Category / Project Updates

by badsquiddogames

Feedback Questionnaire Results

Hey all! Just as we were getting some steam with the project, the council evicted us and nearly 100 other businesses from our offices. With a month’s notice. It totally had a domino effect on the rest of the year, and I was absolutely desperate to get a WW2 project out, which I did, and it was wicked.

This has far been forgotten, I just have only so much human bandwidth, so I had to focus on some other things for a bit. I’m happy to get her going again.

I posted up a questionnaire to get some feedback. It was scary. Thank you for being honest! Shall we look through the results?

I was going to post a load of charts from the questionnaire but there were a lot of questions, so I am gonna summarise what the results were. You’ll just have to trust me! Have a few to break up the text though. My thoughts in italics.

DISCOVERY: The main 3 were the website, social media and Sunday Morning Coffee – so direct is still key.

NOMINATIONS: 39% had nominated a person, which is higher than I thought! The biggest reasons for not doing so were fear of getting any information wrong, unsure if she’d already been nominated or worried people wouldn’t vote for them. Hey I even get things wrong sometimes, perhaps I could look at some private nominations?

COLLECTOR CARDS: Nobody seems majorly bothered! A few have displayed them (nice) but they’re mostly hanging around in a drawer somewhere. Nobody admitted to binning them though, thankyou! *I* think they’re an important part of the project, but perhaps I will look at getting them smaller, cheaper, or more of them?

QUALITY: Overall people are very satisfied with the quality of the minis, design, communication and cards. Which is nice!

WHEN: Only 17% want the minis immediately, the rest don’t mind waiting until a few at a time. This is reassuring as opens up some other options.

Most people are comfortable putting money down once the concept sketch is up, though even at the name point there’s quite a lot (over half). This is also reassuring, as we can generate interest fairly early with each mini.

PLATFORMS: The most preferred by far was Facebook Groups, which is where it’s currently mostly on.

However, when asked where people WOULD go, the results were a bit more spread out. Kickstarter is an interestingly high number, and I think the project would do way better on a platform like that, but I am planning on running more regular Kickstarters with the main part of the business, so I’d rather not saturate.

BLOG VISIBILITY: 75% of you were aware of the blog, and most have visited. Which is more than I expected!

PATTERNS/STAND OUTS IN TEXT FEEDBACK

I can’t list every part of the freestyle text feedback and suggestions, but here are some which were recurring or stood out:

MORE INPUT: Folk want more input into the design process. I want this too! It was hard to get as much involvement as I would like, which is part of the reason for the relaunch. The original idea was lots of people pitching in with design and research, but I don’t know why that hasn’t worked as well, but my main suspicion is visibility.

MAKE THEM THEMED: This was an idea from one person and I love it, especially when we really get rolling and making them regularly. Maybe even voting on themes? Basically I want more engagement rather than me just making the figures and presenting them to you, which you want, but hasn’t been happening much.

CARDS: The cards only being available with direct orders has put off folk overseas who prefer to get them from their local shops, this is definitely a thing – I’ll address below.

LOTS OF NICE WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT: Thanks!

ANNIE’S THOUGHTS

I have been a bit stuck with how to relaunch this, but the questionnaire has been really helpful. I have a few more things to think about, which I will update soon once I’ve decided.

COLLECTOR CARDS – They’ve caused a lot of confusion with retailers, some won’t stock those minis at all, which impacts their further sales. Retailers not being able to get the cards means it’s harder for overseas customers too. SOLUTION: I’m going to cost up getting 500 of each card made, so they’re still limited but last quite a bit longer and means retailers will have them.

I have a pilot’s license. I do not actually have a pilot’s license.

VISIBILITY: Lots of the suggestions were things I already do, or people not sure of information that is here in the blog. So it means you’re not getting them information that I want you to. SOLUTION: Tidy everything up. I can do it!

TOO MANY PLATFORMS: The biggest issue is that it’s complicated to follow. Even I find it confusing and I made it! So the main solution is to centralise it way more, which I need to fully decide on, but I am working on it.

