I guess these arguments should be understood in relation to the artistic vision of the company then. "Make female units sexually attractive" is likely an additional guideline given to the artist or a general instruction from their artistic direction. It's no coincidence that most if not all female sculpts from CB have followed this trend.
Fausto, the sculptor who did the majority of the Morat resculpt line, as well as most of the Chaksa models, routinely sculpts models with really detailed musculature. Check out the orc models he did for Yedharo, his own studio, for some non-Infinity examples. Dude just really loves to sculpt strong musculature. I originally really side-eyed the Oznat model in the MAF starter because of her armored bikini look. Once the dossier for the new Daturazi was revealed, I was ecstatic, because it provided a context in which the Oznat made sense. Instead of it being a case of a token scantily clad female model, it was now a consistent visual style for Morat warbands. I think at the time I actually may have made some folks uncomfortable with my unabashed glee for shirtless Daturazi.
There's an old (like, 6 or 7 year old) interview with Bostria where he specifically mentions that female models should be smaller and sexier. It's old, and I'm 100% sure it doesn't reflect the company's current standards for modeling. And while I am not familiar with CB's guidelines, I wouldn't say the sculptor is never allowed /some/ artistic freedom, because that is not true. I've worked with enough painters, sculptors and artists in my life to know that some artistic freedom will always be allowed and that some individual sensibility will always be present, to the point you can start to identify who did what merely by their telltale signs. One sculptor I've worked with always made models with really nice, round and prominent butts, for example. When it comes to Morats, I think the current design aesthetics for them, based off models like the Kurgat, Raicho and Rasyat, is pretty good. They look menacing, they look strong and they look cool. We've seen a couple females in this new-ish style in Kendrat and the Taryot huntress, but they're not meant to evoke what a female military morat looks like. I would love to see zerats resculpted to become more menacing. I only have one zerat model and I'd gladly add two more to my collection. On the other hand, I really hope they don't resculpt sogarats or suryats. As much as I like them, I will never use enough of them to justify owning more models than I already do.
They can be attractive without being pencil thin with no muscles though... I mean, I don't think I said anywhere that there was no artistic freedom, just that they don't have the complete artistic freedom that these reactionary arguments push as a concept. They are bound by existing limitations and aesthetics. Making non-supermodel sized female miniatures would just be another in an existing list of requirements - but it's the one that causes people to yell and scream about "muh freedoms", apparently.
I'm so confused by this thread. ''I've got a problem with CB's female models'' ''Which one's? Cause here's a list of their recent amazing models...'' *Silence* They've just released an androgynous monk
The model looks like a female with a shaved head to me. Didn't second guess nor question the sex/gender of the miniature.
Everybody is allowed to disagree, but reality is, debates of this nature are almost always inconclusive with the proponents of either side unwilling to agree to disagree or actually debate in a productive manner, it is mainly the reason why "that thread" exists in the off topic section of the forum. The discussion is not really a taboo, just clutters the forum and gets more heated than it should.
Opening post - "Stop making female Morats into bikini babes. Give us broad, strong female models of equal size to the males." Zerats - slim, petite, big hips, tiny arms Anyat - slim, petite, big hips, tiny arms Oznats - *slightly* less petite, big hips, tiny arms Raicho pilot - also *slightly* less petite, not as big hipped, tiny arms As I believe I already explained, one of the pain points is that the Morat line are sturdy, stocky models and easy to assemble. With the exception of every single female sculpt available. Mostly due to their whimsically tiny arms, and thus tiny contact points. The size comparison male to female is laughable. As I believe I have repeatedly stated already - the female Krakot and Tag Raid minis aren't available for purchase, nor were they sculpts for the main game. I had little to no involvement in either Kickstarter, again something I've stated already. From what I can see online for Kendrat - not having access to a model in person - it looks like a further step in the right direction - but this is still 1 released model of 7 in the "range". Eyeballing the Hunter mini, it also looks like an improvement - it was also not a model I was aware of prior to making this post. It also doesn't change the core thesis of my post - that I want this to be the norm, and not what the range has been historically. Without access to any revised designs/dossier for Morats, using the existing range is the only real yardstick for Morat designs. As such, it is not unfair or unreasonable to look at the existing range, identify an existing trend in the bulk of said range, and call it out. Returning to my opening sentence once again - "Give us broad, strong female models of equal size to the males." - none of the Infinity range of female Morat models is the same size as their male counterparts. I can't find any size comparisons for Kendrat to another Morat in google but the images seem to make her more "male human" in size, rather than "male Morat". The Hunter also seems to lack any images with comparison to other miniatures, though it does appear to be more on par with the size of a (pre-redesign) Vanguard.
I agree. It was troublesome to build the Oznat Vulkan Shotgun because of the reasons you mentioned. I hope the new sculpts will do better in that regard.
I think you made your point clear from the start I do not see the point of it been repeated so often though.
I can see at least one post misrepresenting my point and suggesting that I haven't provided evidence to back up my assertions. Isn't that sufficient?
This was your OP... That's the one I (and probably all the people liking my points) have a problem with, after I've given you all the examples of that very much not being the case. Ah, I didn't realise this has happened before.
She is painted in quite an aggressive manner, but her pose really isn't if you really look at it. She is holding her hammer in a defensive position, the head pointed down, arm outstretched. She is on guard, she is not attacking, but she certainly doesn't look like she is to be messed with. Her gun is also pointing away from whatever she is looking at, meaning it's either out of bullets or she isn't really thinking about using it (yet). One could argue that she's just drawn it and is about to pop a cap on some unlucky bastard's ass, and thats also acceptable. This is a good example of what I said when I said passive isn't bad. This pose isn't an aggressive pose, but it has character, it gives a feeling. This lady is not to be trifled with. Plus the lady is sensibly dressed and armored for her job as a close combat warband, and she looks and feels strong. It is a good pose. It could be an aggressive pose if she were pointing her gun forward and actually about to shoot it, for example, but that would probably make her have less character. On the other hand, holding her hammer with both hands about to strike with it could also work, as would having her be with the hammer down in a pose that implies she just finished an attack as opposed to being ready to defend herself. There are only so many ways to pose a model before it gets repetitive, and while there have been some great, dynamic and even aggressive female models recently, a lot of the time they're given these more subtle poses. Crouching, stalking, weapons drawn but often in a defensive, on guard position. Note that these poses are cool and are an improvement over the cheesecakey poses from N2, but look at the KoJ for a really dynamic and aggressive pose, or even Joana's running forward, gun low roady-run is also a good and cool example. For Morats, we've yet to see a female morat looking like she's about to rip someone's head off, while the males do have (some) poses like that. However, even in the male morat we often get these cool but mostly passive poses, like the Sniper Yaogat with his great hunter stance or the raicho that's just standing around looking scary. In fact, the only aggressive poses for male morat I can think of by the top of my mind are the Daturazi (pretty much all of them) and the rasyat. Everyone else is just kinda standing around with their guns on hands looking like they're posing for a magazine cover.
Morats were one of the first factions to get a CAD resculpt, it must be 8 or more years since the current starter came out! They definitely suffered from "Standing around looking vaguely tactical" posing syndrome as CB's sculptors got to grips with the new sculpting technology. USARF, and to a lesser extent Icestorm, also had symptoms of it.