Entry number two.  Aethelflaed, Queen of Mercia

This is from the Footsore dark age range.  As with Leonidas I have painted her so she can be used in a game, which again limits what you can do in terms of basing.  Now, we don’t have loads of reference material for Aethelflaed and in terms of colours, I painted her so she would not look out of place alongside a mixture of middle earth Rohan warriors and historical saxons which I am using as the basis for a Saga Age of Magic army.  However it turns out that there is a statue of Aethelflaed in Tamworth which I think might have served as a bit of an influence for the sculpt.

Proximity to Theme

It’s definitely a champion and in my opinion, I think her pose is Glorious.  She looks every inch a queen whilst at the same time the levelled spear is imposing, as if she’s issuing a challenge, daring the Danes to come for her.

Originality

As with Leonidas, it’s a gamble whether I will earn any points here.  Is it original?  I don’t know.

Painting Skill

This model has some similar issues to Leonidas.  Overall the model is a very nice model but there are some issues, especially with the face – that’s why she is photographed side on.  From the front her face looks as though the mould might have slipped a little.  I think you can still see, from the picture, that her features are hardly what you would call “delicate”, I mean look at the size on that snozzer!  But the actual painting is decent, the transitions are nice, especially on the dress and cloak.  I wish I had put the spear in her hand with the flat of the blade side on so you can see that as well

Homeworld

It was harder to put this together than Leonidas.  How does one communicate “England” on a 25mm base?  Ultimately I went with green, summer grass and some white and yellow wild flowers to create the impression of a green, summer meadow to try and capture the spirit of “this green and pleasant isle”

Photo Quality

I used exactly the same background and method for this as for Leonidas and gave the title of the picture “The Warrior Queen”.  There’s no real evidence that she was ever a warrior, but as a wartime leader she’s in the same sort of category as Churchill – it doesn’t matter whether she actually fought, she had enough presence that people would fight for her and fight well.