Update IX: Age of Sigmar Fyreslayers

Hello friends, its been a while! Things have been very, very, busy for me since my last update in July. I have completed a draft of my thesis, my long-time girlfriend has moved in with me, we have moved flats, and I have entered the submission pending year of my thesis.

With all of this going on, my hobby time has been significantly curtailed, although I am now hoping that things will settle down now and I can return to painting when possible. I will certainly continue to update this site!

In the two months since my last update I have managed to continue progress on my Age of Sigmar army, and I have completed ten Dispossessed Irondrakes and five Fyreslayer Hearthguard to form a shooty elite core for my army.

For my Irondrakes I wanted to tie them into the snow theme of my Fyreslayer army. Given that they are entirely encased within their armor, I thought it would be cool to make them look as if they'd been unearthed from the ground or snow. I will have very few Dispossessed models in my army, so for their backstory I'm saying that it was a unit of long-dead dwarves from the old world who were found by my Fyreslayers frozen into the ground. The rune-priests reanimated them into a zombie-like existence in order to make use of their long-lost dwarven weaponry and allow them to continue to pursue their ancient grudges.

When it came to modelling them, I opted for an extremely simple paint scheme that was essentially only a two-color basecoat: metal for most of the model with some gold accents. I knew I could get away with this as much of the model would be covered with powdered snow and tufts, providing a sharp contrast to the basic/muted colours underneath. To give them an appropriately worn look I gave them several coats of various washes, before applying Army Painter "Poison Ivy" tufts and Vallejo "Powder Snow" over their armor to make them look suitably unearthed. I can't say enough good things about the Vallejo snow, its by far the best snow product I've ever worked with and the miniatures simply would not look the same without it. I'm very pleased with the overall effect, and almost regretted having to paint the actual colors on my Fyreslayer models afterwards!

For the Hearthguard I continued with the color-scheme I'd established for the battlesmith. The only difference being that I toned down the brightness of the orange for his beard. I still feel like the beards are a real weak-spot in my painting, as I can't seem to get any nice contrast on the orange. In hindsight I should have liked to give them white, black, or grey beards, but its a little too late for that now. Otherwise I'm happy with how they turned out, although they are fiddly models to paint and took longer than I would have liked.

For the future I have 20 Vulkite Berserkers who have been prepped for assembly, as well as a Auric Runefather on a Magmadroth and a Grimwraith Berserker. I'm thinking for the Vulkites I might try an extremely simply airbrush-heavy technique so they don't take as much time as the Hearthguard. But I'm really looking forward to working on the heros!

I am hoping that between this army and my 40k Orks I will not be tempted to produce a full GW-system army again in the future. Its just too time consuming and daunting to batch-paint large number of troops, and given my newly-limited time I am longing for a skirmish-scale painting project. I will treasure my AoS and 40k armies and continue to add to them, but I'm hoping I won't need to paint like this again.

Update VIII: Age of Sigmar & Side Projects

It's been a few months since my last update that showcased what I'd been up to lately. So here's some quick and dirty bulletpoints of how I've been spending my hobby time.


1) Completed a Trukk for my Ork 40k forces:
I managed to slam out this model fairly quickly following the completion of the Gorkanaut.

However, despite building and doing the initial airbrush work on a unit of Meganobz and Gretchin I became very burnt out with painting my 40k Orks after nearly five months of focusing on them pretty much unceasingly. So with 1000pts having been fully painted, I have put off finishing my remaining 250 points to move onto different things.

Furthermore the campaign I was running went on a hiatus as I think many of us became frustrated with the clunkiness of the 40k ruleset. I will certainly be holding onto my lovely orks in anticipation of the new 40k edition that will appear in the next 6-9 months. I'm very much hoping for a streamlined AoS-like update that will bring us all back to the table.

2) Create a female Chaos Space Marine  Raptor squad as a painting side-project.

Having finished my extended article on the sexism inherent to miniature wargaming sculptures I decided it only fitting that I create a small squad of female space marines to transgress the sculpting norms.

The conversion process itself was very straightforward, I just switched out the Space Marine heads with the heroic-scale female head sculpts from Statuesque Miniatures found here. Given how androgynous a properly armed combatant looks, I think it ended up being quite convincing.

The above squad leader was a fairly extensive conversion of the Chaos Aspiring Champion. It was one I'd been intending to do for a while and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Unfortunately I've yet to get around to painting them as Age of Sigmar swooped in shortly after undercoating them and began to monopolize my hobby time.

3) I have started an Age of Sigmar force: Fyreslayers!

On a whim I ended up participating in a game of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower which I was surprised to discover I actually enjoyed enormously. It's a really fun, light, and well-designed game and I'm looking forward to picking up a copy in the future.

Shortly on the heels of that, a friend of mine from Element Games decided we should both try out Age of Sigmar and we ended up having an absolute blast. As mentioned above my gaming group has become somewhat disillusioned with the 40k ruleset and AoS is its polar opposite in terms of how quickly and smoothly the fighting goes.

It was admittedly a very one-sided affair, and I was crushed quite convincingly. I played my roomate's Ogre force while he played Stormcast and it became very apparent early on that our wild guesswork for the relative army strengths was off by a wide margin. Yet with the General's Handbook coming out this month we expect that the Pitched Battle point system will alleviate most of our worries in this department. The game itself was still a ton of fun and extremely intuitive.

As a result most of my 40k campaign group are making the leap over to AoS, and I have settled on an Order Alliance to be my starting point. Specifically, I liked the look of the new Fyreslayers models (I wanted to work with as much modern plastics I could) and consequently dove into a test model for some uniquely-colored forces.

Without further ado I present my Fyreslayers color scheme:

Nordic Papa Smurf.

The Verdigras was done with nihilakh oxide, a new GW technical paint that was far easier than the products I worked with on my converted Big Mek, highly recommended!

This guy was very quick and a lot of fun to paint. I've already purchased and assembled about fifteen figures to start a small AoS force, and I'm looking forward to expanding onwards and upwards. Rest assured there will be regular updates to follow!

