28mm Yakuza

The Yakuza are the third faction for my Miami Vice game.  When deciding what other factions to use in the game, I originally planned to use several that I already had painted such as bikers and the mafia.  I happened upon the Yakuza by accident in May 2023 when I was ordering some paint and really liked the look of them.  The 1980s was full of stories about Japan business overtaking the US, so I thought they would fit in well thematically and also provide a distinct group that would be easy to identify on the table.  After thinking about it for a day or two, I ordered them from a seller on eBay.  They are packaged as a 7-miniature set from North Star's A Fistful of Kung Fu range.

For the skin I used a basecoat of Howard Hues Oriental Flesh, a coat of GW Contrast Gulliman Flesh, then highlights with the original Oriental Flesh.  Five of them are dressed all in black and white, so I used contrast black and white to do a quick job on them.  I like the facial expressions and the slightly different clothing each is wearing.  As a nice touch, one has a missing little finger joint, which is a traditional Yakuza punishment.

The boss on the left with a sword and his ex-sumo wrestler henchman on the right.  I wanted to do a tattoo on his chest but many of the examples I found on Google were fairly elaborate for painting freehand.  I searched through my stash of decals and found some 15mm Norman shields by LBMS that were leftover from a project at least 10 years ago.  Several had dragons, with a hole for the shield boss, which allowed me to cut them up into 4 sections: head, body, wings, and claws.  Cutting them up was necessary to fit the available space.  I mixed parts of 2 different decals, applied them, then painted in a longer neck to connect them.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Three rank-and-file Yakuza who are very well-armed.

Two junior Yakuza.  The one on the left has an arm tattoo and brass knuckles.  With so much skinh showing I thought it needed something, but was wary of too complicated a pattern.  I modeled it after the fish-scale tattoos that I found on Google.

Ready to take over Miami!  They are fewer in numbers but heavily armed.

28mm Miami Vice

If you are going to run a Miami Vice-based scenario, you have to include the good guys.  The Miami Vice Squad consists of 11 miniatures.  Nine are from Brigade Games Drug War Z range, while two are by Studio Miniatures (now available from Hayland Terrain).  I have all the Brigade police models except for one which I overlooked during my original purchase.  If they need backup, I have several police from Crooked Dice in and out of uniform.

As I noted in my previous post on the Colombian Cartel, I painted these models in order to use them in a game I am running at Historicon 2023.  I will be using the 7TV rules, which are perfect for this sort of scenario.  I painted them in spring 2023.  Research consisted of watching the entire first and second seasons of Miami Vice on dvd, courtesy of my local library.  I haven't watched the show since it was first on in the 80s, and I thought it held up fairly well.  It also adjusted my usual color palette towards the brighter end of the spectrum.  I primarily used bright colors from an old Citadel paint set, Vallejo, and GW Contrast paints.  

The detectives are all in plain clothes, and like the Cartel models, are very well sculpted.  They had minimal flash, painted up well, and were fun to paint .  Most are armed with pistols so they will be outgunned by their criminal opponents.  Just to get you into the mood: Miami Vice theme

The stars of the show (l-r): Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs (with his favorite sawn-off shotgun).  I admit that I didn't try and paint Crockett's trademark stubble because I couldn't find a technique I liked and thought would look right.  These are the versions from Studio Miniatures/Hayland Terrain.  

Lieutenant Castillo, played by a young Edward James Olmos.  A good representation of the actor.  He joined the show partway through the first season after the original lieutenant was killed.

An array of undercover detectives.

Two DEA agents.  Various DEA agents appear in episodes throughout the series.

The Brigade Games versions of Crockett and Tubbs.

The entire department ready to arrest evildoers.

The Citadel paint set that provided many of the colors used in this project. They worked well.