Ok Devious, Don't Move!

As I hinted earlier, my general for my Normans is none other than Bishop Odo, the memorable club-wielding, tapestry-commissioning ecclesiastical relative of William the Conqueror. My depiction is based on 5 minutes looking at the Bayeux tapestry on the net, then painting him purple as it's the most expensive colour available back in the day (I think).

HIC EST ODO

If I start feeling adventurous in my conversions, I might try to make a chap to hold his crook, but that requires me to make an effort of some sort.

The horse is not happy with the current state of affairs.

In the time between battle report posts, my brushes have not been idle. I have now finished 40 foot, who make a rather splendid shieldwall, even if one of them needs a sword before he ranks up properly. Displayed below are a representative sample of my efforts, and I am assured that pink was a common colour in the early middle ages. The rainbow flag not so much, it was supposed to be based on one by the excellent Wargaming Girl, but on closer inspection I realise it's completely different. Sorry.

The pink shirt brigade in all their butch glory

My other social-justice-warrior triumph has been the discovery of Annie Norman's Believable Female Miniatures, a noble crusade to provide alternatives to over sexualised women on the gaming table.There's a lot I've got to say on this topic, but I feel a feminist rant deserves it's own blog post, so I will keep this post to pics and comments about models.

I'm not entirely convinced by the face, but am too scared to mess up the rest of the paint job.

My first Reasonable Female is Autumn by Heresy miniatures, who is a lovely pose (stiffly formal but anatomically possible), textured and detailed but without so many bags and pouches that you get bored, and lots of ups and downs which make painting a joy.

Back added to show the cloak, of which I am rather proud

I also bought all four resin shieldmaidens. They are very decidedly hand-made, so are a little crude, but with far more personality than you get from CAD. The rough faces are also a blessing. One of the worst things about the patriarchy is that a woman's most important attribute is her appearance, so it's nice to see some ugly women having fun for once!

Yes, the Dice Bag Lady's sheildmaidens can be adapted for the 11th centuary too!

Progress is also being made on my Impetvs bases, which I have now marked to indicate where the models will stand, and do not need to be covered in grit/flock/static grass. Hopefully should get down to the actual gluing on Saturday.

Artsy shot of my various Normans being based for Impetvs

To round things off, JoeySpike and I have been at the dice again, and there are a couple of battle reports to post...