A painted Sister: Order of the Turquoise Lily

Like many of us on a Sunday, I sat down and did some painting. On my painting table there just so happened to be a completed sister, fresh from her sculpting work. Rather than leave here there in naked plastic and greenstuff, I thought I'd try out the colour scheme that my fiance aproved.

So, may I present Sister Katherine of the Order of the Turquoise Lily:

The scheme is a simple one but very bright and cheery I think :) After all, women like to beautify themselves so I don't see why sisters should be any different. Hence, turquiose robes over shiny bright silver armour with golden accessories!

Overall I'm really pleased with the way all the parts go together. It can be quite difficult to picture the finished models when they're covered in green stuff and I've often worried about what they will look like when painted. I'm also quite impressed with how well the robes came out. Again, before paint was applied I worried that the robes wouldn't be very smooth and were sculpted badly. In reality I'm quite pleased with myself...that's a rare feeling!

Nuns with Guns!

How yow all doin'??

Progress continues with my sisters of battle project with the main development being my decision to abandon the casting of pieces. I have tried many many times now to get this to work and it just doesn't! At least it doesn't with the equipment I have access too. Sadly I don't have the money for a vacuum chamber etc...in the end it's just as quick to sculpt each and every one! This isn't a bad thing either as it means I can devote individual attention to each sister and get a truly unique army...I just need to work on my own individual imagination now :p

Anyway, as the nuns with guns title would suggest, I have armed a couple of my sisters with weapons I think look really cool! All come from the Forgeworld Spacemarine Legions range, which seem to be smaller than their plastic alternatives, hence ideal for sisters. Take a look and let me know what you think...

Sister with 'Umbra' pattern bolter:

I'm planning on using the sanctuary range of bases from dragonforge for this army. Therefore, I've made my own base for this squad that won't look too out of place when I get the shipment.

I'm happy with the proportions and I'm especially chuffed with the robe sleeves. They are a great way of creating movement and direction, which suggests that she's sweeping her bolter around to engage a new target. 

 

 Sister with heavy flamer:

Seriously cool!! I think I'll create a more appropriate backpack for her but I absolutely love the look of this heavy flamer! Just ever so slightly large but hey, she's in power armour!

Progress on the Plastic Sisters of Battle

Hello all!

I thought you might appreciate a mini-update on my sisters of battle project :) I was initially struggling with the bolter as all the space marine versions are far too big! Getting a thin, sleek bolter was proving to be a nightmare. Then I was advised to try the forgeworld Umbra patter bolters, which I did! They're perfect!

They're still big and beefy, like a bolter should be, but without overwhelming the model. Now I just need to find some suitable flamers and melta guns!

Creating a Battle Sister from Plastic Parts

Hello everybody and welcome to my latest post! I'm pretty excited about my latest project because it involves one of my all time favourite armies, the Sisters of Battle Adepta Sororitas.

Ever since I began playing warhammer 40k back when I was 11, I can remember being intrigued by the nuns with guns. Thinking back on it now, it must have been a combination of things that initially drew my interest. First of all they are probably one of the weirdest armies  in 40k and when the universe is populated by aliens and super soldiers, that's really saying something! The highly religious, all female fighting force is completely different from almost every other army. Men are very much in the minority and their wargear is familiar yet completely different to the space marine equivalents. All this leads to quite a visually striking army.

Secondly, they were (and always have been) very expensive to buy and so my 11 year old pocket money allowance wouldn't quite cover the start up costs for an army. So they were always just out of my reach...a truism even today!

Finally, I'm a bit of a hipster at heart and so I'm always looking to find that thing that no one else has. Sisters of battle armies are very rare and entirely converted sisters armies are even rarer! If done well, this army will be a cracker!!!

Anyway, enough of that. Lets get on with the plan...

