Tired of half-naked ladies.

[Coyote]

I\'m a guy, I like porn.

But I got to say, I\'m getting insanely sick of the half-naked warrior chick crap.

I know other people have complained before. However, I haven\'t looked at as many miniatures from as many different makers as I have here, and I can say that even when beautifully painted by Jennifer Haley, I\'m getting sick of it.

Anyway, rant over.

 

[Chrispy]

Don\'tcha remember Chrispy\'s law of games #204? Warrior chicks can gaurd themselves better than men, hence the lack of armor (or anything else for that matter).

 

[Bent Brush]

Well there are a lot of them here.
But I ain\'t complaining.
I remember back in the seventies when pretty much all there was were naked chicks.

I like porn. I like painting. I can\'t paint chicks like that. And it is nice to know that some one is kind enough to share them with everyone.

I have voted on every mini on tihis site and the naked chicks in no way out number the crappy painted Space Marines and crappy painted orks.

So hey bring on the chicks.

:moon:

 

[Craftergoddess]

Venting!

Half-naked chicks.

Let me start this by saying that I\'m a woman. (And I still get referred as \'guy\' or \'he\' now and then in comments, but I\'m not taking offense.) I\'m currently 26, soon 27. So I\'ve seen a thing or two by now, and this is the perspective I use to observe the world.

In 2001 I browsed through *every* manufacturer\'s catalogue I could find online, by using the excellent list provided by The Miniatures Page, and frankly, what I discovered was.... highly disappointing.

Granted, like Bent Brush said, \'I have voted on every mini on tihis site and the naked chicks in no way out number the crappy painted Space Marines and crappy painted orks\', is very true on its own, and merits a rant of its own as well (but I\'m not going to vent my spleen about that), along with rants about \'big guns and what do they really mean; is it true that sometimes a gun is just a gun\' and so on.

What disappointed me in manufacturer catalogues was the lack of diversity (I\'ll talk about Reaper soon). Click a page. Look, it is a half-naked barbie with big boobs. Click another page. Another half-naked barbie with hooters. Click. Click. Click. Click. Hundreds of unreal women with perky bodily parts, wearing nothing but some meager straps of leather, or chainmail bikinis. And I *did not* at that point discover those three or four lines/manufacturers that had fetish miniatures (i.e. chicks in bondage gear).

If I look at what I could get if I was playing a human wizard, I could have \'beared guy\', \'young bookish guy\', \'a warrior wizard\', \'an elderly man without a beard\', \'a sickly wizard\', \'a scantly clad shamanistic wizard lad\' and so on.

As a female wizard, my options -- based on this catalogue browse -- were pretty much limited to \'barbie with boobs\' or \'barbie in robes\'. I could not have \'a wise crone\' miniature; portrayals of elderly women were *without exception* on hostile terms. A hag. An evil witch. An evil old woman with an expression \'I am going to carve your heart out and then eat it\'. I could not have \'a grandmotherly, plumpy lady wizard\'; it seems to be a taboo to portray ladies with some meat on their bones. A miniature that looks like a woman in their 40s was also straight out -- be young, be pretty, do not look older than 25 (wrinkles *are* possible to do on a 28 mm miniature, after all). A shamaness, voodoo lady, bookish lady, nerdy lady -- all these were extremely scarce or absent as well.

\'But CG\', someone might think, \'this is a man\'s hobby! There ain\'t much women in this!\'

Oh yeah? What about our big names, J. Haley and S. Garrity, for example?

Would you *like* that there were more women painting miniatures?

White Wolf managed to get a flood of women into roleplaying games. How come miniature manufacturers couldn\'t attempt the same? Women *have* money, too.

\'But CG, who would *buy* such miniatures, old women and whatnot?\'

Me. My gaming group. There\'s a whole mailing list -- \'Women in Gaming\' -- where discussion about this raged. At Usenet newsgroup rec.games.frp.dnd as well.