FACEBOOK SUCKS: I’ve never been keen on Facebook being the main location for it, and that it excludes people who don’t use it. At the time it was the best way for people to see things, but it’s harder than ever to get engagement there. But I won’t remove it either as I know it’s the only place many of the fans of the project go online. I’m thinking of setting up a Discord Server in addition, and taking nominations there as well.

VOTING: I think I’ll move the voting to a central location, like google forms, then it doesn’t matter what social media you have. I know I mentioned various platforms so far, but I’m still musing, I think it’ll slot into brain place soon.

KINDNESS: Thank you for mostly being super kind and understanding with all this. It’s a labour of love within a labour of love. I run Bad Squiddo Games for far too many hours a day, and this is a side project on top of that (though still very much part of). Sometimes things happen in the main business that distract me, as I run it all myself still (it’s the only way to keep a lil niche thing like this going!). I spend a lot of time on the Community Miniatures Project making sure I can get the best figure possible, and it usually involves getting hold of more books, and visits to places if possible (oh no, she says, swooning).

The majority of folks totally understand this, but I do get more abrupt or rude messages with this project than usual, which does put me off sometimes. Opening the design process is very vulnerable but it pays off and I am so proud of the minis we’ve made so far, and want to make many more.

My usual state is some sort of frazzled, entirely by my own choosing – this is my life’s passion – teaching about mega cool ladies through the minis – so I shan’t martyr, just remember with feedback that it’s just lil ol me, and I can fly a plane, as seen above.

End thoughts

I will continue to muse the relaunch but it’s now on the main slate (as well as fulfilling the WW2 KS but they compliment each other!) and will be fairly soon. I know I won’t be able to please everyone, which is causing me lots of unrest, but please be nice!

Catch you around social media!
Anniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie

by badsquiddogames

The Latest Minis have Shipped!

Hooray, brilliant!

Anne Bonny, Olga of Kyiv and Mary Read are out there in the world. Any pre-orders have shipped (apart from EU which will be later this week). They are available to buy from our shop and soon from some of the retailers. you can always ask your favourite retailer to stock Bad Squiddo – if they don’t, it’s about time, right?

Anne Bonny and Mary Read fighting back the Bad Squiddo. Background by Jon Hodgson.
Olga of Kyiv letting loose the pigeons of war! Backdrop by Jon Hodgson and terrain build by Chicken’s Tabletop Crafting.
Annie has scribbled colours over Martin Whitmore’s drawings to guide the painter.

Thank you to John Morris of Monkey Spirals Painting for bringing these to life and helping to give you a good idea on colour schemes for when you paint yours. Of course it’s up to you how to colour them in, though it’s always nice to have a little reference if you’re stuck.

Another bonus to having artwork by Martin Whitmore is being able to colour them in for the painter! So here are my VERY ROUGH colours for John, which also had a few notes with it. I wanted Mary and Anne to have the same palette to tie them together, to show they’re in sync! What, you’ve never shared clothes with your mates?

Anne and Julie

Two gals being pals – both minis by Bad Squiddo Games

An underrated part of my job is to get various historical characters to meet, even if via the medium of a metal mini. Julie d’Aubigny was used as a reference for Anne’s clothing as they’re similar times and both wearing high-brow gentleman’s gear. They’re both absolute troublemakers and there is a series of short stories ready there! Or gaming scenarios!

What Next?

We’re caught up! Time to vote for number 14, right? Well, we’ve been talking about this “relaunch” – it’s basically changing how minis are nominated and pre-ordered. Before deciding on a new system, I will send out surveys. It’ll be linked from here and sent out via our newsletter.

See you soon!

Annie

by badsquiddogames

Olga & Pirates ALMOST ready

Happy New Year! As the title says, Mary Read, Anne Bonny and Olga of Kyiv are ALMOST ready to ship. It WILL be January, and hopefully next week. Those in the EU will need to wait a teeny bit longer while we sort adherence to the latest GSPR regulations, but that’s aiming to be in place for January, too.

