From the painting desk #75 – Pirate ladies
January 31, 2021Another showcase of things I’ve painted fairly recently. I’m building an all-woman pirate crew for our upcoming Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago thing, so here’s a selection! Click on any photo for a larger version.
L to R: Bridge Games, Lovecraft Design x 2
The model on the left is actually a scifi mini from the Cobalt-1 range currently owned by Bridge Miniatures, and I think I got her from Alex over at Leadballoony. I assume she’s some sort of alien: the model did not have heels at all and I sculpted them on with putty. For some reason, her face reminded me of a young Pam Grier, so I decided to paint the model with dark skin. The two other models are printed pieces from Iain Lovecraft’s Pirates vs. Cthulhu kickstarter. I should’ve printed the middle mini a little smaller, but couldn’t be bothered as the size won’t be noticed anyway. On the right we have an excellent miniature rendition of Anne Bonny as she’s depicted in Black Sails.
L to R: Black Scorpion x 2, Reaper
Here, the first two miniatures are from Black Scorpion, and I really like them! They’re very characterful, but in different ways, the first one with a murderous intent and the second being wonderfully flamboyant. Extra bonus points for a body shape sadly very, very, very uncommon in woman miniatures which very much tend to be of the “sixpack and breast implants” variety. It’s one of the nicest pieces I’ve seen in a while! The thid mini is from Reaper Miniatures, and a good example of how fantasy miniature ranges can provide some excellent minis for pirate gaming.
L to R: Dead Earth Games x 2, Vae Victis
The third batch of three consists of two minis from Dead Earth Games’ Pirates of the Dread Sea range, and a very pirate-like vampire hunter from Vae Victis. For the pirate carrying the multi-barreled nock gun I went for some tattoos which I’m fairly happy with! They make her look pretty bad ass. The mini with the hook hand had an Indian look about her, so I used a fairly bright orange for the dress. It made me realise it’s a colour that I almost never use, but I quite liked the end result.
All together now!
There are miniatures here from no fewer than six different manufacturers, and I think the group shot is a nice example of how a uniform painting and basing style can really bring different lines together. At this stage and especially combined with my existing pirate women, I have all the minis I need for my crew. However, I’m quite motivated to paint at least a few more! It’s bringing some much needed variety to my pirates: before these minis the gender balance was something like 38 men to 8 women. It’s not a big thing in the overall scheme of things, but nevertheless makes me happy. It might be worth noting that this crew is distinctly lacking in pirates of the pin-up variety. As some of those can be nice sculpts, there are some cases where I’ve painted bare legs as tight pants, which is a nice enough compromise to me.
Work on the Ghost Archipelago project carries on, comments welcome as always!
Dawn of the Lead 
Very nice! Makes me want to get out my pirates and have a game with them!
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Thanks Thomas, obviously you should! Your pirate stuff was one of my main early inspirations 🙂
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All really nice, Mikko! 🙂
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Thanks John!
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Mikko, are these miniatures 3d printed or physical models purchased? I think I’ve said this before, but I can’t say it enough, I absolutely love your painting style!
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Thank you very much Eric! They’re a mix: the Lovecraft Design ones (first picture, two on the right) and the Vae Victis mini (third picture, rightmost mini) are printed in resin. Black Scorpion ones are cast in resin, rest are cast in white metal.
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Those are great – I started to write that the one in the middle of the top row (the one that’s necking a bottle) was my favourite, but now I’m up to 4 candidates for favourite and I can’t choose so I think I’ll quit whilst I’m ahead and praise the lot of them!
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Thanks Wudu 😀 I’ve had a great time with these, not least because so many of these are really nice sculpts and entertaining concepts!
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The one swigging the bottle is my favourite but all of them have been painted very well. I really need to paint more pirates.
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Thanks Luke, and yes, you do 😀
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Excellent set mate – fingers crossed I get to see them all for real one day!!
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Thanks Alex, and thanks for providing me with stuff to paint!
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That is a particularly nice selection of figs Mikko, I am excited by the prospect of seeing them on the table and getting some games played, whenever that might be.
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Thanks Paul, hope it’s sooner rather than later!
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Wow, sweet work! You have an awesome band of pirates put together now! I love th skin tone on ‘Pam Grier’ (and yea,
I can see it in her face). My fave is the lady leaning against the wall with a dagger in her hand. Would be an awesome thug, robber, or thief in a fantasy campaign!
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Thanks Faust! The Anne Bonny mini could definitely find use in loads of settings, she’s a great little piece.
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Definitely an impressive group. Well done Mikko and I agree wholeheartedly that a good basing scheme does a lot to tie a group together. Yours is simple, nice, and very effective. The favorite for me is what you’ve done with the lighter colors on the garments. I real like the effects there, but all are nice. And Pam Grier was quite the 70s Foxy Lady!
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Much appreciated, Mark! I’ve always been one for very simple basing – at first because I couldn’t do anything fancy, and later because the simplicity just appealed to me. It does save plenty of work, and looks decent enough to my eyes!
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They look great. Really nice work
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