Wee Free Men

Next morning, she’d proudly presented it [a china shepherdess statue] to Granny Aching. The old woman had taken it very carefully in her wrinkled hands and stared at it for some time. Tiffany was sure, now, that it had been a cruel thing to do. Granny Aching had probably never heard of shepherdesses. People who cared for sheep on the Chalk were all called shepherds, and that was all there was to it. And this beautiful creature was as much unlike Granny Aching as anything could be. The china shepherdess had an old-fashioned long dress, with the bulgy bits at the side that made it look as though she had saddlebags in her knickers. There were blue ribbons all over the dress, and all over the rather showy straw bonnet, and on the shepherd’s crook, which was a lot more curly than any crook Tiffany had ever seen… She remembered that the old lady would smile oddly, sometimes, when she looked at the statue. If only she’d said something. But Granny liked silence. (pg. 130-132)

The Shepherdess was always going to be an important addition to the army. Mechanically speaking, she represents the base with the Blessing of the Gods but more importantly, she is on the original cover of the book.

The search for the right model had a few wrong turns (with some excellent but not quite right models making it into the stash) before I was on the Discworld site for something else and, as I’m prone to do, was looking at the miniatures. That’s when I saw my shepherdess. Granny at the Opera

Look at her! Perfect! I didn’t need the feathers on the back of her head, the fan in her right hand or the bird mask on a stick in her left hand. Careful clipping and they were salvaged for the Bird Feegle seen on a previous base. A little green stuff/milliput work to give her a full head of hair (a bonnet felt a bit much when she has the beads/pearls over her hair already). Then a bit of brass rod shaped like a crook, the hand was drilled and we’re ready for priming.

For painting, I used the book cover for reference; Skeleton Horde contrast thinned 1:3 with Matt medium and careful not to let it pool anywhere. Then Prussian blue for the details and finished with a gloss varnish for that nice fine china look. Mounted amongst her feegles, I think she looks the part.

With that, the five Luggit regiments are done. Time to get on with the rest of the army.