While I had been updating across social media and our live stream, I had neglected to update this blog, so I apologise for that. The end of 2024 became hectic in general, with various illness jumping in, and before I knew it was 2025. I’m back and better now though, hooray!

This is not to say that nothing was happening – it sure was! SOME elements were late though, which was entirely my fault. I was late getting directions to the painter, and I had a total brain block regarding writing out the collector cards. It’s all done now though and thanks to Print co. we have them and they are beautiful!

Anne Bonny and Mary Read, sculpted by Alan Marsh, painted by John Morris

So what DO we have?

  • Minis all cast and in hand
  • Collector Cards printed and in hand
  • Cards hand numbered
  • Pre orders part-packed with anything extra from the shop in there

Which is excellent! That’s the majority!

What needs to happen next?

  • Mini painting finished (2/3 so far!)
  • Minis Photographed
  • Graphic design for colour packaging, then ordered
  • Minis packed with colour insert
  • Shipping!

John has nearly finished painting Olga, then as soon as I receive them I’ll take some pics, whack em into the packaging file and get that ordered. These are super fast steps as the print place I get those from (different to the cards which are more bespoke) I can get next day delivery.

Packing them, I’ll get my part time worker Lil (aka mum) in to help. So these final steps are pretty straightforward.

You’ll know when to expect them as you will receive a shipping notification email.

Thank you again for supporting this! The relaunch will be put into action once these are fulfilled, but before that I will be putting out a survey where you can tell me what you loved and hated from the project so far, to aid in how we do the relaunch, as I LOVE this project but want it to be even better!

Thanks gang!

Annie

by badsquiddogames

Olga of Kyiv Sculpt & Project Update

She’s here! Well, nearly! At first glance you will think “Annie…. did you deviate from the plan a bit there…?” heck yeah I did! But it was worth it! One of the self-imposed rules of the project is that they’re all to be single-piece casts, but trying to find a way to make these pigeons really be going for it and make it one piece was proving difficult. The reality of my drawing was some very flat, vertical pigeons. Nobody wants that!

work in progress sculpt by Alan Marsh
Annie Norman’s original concept sketch

So we accepted going multi part would work for this one, as joining “at the pigeon” is nice and easy, especially as they have the little rags of sulphur. And Olga really propelling them forward as they fly off to burn down an entire city well, it’s kinda sweet, right?

A question we frequently ask ourselves and each other is “will this make a better model?” and if yes – then go for it!

She has a few more tweaks and tidies, you can see for example the wire still on the pigeons. Yes even pigeons need an internal wire to survive the heat and pressure of the mouldmaking process! But this is pretty much how the final model will look.

The face being downwards gives the sinister, unsettling feeling that I intended, and it’s another example of being on the same page as Alan – the sculptor.

It’s also going to be really easy if you don’t want pigeons, and want to use her for something else, as you can make her be holding something else entirely or just chop off the little rag bits so she has her palms in the air. Versatile, as always!

So what next?

After the final touches have been added, Alan will ship to me Olga, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. I’ll check them over and take a few photographs, and then send to the casting company who will make a master mould. They send me some samples of the master casts, I approve (hopefully! Usually!) and then send a copy of each to our painter – John Morris.

The artist Martin Whitmore is currently working on his sketches of the three, which will then be added to the very limited edition collector fact cards. And I’ll get those to print, along with the painted image packaging once John has done his paintbrush magic.

AND THEN, they will be on their way to you!

Is she really just £5?

Yes! … for now! The first 100 of each Community Mini are price-locked at £5 but subject to change after that, so it’s more incentive to get in early. With these massive pigeons she may well end up around £8. So, while there are still some of the Collector’s Edition available, it makes way more sense to do that, right?

What’s next for Community Minis?

The long mentioned relaunch! I’m waiting until these are all out and in folk’s hands so it’s as simple as possible, a nice clean slate, and then we can vote on the next one! Woohoo!

-Annie

by badsquiddogames

Jeanne d’Arc Spinoff!

Our first Community Miniatures Project spinoff!