The Plan:

I'm going to try and convert sisters of battle out of plastic parts and then cast those parts out of resin. The idea is to end up with 5-10 torsos, 5-10 sets of legs and 5-10 sets of arms with which I can re-combine into 'multi-part' sisters of battle miniatures. I have never attempted casting parts out of resin before so I consider this project to be a giant learning curve in my hobby development. Lets see how it goes.

First of all I need to actually convert the parts out of plastics. Here's what I've managed so far...

Torsos:

These are 4 of the 5 torsos I'm working on. I have a 5th which is exactly the same as the torso to the right in the second picture as these torsos are the most similar to the original miniatures. The base is a Dark Eldar warrior torso with all the shoulder spikes removed. I really like the way the armour is plated in the abdomen region on some of them and I think it will add a bit of variety to the battle sisters armour without looking too 'evil'. Next I used cabling which is available from 'dragonforge' to make the re-breather pipes around the gorget. I've also added the piping on the chest using rolled out green stuff and I made the contact point for the backpack (not shown in pictures) out of green stuff too. Finally, I'm adding a few small details to the re-breather (skulls and fleur de lys) and shoulder pads (imperial aquilas shaved from space marine bolters) but I don't want to add too much at this stage as I'm cautious about the level of detail I will get from the casting process. It might be easier to add the detail once the resin cast is made. Besides, if I want to make them all individual it's probably a good idea to cast the basic armour sets and then add whatever details I like afterwards.

Legs:

So far I've managed to almost finish 2 sets of legs. Once again Dark Eldar legs have provided the base and I've decided to keep the plated look of the upper armour. The set on the left have had all spikes removed and I've added a skull the the knee pad from my bits box. Then, using green stuff, I sculpted robes hanging down from the front and back. I still need to add a belt and with a buckle of some kind to the front and also include a religious symbol hanging down with the robes (like the original models).

Here you can see two more sets of legs in the process of having robes sculpted. You can see that I'm using the original tabards as a base for the green stuff, which I can then build upon once it's dried. I'm hoping to use the set on the right for the special weapon!

The Proportions!

When I sat down to research this project, I quickly realised that getting the scale and proportions of the model is the most important thing when scratch building sisters of battle. The key is not to make them too big yet still capture the bulk (albiet a slim-lined version) of their power armour and their bolters. I'm quite happy with the beginnings of mine, as the comparison with a space marine shows that the model not too tall. The dialogus on the left is a bit misleading as it's set on a high base. In reality, the sister is slightly taller.

One of the things I would like to change about the sisters of battle is their hair styles! I'm using a Dark Eldar head in this picture just to give you a comparison, but actually, I quite like it. I think I'll remove the top knot but otherwise keep the head. I'll post a new article up on female heads when I've sourced some.

So all in all I'm pretty chuffed with the beginnings of this project and it's nice to finally have some enthusiasm for the hobby back!! Please leave comments below on what you think I should add/change. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas and I'd really like this army to look slightly different from the original miniatures. After all, they are 2nd ed!

The Path of the Destroyer

Hi folks,

I Thought I'd share some general thoughts on the Necrons and also show you my newest painted figure, the Destroyer Lord. I've only been able to grab a couple of 1000pt games with them so far with a list that looks a little (exactly) like this:

1x Destroyer Lord: All the toys except the tachyon arrow
5x Triarch Praetorians
8x Warriors
9x Warriors
3x Wraiths: 2x whip coils
1x Triarch Stalker: Twin-linked heavy gauss cannon
1x Annihilation Barge

I've found the Triarch Praetorians have worked really well when supporting a Destroyer Lord. They're pretty expensive at 400pts but the amount of AP2 they put out in both shooting and combat really does wonders! They are also strength and toughness 5 and gain preferred enemy when paired with the Lord, which normally means that they need 2+ to wound in combat re-rolling 1's! They are a seriously good unit in my opinion.

