Cerise Magazine

By Richard Pilbeam

Victoria Lamb is a professional freelance stage and costume designer who has been painting, sculpting and converting fantasy miniatures since 1986. Her work has won multiple awards and been exhibited by invitation in Europe, the United States, Australia and New Caledonia. Recently she has moved into sculpting original models and also designed her own tabletop game, “Labyrintus”. You can find out more about her and view her portfolio at Victorialamb.com.

Richard Pilbeam: What first drew you to painting and designing miniatures?

Victoria Lamb: As child I have always enjoyed drawing and making things. Creating my own characters and worlds on paper or building cardboard castles inhabited by Lego men or styrene packaging space stations for Star Wars figures.It was not until my mid-teens that I discovered some little lead figures in a local hobby shop. I thought they were cool, but had no idea what they were for. I really discovered the miniature hobby a few years later when I bought my first issue of White Dwarf and a second hand box of plastic space marines.

RP: You’ve repeatedly been placed first in Games Workshop’s Australasian painting competitions, and one of their standard promotional photographs is of you triumphantly holding your trophy in front of a screaming crowd. Does being so visible make you feel like a role model for women interested in taking up painting and sculpting?

VL: It would be nice to think so. Sadly most of the times I have been on the winner’s podium in Australia I’m the only female there. I think this is changing though, perhaps more in some places than others. In the USA, for example, it seems that most of the top miniature painters are women. I think that the more visible women can be in the hobby the better.

RP: On the subject of visibility, Games Workshop’s rulebooks are written with the default assumption that the reader is male. Do you find this alienating?

VL: I think it is off-putting. I would not expect every line in a rulebook to be followed with “or she”, but there must be something in between. The lack of female hobbyists visually is probably more of an issue for me. Surely if the promotional photographs in mainstream publications showed a gender balance of participants, more women would feel inclined to be interested in the hobby?

RP: One of the excuses trotted out to explain women not being involved in fantasy and SF gaming is that they find the all the monsters, robots, violence and slime to be a turn-off and prefer stereotypically “feminine” things. However, your work is the exact opposite of this, and some of it is downright repulsive (in a good way!). Has this kind of material always appealed to you personally, or was it something you found yourself being inspired by because of the field you were working in?

VL: I think it has actually inspired me to work in the field that I do. What has always appealed to me above all is character. Sadly it’s something that is, to me, usually absent from most things stereotypically “feminine”. It was something I could never see in a Barbie doll. I’ve always been inspired by the ‘other’, flawed characters and abhumans; dwarfs, halflings, ogres, orcs and monsters. Whatever the subject I’ve always tried to capture the humor, drama or vulnerability of a character in my work.

RP:You were commissioned to sculpt two models for Impact Miniatures’ Fantasy Football collection. Is this your first professional miniature sculpting work?

VL: Yes, sculpting is something I had wanted to do for a long time, and Impact gave me my first professional break. I ended up sculpting a complete team for them, they named them Pharaohs of Victoria. They were designed by artist Heather Burton. I am now concentrating on sculpting a small range of my own called Victoria Miniatures.

RP: Would you work in the industry full time if you could, or would you rather continue working freelance in different areas of design?

VL: I have more than enough commissions come through my inbox to keep me sculpting and painting seven days a week. As much as I enjoy it, working full time in the miniature industry would be an extremely isolated profession because of my location. I think I would only want to work in the miniature industry full time outside Australia. I love the design work I do in the entertainment industry; its very hard work but the challenge and collaborative nature of it keep me coming back for more. Having more than one iron in the fire gives me flexibility in both areas.

RP:Miniatures of female characters have a tendency to be both scarce and oversexualised. Do you think this is a barrier for female hobbyists?

VL:Personally, yes. I find many female miniatures off-putting. I would not choose to paint or sculpt that kind of miniature. I suspect that most potential female gamers would not choose to field an army of topless, ludicrously-proportioned nymphets wearing chain mail g-strings. But there are many high-end female miniature painters who seem to have no issues at all about painting them. I guess it depends what appeals to the individual.

RP: Would you ever want to sculpt your own female miniatures? What would they look like?

VL:I have sculpted a female dwarf troll slayer for my own miniature range.I’ve always liked troll slayers, never seen a female version and thought ‘why not?’. I actually find the gender imbalance in the gaming industry inspires a lot of my ideas. I will often portray female characters as leaders such as in this Golden Demon Winner.It can also be fun to make comments about gender in a satirical way such as this recent sculpt of mine titled ‘Fairy’.

RP: What advice would you give to women who aspire to work in miniature design and sculpting?

VL: The advice I’d give anyone aspiring to be a miniature designer is practice, practice, practice. Don’t be afraid to put your work out there or to ask for help, it’s the best way to improve.

For women breaking into the field I would say don’t be put off or intimidated. Participate and be seen. Find miniatures that inspire you and if there aren’t any create them yourself.One thing that I love about this industry is that there is so much creative freedom. Anything goes.

RP:Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

VL: I think the cliché cheesecake chick (and the beefcake bloke, for that matter) will always be with us but I think it is becoming a somewhat dated image. I don’t think female miniatures shouldn’t be feminine or sexy, I just believe that they should be able to be strong, characterful, humorous or dramatic as well. I think more and more companies are creating female miniatures to this end.

It seems to me that more and more women are getting involved in the hobby but they can sometimes be a silent majority. If women don’t like what a company is doing let them know. Get on the forums and tell people what you want to see. If the games companies think there is a market they will listen. I’ve never understood how some companies are prepared to alienate 50% of their potential business.

I’ve listened to ridiculous arguments from male hobbyists telling me that it would be ‘unrealistic’ for a female character to lead an army of zombies or fight a two-headed dragon. But these kinds of comments are in the minority. The reaction I get to being a female in male dominated industry is generally overwhelmingly positive. The day I won the Slayer Sword a big burly Aussie bloke shouldered his way through the crowd shook my hand and said. “Maaate, when I saw a woman up there winning, I just thought YES!”