From the start, I’ve said that a side effect of this project could be that it gets my cogs whirring for more minis based on one we’ve made for this – be it another mini, a whole range, some chums, or even just a style or era. It’s another reason that nominating people to be chosen is so important – even if they don’t “win”, I’m now aware of them, and they might creep into my subconscious enough that I decide to make them outside of the project anyway, as a standard release.


Well I got so into researching Jeanne d’Arc ,that when it came to designing her pennon, I decided to commit to making a battle standard for horseback version as well and then – time to make the mini!

Jeanne d’Arc by Bad Squiddo Games. Sculpted by Alan Marsh, painted by John Morris, banner art by Martin Whitmore and photo backdrop by Jon Hodgson.

Isn’t it stunning? The banner pole was said to be 18 feet tall, which is HUGE, and I tried it to scale, and it was so tall that I chose to shorten it in our version to look more “right” as, of course, 28mm isn’t a “proper” scale as such. The flags are scaled to each other as they are the same width, and this “looks right”.

As with the smaller flag, the pennon, you get two of each – in case you mess one up or need a spare for an objective – and instructions. I am SO please how well it’s all turned out!

Something which can cause weakness in mounted minis with poles is the one tiny join to the hand – but we solved this….with…. HISTORY! She has a special saddle called a “selle de bannière” or the “banner saddle”, which has a holster to pop it in to help carry the weight of it all. I can’t imagine riding a horse and carrying that thing, even with a support, which adds even more to how impressive Jeanne was. We have of course given 28mm Jeanne one of these saddles which helps her carry it, and also gives us another contact point – hooray! Thank you, history!

The Mounted Jeanne d’Arc is available now by herself or with the foot version if you haven’t got that yet – both here.

The famous “Jeanne d’Arc confronts Turkey Man” scene from history.

Where are the next three minis?

They’ve been delayed by EVERYTHING going on at once, but I have managed to clear some backlog of far more boring tasks so it’s now #1 priority. I underestimated how much time and energy that Salute and UK Games Expo – our two major shows in April and June – would take. Me underestimating time and energy for tasks is always a given though, I should know this by now (if I wasn’t busy underestimating)

I’m aiming to have the research and sketches all up and in the hands of the sculptor by the end of next week, hopefully sooner (but there’s always curveballs)

Thanks for sticking around, we haven’t done the full relaunch yet either, so there’s that to come too!

Check out who we have available so far here.

-Annie

by badsquiddogames

Wave 2 is Shipped!

Hooray, out they go to you all! This means that Ada Lovelace, Jeanne d’Arc, Audrey Hepburn and Mary Fields are now in the shop, available to order as standard, for those late to the party or prefer not to pre order. You can get them here. There are still collector’s versions of them all as well, so not too late for that!

You know you’ll get the special card if the listing says “Collector’s Edition”.

Look at them all! I hadn’t realised quite how many there were until I spent ALL OF SATURDAY packing them! Brilliant, thank you!

I’m really looking forward to the next part of this project!

Wave 3 will be after Salute. Salute is a massive trade show we…..trade at, on the 13th of April, so it’s currently full steam ahead preparing for it, and I’m taking a week off afterwards! THEN the designing of Mary Read, Anne Bonny and Olga of Kiev will begin.

Minis 1-10 will be available on the racks at Salute! Squeeee! And hopefully I’ll get some leaflets together to link to this blog and spread the good word!

by badsquiddogames

Big Project Update/Changes (Good ones!)

Since the project was first launched, it was more of a hit than we could have imagined, and while this was an excellent problem to have, it meant the little system I devised was actually way too complicated.

We have powered on, but whenever I have found myself explaining how it all works, I’ve found myself zoning out, let alone the person I’m talking to. There’s a lot of steps. Going to Facebook, Ko-Fi, Blog, Website, what! You’d need a whole guide! So I am extra grateful for everyone who has been patient while I find my feet with this.

For a while I’ve known I’ll have to “relaunch” this and have had it whirring away in the back of my mind all different possible solutions and tweaks, and I am pretty much there now!