I do not seek to *ban* naked chicks or screech how they are *so evil*. I just want to see *diversity*. Just like there\'s plenty of diversity in the real world (Quick: calculate how many barbie women you\'ve met in the real world -- in person, known them longer than for a minute, celebrities seen on TV or magazines do not count -- and then compare it to the number of non-barbie women you know).

And in the end, I\'d like to thank Reaper miniatures (especially Sandra Garrity) for offering me more than half-naked chicks.

Couldn\'t New Wave (or whoever) do a special line, or a special edition of 10 miniatures or so in a pack, with \'diverse types of women\'? I\'d order a pack. No, make it three.

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Gee I started the same argument at rec.games.mecha... why is it that women are anywhere from three percent to sevent percent of all players. yes those are the numbers folks, from recent polls. Is this better than it was some years back? Nope.

There are several reasons, but one of them might be the barbies with glaives, swords or other acrutements of warfare and no armor. There are plenty others and as a woman, involved in the industry, I do wish that some of this changes. Why? Well we are 51% of the market... and to a point I have refused to paint some of those amazing women with boobs.

Now thansk for reminding me of that wonderful women\'s studies course in college, where the prof brought out the women in bondage set from Ral Partha... oh I spent the next two class sessions defending the hobby from what seemed to be pretty good evidence that women were best case second class citizens.

Ok, rant off... maybe another usenet group to subscribe to now.

;-)

Nadin, and yes I am a she!

 

[Aschul]

Yeah, tired of these half-naked women. I mean, where are the *fully-naked* women??

...sorry, couldn\'t resist

 

[Craftergoddess]

Over here where I live (which would be Finland, by the way), the female gamer population is pretty huge -- in our yearly RPG con (Ropecon -- http://ropecon.roolipeli.net/ -- the site is down this weekend for maintenance) we have about 25-~40% female attendance.

LARPs are especially popular, but normal tabletopping also gathers plenty of female players. Several organizers of the \'con-- and the one who handles miniature events -- are female. This for some additional background information

And the reason why I was browsing through the catalogues, was because I wanted to write an article to a feminist publication about the state of the hobby. Oh yeah, those Ral Partha classics. \'The Slave Auction\' and \'Silver and Steel\' series. \'The Slave Auction\', by the way, features those \'fully-naked women\', so do some other RP miniatures from their \'classics\' series.

Just let me restate my thoughts; I\'m not trying to make these miniatures go away. I just want that there\'s more choices available for those who do not want to play a cheesecake babe with implants.

One of the reasons why miniature hobby seems to be regarded as \'no-life, no-good loser-geek hobby\' at times seems to be because of perceived immaturity in presentation and the state of gender-balance. I.e. cheesecake and beefcake. Babes waiting to be rescued, big half-clad blokes with weapons that no longer hint being phallistic, but *scream* it out loud.

Now, my own notes about the situation and its development here in Finland; this is not a scientific study, although at one point in my student career I attempted to write one:

In 80s, roleplaying over here was regarded as \'an oddity\'; several newspaper articles ran about it and alleged connections with Satanism. At this point the hobby became popular amongst people who

a) had been exchange students in USA
b) had read about the gaming hobby in magazines/comics which were aimed at male audience or
c) newspaper articles which were heavily biased (i.e. \'This game kills!\' declared the headline of one notable nation-wide newspaper in 1984) against gaming.

In early 90s, Satanic panic breezed by (a translated version of Patricia Pulling\'s \'The Demon\'s Web\' was published in 1993). At this point, gaming was still a male hobby, but contacts increased from previous three to
a) exchange students
b) comics/magazines aimed at male audience
c) less biased TV and newspaper documentaries and
d) BBS/Usenet/early WWW; access to these was extremely limited for those who were 18 or younger (schools did not support networking like they do nowdays).

At this point, LARPing became more popular and more visible; it started to attract females to gaming.

The first Ropecon was in 1994, in the area in the middle of capital city. Roughly ~1500-1700 roleplayers arrived at the scene, and in the park opposite of the con area people had several mock-battles with boffer weapons.

