Mary Read, ca. 1720

NB: The title of this post will double as the 'working title' of this project.

For whatever reason, Anne Bonny is my favourite of the femmes fatales of the Spanish Main. But as most of you are aware, Rackham had a brace of hellions with him; and the second one was admittedly the more interesting and capable of the two.

By the time Mary Read reached the West Indies, she had served as a soldier in [most likely] the War of the Spanish Succession, and as an innkeeper in the Netherlands. It could be said she was well groomed for what followed. . .

Neither of the hellcats have been particularly well-served by the historical miniatures' community. In fact, the best full-figure available is the 54mm rendition of Mary Read released last year by Andrea. Mary arguably also takes first honours in the bust category: the 1/9th scale rendition sculpted by Roman Rux and the Ademola team, and produced by the now-defunct Polish com- pany, Ademola 22. This will serve as the "base figure" of this project.

My sample was produced by SK miniatures (UK) [Many thanks to Steve for the excellent cus- tomer service, as always!], who acquired a portion of the Ademola line.The 5-piece casting was exquisite! In all honesty, significantly better than the original offering. My only criticism is regard- ing the resin used to cast the one-sided cocked hat and the pedestal: this grey resin was quite soft and "vinyl-y". Neither here nor there with respect to the pedestal; but definitely annoying, if not problematic, with respect to the hat.

I selected this bust because 1) it was the only one available of the subject; and 2) because of the face and the overall morphology. The rest will have to be "reworked" if one is striving for anything approximating a historical reconstruction.

In general terms, the bust will be essentially resculpted from the neck down. On a more granular level, at the very least I intend to:

• Rework the hat and the coiffure.
• Sculpt the underlying torso.
• Resculpt the shirt.
• Sculpt a seaman's jacket.
• Resculpt the baldric. 
• Rework kit-provided pedestal. 

Time to weigh anchor. . .

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003