Mini #14 will be the first that hasn’t “pre funded”, so a perfect time to reset.

It was always supposed to be that money happened AFTER the mini was voted for, but you were so excited we unlocked so many and voted afterwards – which, again, is still amazing and appreciated! it meant there was a lot to do and people waiting, so this new method is hopefully to be able to manage it better and hopefully have something like a mini a month, though it could be more or less depending on popularity.

Because I wanted to catch up with the figures before I got more money thrown at me (woe is me), I’ve kept the project a bit on the “down low” but once we’ve relaunched I can do a bit of a podcast tour and promote it much more widely, which will be amazing for it. You have been the beta testers, thank you! We’ve made something incredible.

So what is changing?

We’re ditching ko-fi for this project (mostly – if you’re a subscriber you’ll have an email about that). Having to buy the thing and then redeem the thing is two steps that can be done in one.

The miniature most recently voted for will be put up as a pre order item, with an UNKNOWN delivery date. This is where you throw your fivers (instead of ko-fi), and once 60 people have pre ordered, sculpting begins.

You can pay the £5 AND shipping, or just for the mini, as you can choose the new “combine another order” at the checkout. This is handy to make sure you’ve grabbed your Collectable Edition and helped fund it, but you don’t have to have it shipped yet. Whenever it’s available, you can place an order of anything and leave a note saying “ship my others too please”, as you could have multiple orders stacked up like this.

The option to do this will only be on the latest miniature. You can also pre order it with other minis, but those won’t be shipped until that one is. If you need anything else sooner I would recommend separate orders.

There will be a total on that page showing the progress, though it will be manually updated with a date stamp.

Dammit Annie you’ve rambled and made it sound confusing again! Don’t worry, it’s probably because I am over explaining. And that we’re in the transition period. I’ll be editing and making solid instruction pages and even little leaflets with the information.

JUST TO ADD TO THE CONFUSION the latest 3 minis are “pre funded” so they WILL be made. it’s Mini #14 onwards the new changes really kick in.

So you can now pre order Mary Read, Anne Bonny and Olga of Kiev if you wish, here. And pay for shipping today, or “combine with another order” which can be made whenever. It costs no extra to do this.

Please do feed back on if this makes sense or if you have any other ideas as it’s not all in stone yet, the changes will make more sense once #14 has been voted for.

and as always…. THANK YOU!

by badsquiddogames

Update on Wave 2

We’ve made some huge progress on Wave 2 of the Community Miniatures! It’s been an exceptionally busy year so far, but I’m very glad we’ve been making some good strides – not as soon as I would have preferred, but still happy things are happening.

They’ve been painted! Yay! Thank you to John Morris (Mary, Audrey, Joan) and Jennie Ruskin (Ada) for these wonderful paint jobs.

These are not the final pics! I haven’t photographed them myself yet, these are the ones sent in by the painters, but I’ll have them all in hand tomorrow to do this.

I wanted to show you an update sooner rather than later though, as sometimes I blink and a strange amount of time has passed.

L-R: Audrey Hepburn, Jeanne d’Arc, Ada Lovelace, Mary Fields

Don’t they look so wonderful!

The deal with Jeanne’s flag

What’s the deal? Well, I don’t have a full photo yet, but I will soon! She comes with an open hand, a printed flag, and a wire spear. The flag will be mirrored, so you can wrap it around the pole and secure it with a glue stick, making it double-sided. It can then be bent a bit to show it wiggling in the wind.

Thank you to Martin Whitmore for this flag artwork! Also Marty has finished the artwork for the Collector Cards…squeee! They’re so nice! The Collector Cards only come with the first 100 sold and they’re very nice – all hand numbered too.

So what are we waiting for?

*looks around shiftily*…… MEEEEE! Ok so I now have all the elements, it’s all just down to me now (Annie!).