In late 90s, a female player in a TT gaming group was no longer a total oddity. LARPs were openly advertised in newspapers, and plenty of positive coverage was given; the ratio of negative reviews vs positive reviews became the victory of positive reviews.

As e-mail and WWW became more available, easier to use, along with cellular technology, contacts to RPG hobby expanded again. Now people were able to
a) read about roleplaying from everyday newspapers, local newspapers, even *women\'s magazines* -- I\'ve seen some featuring heavily LARP/medieval-themed clothes for women of all ages,
b) see documentaries about RPGs (heavily LARP-biased, though, as they tend to make a better show),
c) access mailing lists, WWW-pages; maintain contacts with other players via IRC, ICQ, cellular phones, e-mail,
d) other students,
e) roleplaying in the \'net (MUDs, MUSHes, MUXes)

Several newspaper articles and television interviews also featured miniature hobbyists; Tuomas Pirinen, for example, was interviewed for his work at Games Workshop and he had a chance to show several well-painted miniatures in a popular morning television show.

At this point, I think it is justified to say that roleplaying ceased to be a fringe hobby and became popular enough to be in \'mainstream\' (although still less mainstream than sports, for example).

Now -- how to increase the amount of acceptance of a hobby? If any conclusions can be made about RPGs, one of the keys for this seems to be -- *ta-dah* --

GETTING MORE WOMEN INTO THE HOBBY.

Increase visibility. Women are good at doing that. How to get more women into a hobby? Make sure that everyone has fun.

What makes things fun? White Wolf hit the spot with altering nouns, less tittage in pictures, the right amount of thrills, erotic stuff and themes. Why miniature hobby couldn\'t do it? After all -- both RPGs and miniatures do share lots of same audience. Many RPGs (such as D&D3E) also almost beg for use of miniatures. Lots of magazines have been targetted at female audience -- what\'s the topic? Arts, crafts. What is it that we, the converters and painters of miniatures do? Arts, crafts.

Now, see where this is heading to?

Start crackin\' those surveys about miniatures! Ask the female gaming population what they feel about current state of miniatures. Ask for improvements. Ask what interests them. Heck, I just recently poured $450 into Reaper miniatures. Figure out what *they* are doing right, dearest manufacturers, and start developing ideas when you get the results. I\'m vetoing to the need for money, to get what I want -- more diverse female miniatures. I don\'t have enough time to sculpt everything, and your sculptors need to eat, too!

 

[Coyote]

I\'m not even complaining about this in regards to scaring women away from the hobby. I\'m not sexist, I don\'t run sexist RPGs and don\'t limit classes based on sex.

My favorite RPG is definately set in a Matriarcal Society, where are the \"Avatars\" of the \"Goddess\" are facets of woman kind.

Joan the Warrior
Tera Sheba the Wise
Baba Yaga the Crone
Eva the Mother
Mary the Forgiver
Agnes the Child
Magdalen the Lover
Dahlia the Trickster
with the 1 male Avatar being both: Joshua The Ravager, and dead.

It\'s like CG said, it\'s a lack of diversity.

It\'s also the lack of creativity and realism.

 

[Bent Brush]

Here comes do not read if easily offended.

Please consider this. (Warning do not read if easily offended)

Of the gamers you know how many really want a mini that looks like them?

I go to the game store and predominantly I see Huge Overweight Males, and the females, also huge overweight, what do they dream of? Huge over weight male figs? I think not.

No what they think if is lithe slim attractive females and picture themselves as strong attractive males.

Males and Females want different things out of their games. I\'ll not go there. I\'ll not say that sexism, Racism, Bigotism of any sort is bad when portrayed correctly in a game.

Through out the Fairy tales that we grow up on that these games sprang from the Evil woman is either attractive or a crone. The hero is strong and well equipped.

For those that say it is not this way for females then just pick up any of the harlequin Romance novels and read them one or twice. Apply the same stereotypes to the characters and see how accurate they are.

If I want a crone I paint one if I feel that 40\'s middle aged woman is going to play a major part in the story I\'ll rethink the situation. Mainly because this is a FANTASY even if it is in the future it is a mental trip that you WANT to go on. And a trip you want to take others on.

