The Emerald Court Under Heaven

After quite a bit of back and forth with Jovey, the concept of the dokkaebi dancer is getting well fleshed out. I’m quite glad to have found his work on Myminifactory and do work to bring this project to life. There is work being done still but this progress is good to share and show the project hasn’t been abandoned.

I’ve come to an epiphany. Instead of the dokkaebi power lifting a structure she will be in costume to perform geum mu (검무) a traditional Korean sword dance, while standing before a hongsalmun. It keeps me from having to break the bank on character design, keeps the cultural motif and allows me to get back into working on the idea of building the army. I can utilize the model for the seowon as special terrain and not have to worry about the incorporation of the sam go mu performers other than for scale as the drums were already designed. I’ll likely just get them sculpted and have them put inside the seowon.

This is really a relief after thinking I was potentially going to be selling a kidney in order to afford the cost of my creativity.

The history behind the geum mu is quite a good read and I believe it to be highly relevant to the aim of the army build. More thinking is in order and another message to Mr. Jovey as other ventures seem to have failed miserably. In the meantime I offer videos to show where my inspiration initially comes from.

In being subscribed to a service of academic papers I’ve come across an Indonesian work on the character of Ahri from League of Legends¹ and the importance of Korean culture in the creation and design of hee. Despite being short it was pretty convoluted in trying to get to the point of saying “the character designers took the native culture to mind when doing the work and modified as possible for game mechanics/playable intent”. It was published in English and was still mostly comprehensible with only minor issues with language.

The take away seems to be that academics are giving credit to people researching culture for their work. It feels good to get some vindication for my efforts in this regard in the field of tabletop wargaming miniatures.

I might have to bother some videogame character designers since my own effort to reach out to Korean artists is meeting with no success. Considering that videogames have a bigger appeal it seems a better idea. Thebworld of 1s and 0s might once more help me to make physical media, this time to atleast get the idea sketched out.

¹Korean Myth and Folklore On Game Character Design, I. F. Toha and Y. A.  Ekawardhani, International Conference on Business Economics, Social Sciences & Humanities, 2020

Getting the bulgasari (불가사리) and the inmyeonjo (인면조) has been a relief for the progress of the project. No worry as to if/when the things that would be amazing in person physically would be in hand.

The fierce bulgasari is known for its invulnerability and penchant for eating iron.  While the model stands not too much taller than any of the Perry Koryo swordsmen I believe it will be good for a smaller behemoth or a bipedal beast. I might need to tone down the size of monsters in order to get more of them done.

The very delicate inmyeonjo represents the union of heaven and earth with amazing detail that showed up splendidly in the print.

The Sirayatech resin (no clue, a friend at the FLGS printed using it) was great as it allowed for flex and only snapped the smallest of corkscrew ribbons on the side while dry fitting one of the tails. There were minimal artifacts/pitting with the removal of supports when using the hot water method on the resin. As a Scourge it will be eye-catching and, like a previous oversize ape, another jaunt into painting large areas of white.

Korean Eunggo Drum 응고

I have the drum model needed for my centerpiece. The process of cooperation with other creative people has paid off and even a bit of recognition foŕ the joint insanity. I’d only make the drums slightly thinner in order to fit better but it is awesome to have something to share with another modeler in trying to give birth to this brain baby (to loosely quote Badger King Ben from the Arabian Knights project).

The women to play samgomu (삼고무) have their instruments and I can roughly imagine a footprint of 175x100mm at minimum required on the platform. I’d need to consult with the next sculptor to figure out what could be done with the rest of the pavillion to assemble the model. The dokkaebi might end up being more of a maquette at about 1:6-1:8 scale like anime figures given this work so far. She’d be a true giantess.

The existence of a formal hanbok association has made me consider how deep a rabbit hole I’ve gone down as I design this centerpiece.

Going deeper, as really one should with this level of insanity, I consider the design motif to be used on the hanbok. Seeing the very formal attire of what could be worn I think that throwing on some freehand would be visually interesting but I’ve learned what that can do to my mood. I know from the djinni that very detailed work can be done with waterslide transfers which would save me the pain of having to paint all the detail. I believe that one less hurdle might well do some good so I’ll try and plan it that way.

Here I have more visual input for use on the chima (치마), skirt, as I have found there are traditional folk paintings of a naïve style called minhwa (민화).

There are many motifs which include the following that have more symbolism than I can delve into for the moment. I will jump onto what looks good for my purposes and run with it.