Here are my next tasks:

  • Figure the perfect size of Jeanne’s banner with printing and practical testing
  • Order Jeanne’s banner from the printers
  • Photograph each of the miniatures clearly
  • Write up the character summary for each of the four ladies
  • Design and proof the collector cards so they’re ready to be sent to the printers, including things like spellcheck and bleedcheck.
  • Send the collector card files to the printers
  • Edit the photographs of the miniatures and put together their packaging
  • Send the packaging files to the printers
  • Check the casts (most are here, the others won’t be long)
  • Pack the minis with their nice printed packaging
  • Collect the cards from the printers
  • Hand Number 400 cards
  • Pack all the pre orders
  • Await your glorious approval when they arrive around the world.
They won’t share a card, I just popped them on here to show them off, they won’t have a watermark either!

One of the reasons the Community Minis take longer than other releases is all these extra steps, but well worth it, I believe, to make it extra special and “collector-y” as it’s about the whole process and not just the end mini (which, of course, is beautiful). If this was ALL I had to do, it wouldn’t be so major, but of course, I have to run the day-to-day of Bad Squiddo Games as well as our other projects and releases, so sometimes bits have to be juggled around.

Something I really enjoy about this project is it forces me to do what I like the best – sitting back and researching and highly considering the figure design. When you’re busy all the time, doing just ONE THING can feel like a waste, even though it isn’t; it’s just how our brains work and the nature of the times we’re in. So sitting and reading a book can sometimes feel “un-optimised” which is, of course, ridiculous, but the Community Minis Project gives me the “excuse” to do it. For example, it’s Saturday right now and I really don’t mind that I’m sat working on this. This sort of work is different to the “work work”, like taxes and paperwork, navigating updated shipping regulations, marketing, budgeting, stats, all those extra tasks that aren’t the “core” of what we want to do.

Hooray I have the things!

Yay the things! I started writing this on Friday and it’s Saturday now, so I DO have the painted minis, and as always – they’re even nicer in person. Excuse the DOUBLE ANNIE FACE, I am fighting against the algorithms more than ever and the maths robots seem to like my face, so if it helps the creations get seen by more, then so be it!

They’re beautiful, thank you so much Jennie and John. I was able to balance Jeanne’s spear in hand! You’ll see the bottom part is unpainted, that bit will be snipped off as the wire spears come in very long. Some strong clippers will do this, I don’t recommend standard hobby clippers as they can get dented by them!

I’m very happy with how the spear sits into her hand, and prefer this to a drilled hand option. I just have to be careful to not ruin John’s work when I put it all together! The glue may make the inside of her hand a bit shiny so I’ll put some matt varnish over that after.

Remember this mock-up of Danny Devito? I wasn’t [just] losing my mind! They are the real-life measurements of the pennant! Obviously Jeanne wasn’t the same shape and size as Danny Devito (though there is nothing to say she wasn’t…just sayin’) but its a good rough idea. I’m a visual person so just seeing the measurements didn’t make sense to me.

So, my next task is to print out a few different sizes of the pennant to find the one that works best. Based on this, I may tweak it up or down if it works better on the model. Once I decide on this, using my own printer and black-and-white paper, I’ll order the full-colour ones from the printing company. I’ll also muck about with different paper types and thickness too to get it just right.

You can pre order all of Wave 2 HERE and claim your free collector card!

That’s all for now!

Thanks again

Annie

by badsquiddogames

Poll Results for Mini #13

The results are in…..

634 votes this time, which is less than last time BUT only for one figure, whereas the last was for two, so this is a good number!

Congratulations, Mary Read!

It was very head to head for a while with Matilda, who was also close in the last round, so she would be a good nomination for the next round as she is clearly popular.

Mary Read has 78 votes, which is reassuring, as, from the next mini onwards (not Mary) we’ll need 60 pre sales before she can be sculpted. A vote isn’t a pledge to buy, but it SHOULD be a good indicator of popularity.

Ann Bonny and Mary Read convicted of Piracy Novr. 28th. 1720 at a Court of Vice Admiralty held at St. Jago de la Vega in a Island of Jamaica.: a copper engraving. From Defoe, Daniel; Johnson, Charles (1724) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates

Yaarrrrrr

From my perspective, Mary winning is ace! I’ll already be researching Anne Bonny and their tales and so interlinked, it means I won’t have to stray too much. I’ll probably do my research on the two as a bit of a pair (though of course they have unique stories) and then of course Olga and her flaming pigeons.