Right, Wrong, or indifferent, this is the way it is. At least in EVERY Game store I have ever been in, here in the USA.

 

[Bent Brush]

Originally posted by Craftergoddess

White Wolf hit the spot with altering nouns,

Sure rather than be sexist one way go sexist the other, that makes it all better.

I personaly am waiting for the time when books are written as neither male nor female. I prefer the pronoun game than giving a rule book a sex.

Toss out the sexism all together.

Populate your fantasies to your taste and enjoy yourself.

 

[Craftergoddess]

I\'m currently discussing with a friend in a MUSH; she just started painting, and asked for good hints, good recommendations, and so on. (Referred to this site\'s painting guides and stuff, too)

She mentioned the miniature she was painting; Reaper\'s Alvhaera -- and I remarked that I have the same miniature. And the discussion moved onwards. I\'ll quote (omitting the names, though.)

<Me> grins. Question -- how do you like Reaper\'s miniatures in general?
<She> says, \"Very much so. Particularly Sandra Garrity.\"
<Me> hehs. She\'s my favorite too
<Me> says, \"Can you specify anything why they catch your fancy?\"
<She> says, \"Their female minis tend to be cool. They also seem more realistically proportioned and don\'t have HUGE BOOBS EVERYWHERE.\"
<She> says, \"They look more like real women, not like they\'re trying to seduce whoever\'s painting them.\"
<She> wells, some of Garrity\'s probably have large boobs, but they look like they exist as something other than love interests/war prizes?

Moving onwards.

Question 1: Of the gamers you know how many really want a mini that looks like them? I go to the game store and predominantly I see Huge Overweight Males, and the females, also huge overweight, what do they dream of? Huge over weight male figs? I think not.

Answer 1: Gee. How many? I don\'t know. I asked couple of friends of mine to pose (clothed) for miniature ideas; I didn\'t hear objections. My friends are gamers; some of them fit within \'currently trendy and approved norms of body types\', some of them do not. Are we /that/ discomfortable with ourselves, when we do not fullfill some fantastic expectation placed upon us by the media which churns out a nobody-with-a-pretty-body, one after another?

Q2: Just because a stereotype exists, does it mean that it has to be repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated?

A2: Pardon me, but the \'evil hag of the fairy-tales\' does not fly. If we clung to sheer stereotypical thinking -- well, I\'ll leave it as an exercise of imagination regarding *other* stereotypes that exist in literature. (I\'d rather not start a discussion about this as it can get very, very nasty and disruptive)

\'Right or wrong, this is the way it is\' equals to giving up in front of a problem; wishing that it would go away. It will not go away. One day the change *will* happen.

For a war-gaming audience the issue of elderly and such probably carries little, if no meaning. (Under the protective layer of armor everyone\'s equal, especially with visors down.) But I\'m speaking from a tabletop roleplaying perspective; gaming, as a hobby *did* change in 90s.

Right -- so what sort of games would call for grandmotherly women, old women, women of different looks, bodies?

Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Changeling: the Dreaming, Mage: the Ascension, Wraith: the Oblivion -- just from the White Wolf block. With D&D3E, and change in its tone, I can quite easily see myself playing such character. A mother turned to warrior, and so on. BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth); elderly figures of tremendous power are staple in anime. Ars Magica. Pendragon. Tribe 8 (with its matriarchal societies). Harn. Blue Planet. Earthdawn. Little Fears. Kult. Call of Cthulhu. Amber. In Nomine. Wheel of Time. Aberrant (how does that pimply-faced geeky girl deal with the fact that despite her looks, she has the Mega-Charisma power?).

And finally -- GURPS Discworld and Terry Pratchett\'s Discworld series. If Granny Weatherwax (wise, but a bitter crone), Nanny Ogg (an enormous elderly woman with a massive libido), Magrat (first no-one, then the queen of Lancre, then a mother and warrioress) and Agnes (Magrat\'s student; a woman with a weight problem and dual-personality) aren\'t non-cliche women, exact opposites of dream-factory-Hollywood products, but women with *solid* personalities, something to give to the game world... eh.

