Category / Project Updates

by badsquiddogames

Latest update on Community Minis Project

I KNOW THIS IS A LOT OF WORDS, BUT IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ, THANK YOU!

Hello! The project is garnering more interest as the sculpts have been shown (though not here yet funnily enough, I need to properly edit the pics and write a new post for all those!) so I wanted to update on how it’s all going! Also to be useful for new people – hello!

  • The project started off much bigger than I anticipated, and following a long pause where I wasn’t able to give it the attention it needed, we had unlocked THIRTEEN minis. Incredible!
  • Because of the popularity though it’s changed how I initially approached it, which is ok as I expect this to grow, evolve, and adapt.
  • I haven’t advertised that this is a thing for a while – though I couldn’t resist sharing those sculpt pics – as I don’t want it to get too much attention while it’s still teething! Oops!
  • The nature of the project means I have to sink a lot of time into researching and designing each miniature. This I LOVE. This is what I live for, I love it! When it’s one or two a month it is very manageable, but when I was first hit with the popularity I was very daunted, as it’s a lot of time. I jokingly call The Community Miniatures Project my second job, as, although it’s still part of Bad Squiddo Games, I tend to work on it on weekends and evenings as it takes all the weekdays to do the standard Bad Squiddo tasks.
  • What I am trying to do at the moment is… catch up! So we can get to a nice rhythm of them happening regularly alongside Bad Squiddo standard releases and Kickstarters, rather than taking anything away from those plans (WW2 French is the latest project btw) I am more than happy for this project to go on forever – there is so much we can do with it!

So what does this mean?

It’s all good! Basically, if you are a blogger or anything, I’m politely asking you to hold off posting about it yet (though when we’re ready, that would be immense) I still want it to be on the relative down low while we’re in “Early Access” which is what it would be if it was a videogame! No doubt there will be a few tweaks along the way, which is easier when there are fewer people. For example, I might switch platforms from Ko-Fi if it doesn’t do what I need, but I won’t know til the first batch of fulfillment.

Don’t give me any more money!*

What?! I know right! of course you can really. If you have a subscription that you’re happy to keep plodding on, I won’t send you off. *And of course buy things from the web shop!

Essentially I want to get caught up to the point that there’s only one or two minis ahead. It was originally supposed to be “choose mini, THEN crowdfund” for each one, but you all went wild – WHICH IS GOOD. I just want it to be less frantic.

So I know you’re desperate to support, and you will get the chance! If you want any of these minis, either the ones who win this poll or the ones heading off to the casters – they have already been paid for by the crowdfunder – so when they are cast, they will be in the shop and you can buy them as normal. The collective pot is for future minis.

“Hello I am new and have no idea what is going on, help!”

No problem! You’re best to have a look around this blog and the FAQs, it’s where I keep all the information for the project so it doesn’t get lost around social media. In a nutshell, we vote for a lady we’d like in 28mm, chuck in a fiver each til we’ve hit the target, and voila she is made. Payment is via Ko-Fi (usually, just hold off at the mo!) which than then be “cashed out” at any time, and turned into a shop voucher. This means if you’re overseas and want to wait til you get a bunch of minis, you can do, rather than having to pay shipping for each one separately.

“Hello, I have money in the Ko-Fi, when do I get my voucher?”

Whenever really! If you can hold off til the first 6 are in the shop it would be super as I’ll have some sort of system in place then. And if you want to “leave the money in” for longer and say grab a year’s worth at once, that’s cool too. if you’ve forgotten how much you’ve paid in, let me know and I’ll check for you (you will also have Paypal receipts). What I will do is once the first 6 are ready and in the shop (not long, I was going to wait until they were painted but might not this time, if you’re ok with that, so they can be in people’s hands sooner), I’ll message everybody, like with a KS, and let you know how much credit you have and a link to a blog post with the info.

Thank you so much!

I really appreciate you sticking with this, especially as I am making it up figuring it out as I go along. Once we’re vaguely caught up and have the first wave in people’s hands, I’ll be able to streamline it…. probably!

Also, I want to make sure you know how blown away I am by the popularity of this! I definitely don’t want to sound like it being too popular was a bad thing, I just want to make sure you all know what’s going on with it, and why it’s a bit all over the place at the moment. Another side effect is that I am researching every nominee (only briefly) so my own knowledge is going up even with those. I LOVE RESEARCHING. It’s the best bit of the job. I have a huge collection of books on women in history and getting a good stack out to cross reference brings out the biggest and best nerd in me.