Are miniature wargaming sculpts sexist?: Part 2

This is continued from part one found here. I would strongly recommend reading part one in its entirety, or at the very least the introductory sections and our thoughts on Infinity, before continuing here. Our evaluations build off of methodologies and initial conclusions we lay out in detail within part one, and which very much require that background information.

Warmachine 8/10

Warmachine ended up with our highest overall score for an entire range. There are very few double standards in terms of clothing and posing between male and female figures; this combined with the prevalence of steampunk power-armor ensures that the majority of the female models here are very practically dressed. Whether they are in flowing robes or hidden beneath slabs of armor they always match the unit they’re a part of and nothing ever feels impractical or needlessly sexualized.

For characters that are not part of a specific unit (warcasters/solos) not only are they also practically dressed, but they're bolstered by some great backstories and narratives that ensure these characters are just as fully realized as their male counterparts.

There are one or two hiccups amongst the cryx sculpts. While the raiders/skarre feel powerful and assertive despite their sexualisation, the deathwalker and coven witches appear gratuitous, with Deneghra being somewhere in the middle. But overall Warmachine is unquestionably one of the best ranges out there for portraying women.

Best: Major Katherine Laddermore

A great female figure that is well-armoured and totally badass/heroic looking.

Worst: Coven Witches

As mentioned above, the poses here seem really needlessly sexualized and submissive.

Hordes 7/10

Hordes continues in the vein of Warmachine by having the vast majority of its female sculpts dressed and posed in quite practical ways. This is helped by the fact almost all of the women portrayed in the range are non-human. However there were one or two disappointments that brought the overall quality down.

Special note: We feel we should mention our approval of the female trolls. It would have been really easy for Privateer Press to copy GW’s depictions/fluff for their orks and totally obviate any female presence amongst the trolls, but they manage to not only include women trolls but make them really interesting characters. While their equipment/armor might leave a little to be desired in comparison to their male counterparts it is great to see a company make this effort with a homebrew fantasy race.

Best: Makeda

Makeda is fully armoured, extremely scary, and looks righteously pissed off. This is a great rendition of a villainous female character that isn't exploitative.

Worst: Bloodreaver Night Witch

This figure feels very out of place in the Hordes aesthetic. Note the arched back pose that exposes as much of her midriff as possible. It seems the sculptors tried to mitigate this by having her hoist a sword in a rallying cry, but when combined with the lack of clothing it makes any such pretense seem absurd. If her upraised sword arm was behind her back this would be a textbook "pin-up girl" pose.

Freebooters 6/10

Freebooter’s Fate occupies an interesting position in relation to its depictions of women. On one hand there is certainly a double standard in the depictions of men and women within Werner Klocke’s sculpting, with a strong trend towards sexualized female clothing that sees many women figures showing a fair bit of skin. This is particularly true of the Pirate and Amazon factions. Although there are also instances, particularly among the Armada faction, of women being quite practically dressed.

However the posing on Klocke’s figures is typically excellent, and tends to be closely tied into the character’s persona or fighting style with little by way of gratuitous “pin-up” style posing. While the amazon figures may be scantily clad, they all genuinely look like they’re ready for a fight, and aren’t just thrusting their butts out for no reason like some of the Infinity sculpts.

This is bolstered by Klocke’s ability to sculpt faces so that his male and female characters have actual expressions. Again the range of facial appearances tends to reflect the characters well, from the no-nonsense angry gaze of the amazons, to the confident smirk of the Queen of Shadows.

Through a combination of clothing, poses, facial expression, and detailed fluff write-ups for each of Freebooter’s figures, the game manages to convey a very strong sense of character for each model in the range. Women represent a significant portion of Freebooter’s models, and contain a real mixture of sexualized and non-sexualized figures. Yet each manages to feel like a fully realized character that is dangerous on the battlefield in their own way. Owing to this, we felt that there were only a few instances where Freebooter’s was really gratuitous.

A few points to note:

We really liked the occasionally different female body type being displayed in a manner that wasn’t comedic. Figures like Momma Galina, the Maid, and Big Jenny all look sexy and dangerous in their own way without it being a gag. There are very few miniature ranges that really attempt to portray bigger female bodies in this way.

Much of one's thoughts on Freebooter’s depictions of women will come down to how you feel about the Amazon faction. Given that the idea of an Amazonian matriarchal culture is part of Greco-Roman mythology, we did not feel it was overly culturally appropriative of the designers to use it as a basis for designing their faction. The fluff seems a little generic but is generally well handled, and there are only a few figures that seem in poor taste. Consequently we ultimately decided it didn't have a notably  positive or negative impact on the overall score.

 

Freebooters presents a relatively diverse range owing to its Caribbean-inspired setting. There are a decent number of non-white characters that are subject to the same general mixture of sexualisation as the rest of the range. It is not as large a percentage of the models as you might think considering the setting, but it’s a lot better than most systems.

Best: Queen of Shadows

This is a good example of how to do a "sexy" female figure well. While there is obviously cleavage, her breasts aren't enormous and there is plenty of clothing everywhere else covering her. Yet she still conveys power and lethality alongside that seductiveness.

Worst: Curly Ann

This is just out of line. Not only is the figure absurdly posed and attired, but that she is a black character and a pirate in additional to this heavily sexualized appearance suggests this is an attempt to present an "exotic" sexuality. This implies a "tokenism" towards characters of color that we discussed in our analysis of Malifaux. Thankfully there are few figures that feel this sexist within the Freebooters range.

Guild Ball 7/10

Guild Ball does a solid job of portraying its women characters in a positive and respectful light. It is a game built around sport as much as combat, and we felt the inclusion of women here was a really positive decision given how much society sees athletic ability as inherently gendered. Furthermore, while there are few instances of heavily-armor figures owing to its “medieval ballgame” aesthetic, there is little by way of double standards in terms of clothing. Each team looks cohesive in terms of their appearance, and clothing leans towards things that make sense within the logic of the game world.