I said, I\'m 26, almost 27. I\'ve been gaming roleplaying games since 1990; as the years go by, the interest to play a cute fluffy bunny-perfect-perky body wanes. (Especially after I started playing in MU*s. GYAH! See http://pub37.ezboard.com/ftastelessdescsfrm1 -- you\'ll discover what I mean...)

Yeah. I have had characters who have been OH MY GOD, BEAUTIFUL. But I\'ve also had characters with average looks, nothing out of ordinary, and that has been as much fun as those others.

Not everyone plays in a fantasy or sci-fi environment; there are people who play in modern settings, or in more medieval settings (no magic, for example).

Not everyone wants to play a \'Mary Sue\' all the time (see http://missy.reimer.com/library/marysue.html); just because the character I play is not perfect, it doesn\'t mean that the character is drab, disinteresting, just like the *perceived* me (see http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/05/050602t_beauty.jhtml), just because I have a body which does not match with the expectations I could never achieve without going through a genetic reengineering and rebirth.

I will not have a slender, delicate body; thousands of years of northern evolution have given me broad shoulders, sturdy, strong frame. My eyes are of the wrong hue for today\'s trend; I can\'t wear contacts. My hair requires constant dyeing if I wish to keep up with the fashion, and it doesn\'t take it well. Henna is about the best I can use.

And once again, I repeat: no one is taking or asking to take away the pretty, half-naked, model-thin women. What we want is diversity. More choices.

My Significant Other has an excellent term for this sort of situation: The Mint Ice Cream Dilemma. This is how it works:
1) There is no mint ice cream (of real cream) in the freezers of Finnish stores.
2) When we asked about the possibility of having mint ice cream to the store, the reply was \'It does not sell!\'
3) Mint ice cream has never been available in stores, but it has been possible to purchase it in the summer, from small kiosks selling mint ice cream (straight from the factory; similiar to the 5 litre boxes of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream you can buy from those stores). As far as I\'ve seen, mint ice cream is amongst four best-selling types.
4) Conclusion: Mint ice cream does not sell in stores because you can\'t buy it from the stores, and they do not order it because it does not sell.

If there are no alternatives, how they could possibly sell? Heck. Get Sandra Garrity to sculpt one, and Haley to paint it, and let\'s see about how marketable those ideas get.

---------------------------------------------------
Addendum regarding the latest post which popped up while I was still typing my reply:

I am not sure if you know what you mean; White Wolf\'s \'alternating nouns\' *never* meant \'use she only\', but they have a blend of he-she in proper context of the gaming books. If you do not believe me, I\'ll gently ask you to recheck your books and sources for the confirmation of this. The current White Wolf\'s \'Writer\'s Guideline\' (available through their website) states:

* Gender-bending fun: Pay attention to the way we handle sexist language in our products. Use \"humanity\" or \"humankind\" or \"people\" instead of \"mankind.\" Alternate genders when using third-person singular pronouns in nonspecific manners. Try to write in the plural to avoid the situation, but do not force yourself to do so. Eventually it just sounds silly to write \"their\" all the time.

Since I collect lots and lots WW stuff (and game it as well), I can confirm that they stick to this, and have done so from the beginning (I\'ve the 1st printings of the 5 core books).

 

[Errex]

I\'m a modeller...

So, my point of view reflects that specific mind set.

I go to a store, pick a mini, and then try to paint it as close as my idea of beauty as I can, so, naturally I tend not to waste my time and money in ugly or uninspiring minis.

So, for me, painting a half-clad armored vixen is my way of expressing respect and admiration for all the female gamers out there, because I know that deep down, these female gamers would want to be Armored Barbie.

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well, here is the point. Who are the ones involved in gaming? Well for the most part the people who buy the most are the 14 year old males. That said, one reason why more women do not get involved in gaming in the states... at least in my experience, prevailing attitudes. Some of the culture will have to change, but change is dificult. I have been on the receiving end of that plenty of times.