Thank you everybody for nominating and voting. By the time it’s mini #14 we’ll be doing things a bit differently but I’ll keep you updated on all that.

Time to get my pirate on!

Cheers

Annie

by badsquiddogames

How to Nominate a Community Miniature

As part of our relaunch to streamline everything, I’m putting information into useful sections for a master page that links to all you need to know, so in this article, we’ll cover how to nominate somebody as the next Community Miniature.

When?

Each round of voting requires fresh nominees. You may only nominate for the current round, once nominations have been declared open. It’ll be announced on this blog and social media when it’s time.

You may re-nominate anybody who has “previously-ran”, whether it was you who nominated them previously or someone else. Everyone deserves another chance!


Where?

Technically, you can nominate from anywhere, but outside of the designated thread at the time on Baggy’s Cave, there is a chance I will miss it, so that is the best place to be sure. The second best way is to email me, but I still highly recommend the FB Group to be 100%. Only in the nominating window though, otherwise people will be shouting ladies’ names at me all the time and get lost.

How?

There are specific details you MUST follow for your nomination to count.

You must include:

  • Full Name and any other names
  • Birth Date and Death Date, if known. Approximate century etc if not known.
  • A short summary of what they were known for/who they were.

You can then add as much information as you would like including links and pictures to help sway the vote. Too much information might not get read, so there’s a sweet spot in the middle. If you quote anything external please do credit/link.

Who?

Make sure your person fits all the following:

  • is dead. It’s just easier for so many reasons! Sorry alive people.
  • has at least SOME basis in fact and history. Entirely mythological characters aren’t being included… yet!
  • is a woman or potentially another marginalised gender. The focus is largely on women (which, of course, includes trans women), but there can be a murkiness around the past when there wasn’t a particular vocabulary to describe different genders. For example, there are many “women who disguised themselves as men” who, by today’s wording, could be known as a trans man or perhaps non-binary. They also could have simply preferred the social benefits of being seen as a man. Unfortunately, we cannot ask them individually as they’re no longer around, but they can be included in this project for sure, as sensitively as possible with the information we have.

Any other terms and conditions?

Bad Squiddo Games reserves the right to exclude any nomination from the polling stage without giving reason. In the unlikely event of this happening it could be due to the person being inappropriate, too controversial, already part of our range (or being sculpted), not following one or more of the nomination rules or something else that we haven’t considered yet!

Your name will be listed in the thanks for that round of nominations, if you don’t want your name listed – or it already has been and you want it retracted or changed, please do tell us and it’ll be sorted.


Tips to help your Nomination.

You’ve chosen the person who you would LOVE to see and buy as a 28mm pewter miniature… now how do we get them to win? More than the basic information will help. For example “Queen of Blah” doesn’t sound too compelling. “Queen of Blah, who is known for…” is much more so. What cool things did they do? Is there an extra compelling story of an occasion they made their exceptionalism known? What games would you use them for? What would make them extra interesting to paint? Do you have a diorama in mind? What does that person mean to you?

This information isn’t essential, but it will help. (Also I like to read it!) Are there any cool artworks (please do credit) or photographs of them? You can share additional information as extra posts in our Facebook Group where most the magic happens. You can do this whenever, though when a round of nominations or voting is on it will have the most effect.

This is the fun bit! You’re campaigning! And the side effect is that we’ll all learn more about these incredible women from history!

What if your nomination doesn’t win the poll?

Aw, it’s ok, there probably was some pretty tough competition. You can regroup and nominate them again next time, or perhaps try out somebody else. We’re hoping to run this project indefinitely, so there will be lots more chances. And you still got to tell people about someone incredible, which is excellent. You did some teaching!

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I’m going to keep this page updated if I think of anything else, so this can be the go-to rules. Please do comment if you feel there’s something not covered or have any questions,

thank you very much!

Annie