With regards to posing, there are one or two instances of women appearing less “combat ready” than their male counterparts. Angel (Fishermen) being an obvious example, while Friday (Brewers) over-the-shoulder butt shot seems out of place relative to the dynamic motion of her teammates. But generally the women here look capable and ready to play/fight.

A few points to note:

It is nice to see some diversity in female body types across the range and some unconventional appearances such as Vitriol’s scars. There are short and tall women, skinny and curvy, with a variety of body/facial proportions. There is also the case of Esters (Brewers), who we felt was quite badass, albeit somewhat comedic as well. However there does seem to be a lack of any female figures showing a lot of muscle tone relative to the prevalence of beefy men.

Not exactly rushing into battle. It's a pity the sculptor felt the need to drop that collar-line six inches.

A few of the figures, specifically Siren, Decimate, and Myst appear to be almost gender-neutral in regards to their proportions and clothing, which we felt was a really cool touch. Obviously these characters aren’t intended to be, yet the idea of a player being able to decide on the gender of their figure themselves without being obviously contradicted by the huge muscles and/or breasts of said miniature is a really cool idea.

Decimate actually did change gender if we compare her against her original artwork.

In their most recent round of updates Guild Ball has added a bunch of non-white characters both male and female alike who all seem really well done. It would have been easy for Steamforged Games to excuse this lack of representation by pointing to its “Medieval Europe” setting, but this would have been very flimsy and it’s great to see them add some diversity to the game.

Best: Siren

Siren is one of the only miniatures we saw in this whole project that has relatively small breasts. Despite this, she is still incredibly bad-ass looking. She connotes a mixture of sensuality and power without being overtly sexualized, and there is also a hint of gender-neutrality to her that we thought was really engaging and fits with her "ethereal" presence/fluff.

Worst: Brisquet

While it's nice to see the variation in body types, Brisquet is dressed far too much like a generic fantasy "tavern wench" to be taken seriously. Thankfully she is pretty much the only figure we felt was really gratuitous within the range. But it did stand out.

Conclusions

The general conclusion from this reflection was two-fold. On one hand we were pleasantly surprised by how well a lot of these ranges held up under a critique of their female sculptures. My partner noted the representation of women isn't nearly as bad as she thought it would be, especially in relation to how women are presented in a lot of popular culture like blockbuster films, etc. However on the other hand there are many, many egregious examples of female figures that are demonstrably sexist and pandering to straight male audiences in a way that cannot help but hurt the potential for women to engage with miniature gaming as a hobby. There are also several systems, from Games Workshop in particular, in which women are an extremely small minority of the figures being produced, which is also a significant barrier to entry. Here are some key observations we discussed afterwards:

• There is a clear and demonstrable tendency across several systems for a female sculpt to be "sexy" in a way that male figures are not. As much as combatants on a battlefield are typically physically fit individuals, it is only ever women whose poses and clothing suggest they are being sculpted in a way that panders to the sexual orientation of the consumer. There is nothing wrong with a woman being sexual, but it's important to consider who it is that is representing woman in this way and why they're doing it. There is very little female agency  between both consumers and creators that might influence the depiction of women within miniature gaming. We question whether a female sculpt designer would portray a "sexy" character using the methods seen above with outthrust hips, a lack of armor, and lots of bare skin. This is not to say that men can't represent a sexually empowered women in art/games/books/whatever, but it is important to be critical when these representations are so extreme they make one question the validity or purpose of this apparent sexual empowerment. The solution to this is not, we feel, to make the men equally sexualized, but rather to encourage sculptors and designers to create figures that make sense within the logic of their game world, and have both men and women appear equally combat-ready.

Hark a Vagrant, with a comic on Marvel's Cloak and Dagger.

• How female sculpts relate to their male counterparts is a key measure of how problematic the representation of women is in a particular range. Some of the best and some of the worst representations of women occur when female sculpts are part of a larger combat unit that includes men, since it really highlights the parity or double-standard between them.
• The best female representations often stem from sculpts of individual characters who are developed within the fluff background for the games setting. Women who are important characters within the universe they're depicted as part of seem to be taken more seriously by the sculptors. Our theory is that it introduces a dash of consequence to poor representations of women. For example: if you have a scantily clad female sculpt in a "pin-up girl" pose who is supposed to represent an important and respected military commander then you have effectively undermined the credibility of your game-world.
• There is a lack of diverse body types among female figures in many systems. Obviously this is something that applies to male figures as well, yet male figures typically enjoy a slightly wider range of relative muscle mass. Yet there is a demonstrable lack of muscle tone or bulk of any kind across most female models. This is really noticeable when many of these women are supposed to be highly-trained combatants, and is especially problematic when we consider that these are fantastical depictions where there's no reason for women to not have a bit more muscle than might be realistic in the same manner as their male cohorts.
• Breasts are a problem in miniature gaming sculpts. With very few exceptions, the women presented in 28mm scale have absolutely enormous breasts by any bodily standard and they are almost always presented in a wildly impractical or gratuitous fashion. The prevalence of big boobs as a shorthand for femininity is nothing less than a lazy design-trope at this point. Especially when figures like Guild Ball's "Siren" and Infinity's "Joan of Arc in Mobility Armor" demonstrate that huge bazoongas are in no way a requirement for making a figure distinctly feminine. This is particularly jarring given that female sporting/athletic wear is designed to compress a woman's breasts and keep them out of the way. (Olympic female swimmers are the example being discussed in that video.) Accordingly it seems even more absurd to constantly have all this armor with huge boob cavities, which would technically only help guide projectiles towards your center mass. For a superb examination of the problems with female boob-armor (amongst many others) check out "Bikini Armor Battle Damage", home of the famous female armor bingo card, and its follow-up the female armor defensive rhetoric bingo card, both of which have a lot of application to depictions of women in miniatures systems.
• Miniature wargaming does a poor job of representing characters of color. This point really deserves its own article and shouldn't be tacked on as an afterthought here, which is possibly something I will do in the future. But for now we think it's very obvious that as much as the representation of women in miniature wargaming, both as players and within the models themselves, might be poor, the representation of non-white individuals of any gender across the player/miniature spectrum is even worse. Many ranges have almost no representation of racial individuals, and those that do frequently contain a lot of problematic tokenism. (ex: If it's an Asian lady then she's a ninja with a katana. If it's a black man he's a brawler.) Of course there might be a few figures or even factions that are an exception to this but they are few and far between. The point is that miniature wargaming puts up a significant barrier to entry for any people of color through their poor representation, both in number and quality, on the tabletop in the same manner as its representation of women.

