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.

Hobby Thoughts: How to enjoy painting miniatures.

I don’t claim to be a great painter. In fact I am perpetually reminded I'm not given the award-winning abilities of my roommate Byron. His basic line troops wipe the floor with my fanciest character models.

A phoenix guard model from my roommate on the left. A warpriest character I slaved over on the right.

Talk about a slice of humble pie right? Yet I have, over the course of the past year, come to truly enjoying painting as my favorite aspect of the hobby. This is something that was absolutely not the case for many many years, and I thought writing article about the changes in equipment, technique, and attitude I've undergone to reach this point this would be a great idea for anyone else looking to enjoy their time with the brush a little more.

From "I hate this shit" in 2010 to "I'm having a blast!" in 2015.

This article assumes that painting is a priority for you to some capacity within the hobby. Whether it’s painting a high-quality force or just hitting a “three colours and based” minimum for a tournament you may find something of interest here.

Equipment

1. Know what type of paints your buying and whether they align with your painting goals. There is no such thing as brand loyalty when it comes to paints due to the variance across each range. Experiment with different brands and see what you like, check out what others recommend. Of relevance to this is a personal revelation I've had recently in the difference between what I will call "tabletop" paint designed to have good coverage and go on as a basecoat easily with a harder protective finish, versus what I'll call "advanced" paints that might have a high pigment count but are not designed to be very opaque or cover effectively. 
• Examples of "tabletop" paints include Vallejo Game Color, Army Painter, and most Games Workshop paints, all of these are designed to basecoat smoothly and stand up to the rigors of handling produced by typical gaming. Of particular note here are Games Workshop's "Base" range and Vallejo's "Extra Opaque", both of which are formulated for maximum coverage.
• Examples of "advanced" paints include Vallejo Model Color and Scale 75 paints. Both tend to cover poorly despite their vibrant colors, but because they are not very opaque they produce beautiful blends far more easily then having to really thin out a paint that wants to cover everything.
2. If you are painting anything bigger than a skirmish-game sized force then do yourself a favor and buy an airbrush. Even if it’s a cheap set up you will get back hours of your life through simple techniques like colored base coats and/or blocking out colors on basic line troops. I can't see myself painting anything without one.
3. Get a good traditional brush. I haven’t really implemented this myself yet as I've  not yet tried the much-idolized Windsor and Newton series 7. But I have gradually progressed from using Games Workshop, Army Painter, and currently Kolinsky sable hair brushes from Element Games. The improvement in control of the paint coming off the brush has been noticeable each time.
4. Use a florescent or daylight lamp to illuminate your painting. Any cheap articulated lamp will do, and it helps even more than you think.
5. Don’t buy things you don’t want to paint. If you want to have a good time painting, then paint something you find beautiful. With the glut of skirmish games in the market right now there are many companies with extremely poorly designed, or downright ugly miniatures. I'm not inclined to care how great a system rule-set is, how beautiful people may claim the miniatures are, or if a particular model is really strong on the tabletop. If you don’t like them, don’t spend hours of your life on them.
6. Don’t buy more miniatures then you can paint. Trust me, I know how hard this is. But having a legion of things that need painting is going to hurt your enjoyment more than anything, and turn an otherwise enjoyable painting session into a small part of a massive slog towards completion. Unless you’re doing big batches with simple techniques like airbrushing/washes where you can see progress being made extremely quickly, be conservative with your painting goals. One unit at a time, reward yourself with a character between them , put away any miniatures that need painting so they’re not out in the open guilting you. Don't assemble things you won't be able to paint right away. Don’t spend loads of money in one go, regardless of how good the price is. A personal rule of thumb for me is to buy, assemble, and paint only one box at a time, be it a character, vehicle, or unit. You get to enjoy your painting more and you save money, it's win-win!

Technique

Given that I'm not an expert painter this section is quite basic, but I hope still applicable to everyone getting a bit more joy out of their painting. However feel free to skip it if you're already a strong painter!