Now there are some bright spots now. As more and more women start working in the industry, our point of view enters into the mix, so I have hope that things will change!

As to the sculptures, well even those are starting to change, aka Garrity, I love her work too, btw.

nadin

 

[The Raging Gaijin]

Half Nekkid Chicks

Below are my thoughts, as many have prolly seen in Mini-Painter. But it\'s good to reiterate and reply to specific posts.

<< If I look at what I could get if I was playing a human wizard, I could have \'beared guy\', \'young bookish guy\', \'a warrior wizard\', \'an elderly man without a beard\', \'a sickly wizard\', \'a scantly clad shamanistic wizard lad\' and so on. >>

One thing that will stand out for this genre, among many, is the stereotype. When an old woman is portrayed as an evil witch, it is our heritage that is being brought to the forefront; Hansel and Gretel weren\'t killed by plump matron. It\'s the personification of Evil. And the personification of the wizards as old with beards shows Wisdom, women with an ample bosom are beautiful, etc. (The more endowed a woman is, the more our instinctual drive will kick in too. They are advertisements for fertility and it\'s natures way of saying \"I\'ll provide my part...\")
Nothing ill is meant when portraying these stereotypes, and certain trends were set back in the early days of RPing by the consumers; mainly me and my nerdy group of Outcasts. The consumer group has changed over the years as RRing of all sorts has gone mainstream, and with it will come the changes to the product. As Reaper will attest.

The lack of diversity will change as older models are put out to pasture and newer, more up to date models are created. Rome wasn\'t built in a day, neh?

<<\'But CG\', someone might think, \'this is a man\'s hobby! There ain\'t much women in this!\'

Oh yeah? What about our big names, J. Haley and S. Garrity, for example?>>

Unfortunately two names does not a populace make. But with Anne Foerster, who paints for War Gods, and other upcoming painters coming to the fore, women will be entering the gaming populace with a bang. And Haley alone has drawing power; Dark Age was smart to put the top drawing Ebay artist on their payroll. She\'s a fan of Brom and inspired to boot, so what she paints will be Kick Ass. And further inspire more women to paint as well. You gotta have role models to inspire or it\'s a tougher road.
I am in agreement with Bent Brush that people want an idealization of what they are as PCs. I\'m sure that as I have grown as an RPer so will they, and they\'ll grow to accept themselves and seek character development instead of character portrayal. (If that\'s not the case, I\'m in trouble. I play a Half-Orc more oft than not...) But until that growth, you\'ll see men with beefy muscles and women with the bods.

I don\'t play games where the nouns are predominately female. I\'m offended by it; it\'s pandering to a vocal minority while attempting to emasculate. There\'s enough androgyny. The books that split up pronouns are okay as they look at it from both Points Of View. Conversely, if you are offended that \'he\' is the only pronoun used, why wouldn\'t a male be offended by the use of \'she\'?

As for White Wolf, they were very female empowering, which is Kick Ass in my book. Black Furies and their fluff/history/stories are empowering to the female gender. (Sometimes a little too much, but...)
IMO there shouldn\'t be the stripping of gender identity but the celebration of it. We are who we are genetically, and trying to change it socially will only bring about further confusion.

One poster wrote about Terry Pratchett and that man has, using humor, turned the idea of Wicked Witch on it\'s head. I say \'Bravo\' Mr. Pratchett! He has taken the stereotype and killed it with a sledgehammer, and shown a large audience how to think outside of the box.

I saw a post about posing. I\'m currently in Art school and have Figure Study classes where models pose in the nude. The human body is a beautiful thing in all of its forms; be it skinny, fat, tall or short. Problem is that Mass Media has created its own current stereotype of what \'beauty\' is. (And apperently you have to starve yourself or get on heroin to look it.) Many of us know what beauty is and don\'t need to look at a fashion magazine to find it. However some don\'t and get their ideas from Mass Media. (And if you look at the majority of Fashion mags out there, the Editors are females. Ladies, you\'re doing it to yourselves...) Money talks, and as long as people are buying it, it\'ll sell. We speak with our pocket books as well.

