Well here we are again, it’s Fembruary. For those not in the know Fembruary is an annual hobby event that’s been running for the past few years, kick-started and curated by Alex of the blog Lead Balloony. The aim of the exercise is to be a salute to women (and a bit of extra encouragement to get those unpainted models finished up into the bargain). Despite representing roughly 50% of the planet’s population women have traditionally made up a tiny proportion of miniatures available (bad news for all the straight male miniatures out there!). Of those female miniatures which are available a sizeable proportion seemed to be made up of space-strippers and the chainmail bikini brigade (slightly better news for those aforementioned straight male miniatures but damn distracting when one is only 28mm tall, made of plastic, anatomically ill equipped and trying to save the galaxy). Thankfully things are changing for the better, and a second X chromosome no longer prevents one from facing constant doom alongside the boys.
Now as it turns out I have a lot of female miniatures in the ‘to paint’ pile. I did a bit of an inventory to try and choose what to paint this year and discovered I’ve got a monumental backlog (no surprises there eh!). So, this month is going to be all about doing something about that. My plan is to paint as many of them as I’m physically able to and make a dent in that backlog and so, if all goes according to plan, a whole host of adult human (not to mention elven and perhaps even xenos) females will be appearing here over the next few weeks.
One of the key things I’d like to do this month is paint up a warband of Daughters of Khaine for Warcry. I really liked these blood-thirsty elves back in Warhammer Fantasy, in fact the Dark Elves in general were always the one that got away in terms of WHFB armies – maybe someday eh! Worshippers of the cruel and merciless god Khaine (the so-called “God of Murder” referred to in the title) these she-elves are about as far from the snobbish, prissy, daisy-plucking, fairy-bothering flouncing fay-folk of elven cliché as it’s possible to get. I’ve enjoyed their evolution in Age of Sigmar and their dark queen Morathi remains not only one of the most entertaining Warhammer characters to read about but also one of the few who has made the transition from old Warhammer to AoS without feeling forced or out of place.
My goal for the month then is to complete the warband and to paint as many of the other female miniatures in my collection as I can, focussing on neglected models as much as possible. At this stage I’ve no idea how many I’ll manage to complete but I’m certainly not short of enthusiasm so I’ll see what I can do. To set the ball rolling here’s the first of the Daughters of Khaine to be finished – a Blood Sister Gorgai who’ll be acting as the new warband’s leader.
The rest of the warband will contain a mixture of these snake hybrids, the winged Khinerai and some of the more normal looking elves. Before that though I have another elf (of a kind) who’s been almost finished for longer than I can remember so tonight I’m going to sit down, concentrate and get her done.
Convert or Die 
February 1st, 2021 at 8:01 am
Beautiful job on the first of, hopefully, many for Fembruary mate. Good luck!
February 1st, 2021 at 10:35 am
Thanks mate – I’ve got lots planned so fingers crossed, let’s see how much of it I can manage! 🙂
February 1st, 2021 at 11:42 am
Awesome start mate – those snake ladies are tricky to paint, but I really like how you nailed the colour graduation on those scales!! Well played dude!
February 1st, 2021 at 12:39 pm
Thanks man – I don’t think I’d really appreciated how complex all the coils make it until I painted this one. Hopefully I can pull it off again! 🙂
February 1st, 2021 at 1:33 pm
Off to a cracking start I must say and I am looking forward to what else you have to show us from your to do pile throughout the month. 🙂
February 2nd, 2021 at 10:36 am
Thank you 🙂 I really enjoyed painting her, and I’m excited to see what else I can manage to complete over the next few weeks. The part-painted pile has grown a bit bigger than I’d like lately so it’ll be good to have a crack at it and see how much I can batter through.
