One of the advantages of Ronin, besides being a killer ruleset for small-scale skirmish gaming, is that it has a low model count. This makes collecting all the Swords-for-Hire or optional Mythological Creatures easy and affordable. Previously, I’ve painted up the Oni, Amanojaku, and Kappa. With the three above (L to R: Kitsune, Jorogumo, and Tengu) I’ve finished the other three types and completed all the creatures for hire in the world of Ronin.

The eye catcher in this set of three is the Jorogumo. In Ronin, this creature can hypnotize, and lead the Bushi, Koryu, Ikko-Ikki or Peasant buntais. Of those four, I only own the Koryu at the moment, so if they ever go bad you know who’s to blame. The model is from a board game called Rising Sun. The game has plastic figurines of various scales, but fortunately for my purposes this model fits in with my 28mm Ronin line.

The smaller two are both metal Reaper models. The bird-like Tengu will fight alongside the Sohei, Ikko-Ikki, Koryu, or Peasant buntais. In folklore, Tengu are usually depicted as either long-nosed, red-faced demons or bird-like creatures. I couldn’t find any of the former to match the look and scale of my Ronin models, but this bird-like Reaper model does the trick. Speaking of tricks, the foxy Kitsune is willing to employ her tricks with any Buntai.

A monster hunting Yamabushi, with Kitsune and Tengu allies, has tracked the Jorogumo back to her lair. But why is she guarded by Bandits and not the Koryu? The answer to that comes in the next post…