And people do hear you. Look to the Reaper for your effect. I personally did concept sketches for New Wave\'s Miniature Creation Contest of women that didn\'t fit the \'Barbie concept\'. One was of a Celtic Ice Witch with a natural physique while the other was of a dessicated, mummified body. Barbie NonExistant.

Bottom line: Continue speaking up and keep your voice heard. You will eventually see change. Just don\'t be suprised when some people ask you to keep it down.

And don\'t expect me to sit quietly if I think my own Male Rights are being quashed to please pendants. I\'ll make a Get of Fenris look like a sissy! *grin*

The Raging Gaijin
Loves Women in all states of un/dress

 

[Bent Brush]

Originally posted by The Raging Gaijin
I am in agreement with Bent Brush ........

No way I must be losing my touch.

Well Ladies and Gentelmen I\'ll not be continuing this post as it will solve nothing but generate hurt feelings.

Sorry Craftergoddess not intending to insult.



But as a parting shot... please vote on what mini you would like for the mini painting contest. Currently it is a SI fi male in 1st and a Fantasy Female in second. http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=165

 

[Lowrianne]

Errex,

You might think we want to be an \"Armoured Barbie\" but are so way off it is sickening. Get a life!

As for alternate minis... I would love a slightly round, grandmotherly type for my D&D3rd sorceress character. It would be perfect for her!

OTOH, I have painted the mostly naked dancing girls (not too well, though) and have a succubus to paint, too. I like the sexy ones, but I would like ones to game with too.

To Bent Brush,
I am very impressed that you are going to all the trouble to sculpt for the CMON contest. Thank you.

 

[ZaPhOd]

Ummm er yeah.

Yes. Well you see, I like my share of Heavy Metal mags and such but I gotta tell you, Kevin Sorbo could beat the crap out of Lucy Lawless any day. In fact, I think Xena is the second cheesiest show on TV (next to Relic Hunter). As for the female semi-naked minis, well my biggest beef is that I don\'t have any to paint as they are heavily biased in the voting for whatever reason that your typical immature unbalanced voter\'s mind has...
I too am sick of seeing them. And space marines. And Wookies (I mean wolfen Craig), and Celtois, and busts and huge scale (non) miniatures.....
Yours in tinyness, Glyn

 

[sivousplay]

Adding my 2 cents

Well, I think diversity is the key to making most anything enjoyable. I was just looking over the past 9 figs I\'d posted and found that actually it\'s not just the ladies that are half-naked ... they are:

1). Tanath - half naked man
2). Cherubael - half naked daeomonhost
3&4). Nemain - half naked lady
5). Orion - half naked ???
6). Queen Eaobhinn - half naked lady
7). 3 Rackham barbarians - half naked men
8). Niddhogg the Wyrm - fully naked dragon
9). Birthright Spider - fully naked

Hmmmm .... maybe there\'s not so much diversity after all. Not much clothing on any of them.

But seriously, in a fantasy world, the weapons, armor, wands, AND bodies are all apart of the fantasy. Yes, we could spend our times painting (and playing) characters like ourselves, but we do that every day in the real world. When I embark on a fantasy setting, I like to get a little escapism, and the fantastic figures only aid in making sure that we\'re all quite certain that the world we\'re playing in is fantastic.

jim

 

[Coyote]

Right, but I want my share of hot chicks in full armour.

 

[Jericho]

Perhaps you need to take a look at the Sisters of Battle line from GW... the only skin you ever see is on the faces. And they look damn good too.

Just don\'t wander into the Dark Elf section... the Harpies are basically naked women, on a cold day, with the treasure trail leading all the way up their chest. It\'s the wierdest combination I have seen in quite a while... and no one I have met is pleased with it.

Aside from that and the new Daemonettes (6 breasts a piece, they look like sows), GW has a really good record when it comes to female models keeping their clothes on. A lot of the stuff is basically nuns with big weapons and armor; it fits the gothic, heavily spiritual background well. All in all one of my favored companies when it comes to female figs.