Facebook

Facebook, our group “Baggy’s Cave” is where the polls and suggestions take place. I know this is a big bummer for those without Facebook, but it is currently the biggest place to have a captive audience and a record of all the votes (ie so nobody bot spams or anything). Anything outside of the polls (you can send suggestions anywhere!) won’t be counted, to keep it as clear as possible.

What next?

I have another blog post to make on the minis we have just sent to the casters, squee!

Voting for the next 4 minis (usually 1, but this is to catch up!) starts tomorrow, more info and pics here!

by badsquiddogames

Next Round of Nominees

Thankyou to the contributors (listed below) for submitting these THIRTY suggestions. The four most popular will be made into miniatures! Please have a read through them all and have a think about who your favourites are! You will be able to vote for as many as you like, but please only vote for your favourites, ie what you’d REALLY like as a mini.

VOTING WILL OPEN 6PM WEDNESDAY 10TH MAY AND CLOSE 6PM SATURDAY 13TH MAY on our Facebook group. I’ll make a post here when it’s live with the direct link.

Images: Images are not necessarily how the minis will be dressed, just chosen for an easy glance and public domain, you are encouraged to look up more photos and information, we just haven’t gone in full detail for everyone or it would take a long, long, time!

Notes: Most of the text below is written or sourced by the contributors – you wonderful people via our Facebook group where such decisions take place, some may have more written about them, as that person just submitted more information. Some with low levels of info I, (Annie) have written a bit more to give them a fighting chance.

Dates: All dates are CE (Common ERA) unless stated.