Analyzing all of this led us to the question: what is the cost to the individual gamer if those depictions of women which are problematic or downright offensive were to be altered? And how does that individual cost weight against the prospect of making the hobby more inviting towards women participants?

We were also intrigued by the idea of gender neutrality within miniature figures. Again, the idea of being able to assign your models their own gender without being obviously contradicted by their appearance sounds like a really cool idea to us, another personalized layer of customization for your tabletop forces. Obviously this won't be possible in every instance, but one could definitely argue that androgyny is a hallmark of individuals who are dressed for combat, whether fantastical, historical, modern, or futuristic.

Final Notes

As much as I would like to hear peoples thoughts on this I do have one last thing to state: If you've read through all of this yet still disagree that we, as gamers, need to be performing this analysis in the first place, or insist that there is no issue with the depiction of women in miniature games, then I would strongly encourage you to check out this video series. They are extremely well crafted discussions from a male videogame critic that go over some of the reasons male communities can be so resistant to this sort of criticism owing to the discomfort it produces. The parallel to miniature gaming is striking, and it helps explain why this type of discussion is important. Parts five and six are particularly relevant.

I know that miniature gamers are, by and large, a really decent group of people both in person and online. The recent controversy over the rampant sexism contained within Prodos Miniature's "Space Crusade" line of figures on dakkadakka.net indicates that many gamers already have some level of critical awareness about the depiction of women in miniatures. This article aims only to expand that awareness. Being self-aware and critical about our pastimes does not make them inherently wrong or un-enjoyable. Acknowledging the problems inherent to a form of entertainment does not mean you have to stop enjoying it, nor does it automatically mean those problems apply to you. As much as I take issue with representation of women in miniature gaming I am still painting, playing, and enjoying my time with figures from all of these systems.

I'd also encourage you to remember that I am just as much a member of the community as you. Miniature gaming is something I love, and I have gone through the (extensive) effort of crafting this article because I want more people to have the opportunity to love it too.

edit: I originally posted this article on May 22nd and shared it with only a small circle of friends and acquaintances to get their feedback before promoting it further. In that time I have incorporated comments from over a dozen people that represent a mix of avid wargamers, doctoral students in gender studies, and women both within and outside the miniature gaming community. I think this helps to lend further salience to the criticisms we have presented here.

Are miniature wargaming sculpts sexist?: Part 1

If you're a fellow miniature gamer who is angered by the question posed in the title of this post, then try to take a deep breath. This is a very long and very detailed article that I have spent a lot of time on. I work to explain my conclusions in the manner I have been taught as an academic. Furthermore, you might be surprised at some of them, as I think I've been very forgiving and understanding towards the hobby that I love.

For the more progressive among you who would like to see a (perhaps deserved) feminist takedown of the miniature hobby, I'm afraid I'll probably disappoint you as well. As passionately as I feel about the representation of women in gaming, and as much is it frustrates me sometimes, the purpose of this piece is to speak to players in a way that encourages them to engage with a critical assessment about that representation. To that end I'll be building off of some really basic premises, and this will probably seem like baby steps to someone versed in feminist theory. But it is still a starting point!

Introduction: Why should we care how miniatures depict women?

I'd like to begin by putting out a statement that should be incredibly obvious to anyone who plays miniature wargames, regardless of their gender or how they feel about modern cultural critique. Here it is:

Not a lot of women play miniature wargames.

Forgive me if this seems like a trite statement, but it is an important basis for what I'm trying to explain with this piece. Everything I have seen as a hobbyist for the last ten years has indicated that this is pretty much an absolute truth across every miniatures system. Some lucky people may have miniature-gaming groups composed of something approaching a 50/50 gender split or higher, but for the vast majority of gamers in both casual and tournament settings this is not the reality. Women just do not participate in wargaming in the same numbers that men do.

There are a lot of possible reasons for this. Wargaming is one of those hobbies that is nestled in a matrix of circumstances that can make it difficult for people outside of its typical demographic to access. Sure, a woman can technically walk into a store, get a demo game, and buy a starter box as easily as the next person. Yet on the basis of women's representation in miniature gaming there is clearly something that is stopping them from doing so, and it must be more than just the time/money/skill commitment of the hobby because those are the same challenges that all miniature gamers face.

To that end I would like to propose two primary barriers to entry in the hobby that I think women face which men do not, and I'd like to dedicate this article to examining one of them.*

1. Player behavior. This is how women are treated by the players and employees that surround the miniature wargaming hobby. This is a big topic, and if I'm being honest is probably the one that is a more serious barrier to entry and more deserving of a full-length essay. But its also a lot more contentious and very difficult to really engage people about online. Additionally I don't feel comfortable speaking about a female experience that I haven't had myself. However I'd encourage gamers to think critically about their behavior as men towards women, and would point you to this superb piece by industry veteran Ken Burnside as a guide for what we, as men, can do to support women within our hobby communities. To hear how harsh the conditions faced by women in wargaming can be, I would direct you to Emily Garland's article, which spawned Burnside's piece.
2. The representation of women within miniature games. That is to say, how women are depicted both the fictional setting of a game (fluff) and within the models themselves. This is what I'm going to focus on here, as it's something I can quantify, and support with visual proof. It's a lot less subjective than player behavior, but at the same time is clearly an essential component of getting women engaged in the hobby.

This issue of representation is larger than just trying to engage women gamers as well. A poor representation of women will hold back any community around any product, hobby, or activity, from being respected and appealing to people in general. It is important one takes a critical approach to the products we buy, and the commercial artists and game-designers who make them, because they are a direct reflection on you as the consumer and your community.

