The first of my #FEMbruary challenges was to find and photograph some of the female figures in my toy soldier collection:
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/fembruary-hobby-challenge-conversions/
This is based on a #FEMbruary challenge by Leadballoony which ImperialRebelOrk passed on, in his own words: “I would like to propose that we add Fembruary to the list – a time of year for us to collectively challenge the male domination of our collections, and commit to painting some female miniatures for a change…”
https://leadballoony.com/2018/01/29/more-eru-kin-and-the-fembruary-challenge/
I may not have painted any of these following fine toy soldiers but they do challenge the male dominance of my toy soldier collection in a big way.
If you are going to give young women (gamers) something to identify with and aspire to, why not start with the top job?
First out of the toy soldier cabinets were two very different Queens, Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria. Both are recent hand painted miniatures from William Britain’s Ltd.
This WWII young Princess Elizabeth is quite a different figure from her familiar Britain’s metal incarnation on horseback as Queen for Trooping the Colour.
A far less glamorous uniform, more in common with the sensible stockings and drab green of the WRVS lady, although I think this WW2 Princess Elizabeth figure rather “bigheaded” in its moulding.
This fine Britain’s horseback Queen figure lives in a box or a display shelf. Somewhere I have a fine parade version on her horse Burmese in the modern Britain’s Hollowcast Figure range.
Two Queens, two very different Wars, separated by a century. Two reigns ending and beginning fifty years apart.
An even finer horseback figure is the young Queen Victoria in a recent Britain’s release of Queen Victoria presenting the first VC to Commander Raby, RN for his service in the Crimea.
Raby’s headstone and VC are described here http://www.friendsofhighlandroadcemetery.org.uk/vc/raby.htm
http://philatelics.org/~allan/shrop/victoriacross/firstvc2.html
These sets look good from all angles, with excellent toy soldier Gloss style painting. Having these in your collection gives you some fine reference points.
So that was the top job.
Somewhere I have a rather Davros looking, stern Queen Victoria in her old age (Dorset Soldiers I think) to look out and finish painting for FEMbruary.
My next #FEMbruary blogpost will feature some slightly more ordinary women than HM the Queen, women such as the WRVS lady and others, along with another Crimean figure. A female one … any guesses?
Blogposted for #FEMbruary by Mark, Man of TIN February 10th 2018.
B.P.S. Blog Post Script
Here are the candidates for my #FEMbruary challenge 2: some Featherstone Airfix footballer conversions to Wild West saloon girls …
An unlikely source of gaming inspiration on the high street – not my usual pound stores or hobby stores – but a trip to the usually flowery Cath Kidston shops or 
Man of Tin blog 