February 2nd, 2021 at 2:02 pm
Great debut on what I am sure will be a great collection
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:59 am
Thank you! I’m excited about this project, have started working on the rest of the warband – all being well I’ll try to have a couple of them done by the end of the week. 🙂
February 2nd, 2021 at 8:23 pm
That’s simply beautiful. Love the gold, why can’t I ever get my gold to look like that?! Also the scales, not sure I’ve seen that color combo used on snake like scales before, but looks great. Also love the highlights on the hair.
February 3rd, 2021 at 11:52 am
Thanks man! 🙂 Yeah, gold is really tricky in my experience, it’s something I’ve battled with many times over the years and never managed to crack it until recently. Retributor Armour from GW is great though, I’ve found it makes a big difference. Start with a nice couple of coats of that, then wash over it with Reikland Fleshshade. After that I just highlighted it with more Retributor Armour and ended with a 50:50 mix of Retributor Armour and Stormhost Silver on a few key areas like the top of the mask (some people suggest using Liberator Armour for the final stage but I just struggle to work with that particular paint). I’m really pleased with the highlights in her hair too, that was just a drybrush followed by some careful highlighting of key areas – wasn’t sure it would work but I’m pleased with how it turned out.
February 3rd, 2021 at 4:58 pm
Well, you nailed the gold! It’s awesome when you find something that finally works. I use a similar approach, but hadn’t mixed the highlight 50:50. That makes more sense, as I feel Stormhost by itself is a bit too bright.
There’s a good chance that I didn’t go back over the metal with another layer of gold after the wash, as that was a step I sorta missed originally. I’ve started to do that more with all my colors.
Yea, I don’t think I’ve had much luck with Liberator either. Most of the golds are really tricky.
One other trick I read recently, is to go back over the metal with a gloss varnish, after using any matte varnish. I use Testers Dullcote for varnish, which does dull down everything, so adding some shine afterwards might help a lot. Someone else also suggested spraying satin varnish, followed by matte to dull it a little. I might be testing that on my next set of minis.
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:27 am
For all the whinging (I don’t know how you spell that properly and autocorrect is no help) I do about underwhelming AoS sculpts, I do think GW did well with Morathi’s lot. I like a lot of their sculpts and while I’ve never had any reason to paint them, I’m sure I’d enjoy it if I did if you know what I mean.
This lady looks great with the bloody heart and I like how you used the brightest colors on her face and torso. It really draws the eye up on her cruel looking face which is always good mini painting in my book 🙂 I’m very curious as to who this other elf might be too!
February 3rd, 2021 at 12:00 pm
I struggle to spell whinging too, all I can say is that I spell it like you spell it (and I just pasted it into google and it recognised it so let’s assume we’re right!). For me I’ve found AoS to be a bit hit and miss, there’s been some serious misses but some fantastic stuff alongside it. At first I very much preferred the stuff created from whole cloth for AoS rather than the stuff ported over from WHFB, the original game was too familiar so it just looked out of place, but the Daughters of Khaine really impressed me and alongside the Gloomspite Gobbos won me over to the setting in the end. They still weren’t my top pick for models to paint until I painted this one though, I don’t think I realised until I had it in hand how much fun it would be, and what an impressive miniature it is. It really encouraged me to push myself to do the best job I could manage with her.
As for the other elf, she’s up on the blog now. 🙂 And if she’s not elvish enough for you I’ve got plenty more pointy-eared folk in the box that I’m going to try to power through this month.
February 4th, 2021 at 12:22 am
To share an American perspective, my Google autocorrect does not considering whinging a word. How is that for disrespectful colonists being unwilling to speak the Queen’s English? 😀
I completely agree with your comments on old factions versus new ones in AoS. I’m very curious how Cursed City is going to handle that now that you mention it… I’ll go take a look at the elf shortly as my curiosity has been piqued 🙂
February 3rd, 2021 at 3:04 pm
That is superb- love the metallicsand the snake belly shading.
Cheers,
Pete.
February 3rd, 2021 at 10:55 pm
Thank you – I must confess I’m particularly pleased with her. 🙂 Just need to see if I can pull it off on the rest of the group now!