[Log] Yashima: Legend of the Kami Masters - Overview

Yashima: Legend of the Kami Masters, made by Green Brier Games, is a card-based board game with an east Asian fantasy theme. To be honest, I decided to purchase this product for the miniatures, thinking that they would fit well with my other miniature collection of 25-35 mm scale. Not only could I use them in the Yashima game, but also for role playing and skirmish games. Unfortunately, these miniatures are a lot larger than the miniatures in my collection. On Green Brier Games website, the Yashima products were tagged as being 30 mm in size. The bases are indeed 30 mm wide; however, the miniatures are approximately 10 mm larger than those in my collection (50 mm from bottom of base to top of head). So these miniatures won't be used outside of the game for me! My own mistake for not researching on the miniatures more carefully. Reading through the rules and looking at the cards, it looks to be a game that me and my family would enjoy. So here is the start of a log for the models in this game.

8 masters from the core game and first two expansions (Deep Woods and Icy Peaks).

Model List

In total, I have 12 models to paint for this game:

• Legend of the Kami Masters Core Game - 
• Akiko - fire ninja theme
• Hikaru - priestess theme
• Rosamu - monk theme
• Kenta - mercenary samurai theme
• Legend of the Deep Woods Expansion - 
• Toru - druid hermit theme
• Dokubaba - poison hag theme
• Legend of the Icy Peaks Expansion -
• Mitsuo - blind beggar theme
• Saru - Mitsuo's monkey companion
• Yuki - ice maiden theme
• Legends from Fairytale Expnasion - crossover from the company's other miniature products
• Hua Mulan
• Lu Bu
• Miyamoto Musashi

There has been hints of a desert theme expansion in the Legends of Fairytale expansion rulebook. Green Brier customer service replied to an inquiry I made about it, indicating that their current plans is to have another kickstater for Yashima in late 2017 or early 2018 (dependent on their progress with other projects).

Quality of the Miniatures

I am somewhat disappointed with the quality of these miniatures. They are not bad, I just expected them to be of higher quality/uniformity based on what I saw on the web. I will take it as a lesson learned: I should not base purchases solely on renders. I do like Mitsuo and Toru's models. In my eyes those are fairly good overall with Yuki not too far behind.

Mold lines are expected, but huge chunks of flash  were present on some of these models. Yuki's front leg I had to cut, Dokubaba's neck compared to resin and renders appear to have a chunk of plastic that if I had not seen the original images, it actually looks like it belong there. I cut/filed a portion of the neck such that it resembles the render/resin version,

Some of the models also have lack of detail or very feint details that it is possible to lose when painting. The fire on one of Akiko's shoulder pads was completely smooth on the back side. I will likely try to model the flames on that one.

As for the matter of uniformity, there is quite a bit of discrepancy between the markings on the bases of the 11 masters which is used to help identify the facing of the model on the board. I think the default should be 4 markings to show where is the front, back, and the 2 sides of the models with the front marker being taller than the markings on the other sides of the bases. Of the 11 masters, only 3 of them appear to have that pattern.

Yuki's base have the same front marking as seen in the renders, but has no marking on the back side of the base,

Rosamu's front marking appears to be similar in size to the markings on the side and back of the bases.

Hikaru's base have no markings at all. In the Legends of Fairytale expansion, all three models have no markings either. I assume that is due to those miniatures were made for another game/model line.

For now, all I am doing is preparing and cleaing up the miniatures before I paint. I am still deciding whether I should putty in the markings or just cut off the plastic markings and paint a marking instead. Paint scheme for these miniatures will follow the color scheme of the illustrations.

Next Log Entry - [Log] Yashima: Legend of the Kami Masters - Part 2