I'm sure some of us have experienced a social stigma around wargaming, and this is certainly one of the reasons that stigma exists. This is not to say we should make all of our decisions in consideration of the opinions of others, as plenty of that stigma is not the fault of miniature wargamers. However a poor representation of 50% of the human race is not something that we, as gamers, should be proud about, nor is it something we should seek to uphold or defend. Being a male-oriented space should not be a cornerstone of our hobby's identity. The reality is that by orienting miniature gaming around men we (however unwittingly) make it difficult for women to enter and enjoy their time in our community, and we make it easy for non-gamers to dismiss or hold negative opinions about our hobby.

We should always be critical and self-aware about the things we choose to spend our time with, even if it’s something we see as mindless or harmless entertainment. Putting some thought into how your favourite film/game/book depicts women is useful not only as a consumer but on a personal level, it is an exercise in self-awareness and empathy.

I know that miniature gaming has the potential to be enjoyed by anyone regardless of age, race, or gender. There are a lot of different ways people can get value and satisfaction out of either its hobby and/or gaming aspects. I'd like to see this hobby take the same leaps and bounds in popularity that other aspects of underground/geek culture have in the last decade. I want to believe the community is ready for this.

*Note: there are plenty of lesser barriers to entry that I won't deal with here such as game-design that only employs miniatures for combat-oriented games, the level of cleanliness/safety of the average local game store relative to other social venues, etc. As much as these might be factors, they are also things that have a lot of individual variance and can be overcome and improved fairly easily.

Setup

To generate some food for thought about the representation of women within miniature gaming, I have gone through and rated how sexist or respectful the depictions of women are within sculpts for some of the most popular miniatures systems. I have rated each out of ten, with a higher number representing a generally more respectful depiction, while a lower number represents a generally more sexist one.

In order to assist me with reviewing each miniature range I'll be enlisting the help of my longtime partner. She is a fellow academic pursuing studies of feminism, gender, and sexuality at a doctoral level and is thus ideally situated to bolster the legitimacy of the assessments we make here. She is not a miniature gamer, but I feel this strengthens rather than undermines our mutual assessment, as it helps indicate an outsider perspective. It serves to answer the question of how people, and women in particular, might feel seeing some of these miniatures.

Obviously these ratings are a matter of opinion, but given our differing backgrounds and level of involvement in the hobby I feel it is a very informed one. Our different contexts, the range of ratings we have distributed, and the level of explanation provided all suggest that these not assessments that are easily dismissed as unfounded. My intention here is to try and help elevate miniature gaming with some critical thinking, not denigrate it. 

Exemptions: I am exempting historical miniatures wargames because they largely do not include women, and have something like an excuse for doing so. Furthermore their community remains somewhat separate from non-historical miniature wargaming. I'm talking specifically about games in which the creators entirely define the world they create, and thus can and should be examined on their portrayal of women. I'm also not dealing with miniature interpretations of already-established franchises such as the Batman Miniatures Game, where the sculptors and design team of the miniatures system don't have a lot of leeway in terms of how women are presented.

Methodology

• I went through each range and saved an official image for every figure that portrays a female character to make something like a "gallery" for each. I also made a note any time the range depicted characters of color, at least according to fluff/official paint scheme.
• My partner and I sat down and, over the course of several hours, went through the contents of each gallery discussing the figures and taking notes in order to create an overall rating for how respectful or sexist its depictions of women are, as well as select what we felt to be the "best" and "worst" figures of each range in terms of those metrics.

Before we started this assessment I emphasized the following in order to give a bit of context:

• Every figure we explore is supposed to be in a combat, or combat-like, environment.
• All of these games lean towards pulpy genre fiction and pure escapism, and consequently need to be approached as an entertainment medium. As much as it does not excuse them from sexist portrayals of women, these figures are also not attempting to be serious representations of real-life women.
• There are limitations on the level of detail/variety possible for sculptors at the 28mm range. When trying to indicate a character is a female it can be difficult to make it clear without exaggerated proportions. This is especially true if there is a lot of armor involved. Again, this does not excuse when these exaggerations are problematic ("boob armor" is endemic), but they can be done well and also done poorly.

Our conclusions are presented here as a synthesis of views between a dedicated miniature hobbyist and a feminist academic, with no distinction between who said what. We discussed everything until we agreed on the overall score of each range.

When attempting to determine whether a miniature was a respectful or reasonable representation of women we looked at the following:

1. What is her clothing and/or armor like? Does it make sense for what she is supposed to be doing?

2. How is she posed? Does it look like she is in, or ready, for combat?

3. What is the fluff for the model? Is there a reason provided for why she might be dressed a certain way? This did not come up every time, but I did raise it when I felt the fluff might be a significant factor in deciding how we felt about a miniature.

These lines of inquiry are based off of similar criticisms of female representation being discussed within other forms of entertainment and game-environment. The most obvious of these is the videogames industry, and we would refer you to Feminist Frequency's discussions of female videogame body language and female armor if you want some further explanation for why these depictions are significant.

Infinity

This is one of the most important ranges we evaluated, as it's not only a company that has been critically lauded for the quality of its sculpts but is also the only game system listed here whose figures presume to relate to something like modern individuals and modern cultures. Given this context we elected to spend more time on this by splitting the female models into their respective faction and assign a score and best/worst mini for each one.

Aleph 5/10

Despite the cool Ghost in the Shell fluff, there is a rampant amount of highly sexualized “shoot from the hip” silly poses, and focus on female body parts. The reason Major Katsuagi is a more compelling character in the GITS film (over her heavily sexualized TV incarnation) is her muted expressions and struggle with self-identity acting as a foil to her sexualized body. That doesn’t come across here at all; instead we have cyborg women that apparently really want you to know how sexy they are. This is underscored by the contrast between the sexualized female post-humans with the bulky “hoo-rah!” machismo of the male Myrmidons.

