite, yet.) 

More Japanese Command Greens

Happy Eastern to everybody!

In addition to the last trooper greens, there are also some more command miniatures for the Japanese in the pipeline:

Here we have (from left to right): medical orderly attending wounded, wounded trooper, senior NCO (the arm looks a little bit long/odd due to the photo angle) and a junior officer (who got a little 'face lift' after the photo was taken, so he doesn't look like a twin of the first officer).

There have been some enquiries for officers and NCOs without the medic and casualty miniatures from the set RJ-J01, so we have decided to ask Griffin Moulds to rearrange the production moulds. This means that the original set RJ-J01 Japanese Command, charging will be retired and replaced by two new sets, one Officers and NCOs will contain the officer and NCO from RJ-J01 and the two new versions shown in the photo above, and one set Medics and Casualties will accordingly contain the new and 'old' medical orderlies and the two wounded/casualty miniatures.

Those of you who have already bought the original  RJ-J01 Japanese Command, charging set will, of course, be able to get only the new miniatures, i.e. the four shown on the above photo for the regular set price of € 7.50 for four miniatures. Please note, that this is limited to those who have already purchased set RJ-J01 only.

PS: Photos of the first eight Russian miniatures are due to follow soon!

Firing/Loading Japanese Troopers Greens

Finally, what we've all been waiting for... ;-)

Paul has been really busy lately as one can see from all his works that have been released recently from various companies including his own, Mutton Chop. 

Among his latest works are also two sets of Japanese troopers in firing/loading pose for Tsuba Miniatures! One set is made up of soldiers carrying bedrolls and gassai-bukuros to fit in with the advancing troopers (set RJ-J04) while their comrades in the second set are lighter equipped without these pieces of kit for greater variety.

So, it's up to you to either mix and match or use your prefered version.

 

RJ-J05 Japanese Troopers firing/loading I (with bedrolls & gassai-bukuro)

 

   

 RJ-J06 Japanese Troopers firing/loading II

Again, a very splendid job! 

PS: I hope to be able to post more regularly after a short break over the Easter holidays.