  1. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) Mathematician and Scientist, considered to be the first computer programmer,
  2. Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) British citizen born in Belgium, a fundraiser and supporter of the resistance in the Netherlands, as well as well known performer and actress.
  3. Caroline Amelia Nation AKA Carrie Nation AKA Hatchet Granny November 25, (1846 – 1911) Women’s Rights Campaigner & radical Temperance member. Known for refusing to wear a corset against the standard of the times & for smashing up establishments that served alcohol with a hatchet in the name of the Temperance movement.
  4. Charlotte de la Tremoüille (1599 – 1664) Famous for her robust defence of Lathom House (late February to late May 1644), and the subject of the song “They called her Babylon” by Steeleye Span, which appears on their 2004 album of the same name.
  5. Clémentine Delait (1865 – 1939) “the most illustrious and celebrated bearded lady in France”, icon and feminist
  6. Cleopatra (70-30BCE) Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, built up the economy establishing important trade deals, personally commanded fleets, and much more.
  7. Eleomore Prohaska (1785 – 1813) A German soldier who fought in the Prussian army with the Lützom volunteer Jaegers disguised as a man. Honoured as “Potsdam’s Joan of Arc”
  8. Emilia Plater (1806-1831) Polish–Lithuanian noblewoman and revolutionary, national heroine in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus
  9. Fu Hao (1240-1200 BCE) Royal consort, military general and high priestess of the Shang Dynasty. Buried in her own grave (unusual for royal wives) with both precious goods and 130 weapons including two (or more) massive bronze axes.
  10. Henrietta Maria (Queen) (1609 – 1669) English Civil War provocateur, nicknamed the generalissimo by Charles the 1st, got up to some shenanigans both useful and hurtful to the royalist cause.
  11. Jean Ross (1911-1973) Journalist and political activist. Remembered as the inspiration for Caberet’s “Sally Bowles”, which she was not fond of. She was a journalist in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 – 1938.
  12. Hypatia (Between 350 and 370 to 415) Alexandrian philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. Teacher, editor, commentator (not sports), and counsellor to the powerful. Though a pagan Neoplatonist philosopher, she taught Christians including a future bishop but was murdered and torn to pieces by a Christian mob as (probably) part of a political conflict.
  13. Jeanne d’Arc (1412 – 1431) More or less got France back into gear to kick out the English in the Hundred Years War. Got captured and executed in the end. Patron Saint of France as a result of all that.
  14. Jeanne Laisné “Jeanne Hachette” (1454 to ?) Axe-wielding peasant heroine of the siege of Beauvais
  15. Kate Ter Horst (1906-1992) The “Angel Of Arnhem Her house was used as a regimental aid station, and she helped out nursing and scrounging potable water.
  16. Kenau Simonsdochter (1526-1588) Folk hero defender of Haarlem, later led an army of 300 women against the Spanish.
  17. Khutulun (1216-1306) Great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan and first cousin once removed of Kublai. Noblewoman of the Chagatai Khanate. Renowned athlete, archer and warrior. Accrued a herd of more than ten thousand horses in competitions and by defeating suitors in wrestling matches. Was her father’s chief advisor and preferred successor but this was prevented by her male relatives. Still became the army’s commander on his death. The probable basis for the character of Turandot in various Western works of art.
  18. Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) She was a British woman who travelled widely in the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant and the Middle East, usually wearing male Turkish/Ottoman clothing. She was an archaeologist, an antiquarian and and explorer. She lived in what is now Lebanon for many years until her death. She was the first person to carry out an archaeological dig in Palestine, at the site of Ashkelon, although she was probably trying to find a legendary treasure that didn’t actually exist. Her narrated memoirs were published after her death by her physician Dr Charles Meryon.
  19. Lucy Parsons (1851-1942) Anarchist, labour organiser, founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World, called “more dangerous than a thousand rioters” and an active writer, editor, orator and firebrand right up until she died in a house fire aged 91.
  20. Madam Yoko (1849–1906) Madam Yoko was a leader of the Mende and was also a member of a secret women’s society which provided her with access to a whole load of traditional knowledge. A few marriages later, she became essentially a tribal chief and was negotiating with the British in her late 20s. She trained young women as influencers and wives and so was able to make and maintain alliances. Unfortunately seems like she got a bit too cosy with the Empire types and she ended up rich but seemingly not happy.
  21. Maria Bochkareva (1889-1920) WW1 Russian army officer, formed the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death. She was the first Russian woman to command a military unit.
  22. Mary Fields “Stagecoach Mary”, (1832-1914) First black postwoman in the USA, carried multiple firearms, most notably a .38 Smith & Wesson under her apron to protect herself and the mail from wolves, thieves and bandits.
  23. Mary Smith (1862-1946) A famous East End ‘knocker-up’, used a pea shooter to hit windows and wake people up early.
  24. Nadezhda Durova (1783 – 1866) Born in an army camp at Voznesenskoe, Ukraine, her father was a major. Disguised as a man, she joined the Russian army in 1807 as a lancer and later became a lieutenant of Hussars. She survived the Napoleonic wars and later published her biography.
  25. Nicola de La Haye (1150-1230) Defender of Lincoln castle against TWO seiges
  26. Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande (Queen) (1583-1663) Queen Nzinga was an emissary to Portugal and eventually queen. She was very firm about presenting the Kingdom of Ndongo as an equal player in negotiations with the Portuguese, using her linguistic skills, wealth, and opulent clothing to prove a point. When she turned up to a negotiation and found chairs were provided for the Europeans and a mat for her, apparently she had one of her attendants go on hands and knees so she could sit on him and talk eye-to-eye. She rose to power and led a series of military campaigns against the Portuguese.
  27. Rosalin Franklin (1920-1958) Discovered critical information about DNA that led to the famous double helix model, largely uncredited.
  28. Taytu Betel (1851-1918) Empress Taytu Betel was essentially the person in Ethiopia who said, “Pull the other one,” when the Italians tried it on. She noticed that the treaty they’d been given to sign in Amharic didn’t quite match the one the Italians were scrutinising in Italian, in which Ethiopia would have become an Italian protectorate. So she hard-noped them, and saw them off.
  29. Tomyris (?-520 BCE) Queen of the Massagetae (a Saka-Scythian tribal confederation). Cyrus the Great of Persia sought to acquire her kingdom through marriage but she was having none of it. So he attempted it by invasion. The tribes routed his army so he set out a great banquet with lots of wine. When the pursuing warriors found this and got drunk, the Persians ambushed and slaughtered them. Tomyris swore vengeance and led her army to crush the Persians in battle. She sought out the corpse of Cyrus, cut off his head, and shoved it into a bag filled with his soldiers’ blood, proclaiming ‘Drink your fill of blood!’. Which was nice.
  30. Wu Zetian (624 – 705) personal name Wu Zhao, was the de facto ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right.

