From MichaelA: The Seven Samurai in Greyscale & Ninjas in Black (80 points)

First, I have to apologize for my lag in keeping up with submissions as of late. It seems that Work and Adult Responsibilites have recently conspired to make Hobby and Carefree Fun almost non-existent. Nonetheless, I will endeavour to correct this and catch up over the next few days.

Now, in regards to Michael's entry here, I must say that I'm a little speachless so I'll let the man himself describe his submission:

As always I'm never sure where the time has gone, but I did manage to complete my entry fee for the challenge. 

Having been blown away but the ingenuity and beauty of Curt's 'Great War in Greyscale' project, I've been harbouring a notion to have a go myself, and when  the theme for the challenge was anounced as Samurai an idea started to form.  Like a good many I adore, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and this wonderful piece of cinematography became the inspiration for my own greyscale project.   Now I'm hear to tell anyone who listens that this isn't as easy as it appears and I certainly should have given the palette more consideration before diving straight in; as a result there is a definite blue hue that I had't envisaged.

I just couldn't resist a spot of hollywood red blood on the drawn swords and, now that it is complete, I'm jolly pleased with the results.  I now present them to you, as a group, as my entry fee for the challenge.  Yeas I know Curt only asked for a single figure, but I don't think that I could bare to break up the group.  Just for his continued hard work and heroic efforts in managing the challenge, I can think of no better recipient for the 'Seven Grayscale Samurai'.

The Ninja, were an impulse purchase when I was ordering up the Samurai and if I'm honest I was rather hoping that they would be a quick fix, points wise, but not a bit of it.  By the time I had given them three shades of black, my eyes were starting to cross, but we got there in the end.  Both the Samurai and Ninja are Perry Brother's sculpts and although required a fair bit of tidying up were, as always, a joy to paint.  

Wow, absolutely gorgeous work Michael.  I'm very flattered by your nod to my greyscale project. I certainly will agree with you that the whole greyscale thing is a lot more tricky than it may first seem being that there are a bewildering variety of grey shades/tones/hues, each possessing its own 'warmth' or 'coolness'. I think the cool blue-grey tone you used here is wonderfully suited to the Samurai theme, especially as seen through Kurosawa's lens. I especially love the addition of the muted flowers, the 'Seven Samurai' design on the sashimono and the blood on the katanas. They all pay such great homage to Kurosawa's film. Bravo and Thank you very much!

Michael's beautiful work with The Seven, their sashimono and the five Ninjas will give him 80 points.