Yeah, LD, a bit... Brief techical digression: [all the non-swordplay nuts can ignore us now g] I have a bastard sword with a 46" blade. Would make it a bit shorter over all than those two if you take the view that Vicki is 6' tall, would make it roughly the same blade length if Vicki is closer to average human height. Mine is 3.75 lbs, but the blade is less thick than that one... Takes forearm and wrist strength, not shoulder/arm strength, and it takes a sword that balances properly either just at, or just slightly ahead of the guard like mine. You can use one in single hand with a shield, that's what a bastard blade was designed for. I used to use mine in live steel combat in Avalon. If you don't have the wrist strength... your hand and arm gets REAL freaking tired after about 45 seconds. Wether you have it or not, with a long, heavy sword, it gets tiring in 1 - 2 minutes. Heh. 1-2 minutes is a LONG, long time in a sword fight. 5 minutes is an eternity... bastard sword and shield vs a well balanced broadsword: if you haven't killed the other guy in 40 seconds or less, you're probably history. ;] I'd say, if they were designed right, those would probably wiegh about 5-6lbs each, and balance like they weigh like my 3.75lb bastard sword, based on the fact that my bastard blades apparent weight in the hand is 2 lbs or so. Until the end of a two minute sword fight when it feels like it weighs approximatly 26 tons or so... snicker Ya doan wanna know what 8 pounds of shield and multiple pounds of chainmail feel like they weigh at the end of two minutes of strenuous activity, trust me. Keep in mind, when I say I could manage 3 and 3 quarter pounds of blade and 7-8 pounds of shield in live steel, I'm NOT and never have been a big muscular guy: in top shape and condition, I'm 6'1" and 165lbs - it's all muscle tone and density and condition on the wrist and fore-arm strength. Medieval swordsmen, including the ones that manhandled those huge 8.5lb european two-handers, were normally about 5'6" to 5'8" and 185+ lbs, but I'll bet they had muscle density and muscle condition in the wrsits, shoulders and forearms like you wouldn't believe. ;] [Modern nutrition and high protein diets increased average height a LOT in the past century] End historical/sword buff digression, enjoyed it. grin It's fantasy. I don't think that any of Vallejo's or Royo's models could manage the blades that they paint them with in combat. Some fast wiry fucker like me would leave them bleeding hulks on the ground. But that doesn't stop Royo or Vallejo from painting them - they have more sense than to let real world considerations get in the way of good fantasy. ;]

"I am a good person now and it feels... well, pretty much the same as I felt before (except that the headaches have gone away now that I'm not wearing control top pantyhose on my head anymore)"

• Monkeysmell