Thanks to the contributors: Alan Monk, Alistair Samson, Andreas Persson, Carole Flint, Claire Hearn, Donnie Kelly, Edmund Kyberd, Felicity MacLeod Cullen, Kh Ranitzsch, Marianne Wells, Phil Leedell, Sarah Arnold, Simon S, Skodster Dbg, Staffan Gustafsson, T Micha Trout and Tim Edwards. Anybody can make suggestions, while it’s currently closed for figures 7,8,9 and 10, you will get another chance when we choose the next three, keep tuned.

by badsquiddogames

Let us know your suggestions for the 7, 8 and 9th miniature

COMMUNITY MINIATURES SUGGESTION THREAD ON BAGGY’S CAVE (FACEBOOK)


Here is a copy of what I posted in our Facebook group, which is where most the voting takes place. For the suggestions though you can add them in the comments section here and I will add them to the poll.

Hello, I’m mostly going to be busy with Salute things but this can be pootling in the background. Post below who you want to be in the poll for the next 3 community minis. The top 3 will be made. This isn’t the poll, but I’ll collate them all for the poll and give you lots of warning when that goes live.

I found this to be the best way as it gives people time to see who everyone is, and none of the options get a “head start”.

On your suggestions, can you put their birth and death date, name/s, country, and a term that sums them up like job title or what they’re known for. Then whatever you want in terms of why you want them, any pics and any other info. The poll will only have the basic information so this is a good chance to “pitch” them to the others. I’ll probably do a blog post pre poll as well with this info collated so people can have a good look before its voting time.

It means more famous doesn’t automatically get a head start too.

Woop!

by badsquiddogames

Sculpting Begins!

Hooray, it begins!

Alan has begun work on the first four, and you can see a peek into how sculpts are born.

L-R Harriet Tubman, Zenobia, Julie D’Aubigny, Black Agnes – work in progress sculpts by Alan Marsh.

How cool are they? Sculptors all have different ways of going about things. Some sculpt the body then add clothes, some do it bit by bit, which is what Alan is doing here. The wire underframe gives support and strength while sculpting, as well as helping it survive the intense heat and pressure of the moulding process.

Alan uses a mixture of “greenstuff” and milliput, as greenstuff is a strong and popular medium, but can sometimes be a bit…springy. This means after sculpting, edges can soften without constant rework. The milliput combats this making it easier to work with, and a side bonus is that it’s easier to photograph! It’s not shiny. Everyone has their own little favourite methods and materials, I am a big fan of this as Alan’s models are always brilliant to cast. There are some putties more prone to crumbling or other issues which luckily none of our current sculptors use.

See how the wire on Julie (3rd across) goes straight through the arm and sword, this really strengthens it. The little tab at the bottom is going to be what attaches to the puddle base to help the metal flow in casting, then give it strength before it reaches the customer once cast – then you just clip it off.

Eleanor of Aquitaine and Ching Shi

These two ladies are the last that need their posts up and design sketch. I have a long draft saved of Eleanor as I got very into the research so haven’t finished yet, though she is pretty much designed in my head! She’s a figure I was originally not that excited by…. BUT NOW. Oh lawd. Her story is incredible. I haven’t started on Ching Shi yet but hoping to have the research started and wrapped up by the end of the week.

by badsquiddogames

It’s Alive! Plans with New Artist (ooh!)

Hello all, thanks for sticking around! The last few months have been absolutely intense, and with still one Annie as the main staff, I’ve had a chunk of time off ill due to it all. Not the Community Miniatures Project’s fault, but running Bad Squiddo Games day to day is a huge thing. I’ve started working with more freelancers though to take some off my plate, which is working great, and one of the bonuses is we can make some progress with this.

One of the things that set me back and put me in a bit of a block was people seeing my rough concept art! Even though I keep saying that it doesn’t need to be refined, so long as the sculptor knows what is going on, showing just one made me feel super self conscious and stressed, as usually just the sculptor sees them, so it was weird with a big audience.

Artists

I’ve been chatting to several artists to get on board with this and make it a bit… fancier? Our main artist is Martin Whitmore and we love him very much, but he often gets busy on large projects either for us or other people, so it needed to be someone with a faster turnaround.

Derval Chambers

Welcome Derval to the gang! Everyone has to have a bit of a test to see if we can work together on both quality and accuracy, but also communication, especially when working with a concept piece. The test piece I chose was Aethelflaed, a miniature we already have.

