From the painting desk #40 – Pirate queen
May 28, 2016I’m back from five weeks of travel (more on that in a later post), and it’s time to get this show on the road again. What better way to do it than by showing off a new, painted miniature?
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The miniature in question is Melisande Wavecutter, a female pirate by Reaper Miniatures. Lovely mini and great fun to paint! She’ll be leading one of my pirate crews, and I’ve dubbed her “the pirate queen” in my head. Her relaxed but no-nonsense pose makes her a wonderful leader figure. I also like the fact that she’s not sporting the “breasts out, bikini bottoms and thigh-high boots” common to most female pirate miniatures. That’s why I tend to browse through Bad Squiddo Games’ Believable female miniatures collection if I’m on the lookout for a smartly dressed female mini.
I went for a Spanish look, with dark hair and a skintone that was a touch darker than the one I normally use. I stuck to strong colours, but a fairly simple paintjob. This was my first time using a wet palette, and as I hadn’t been painting lately, I decided to devote some more attention to blending than normal. I hope it shows in the end result, at least I’m happy with it myself! The glaring mould line in the hat is luckily a trick of the light and not really as visible as in the photo. I don’t usually paint facial detail apart from the occasional beard stubble, but here I tried adding a touch of colour to the lips to make the character that extra bit more feminine.
It’s really fun to be back to blogging and painting, so expect to see a lot more in the future, including the usual Salute shopping report.
Dawn of the Lead 
She is lovely mate – great colour choice and tone, very nicely executed, and so nice to see a sensibly represented female character. Good to have you back 🙂
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Thanks for the nice words Alex, great to be back! I’ve been thinking about representation a lot in the past years, and it’s slowly starting to show in my minis as well.
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I think I saw this one on the Reaper Forum. I think the blending worked very well with this one and the ‘Spanish’ touch comes across nicely. Reminds me also of Zoro out of any reason.
Talking about sensible miniatures: I think this one strikes the balance quite well: A female Pirate that does dress to impress but that can also use the cutlass to shorten her opponents a bit.
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Thanks! I do like the balance of sexy and sensible in the mini. She really does look like she means business without going down the “female tough guy” route. Joy to paint, too!
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Very nice sir. She certainly does have a Spanish feel about her.
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[…] the pirate book I outlined in my previous post. The first character I’ve written about is the pirate queen who has been appearing in various gaming scenarios. This is an early draft, unless everyone loves […]
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