• Hojakdo / 호작도 (Painting of Tiger, Magpie, and Pine Tree)
• Yongsudo / 영수도 (Painting of Divine Animals)
• Chochungdo / 초충도 (Painting of Flowers and Insects)
• Hwajodo / 화조도 (Painting of Flowers and Birds)

To throw a little bit extra on the idea I grabbed a few other images that seemed like they might fit on the final figure.

Being a niche hobby and going about for even more niche items snags were bound to happen.

Requiring 3D file for the specific set of Korean drums is the present issue but I have found images some on which the ladies playing samgo mu. The fact that somebody had designed assets on ArtStation was a great boon but the downside is that the creator left no contact info for using the 3D files. As such, I have once again reached out to the previously mentioned Jovey for some custom work in this regard. Hooray for being able to peruse random corners of the digital globe for far away stuff.

On second thought to my earlier thought of making smaller dokkaebi all over the larger one, I believe it too much of a problem and leave this as a singular model element. The last time I had 3D work done it was complicated enough and I think it’d be better for the turnaround time from project initiation.

Norigae pendants (노리개) are worn with a women’s hanbok tied to the outer goreum (a coat string) or the waist of a skirt.

Now from the top I’ve reached the bottom. That means the legs and feet are due for consideration. Some shoes and leggings are under scrutiny now that the rest has been hashed out for visual interest. The pose of the figure and stability requires that these be flat soles. I have no faith in the process of printing and having to deal with high heels/platforms.

I have a quandary as to how to deal with the hanbok of the figure. The first part of the problem to solve is the collar/midriff and how far it would come down. I wish to keep an air of a being wild with only a hint of lewdness about the dokkaebi.

The opposite side of the equation comes into how high the skirt should come up. There can be tasteful compromise and I just need to gauge the maturity of what I wish to have made.

In figuring out the hair and how the hat will settle I’ve learned about ga chae (가채) wigs which were as fashionable as those worn in Europe by the well to do in the times of the long long ago.

I’m unfortunately becoming well versed in the dress of ladies from period K-dramas. I guess I can think of this as the balance to watching all the Japanese jidaigeki (“period” dramas) set in the Edo era.

I have come full on to hammering out a character fashion design for the giant dokkaebi and explore the many layers of a lady. I might not have a presence in the world of haute couture but I will amaze the eyes of anyone looking at this. I’m also giving up on the mini figures with how complicated this idea has become.

There is now inspiration for the outfit of the large female dokkaebi in the selection of appropriate hanbok (한복), traditional Korean attire, with a jeonmu (전무), a style of paper hat women wore on outings, that will cement any question as to where the army comes from.

The hat is going to be solid visual element as part of the figure. The major issues here are dealing with the figure’s horns and how the hair fits under it.

Going from the matsuri idea of an actual gate made me consider the overall size of the platform carried by the dokkaebi.

With some digging into imagery and Wikipedia I found hyanggyo (향교) , government-run provincial schools, and seowon (서원), private prepatory schools that also acted as Confucian shrines, which were chronologically appropriate and scale better for my mental build.

Understanding the weight of resin, and considering the general material fragility, I begrudgingly give Lloyd a nod on scale as I think more on this engineering problem.

Inspired by the torii gate of Japan, I dug a bit more and found the hongsalmun (홍살문) of Korean Confuciunism which are gates believed to be entrances into a sacred place. Adding one of these would give more support to the underside of the “mobile” pavillion while having the least footprint for the model.

Engineering a dream with the mists of the mind is easier said than done sometimes.

Knowing that the project system has issues with lengthy posts means getting chunks of idea down for future reference that has proven to be a good plan in avoiding mishap.

Addressing the platform started with images of traditional Japanese festival (matsuri) floats. As large ornate wooden constructs hauled on wheels by men on foot they are perfect to imagine scale for the drumming women I planned to have on the platform. The smaller dokkaebi came to mind again with the outfits of the line bearers, ferriers, draft humans(?) but would need different hats.

So as to make it easy to paint as a  subassembly and see more things on the completed work the structure would need to be open for the drummers. Keeping with the Korean theme I dug into imagery for historic architecture of various temples. I also considered about how much of a pain it would be to have someone scratchbuild for 3D printing. It would be painfully pricy for the cost of work done by whoever I ended up hiring to digitally weld all this insanity together.

I lucked out to find the files for a traditional Korean pavillion at a single digit price which helped me worry less about bankruptcy.

I started onto how the pavillions were painted and think I have made “a big boo-boo”.

