Viking Shieldmaiden

[Cubs]

Fresh off the press from 'The Dice Bag Lady's new range of miniatures, 'Bad Squiddo', we have this fine lady. If you're going to Salute, no doubt you'll be able to see both ladies in person.

[Ray Earle]

Tidy.

As I believe they say down your neck of the woods. 

Top brushwork as usual. 

[Annie]

Thanks again Paul, you are a genius.

Some blurb:

"If you've heard of The Dice Bag Lady, you will know of the excellent dice bags I create. A series of wrist injuries (from making the things!) kicked me into making the brave step of diversifying into the big wide world of miniatures.

You may have heard of the "Believable Female Miniatures Project" - http://thedicebaglady.net/female-miniatures/

In a nutshell, I have begun to stock as many models as I can find which are female and not overtly sexualised or, well, silly. You know. no chainmail bikinis or crotchless plate armour etc. Just cool women, battling, adventuring etc.

The next step for The Dice Bag Lady is to produce a range of historical female miniatures that fit this ethos. The first will be viking shieldmaidens.

Here is the very first of many! A very limited (very!) amount will be at Salute, and available to buy from the webshop a short while afterwards. THREE others of her sisters in arms are currently in various stages of the sculpting process.

Sculpted by Phil Hynes and painted up by Paul Cubbin.

Cheers
Annie
The Dice Bag Lady
Bad Squiddo Games
www.badsquiddogames.com"

[cram]

Was not aware she was branching into doing miniatures! I must say this is a cool looking figure, I really like the face. Very nicely painted too!
 

[Captain Blood]

Subtle.
Love the shield in particular.
And that's some furry basing 

[Cubs]

Annie warned me the miniature is from a budding sculptor, Phil Hynes, who is still learning his trade.

I've got to say, I've painted a lot, lot worse from experienced sculptors. There's a couple of minor bits for tidying up with the knife, but basically it's a nicely proportioned piece in a classic pose (sword arm is separate to get a good range of poses) with a good balance between detail and simplicity. I liked it. In fact I'd get one too if I was going to Salute.

What a great start to what will no doubt be an extremely successful and popular range. It's not about introducing feminism into the hobby, it's about plugging a gap for those who want to depict women in a way that doesn't involve iron swimwear or nipples like wine corks.

[Cubs]

And that's some furry basing 

Have tufts, will tuft.

[Atheling]

Have tufts, will tuft.

'Tis the best way.... 

Lovely work Cubs 

Darrell.

[tancrede]

Nice mini, and wondeful painting on it ! 
I love the color scheme, and the base is good too.

[Nevyen]

Great work look forward to adding these to my Great Army !

[Captain Blood]

Have tufts, will tuft.

Well quite.

On reflection, I'd say the miniature looks rather more like Porunn than Lagertha.

[greatescapegames]

More wizardry from the Cubster! Genius! Can't wait to more shield maidens!

[Dr. Zombie]

Very nice. There is definately a place for her in my Viking army.

I would cut down the strangely looking long hilt of her sword though. But other than that she can stand in my shieldwall any day. I hope some more shieldmaidens will follow this one.

[Annie]

Cheers all!

here's a quick snapshot of the model, I'll have better (and assembled!) 360 ones next week.

She's been tidied a bit more since the version Cubs has, so much smoother and the hilt is shorter. My sculptor is very talented but fairly new to this scale/wargaming models, so we've has a few alterations along the way (mostly involving the ease of casting), but he's picking it up quick, so I'm really confident the whole set are going to be lovely. Especially as these are designed to be troops rather than characters (although she would make a great one!) There will be specific character models with extra detail coming after as well (warlord Lathgertha!), I have some great plans already in motion. And I'm glad my concept art is working so far too!

I'll have the greens of another two at Salute for anybody coming to that.



I'm glad that both Phil and Paul are supportive of the project, and there will definitely be more Cubbins painted shieldmaidens to come

[Little Odo]

Nice looking mini. Good luck with your new venture into the miniature world Annie. I am looking forward to seeing more - as are my daughters.