I'm also really impressed with the reliability of Necron firepower, especially when twinned with the twin-linking effects of the Stalker. So far I've been able to reliably destroy a unit a turn by painting it with Stalker, shooting it with my Warriors and Annihilation Barge and then charging the rest with the Praetorians and the Lord. It's a combination that seems to work well against everything, even hoards.

Finally, we all know its good but hats off to the Annihilation Barge and its twin-linked tesla destrutor! I regularly achieve 5+ hits with this weapon, which is amazing as it only gets 4 shots! Tesla really is that good! and for 80pts, it doesn't break the points bank either.

So there you have it. So far I've been able to win two games using this small list, 1 against hoard Orks (60+ boyz) and one against the shiny new Space Marines. Hopefully as I scale up I learn even more neat little tricks.

Anywho here are some pictures of the recently painted Destroyer Lord.

 I wanted him to look menacing with his single glowing eye!

 The warscythe has been painstakingly wet blended

 A must have piece of kit for any Destroyer Lord. The resurrection orb brought him back 2x last game!

 Once again my stupid matt varnish clouded up the model so I've had to gloss varnish the wet blended armour just to make the effect pop again!

Rise of a new Dynasty

Recently my wonderful fiancee convinced me to keep the small number of necrons I'd bought. They were very nearly ebay'ed for some small amount! Woops, disaster averted.

Anywho I began to come around to the mammoth task of painting them using OSL and wet blending techniques, something I've been thinking about for a while. I wanted to try something that would challenge my painting abilities in a big way and trust me, the annihilation barge took some doing! Here's my first attempt at it...it took me 7 days!

Sum git once told me yu cudnt solve evry problem wiv fire.....hu hu hu, I pruved im rong!

It's been a while since I posted anything here so I thought I'd show you all one of my new favourite units, burner boyz. I'm not sure why I've not used them before? They're pretty cheap at a mere 15pts a model and come armed with a burner, which is either a flamer or a power weapon (AP 3). I guess a major downside to them is the fact that they cannot take a dedicated transport vehicle, which meant that they couldn't keep up with the rest of my units in past army builds.

However, as the game changes so to does my approach to building lists. Now I have a much more foot slogging based army replete with large mobs of shoota boyz, lootas and an aegis defense line. Suddenly, my battle wagons look a bit empty, but wait there's space for burner boyz! And so starts my new enthusiasm for the little guys.

Recently, I've been running them up to expensive or large units and just flamming them, either on foot or from the open topped hatch of a battle wagon. When placed carefully, I'm regularly rewarded with 50+ hits!!! That's a lot of armour saves to pass, even if you are a terminator! Then, when they're inevitably assaulted, they can fall back on power weapons for that extra nasty surprise your opponent wasn't expecting! Seriously, for 150pts, they're a steal.

Here's a few quick shots of the buggers. 3 are still being painted, they'll be finished soon :p

Da Red Bastardz!!

The remainder of my Imperial Guard allies consisted of a company command squad with a mortar and a veteran squad with a las cannon. These two units worked so well together manning the aegis defense line with the Icarus las cannon. Orders like 'bring it down' and 'fire on my target' were especially useful considering the sear amount of terrain that was available this year.

The models are mainly micro art studio 'goblin troopers' with some head swaps from the grot kit and some imperial guard lasguns. The las-cannon was a little more complex but again is mainly just a collection of various bits, including: heavy stubber, grot prod, corpse cart wheels and leman russ wheels. I think they look quite good :)

Da Cammanda:

Da Vetrinz:

Grot Whaaagh!

I decided to take a small contingent of Imperial Guard allies to boost the objective holding and anti-air elements that I feel the main Ork codex lacks. As such, I took a company command with a mortar, a veteran squad with a las cannon and a Vendetta gunship. They worked amazingly well and I'm really impressed with the veterans especially, who sat behind the aegis line with the Icarus las cannon receiving orders and killing stuff!

I didn't want to field guardsmen though, so I instead settled on a 'grot mercs for hire' idea. Here's the plane :)

Whaaaagh Vendetta!