Raging Heroes Continue With Next Kickstarter Teasers
April 17, 2014 by brennon
Raging Heroes have been showing off a few more pieces of art for their upcoming Kickstarter that is going to add Dark Elves and the Sisters of Eternal Mercy to your tabletop. See what you think of these ladies below...
First up we have the rather deadly looking Krassh with her snarling pets. She's very much the Beast Master of the Dark Elf/Dark Eldar style range that Raging Heroes are going for and while it doesn't do much new in the looks department I'm sure it's going to be an exquisite miniature.
The Davidians are pretty much the same in respect to their 'not doing much new' when it comes to the look and feel of zealous dark future females but Raging Heroes do make exceptional miniatures and they are usually as close as possible to the concept art which is nice.
It's going to be interesting to see whether or not the Kickstarter for these ladies goes as well as the last one. A lot of people continue to say that they are bored of this style of design and yet their last Kickstarter which featured a fair few women presented in this way blasted through pretty much every stretch goal.
I'm sure we will see the results soon.
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backed the original kickstarter project. really cant wait for them to arrive! i will make my decision based on those… looking good though
booooooobs! 😮
I also backed their Toughest Girls of the Galaxy kickstarter and I’m keen to see where they go next.
I’m not so interested in Dark Elves, but since RH are saying they will be available as both fantasy and sci fi versions, as given the completely weird and sinister look of some of the concept art, I will be keeping an eye on possible minis to use as Chaos Cultists.
I am a lot more interested in their not Sisters of Battle. The concept art looks good and RH are probing to be one of the better sculptors of female minis.
The not-Dark Elf/Dark Eldar Beastmaster is to be expected. It is petty much in line with the established imagry of that kind of character, as problematic as that can be. The Davidians on the other hand look rather like a group of Adepta Soritas Sisters Repentia that have left even more of their clothes behind than usual. So, a sect of fanatical warriors chooses to go to war wearing nothing but votive prayer scrolls and strangely heavily armoured boots… why? Why is protecting one’s shins, ankles and feet (incidentally, how would you actually even walk in those things without the… Read more »
Ace post, couldn’t agree more. After my experience in Salute with my girlfriend, I’d say that the negative connotations associated with wargaming that you point out are well deserved, this project is simply an extension of that.
Shiney figures or no.
While I’ve no wish to rerun that old debate about the way miniatures portray women, I do find it odd that that you automatically equal the portrayal of sexuality as misogynistic.
I do not, nor have I ever, equated female sexuality with misogyny. Such a thing would, ironically, be rather misogynistic, since it would deny women the ability to express their own sexuality. That said, the portrayal of an objectifying sexuality is often misogynistic. There is also the fact that the wargaming design process is still dominated by men, many of whom employ a rather narrow set of sexualised artistic conventions when depicting most female characters. That plays into issues of the male gaze and the lack of female agency in the design process. It is very important to remember that… Read more »
@vetruviangeek don’t get me wrong, I pretty much agree with most of what you’ve said. I also think these Davidian miniatures look very odd with their current outfit. Going into battle naked except for a pair of enormous boots just looks wrong. I would actually have preferred them to be naked from the knees down as well. A warrior who chooses to fight naked does have historical precedent and is far more believable than one who wears a fetish outfit. It’s all about context though isn’t it? It some showed you a similarly dressed miniature and told you it was… Read more »
I don’t think the reaction would be much different if it was a Slaaneshi cultist. If you were inclined to like it then you still would, to dislike it then you still would, and to feel that it perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes then you would think the Slaaneshi thing is a flimsy excuse to portray the stereotype.
@redben probably so, but then we get into a debate about whether a stereotype is harmful or harmless.
It’s more each individual’s reaction I’m referring to rather than whether it is or isn’t harmful 🙂
The tropes surrounding the warrior who goes into battle naked relates back to a specific period in history when certain warrior groups did this to express disdain for their opponents. In an age where ballistic weaponry was comparatively primative and rare, and melee combat was dominant, it was a way of saying that you had such a low opinion of your foe’s abilities as a warrior that you won’t even bother wearing armour (though a shield was still common), since they don’t even have the skill to land a blow on you. There is nothing specifically sexual about this type… Read more »
@vetruviangeek please don’t think I disagree with you because I really don’t. I agree totally with 99% of everything you’ve said! I’m just arguing about the details. I really wish that all miniatures of women were realistic and respectful and positive too. However, I get uneasy whenever I see people trying to tell others what they should and shouldn’t be making or buying. I’m always reminded of the infamous Lady Chatterly trial where the prosecuting council asked the jury ” Would you want you wife or servants to read this?” We run the danger of falling into the condescending stance… Read more »
But it is important to remember that this is not a trial, and we are not in a court of law. I do not have the power to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t buy or sculpt. All I am doing – all I can do – is discuss the potential social impact of the sculpts and by extension of the decison to buy them. That discussion is not oppressive, and does not amount to censorship. I am not saying that buying these models makes someone a bad person for ever and always (though as I have said I… Read more »
@vetruviangeek Then I think we are pretty much in agreement. I totally agree that it is terrible that this is the prevailing way in which women are portrayed in our hobby. To me the problem isn’t that this stereotype exists, it’s that other portrayals are so rare. As consumers we should be demanding a much wider and varied portrayal of women, not this one stereotype.
Don’t care about sexism, could be a bloke or a women dressed like that for all I care, it’s just that the concept is just awful.
Looks pretty tame compared to a night out at Torture Garden… And yes that is an actual fetish club… Google if you dare.
On the basis that the Davidians are filling the zealot / flagellant role ala Warhammer (not something I’m interested in, in either male or female form to be honest!) I will be more interested to see the concepts of the ‘regular’ Sisters in their sci-fi and fantasy incarnations. Presumably they come with more clothes and don’t buy their boots from New Rock.
..although they probably *will* have heels instead. I guess you can’t have everything.
RH have already shown a concept for a more standard ‘sister’. You can find it here;
http://s918.photobucket.com/user/Raging-Heroes/media/SoEM/reyallia_zps5a9f0fd7.jpg.html
Thanks for that. So yeah, pretty much what I expected – SoB re-drawn with RH’s particular aesthetic. I’m sure there will be a few minis that I can cherry pick from their line-up 🙂
for all that people frown upon them they do get talked about a lot probably the idea
At the end of the day I, personally at least, always give eh shall we say “busty-fantasy” a pass if the model shows some skill and craftsmanship (which is present here). It merely falls under Erotica and I have nothing with that so long as it’s not sold to kids – or teens if nudity is involved. (A miniature is a piece of art technically). No one has ever, ever, come out of a Woman’s Studies class smarter than when they entered: women’s studies is not interested in reason or actual equality of the sexes, it’s all smoke and mirrors.… Read more »
I take it that the woman you are referring to is the Canadian -American feminist Anita Sarkeesian who created the Tropes versus Women videos posted on the website feminist Frequency? If you are going to accuse her publicly of lying, then I hope you have some evidence of her deliberatly misrepresenting particular games or elements of the gaming industry with a clear intent to deceive. Merely asserting that she is lying when she isn’t even here to defend herself is out of order. You also state that ‘women’s studies’ (the broader field is gender studies of political feminism) is somehow… Read more »
if people don’t like a certain mini don’t buy it. or a certain game or a certain company or a certain anything. But please spare us all the lectures. I am sick to death of hearing about how offensive to women any gaming hobby is. Guess what? it’s for guys. and if my girlfriend doesn’t like it who cares.
This may shock some, but plenty of girls enjoy and adore images of scantly clad women.
Yes, it enforces a horrible body-image, but males suffer that too.