Best: Myrmidon Officer

The female myrmidon looks badass and combat ready so she is, unsurprisingly, Aleph's best female sculpt. Unfortunately she is also the only woman in the otherwise exclusively-male Myrmidon range that encompass the "door-kicking and ass-whooping" aspect of the faction, whereas most of the women are part of the "infiltrating society as sexy cyborg babes" portion.

Worst: Asure w/spitfire

Pretty much any of the Asura/Posthuman figures could go here. They're all powerful cyborgs that chose to fight on the battlefield as naked women for.... no good reason. In contrast most of the male cyborgs like Achilles and Ajax get slabs of plate armor. Note the gun is impractically positioned on her hips so we get a better view of her breasts.

Ariadna 4/10

The fluff would have you believe Ariadna women would be badass ladies in present-day combat attire who are still tough enough to take out their high-tech opponents, but the models are deeply underwhelming in this regard.

Best: Uxia McNeil

Uxia looks practically dressed and combat ready for some stealthy infiltration. Also a special mention to the females in the Wulvers unit, who represent probably the only women sculpts with prominent muscles in the Infinity range.

Worst: Caledonian Volunteers

That we are to presume these two figures represent the same type of combatant on the tabletop is absurd. Everything about the female figure connotes a prioritization of displaying sexuality over her supposed role as a combatant. There is the "shoot from the hip" arched-back pinup pose and the extreme amount of skin on display, but of particular note is the clothing: the kilt of the male figure, something that connotes the Scottish heritage of the figures' fluff, gets morphed into a tiny schoolgirl skirt that is so short it reveals a flash of panties, completely undermining not just the assumption she is in combat, but also the figure's background fluff , in favor of flaunting its sexuality. Corvus Belli should be legitimately ashamed of ever having put out this figure set.

Haqqislam 8/10

Great fluff about a second golden age of Islam that adds some real diversity to the Infinity world. For the most part women are well armored with the same uniform as their male counterparts. The figures are somewhat whitewashed in their official paintjobs, and we haven’t seen anything resembling a Hijab or Niqab, but overall it’s certainly a high watermark for the infinity range and the depiction of women in tabletop gaming in general.

Best: Naffatun

Great stuff here, a 50/50 split between male and female squad members and a practical gender-neutral uniform that is the same for each. Not sure about the lack of helmet on the one female figure but overall this is great.

Worst: Nazarova sisters

Rule of thumb: If you are wearing less clothes on a battlefield than the "combat geishas" (Odalisques) you should probably wear more clothes. Thankfully this level of sexist absurdity isn't present anywhere else in the Haqqislam range, but boy howdy what an outlier.

Nomads 5/10

It was somewhat surprising that the nomads ended up getting rated so highly, but we liked the non-standard beauty norms being portrayed, even if they were gratuitous sometimes. The fluff of them being cyberpunk-style renegades also helps contextualize things a bit.

Best: Reverend Custodier

Very cool figure here. Great dynamic pose and well-armoured while using body proportions that aren't bums or boobs to convey femininity.

Worst: Reverend Moira

One might be able to look past the "pointy bra" aesthetic with her chest armor, but I think we can all agree that wearing just a thong in a combat situation is absurd. Also note the passivity of the female figure here, as the sculpt design makes it look as if a gust of wind is blowing aside her trench coat rather than having her bum being something she's clearly displaying herself. The suggestion that her outfit would otherwise cover her a lot more if it weren't for this "gust of wind" makes the audience for this figure seem really voyeuristic, and adds an additional problematic layer to the figure.

Panoceania 9/10

Some really solid female minis here, with a lot of the armor being really practical and only a few poses providing any real issue. A great range for depicting women.

Best: Jeanne D’Arc in Mobility Armor

What a fantastic model! The proportions are designed so that it would still look like a woman even without the flowing hair, but there are no buttcheeks or breasts in sight. Instead you get a terrifyingly angry combatant hurling herself at the enemy! 

Worst: Fusiliers

Note the difference in posing between the male/female fusiliers who are at rest. One is a battle-weary veteran and the other looks like she's checking out how big her breasts are in a mirror.

Yu Jing 7/10

Again, it’s nice to see some racial diversity that doesn’t feel really stereotyped or problematic. Some really solid female figures in this range brought down by one or two egregious instances.

Best: Keisotsu Butai

A gender-neutral uniform that's still very dynamic. The female model is still clearly female via her arm proportions. No bubble-butt or heaving bosoms needed.

Worst: Asuka Kisaragi

Once again, the double standard on display here is absurd. We have a male figure in which there is litterally no skin on display whatsoever, with a pose that connotes he is actively engaged in combat. The female figure on the other hand, ostensibly the same type of unit, has extremely prominent cleavage, no helmet in order to show off her face and long hair, and is posed in such a way that she is clearly not actively engaged in battle. Note that rather than being hunched over her motorcyle like her cohort, which might obstruct our view of her cleavage, she is instead standing upright and thrusting out her chest at the viewer.

Infinity Conclusions & Thoughts

Infinity is difficult to pin down as it’s a miniatures range that contains a lot of extremes. Corvus Belli unquestionably produces some of the best depictions of women out there, but also some of the worst (at least among the most prominent games and companies that we're looking at here). While there is a strong female presence it is problematized by frequent usage of pin-up aesthetics. It appears CB wants to ensure there are token babes for every faction, and judging by the sexist absurdity that is their “Bootleg” range this seems to be something the company considers a core aspect of its identity.

That they clearly know how to produce positive female depictions makes the decision to have “sexy babes” a keystone of the infinity aesthetic all the more disappointing. The level of sexualisation on display in Infinity, like those of the other systems we examine here, does not appear to serve any purpose beyond a desire to appeal to a presumed straight-male consumer.That the game itself doesn’t have anything even remotely resembling sex or intimacy means deciding to make it “sexy” is less about a passion for the game and hobby and more a decision from a marketing/design team to maximize profits. It's one thing to portray strong and healthy individuals as military combatants, but CB deliberately oversteps the line of what might feasibly be considered "practical" to sex things up. This is not an attitude anyone should be particularly happy to see within the community, and CorvusBelli has already come under fire for its sexist portrayals of women. 

