Sisters of Battle Army - Part One
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| My Sisters army so far... |
Who are the Sisters of Battle?
Well, apart from being set in the year 40,000 after mankind has made it's mark across the known galaxy under the rule of a the Emperor of mankind sat on the Golden Throne of Terra the Sisters of Battle can easily be described as a bunch of nuns with guns with massive Tim Burton gothic imagery... but a more nerdy description can be found on this 40K fan site.
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| Grim & Dark... Borrowed from From GW site: https://warhammer40000.com/ |
The new Sisters models capture the essence of a very grim & dark future, focussing on their faith and devotion to the God Emperor... from cathedral-inspired tanks complete with organs and flying cherub-automatons to large exoskeleton constructs that are designed to torture the human pilot in their penance. Similarly to Space Marines, they come equipped with power armour and bolt weapons, but that is where the similarity ends, especially as they are not genetically engineered like the Adeptus Astartes. Check out this awesome GW short video for an idea of their thematic.
Army Box
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a new army box when Games Workshop released them back in late 2019 as a redesigned plastic army (moving away from smaller metal miniatures), and since then GW have become aware of their marketing potential, and are pushing ahead with new miniatures. After having an Eldar army with miniatures that are so old (and showing it!) it's great for me to actually be on the cutting edge with the latest army. Also, I think their background story and fluff fits quite nicely with the Grey Knight army I painted recently.
Paint Scheme
I looked at the schemes for the existing Sisters Orders, but I didn't really want to paint any of those schemes, so I devised my own. After the all gun metal of Grey Knights I wanted some vibrant colours, so I went with a predominantly yellow armour scheme.
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| Template from http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/sisterp.php |
The main paints used in the scheme were;
- Armour - Averland Sunset base with Yriel Yellow layer
- Cloth (outside) - Khorne Red base with Evil Sunz Scarlett layer
- Cloth (inner) - Barak-Nar Burgundy base with Phoenician Purple
- Weapons &Backpacks - Contrast Black Templar with Dark Reaper Grey highlights
- Hair & Motifs - Celestra Grey base with Ulthuan Grey highlights
- Skin - Bugmans Glow base, Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh with Reikland Fleshshade
- Helmet eyes - Teclis Blue with Lothern Blue highlight
- Leather belts etc - Dryad Bark with Gorthor Brown
- Golds - Either Retributor Gold or Balthasar Gold base with Golden Griffon or Auric highlights
- Statues/Skulls/Purity Seals - Ushabti Bone and Screaming skull highlight with Agrax wash
Sisters of Battle squad
The army box was filled with unique models that wouldn't be released again as separate boxes (although they are being made available as part of a 40K magazine series. I started with these first and went about choosing both a test model and a paint scheme.
I decided from this point to have both the hair and iconography such as the fleur de lies to be grey/white. Furthermore, I decided that anyone not touting a standard bolter weapon would be wearing a helmet, to help further distinguish them from a standard Battle Sister.
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| Sisters of Battle - squad one... "by the Power of Greyskull!" |
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| Sisters of Battle - squad two - with smoking Demon corpse |
Canoness
I go this character done early in the army as frankly I knew I would be taking her with whatever I chose. Like all the models in this army I spent 'enough' time on them to get them ready for the table top but could easily spend longer. When putting it together I should have squeezed the two halves of the body together more when gluing because it left a large gap... and after seeing this model around on the internet it looks like I wasn't the only one to fall foul of that.
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| Canoness (centre) |
Preacher
At the time of writing there was only an old metal Games Workshop miniature for the Preacher. As an Elite model, he will be accompanying the Repentia to inspire them to attack more furiously.
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| Work in progress of Preacher |
Missionary
Like the Preacher, this miniature is also a very old metal miniature from GW. I'm sure there will be new ones with all the new Sisters models being launched of late. He takes up a HQ slot, but also inspires more attacking gusto.
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| Work in progress of Missionary |
Imagifier
Imagifiers bear a banner mounted with an image of a revered martyr inscribed with holy text that when held aloft serves as a locus of faith to the Sisters of Battle. The Imagifier recounts the martyr's righteous deeds over the roar of gunfire, inspiring nearby Sisters to new heights of violence.
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| Work in progress of Imagifier |
Sisters Repentia & Repentia Superior
For those Sisters that have fallen short in their service to the Emperor, they can repent through self-flagellation and find a glorious death in battle. Martialled by a Repentia Superior with her neural whip keeping the Repentia in line.
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| Fear their massive Eviscerator Chainswords and the Neural Whip that drives them... |
Rhino
This troop-carrying armoured track vehicle has formed the backbone of the Space Marines for... well... whenever records began. Well, I guess with the Primaris marines coming onto the scene and ousting the other Marines, there must be a surplus of Rhinos in the Imperium.
Now, I don't own (or intend to own) an Airbrush... and I didn't have the foresight to purchase any rattle cans of Averland Sunset, so I had to hand brush it over the primer... but I didn't use Zandri Dust, but instead I tried using Army Painters Daemonic Yellow, but it just didn't work for me...
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| I think we can all agree, it's too bright... |
I did (wait for it...) a couple of thin coats of Averland Sunset and bought a dropper bottle of Daemonic Yellow which really worked nicely as a one-coat edge highlighter. I did this because Yriel Yellow layer paint needed too many layers to stand out and edge highlighting is bad enough just once!
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| Work in progress Rhino... line edging... lots... |
Seraphim Squad
Elite close quarters pistol-touting Sisters... with jump packs. What's not to love.
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| swoooosh... pew pew!, pew pew! |
Exorcist
I was wise to have tried the Rhino first from a painting point of view. However, from the point of view of modelling, the Rhino and Exorcist kits are very very different. Maybe it was just me, but I was expecting a standard Rhino kit with extra Exorcist bits... I couldn't have been more wrong!
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| There is a LOT of detail on the Exorcist! |
To come...
I've did get the Sisters half of the Piety & Pain boxed set, so I have the heavy-weapon Retributor squad and Immolator tank to build and paint as well as the new Palatine model. Also I have a few characters primed and ready for some paint.
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| Sister Tariana Palos, Canoness Veridyan & Inquisitor Greyfax |
What's more, as I alluded to above, Games Workshop are really pushing Sisters of Battle at the moment (announced just tonight!), with new shield & pike-wielding Celestian Sacresants squad, a Castigator tank, a Reliquant at Arms banner carrier and some Paragon Warsuits too spearheading a new Codex.
It's going to get expensive soon!...
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