I got him to draw her in a different pose to the mini, first as a rough sketch.

The style is perfect! I had him make a couple of changes, which was a good test for our communication as well – to switch the direction of her left hand, and remove the curls on her shoes. He had to fill in some blanks just having that photo to work with so this is all grand and he switched it straight up (you’ll see in the next image).

I’ll mostly be using him for these types of line art, but out of curiosity and for future projects, I asked Derval to colour her in, and the results are…wow!

This makes me very happy! It’s lovely to see minis in different poses, it really brings them to life. Talking of which….

We also got this sketch sheet of different expressions, which gives me SO MANY IDEAS! This was mostly just for fun, and it is so fun! Angry Aethel!

How does this fit in to The Community Miniatures Project?

It means I have someone else to help visualise the character. And something more coherent that you can look at before the mini is sculpted. So you can have an actual idea of what is coming which is much better than my scribbles and rambles.

The sculptor Alan is busy on WW2 Soviets for us at the moment and the next job after that is to tackle all the decided Community Minis so we can get caught up and back to a less manic pace. This means while he is mentally over at the Eastern Front, we can get a good crack on researching these ladies and getting the art together so he has something solid to work with as soon as he’s ready to. I gave Derval the heads up that it’ll probably end up being around one a month after the first load, and he is totally up for this and excited, which is super cool. It gives me a fresh wave of enthusiasm!

Sorry again that it’s taken a while to get this off the ground, but I totally feel it’s worth the wait, and is something that we’ll be doing a long time, once we’ve got the hang of it!

Thanks so much, and stay tuned!

Annnniiiiie

by badsquiddogames

A lil check in!

Hello! A quick check in to say I’ve been super spread in many other directions as well as a chunk of time off ill, but we will be progressing with this soon – I’m holding off the next round of voting til we have more progress with ones already voted in. Then even if we get ahead with a few, they can all be voted and designed in their own batch.

TLDR: It’s all cool!

Thanks all!
Annie

by badsquiddogames

Community Mini #5 and #6 decided!

Congratulations to Ching Shih and Harriet Tubman!

YAY! These two will make cracking minis!

I have a bunch of ideas for how they will look but will set up their own threads in Baggy’s Cave. Thanks for being patient, I am currently juggling a whole bunch of Bad Squiddo work, including some brand new releases (they’ll pop up here!)

The next blog update should have links to all 6 of the minis so far where we can discuss and refine their design.

While Harriet is unlocked as mini #6, no sculpting can begin until the current target is hit, so go on – you know what to do!

Catch you soon!

Anniiie!

by badsquiddogames

Community Mini #3 and #4 decided!

Congratulations to Julie d’Aubigny and Black Agnes!

YAY! These two will make cracking minis!

I’ll set up some dedicated threads for both of them and we can start chatting about how the minis should look.

I won’t do that just yet as I am SUPER TIRED from just building this site, so I aim to get the starting threads for both posted up in Baggy’s Cave tomorrow as well as the next round of voting!


I decided to add a lot more to the starting poll as I noticed those added early on got a bit of an unfair advantage, so I’ll copy in a bunch of the ones you added in the last poll.
Thanks a bunch, see you tomorrow 10am on Youtube!

Anniiie!

by badsquiddogames

Hello there!

Hello! It’s great to have you here! I’ve started this blog as a way to keep track of this fantastic project. Originally a tiny idea with little expectations, it’s already rocketed way past what I first imagined. Therefore it’s time to make it a bit more “proper”! Also the nature of this, it’s going to be brilliant to have one central place to compile our information and progress as we create history….with history!

If you’re not familiar with Bad Squiddo Games – go check us out, we already make a heckload of wonderful minis, and this project is to expand even further, alongside our planned releases.

This is all managed by me – Annie – so bear with me if you’re ever waiting on updates or replies as I’m probably just buried under a pile of stuff. This site has been sellotaped into existence by me too, so let me know if you spot any errors!

The next few posts are going to be a bit “backdated” with information taken from the Facebook group Baggy’s Cave, and after that I will endevour to keep it updated with the progress “live”.

Don’t forget to follow all our social media!

And subscribe to the newsletter!

Annie Norman,
Owner of Bad Squiddo Games