Corvus Belli is highly indicative of the miniature gaming industry in that it makes the assumption that its system will be played primarily by men. As much as this might be true, they make the further assumption that the best way to appeal to the desires of this male demographic is through the over-sexualization of many women figures. In doing so, they only serve to reinforce a feedback loop that miniature gaming is something for men, and men alone. We consider this pandering not only actively discouraging to potential female gamers but also insulting to the male consumer, as it implies that most straight men would only enjoy their miniatures or systems if they are constantly presented with heavily sexualized female figures. We do not believe that Infinity would be less successful if it were to have less sexualization, nor do we believe that male consumers cannot appreciate games containing female characters unless those female characters are sexually displayed.

A frequent excuse I’ve heard about CB’s style when it’s criticized is that it’s drawing from anime and therefore has a very specific aesthetic it’s aiming for. This is actually great, and has helped make the system really unique and produced some superb artwork/sculpts. However it doesn’t act as an excuse for the extent of the sexualisation within the system. As someone who is a big anime fan, you’ll notice that most of its critically lauded works tend to be the ones that downplay, satirize, or outright ignore the fan service tropes. Ex: Studio Ghibli, Samurai Champloo, GITS, Full Metal Alchemist, Psycho-Pass, etc. If Infinity’s frequent sexualisation is a result of its anime influence then its creators consciously elected to borrow from one of the worst aspects of the anime medium, an attitude to portraying women that continues to hold anime back from being a more respected and widely-regarded medium. This seems like a lazy excuse to not challenge yourself by pointing to the foibles of another industry.

To return to the miniatures themselves, one of the ways this anime-influence comes up in Infinity is the homogenous nature of its bodies, with little variation in the respective proportions of male and female figures. There is a slightly more variance in the male range, with some models being quite skinny while others are more muscular, but for the most part every guy is toned and relatively beefy. Whereas for the women this manifests as very thin waist/arms/legs with large breasts and often long hair. There is zero attempt within the Infinity range to portray anything outside of this female body configuration, and it seems like each female character could easily fit into the armor (or lack thereof) of any other female character. Even setting aside issues of sexualisation, this lack of diversity makes the female characters feel interchangeable. 

Some players make a fluff-based excuse that the Infinity universe has such advanced biometric technology that people can look like whatever they want, and therefore decide to be sexy. The obvious response here is: "A sexy lady would still wants armor/clothing in a fight and wouldn't be in a silly pose for no reason". We would also counter this by suggesting that a world in which every woman in the Infinity-universe wants a Barbie body is a dumb idea. Anyone who attempts to justify every female miniature having huge breasts, long hair, and skimpy clothes by pointing to the fluff is undermining the setting in order to justify what is clearly just a callus design decision. These ubiquitous barbie-doll bodies are especially problematic given that even mainstream media is starting to diversify what it labels "sexy" across different ages and body types. You'd think that Corvus Belli, both as fluff-writers and as a company, could include at least some muscular women as part of Infinity's elite spec-op teams.

This has perhaps focused too much on Corvus Belli’s flaws in their portrayals of women, and we want to emphasize that they get it right as often if not more than they get it wrong. Everything I have criticized CB for above applies to the miniature-gaming industry as a whole, many of whom present far more problematic figures. Furthermore there is nothing inherently unsavory about a woman character expressing her sexuality. Rather what matters is the context, and this is especially true of miniature wargaming in which we have objects depicting women characters that are designed and sold within a male-oriented industry. Within the miniature gaming environment we see nothing except a character's appearance, and therefore the sexualization of women figures cannot serve any purpose beyond titillating a presumed straight-male audience. We did ultimately reached the conclusion that sexualisation of female Infinity figures is overwrought, with a lot of it being there for very little reason. Thankfully it’s balanced by some really solid depictions of female combatants, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Special note: Some serious bonus points to Infinity for a relatively strong inclusion of racial individuals. To my knowledge there are no other non-historical games that include such an extensive portrayal of characters of color, and certainly nothing with the level of respect CB shows.

Warhammer 40k 7/10

This result may seem surprising given the almost-total absence of women within the 40k setting. However those few women who GW does depict on the tabletop are actually pretty good in comparison to many other systems. So 40k ended up scoring highly on its figures. A few interesting and salient points came up while we were discussing these:

Firstly, the facial expression on female figures has a very real effect on how one interprets the rest of their body. A figure that is shouting, angry, and generally looks like she’s taking part in a battle has a somewhat mitigating effect on whatever sexuality they're depicting. A prime example of this is the dark elf succubus, who looks genuinely scary despite her somewhat revealing clothing.

Such an appearance helps to imply the figure is in a the battlefield environment and not (exclusively) on display for a presumably male viewer. Note that for this to work it does need to be accompanied by a suitably combat-ready pose. As much as facial expressions might only be an implication, and does not excuse problematic clothing, it is something we noticed.

Secondly, we reached the conclusion that when it comes to depictions of women, quality outweighs quantity. Namely, it’s a lot better for a range to present relatively few female figures, but have them be positive and respectful representations, rather than have a large presence of heavily sexualized women. With that said, given the totally fictional nature of these settings/figures there is no reason we, as the consumer, cannot expect both quality and quantity representation of women from miniature gaming companies. We're just saying that if we're forced to choose, we would prefer the former. This is one of the primary reasons that Geedubs scored highly here, the women figures in the 40k range are generally not too bad relative to other systems even though there are far less of them.

Special Note: Despite the figures scoring well, the near-total absence of women within the fluff of Games Workshop, and the poor portrayal of them when they do come up, is so notorious that it has become a target of popular satire. As much as quality might outweigh quantity, this does not excuse the conscious neglect of women by a games company. A potential female gamer has almost no options for fielding female units using Games Workshop sculpts, and no options whatsoever in which the fluff behind those tabletop figures is anywhere near as empowering as the endless glorification of the space marine male. It would be a great boon to the hobby and Games Workshop’s image as the premier miniature-gaming company if they were not only to introduce more means to field female characters on the tabletop, but make those women as powerful and dangerous as their male cohorts within the setting.

