Sisters of Battle Project Kickoff! Plus Wargame Exclusive and Troll Goodies

Howdy again! This will be the first post of many documenting yet another new insane project - my Sisters of Battle!

Like many projects, this one began with some idle browsing on Kijiji. I found a squad of ten original metal Sisters of Battle for a pretty good deal, so I jumped on it. I'd always really loved the Sisters aesthetic and their whole "warrior-nun" look, but had never painted any before. But with the acquisition of the first squad, I knew I had to build an entire army. But as they say in the collector car world, "there's nothing as expensive as a cheap Ferrari." To that I'd add, "there's nothing as expensive as a cheap squad found on kijiji." :-D

Having said that, I was also the beneficiary of a very generous deal from Conscript Dave V. on 15 of the 25 Sisters I painted for this post. Thanks Dave! But never fear, I'm doing my share of accelerating dollars through the economy, as you'll see in future posts...

Anyway, I quickly got stuck in with the Sisters and I think I've found a good formula for them. Armour is painted Vallejo Dark Rubber washed with Nuln Oil, armour edges Celestra Grey, the fleurs-de-lys are basecoated Celestra and highlighted Corax White, gold bits are Retributor Gold washed with Agrax Earthshade, cloaks Mephiston Red highlighted Evil Sunz Orange, gloves Doombull Brown highlighted Skrag Brown, pouches Mournfang highlighted Steel Legion, metal stuff (guns, armour trim) are Leadbelcher washed with Nuln Oil. Bases are Reaper Russet Brown, drybrushed up with Mournfang Brown, Steel Legion Drab, and Rakarth Flesh. I drybrushed a bit of dirt on the cloaks with Steel Legion.

The girls are all metal of course and these sculpts look great. Most of them have 1996 dates on the tags.

Lots of people paint their Sisters all with white hair but I decided on a bit of variety with mine. I did paint in all the eyes though!

Of course, Sisters need transport, and with an all-metal vintage army these had to be MK1 Rhinos. The first one I painted came in a package trade off Facebook, together with a very cool original Land Raider I painted for my Iron Warriors. It needed a bit of work but came out nice I think. Painting was very straightforward - working up the middles of the panels with Dark Rubber and edge highlighting with Celestra.

I'll pause for a moment here to plug a couple makers of conversion bits. The fleurs-de-lys emblems and purity seals are from a Czech concern called Troll Under the Bridge Miniatures, via eBay. They are metal and do require a bit of work, but they came out great - of course GW made Sisters-specific MK1 Rhino doors but try finding those nowadays! The Troll stuff is great, reasonably priced, and ships fast from the Czech Republic. Highly recommended! This second Rhino came from the UK, off eBay.

I used one of the Troll emblems on the back of Rhino 4 and handpainted the fleurs-de-lys on the top hatches.

The Rhinos were pretty lightly weathered - just dusted up along the tracks and lower hulls with Russet, Mournfang, and Steel Legion.

Of course, I left the top hatches unglued so they can be replaced, turning the vehicles into an Immolator or (as seen here) an Exorcist.

This is some good stuff from Wargame Exclusive, a purveyor of fine resin located in Ukraine. Great service from these guys as well, albeit a little longer in transit due to there being a war on. Still, ordering to delivery look a little less than a month.

This is the "Imperial W-Wind Missile Turret" and it's pretty impressive. It's a multi-part resin kit, very well cast. I love the servitor - there's one "crewing" the missile setup, visible at centre.

The other model converts into the infamous Immolator, equipped with twin heavy flamers. Yikes! I should mention that one of the great things about the WarEx turret sets is that they include a pair of awesome headlights, shown above. These really add a Gothic flair to the models.

How cool is that eh??? If you could find an original metal Immolator conversion kit you're looking at $50USD plus... you can get this turret kit from WarEx for twelve bucks. less when they go on sale.

The Gothic detailing on these is just superb! I also picked up a multi-melta turret to swap out.

One of the great things about the WarEx turrets is that they fit into the standard turret rings made by GW. Of course, the new MK2 Rhino turret rings don't quite fit the MK1, The plate on the left is made from a piece of plasticard with elements from a new MK2 turret ring. The one on the left (for the Exorcist) is also a piece of plasticard, with some added greeblies. It was important to get the mount for the Exorcist missiles as low down as possible on the hull, which required making a custom top plate.

So that's it for now - but what's next? Well, there's Seraphim, Retributors, Sisters Repentia, command models, and another Rhino. I'm inclined to take the army to ParirieCon for a demo game at the end of May so I'd better get cracking!