1. Spend time on assembly, clean all mould lines, pin things that need pinning. With modular options think about natural-looking yet dynamic poses. Add some details to your bases like rocks, etc. There is no point beautifully painting a miniature that was slapped together in a few minutes. Conversely, a clean and well posed/assembled miniature will make even a basic paint job looks miles better. This is the reason I stopped buying second-hand figures. 90% of people are not thoughtful in their assembly, and the effort and time to salvage their careless work is not worth the reduction in cost.
2. Choose a primer colour that will help you paint your chosen colour scheme. Using a black primer for a brightly coloured force that has a lot of yellow (for example) is just adding hours to your painting, whereas its a great decision if your painting lot of metallics since they cover nicely over black. Conversely using a light primer with darker colours will make more work for you, as any mistakes will stand out much more and you'll need to basecoat and shade more extensively. Grey is a nice middle ground if you have a mix of dark/light colours. For other colours outside of these three I recommend using an airbrush basecoat over one of them rather than a colour primer.
3. Using a little plinth of some kind for painting is often quite useful. It isn't always strictly necessary but having a magnet on the bottom of your figures and sticking them on a wine cork with a penny glued on top can help with accessing hard to reach points. Alternatively if you are pinning your model to their base, consider painting the base and figure separately and just sticking the figure into a wine cork while painting it. This is a must for metal or resin figures since paint layers can easily rub off on your hands.
4. Thin your paints. People always say this but you have no idea how true it is until you do it. Just water is fine for most applications and it won’t affect coverage if you’re using a good basecoat paint. How much you need to thin depends on application, but for basecoating you should need to do two coats for good coverage of anything that isn't extra-opaque like the Vallejo line or GW base paints.  Glaze medium is an exceptional thinner for when you want to reduce how opaque paint is in order to have it pool in the recesses like a wash, enhance how easy it is to blend a paint, or just washing over a series of layers to tie them together.
5. Basecoat carefully. Unless you are doing advanced shading and highlighting the need to put down a clean basecoat of a single colour over your primer before doing anything else is really important. If your basecoat is neatly done then everything else is gravy and the model will still look good almost regardless of what follows. It should all feel downhill after a good basecoat.
6. Washes are your friend. Most people already know it, but for the sake of any truly new painters, washes go a long way to adding depth to your models. Bonus points if you use a bit of glaze medium to make their colour go on smoother. A careful and clean basecoat with a wash or two is probably the best place to start for a beginner painter on your average line-trooper. Keep it neat and keep it simple. Once your comfortable with that you can step it up to the magical formula of basecoat, wash, basecoat on raised areas, higlight/basecoat mix for highlights, which is more than adequate for the majority of hobbyists out there.
7. Less is more when it comes to paint. Keep things simple with a handful of colors and only 1-3 pots of paint for each. Repeat simple techniques and shade down or higlight up by mixing rather than introducing tons of different paints. Remember that black is not a color and doesn't clash with any scheme, so if a figure has a lot extraneous details like equipment hanging all over it consider just painting the extra stuff black to keep the visuals clean.
8. Paint your bases last. If you mess up the colour and get it on the miniature's feet it’s a lot less noticeable than the reverse scenario.
9. Varnish your paint-job. With plastic miniatures this is only necessary at the end, but with metal or resin I would suggest at least three coats of varnish: one after your primer, one after your basecoat, and one when its finished. There's nothing worse than having your hard work get rubbed off when you are painting or playing.