Best: Commander Shadowsun

An all-time favourite female sculpt. Why? Because it underscores her gender is totally irrelevant on the battlefield. She's got a great backstory and you know it's a woman, but when you look at the model all you see is a badass engine of stealthy destruction.

Worst: Sisters Repentia

Hoooboy, aren't these a sight. Nothing suggests an empowered and battle-ready woman more than bondage gear and handkerchiefs for clothing. Thankfully GW hasn't portrayed anything this egregious in over a decade, and these are from the outdated Sisters of Battle range. Unfortunately some of these old sculpts are still available on their website, even if they are now very much exceptions to the norm. Looking at these really underscores how far we've come as a community, and how far we still have to go...

Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar – 6/10

Again, a score that’s somewhat higher than might be expected, for similar reasons to what has been outlined in the 40k rating. There is a prevalence of angry faces that helps to mitigate the more sexualized models such as the wych elves. A few other points that came up here:

The “angelic” aura around some of the Brettonian and Elf women can be just as problematic as having a bunch of needless skin on display. While the fluff obviously accounts for why the lady of the lake would show up to battle in a dress, the lack of other female figures across the range makes this “battlefield dress" stand out like a sore thumb. 

If your sculpt sits side-saddle in a silk dress on a unicorn then there is a slight possibility it's a woman.

There is something like a Madonna/Whore complex across the Fantasy range, in which women are either enchantresses wearing dresses or scantily clad demon witches screaming for blood, with very little in-between.

An interesting point that came up was the sexualisation of non-human women, which we felt is generally less problematic than women who are presented as strictly human. The implication that what you’re looking at is an entirely fantastical representation does provide an extra layer of suspended belief that occasionally might make a sexualized figure more acceptable. This is hardly an absolute rule, as all of these figures (especially elves) are clearly invoking the human form, but there is a real distinction to be made in the mind of the consumer between the sexualized portrayals of “Morathi, Queen of Naggaroth” versus "Megan, from San Francisco”.

There is a total lack of non-white characters within the WHFB range, with very little by way of female representations. Currently we haven't seen female figures of any kind released for Age of Sigmar, which is definitely disappointing.

Best: Valkia the Bloody

There are some weird armour design choices here between the prominent breasts and "skirt". But that doesn't change the fact Valkia looks like a legitimately terrifying combatant.

Worst: Dark Elf Sorceress

The facial expression is pretty good here, as is the toned stomach and musculature. But however "non-human" you are, that is just not enough clothes to wear to a fight.

Malifaux 4/10

Malifaux fared the worst out of all of the systems we analyzed and for good reason. Despite the lovely quality of their plastic sculpts it seems like every woman, with a few comical exceptions (ex: Abuela) is deeply sexualized and woefully under-clothed. While we appreciate this is a game about magic and therefore power-armor is not going to show up, that doesn’t explain why nearly every woman is posing in really fetishistic-looking clothes.

Malifaux’s aesthetic and fluff suffer somewhat from wanting to draw on everything at once. It has western cowboys, steampunk robots, undead zombies, eastern samurai, nightmare demons, Victorian criminals, southern voodoo, etc. The result is a range that includes a lot of diversity but does so in a way that seems really tokenistic and appropriative. Nothing feels cohesive or well thought-out, and it’s a matter of slapping either a lacy Victorian dress or a kimono on a character that determines their backstory/personality/motivations. Consequently we felt the fluff of Malifaux fails to present any narrative justifications for this overt sexualisation and use of cultural signifiers outside of surface appearance and “cool” factor.

 

This cultural appropriation extends not only to the bodies of individual characters but also the materials of those cultures. Instead of full-length kimonos we get skimpy little skirts with Asian designs; instead of the unique imagery of the New Orleans Mardi Gras we get some feather boas and a slinky dress. The notion of Edward Said’s “Orientalism” came up when we were discussing this point. It’s as if the materials of these different cultures exist for the miniature designers to manipulate into a hollow echo of the original in order to make some “exotic” babes. 

There is an undercurrent of sexualized body-horror that seems to apply only to female undead/demon models. Body horror can be really effective and unsettling (Alien is one of our favourite films) but the double standard going on here between male and female undead/demonic figures really undercuts its legitimacy.

The “doppleganger” figure is actually a decent example of body horror, but in the context of a game that also presents you with the “rotten belles” and “nephalim” models, it feels less like it’s trying to be unsettling and more like an excuse to paint more breasts. While there are a few rotting undead men kicking around, none of them are naked or sexualized in a similar manner.

To whit: women in Malifaux are always on display. Whether they’re rotting corpses or not. Whatever “personality” they might have frequently stems from a problematic or token usage of different materials/clothing.

 

Special Note: “Toni Ironsides” (seen above) might be seen as an exception to this conclusion but we actually see her as one of the most severe examples of a tokenism. She is a black, street-fighting, anti-establishment ex-slave, who has cornrows and wears bandages on her face. As much as some of these facets might be legitimate expressions of Black American womanhood, beauty standards, or culture, the decision to consolidate all of these facets into a single character, with no comparable black characters within the range, reinforces the idea that this is a token representation of a black woman rather than a legitimate attempt to engage with the nuances of presenting a character of color within a given fictional setting. In this regard Toni Ironsides is no different from any of the other token cultural representations mentioned above.

Best: Rasputina

Rasputina is suitably chilly and intimidating looking, and one of the few decent female sculpts in the range.

Worst: Angelica

Angelica is a scantily clad black woman taking to the battlefield in a slinky dress with some shoutouts to the New Orleans Mardi Gras. She runs a stage show and is supposed be very intimidating but that's difficult to believe when she's posing in a way that ensures her dress barely covers her.

Bonus Worst: Lady Justice & Lilith

Just to reaffirm why Malifaux is our lowest rating, I present two of Malifaux's most powerful combat characters in the game, Each is the leader of her own faction. To be fair, this version of Lilith is based on her original appearance in 1st edition, and the current one has more clothes. Either way, this level of sexualization is pretty absurd.

Continued in part two, found here.