I have been called a mad lad before in past review of my work, and presently I don’t think that’s an inappropriate description for this portion of the project.

It is the greatest capacity of the imagination which is the greatest blessing and the worst of curses while remaining the most awesome and wondrous of things.

As lightning from the sky, inspiration has struck to give the developing Koryo army new possibilities for a centerpiece to the army yet to be. As the Arabian Knights draws closer to its end, the land of eight million dreams gives birth to yet another thing in the world of mankind.

The giant from Grenadier has gone to being a proper giant dokkaebi in my mind. Returning to Craiyon for quick sketches, I threw out the text I thought would work. I wasn’t happy with the initial results, switched to using text prompt for Japanese oni and got better images. The concept of a platform seemed to prove difficult in translation for the ai results but I think I ironed out the majority of the issue.

Looking back to the goblins on the giant, I thought that it might be a good redirect as a story to make the giant dokkaebi mother to the smaller ones. There wasn’t anything from the folktales for or against it so I figured it follows The Rule of Cool. From there my mind wandered to creating female oni, with few useful results, but gathering a few images of female powerlifters which has yielded appropriate proportions and poses for 3D sculpting in future.

After the seeds of an idea were sown into a fertile mind the growth of a concept which may yield a great harvest occurred. I’ve found a designer on Myminifactory, Jovey, and now have great additions to my work to come. HATS!

Yes, it’s been covered before but these are relevant to my interest and build. The kitbash with these shall be as awesome as the Arabian Knights. I amplify this creator and hope that many more go to purchase their wares.

The army of figures has arrived recently I have ordered the appropriate movement/horde trays for them in the excitement. The figures I chose from the Perry’s is as follows

• Mounted Commanders
• Garrison archers shooting, knocking arrows
• Garrison infantry command standing
• Armoured Cavalry with bows
• Armoured Cavalry attacking with double handed flail / double handed crescent sword
• Heavy infantry advancing/charging with swords and round shields
• Heavy infantry advancing/charging with glaive (Hyup Do
• Shin Ki Jeon (multi- rocket propelled arrow launcher) and crew

I like the idea of peasant guerrillas as levy but the uniform nature of using the garrison troops appeals as I’ve done the disparate troop type with the Arabian Knights already. This will definitely be fun as I continue to work on the huge dokkaebi

More casual glances to the world of books has paid off. Another book of folklore has been found and this time it is a little bit more special. The image is of a second edition copy with dust jacket, I’ve procured mine as a first edition (numbered 357 and signed) that I love with all the illustrations it holds within.

This is quite timely as when I checked my post box the order I made of Medieval Koreans from Perry Miniatures had also arrived. I’ve just put in an order for all the MDF bases I’ll need to keep coherence for playing SAGA.

Thinking of how I might try and put together the idea for a proper large scale monster for this army is rather daunting but I believe that a point in the right direction may have been found.

Jumping from my project From the Dusty Reaches of Yesteryear I trawled a giant in the 1991 Grenadier catalog on page 7 for their Fantasy Warriors line. This is about the right stature and similar composition for what I envision a dokkaebi carrying samgomu (삼고무) perfomers on a platform over his head. Thankfully there are people out there (like Evil Bob’s Painting) that have painted this model so I can refer to them. Now it’s just time to get images together for better reference before hitting up a 3D sculptor for their trade.

By the mandate of Heaven the Emerald Court stands ready to walk upon its enemies in advance or retreat. In doing so the protection of the men who perform the will of the king is paramount that the nights after days of fighting are enjoyed in rest. Images as fearsome as the soldiers to adorn the shields and pavise have been found.

Banners to mark the brave men of the Emerald Court will fly proudly. Nothing can stop this force as resilient as the mountains and as relentless as the sea.

The Green Court has a great many creatures both great and small. Those things beyond plain human forms that make the realm more wondrous and dangerous have played in the minds of Clay Cyanide and will be created in resin to stand among the ranks of grand Koryo troops. (I’m very glad a coworker has just purchased a 3D printer)

Seeing that Indians got attention before as a force I now see the Joseon Dynasty gets a release from Zenit. I love the sculpts and think that its a painful toss up between them and the Perry figures. On this most auspicious of larks, not foretold by Heaven, I’ll reach out the the Perry’s regarding Saga sized forces and maybe an addition to their ranks of metal finery.

I must be on a role for selecting factions of interest and think that I will publish this backburner project as an addendum to the UHH lineup and all those who have half baked notions of doing things that seem pretty cool.