Mindset

1. Plan your painting in advance and use test models if you want to try a new color scheme. Think carefully about how your colours will look and check out how they relate on a colour wheel. Consider in advance how you will base your figure and what its visual interaction with your colour-scheme will be. Also be sure to write down your paint scheme as it develops so that if you come back to a particular scheme down the road you can retain consistency.
2. With each miniature, know what quality of painting you’re aiming for from the outset. Don't try to paint line troops like your character models and vice versa. Make sure your expectations align with your skillset. Knowing when to put down the brush is just as important as being able to paint like a golden demon winner. When it comes to line troops remember that quantity is its own form of quality, so most of us can keep it simple.
3. Keep pushing yourself to make painting interesting. If you are not enjoying your painting try employing a new technique. Try painting a different model in some new colours, or a one-off figure from a totally different system or army. Always try to incorporate something into what you are doing that challenges you. Try a bit of weathering on your vehicles or armor, or try some blending on a character model.
4. Take the advice of people who are good painters. This doesn't mean you have to do everything they say. But really try to absorb it and think about how you can apply it to your next project. I despise coming back to a model I feel is “finished” so I never implement any criticism I get immediately, but I will always internalize any feedback I receive and keep it in mind for the next figure.
5. Know when to step away from the painting desk. If you are ever frustrated or finding you are not enjoying yourself just stop and do something else for at least 15 minutes. Stretch, go for a walk, talk to some friends. Its just not worth harming your mental state to finish a miniature, and if you push yourself like this its only going to reinforce whatever you dislike about the process. Additionally, if you are frustrated with a paint job just step away and don't look at it for a day. Coming back with a fresh pair of eyes is far better than going back and forth and agonizing over things.
6. Don’t play if it’s not painted. Another tough rule to follow that goes hand in hand with “don’t buy too much”, as the less models you have awaiting painting the less likely you are to try and field them. The payoff, however, is absolutely worth it in my mind. Being able to put a fully-painted army on the tabletop gives a cathartic pleasure in and of itself, and contributes immeasurably to the enjoyment and visual immersion one gets out of the game. If both armies are painted then you get a beautiful, immersive and far more characterful game out of your chosen system. Alternatively if you’re playing against an opponent with an unpainted force then you have already won, dice rolls be damned.

I hope this wasn't too pedantic from someone whose clearly only an average (if that) painter. Then again I think its precisely because i'm average that my words might be a bit more relevant to most of the hobbyists out there.

Happy painting all, and thank you for reading!

Warmachine Cygnar Army 2011-2013

This Cygnar army marks what I’d consider my first real commitment to the miniature hobby, in that I was actively playing Warmachine games as I worked my way through these models and painted them. That said, the span of time it took them to reach this state was positively glacial. I recall painting my starter box immediately after finishing the empire army three years ago.

These were initial color scheme tests that I later went back and repainted over to bring them in line with the rest of the force. I also added highlights to the jacks.

My brother also bought an old Menoth starter so we could play games together. I painted these fairly quickly and didn’t get too bothered about the final result. Pretty basic stuff but I can’t bring myself to sell it off and its worth next to nothing now anyways.

pNemo has a special place in my heart for being the first miniature I felt I’d painted to a high standard and was very satisfied with. Unfortunately he’s an extremely fragile warcaster on the table and not very competitive, and I’d posit my frequent use of him (at least partially) contributed to my huge losing streak with Warmachine. More generally I think I only very recently started to grasp the mechanics of the game properly and be a truly competitive player, but unfortunately this happened right after I’d come to grips with Infinity, which I’d now consider my primary game.

This gunmage UA represents the first time I was really happy with my highlighting, having just discovered glazing. (wet blending remains a bit beyond me at the moment)

Siege was one of the first figures I painted after moving to England in fall of 2013, and came after a several-month break in painting. For all that I think he turned out alright and is a lot more fun on the table than pNemo.

Kraye was painted very recently and I think he effectively represents my current ability to paint warmachine figures. He’s such a large and detailed figured that it took me far longer than my usual “5 hours per figure” rule but I’m relatively happy with the result.

There are still a small handful of pieces I need to get around to painting. In particular there is a stormclad that I undercoated two years ago which is still guilting me about not being painted yet! I also recently built an eCaine blister which I’d had lying around for ages, and between eCaine, Siege, and Kraye I’m hoping to have my three primary casters.