“Faith and Deceit” (Fem’bruary)

Fem’bruary is upon us, where we celebrate women as more than just scantily clad sex objects (I’m saving a couple of those till the end of the month 😉) But I’ll start with a couple of fully clothed independent ladies. Sadly Alex who normally presides over this celebration of all things female is preoccupied with more mundane matters this year, so there will be no judging or round up at the end of the month (which is OK with me as it means I get to retain my conversion win with “Elvira” from last year for another twelve months 😁). But a few of us are still going ahead with a more “unofficial” Fem’bruary, luckily with Alex’s blessing, which is just as well as I’d already ordered the blooming figures!

Sister Maria, (Nun) and Agatha Fox, (Female Spy), these are the official names, in case you didn’t realize what they were supposed to be! Anyway I came across both of these ladies a while back while perusing Reapers website, and immediately wanted them both, but at the time both were out of stock in their metal forms, and though I quite enjoyed painting the first of my “Bones” figures a couple of weeks back, I still prefer metal if given the choice, especially as Agatha was only thirty odd pence more than her plastic version! (A no brainer in my books!). Now Agatha is a very slight little miniature especially compared to the “Copplestone Castings” ladies I painted last year (see link at the bottom of the page*), looking almost like a teenager in their company, but she’s still a really nice miniature, I especially like the way she is sneakily slipping her pistol out of her bag behind her back, you just can’t trust teenagers these days! And I guess spies come in all shapes and sizes like the rest of us. Meanwhile Sister Maria comes with a choice of left hands, one holding a revolver and another with a ruler or strap of some sort, dependent on whether she is fighting zombies or teaching Catholic schoolgirls (I’ll leave you to decide which is more appropriate for which!! 🤔) I went for the revolver. Both come with (spit,spit) “slotta” bases but they were binned in favour of my usual two pence piece bases, and once glued in situ and filler was added they went out for their coat of matt black, once dry and touched up with more matt black, I started them both by dry-brushing their guns and Maria’s silver cross in chainmail. I’ll continue their stories individually…

The good sister, was begun with me painting her wimple and coif in coffee highlighted with cream. Then her “chaplet” or ”rosary” was painted chocolate brown before being dry-brushed with a little Eurasian flesh. Talking of flesh her face and hands came next, undercoated in European flesh, and after her eyes were added, this was highlighted with more of the same with quite a bit of pale flesh added, and while I was doing Agatha’s lips I mixed a tiny amount of the pink burgundy into this paler flesh colour and added her lips too. I touched up her clothing in black next, more out of “habit” than anything else (sorry couldn’t resist! 😂), then mixed up some dark grey and black to get a very dark grey and highlighted all her clothing with this, and she was done.

Turning next to Agatha “The Cub” Fox, as I wanted the classic beige “mackintosh” style coat, I started by mixing a base coat using some Eurasian flesh mixed with some coffee and painting the coat with this, the highlights were then added in just coffee. Chocolate brown was then used on her handbag, pistol grip and boots, and highlights of saddle were then applied over this. Her flesh was done in the same colours as the “Sister” above, I had thought as painting her legs as if she was wearing coloured stockings, but in the end I just went for bare legs, painted in flesh as above. I then painted the area above her exposed eye in lilac to give a little eyeshadow effect, and her lips in pink burgundy. Her hair was next on the agenda, so yet more chocolate brown was used as the base here, then I mixed up a small amount of saddle and chestnut and used this for the highlights, a tiny bit of chainmail was used on her handbag and belt buckle, and she too was done.

I gave both ladies a coat of “light tone Quickshade” next, before painting and flocking their bases in my usual fashion and of course a final spray coat of matt varnish was the last thing to do on my list. I must admit I’ve really enjoyed paint this pair up, two lovely figures and simple paintjobs, a nice antidote to last week’s figures. More ladies next week, this time two from my Advent Challenge.

So till then, stay safe and cheers Roger.