Immolator Rumours

There have recently been rumours that the Adepta Sororitas Immolator had been removed from the GW site giving rise to suggestions that there was to be an updated version of this awesome transport released with the new digital codex. Sadly just rumours the Immolator is still on the UK GW site as one of the two troop transport choices. The other being the Rhino. The good news is that the Immolator is priced the same as the Rhino and for that price the existing kit allows both the Immolator or an Adepta Sororitas variant of the Rhino to be built.

Adepta Sororitas 19th October

                            To answer the question : its the 19th October.


And the Sisters of Battle are no more. Long live the Adepta Sororitas

Thanks to Faeit 212 for the alert.

Sisters of Battle icodex

Where is it?? This is the closest achieved here - a scan of the image from White Dwarf. It does not seem to be on the Black Library site or in the itunes store. Why the hold up for digital releases? Why only ibook format as well? Rhetorical question the answer is understood here but not agreed with.

Besides this despite the silence for 2 weeks there has been progress with the Armageddon Pattern Medusa and the last squad for the Steel Legion. Progress may be slow as a new proper paint spray system has been acquired and there is a bit of a steep learning curve to make the best use of it.

Seraphim - redoing the bases

The original GW connections between these mini's feet and their base was never popular here. So initially they became birds on a wire. The wire unfortunately allowed too much wiggle on the battle field particularly because the minis were top heavy. Osgiliath which has provided ruins for the bases of other models was bought with the idea of providing the Sisters with better support and less wiggle. So here they are now enjoying the ruins of Osgiliath, with less wiggle and more stability.

  

Saint Celestine Finished

Finally finished this essential mini for any Sisters of Battle force.

2+ armour save with 4+ invulnerable save. Weapons and Ballistic skill 7 with a blade that always wound's on a maximum of 4+ and can shoot as an assault weapon, not to forget 5 attack dice and the ability to come back from the dead. But why is she strangling a bird with her left hand?

Anyway when are the new Sisters of Battle going to be released? A finecast Saint would be so much easier to modify.

Saint Celestine Progress

The saint has not been forgotten amidst the battle conclave and the Ecclesiarchy Immolator project. The trouble is in fact how to finish off the saint. It seems to be almost there but what final touches will pull the mini together. Also should it be given a glossy final finish to suggest a saintly sheen to the semi human creature that Saint Celestine has become.

Sanctum Imperialis Kit

The GW 40k building kits have for a long time, here at least, been seen to be of questionable value. Basically it seemed that there wasn't enough kit provided to justify the price. But having stated that finally 2 have been bought. Firstly Ruins of Osgiliath - which was bought provide material for stonework ruins basing for the Seraphim squad, also Saint Celestine, and a bit of scenery - and it has been at the end of the day value for money. So subsequently and very recently with the aim of creating an Ecclesiarchy Immolator to transport the Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave the Sanctum Imperialis kit has been acquired. It was a choice between this and the Shrine of Aquila. Without giving away anything about the plans for the Ecclesiarchy Immolator here is what you get in this kit.

 Opening the box

 Everything laid out

  One of the 2 identical wall sprues

Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave Progress and Painting Black and Photgraphing black - a trying time

Here is the next instalment of the battle conclave. 4 Assassins in their black stealth suits. Which is worse to paint black or white? After painting these babies I would say black. Than comes photographing black. More and more light to try and get any detail seen by the camera. Finally they are done. The next part of this project is an Ecclesiarchy styled Immolator. 

Ecclesiarchy Priest with Eviscerator

Here he is, looking slightly differently. The neck chain has gone a priestly cowl has been added instead from green stuff. It is truly a pity that GW does not make a priest with an eviscerator at present. The mini has a weapon composed from the hilt of a WFB Empire militia broad sword plus 2 Cadian chainswords.

This is the initial component of the squad proposed in an earlier post :- "Add a Preacher to a squad of death cult assassins and put them in an Immolator for toasting the target prior to assault. Then you have 5 x Weapons Skill 5, Initiative 6, Strength 4, Power Weapons Attacks 2 with re-roll for any misses. Give the Preacher an eviscerator with 2 attacks and a re-roll and rosarius for survivability for a total of 145 points plus Immolator at 65 points. Becomes slightly scary as a serious total disruption and decapitation assault unit, no?"

The harem of death cult assassins are now on the painting table. The conversion of a SoB Immolator  to an Ecclesiarchy style is then next step.

Saint Celestine Light Box Test

OK here is the Saint, a work in progress. She was photographed to test the light box newly constructed from a cardboard box, some old handkerchiefs, staples and sellotape.  I suspect that some better lamps are required to get the best out of it.

Sisters of Battle 3 Squads Completed at Last

Finally 3 squads of Rhino mounted SoB are completed. These are Emperor Angels.

When are the plastic SoBs that were rumoured to be ready for last summer going to be released?

What's new in the pipeline for the SoBs here? Saint Celestine has been acquired and the Ecclesiarchial contingent are getting a squad of assassins and an Immolator to deliver them. A second penitent engine would also be nice but that is on hold until the plastic penitent engine is released by GW. Should be this year.

What is done and What is not done

Its near the end of 2012. So here it was thought that there should be a review of what had been completed. This thought was initiated by a review of posts being viewed yesterday. One from the list was titled project pipeline:- here  This was a post in 2011. And there has been little progress with the three projects mentioned therein.

But there has been progress elsewhere. 2012 has been the year when the Grey Knights project's shape took form and the Sisters of Battle and the Steel Legion projects came close to completion. Ideas in planning include an Ogre Warhammer army and a 40k minimal, veteran artillery allied army for the Sisters of Battle, more terminators for the Grey Knights, and some tweaks to the Steel Legion to add more special and assault weapons, plus of course the 3 projects still in the pipeline, and then there are still the Space Hulk minis to paint. Ideas come faster that the time available to paint, as ever.

Have a good 2013 when it comes and thanks for reading this blog.

Troublesome Preachers Redeemed

Preachers are a fluffy addition to Sisters of Battle force, yet what exactly is their place in the battle line. As independent characters in the SoB codex a basic Preacher costs 45 points. Up to 5 may be included in an army for a whopping 225 points for 5 assault orientated basic humans with strength 3, weapons skill 3 and leadership 7 with flak armour, eek. This is supposedly offset by initiative 4, attack dice 2. Initiative 4 only puts them on an equivalent status to most SMEQ opponents, no real advantage there when going toe to toe with power armoured power fisted chaos space marines etc. Perhaps the real value of the preacher is with the available options, yet there are few options and the only interesting one is the eviscerator giving 2 strength 6 yet initiative 1 attacks. Unlikely to be useful against anything that can hot knife and butter slice through flak armour. Yet wait , the Preachers have an invulnerable save, actually they have 2 which is markedly odd as well. They have the special rule Shield of Faith giving a 6+ invulnerable save and as standard wargear they have a rosarius giving a 4+ invulnerable save!

Obviously the rosarius save is useful yet the Shield of Faith special rule must have contributed to the points value of the basic Preacher, as does the rosarius.

The final special rule of Righteous Rage possibly pays for the fluffy ambivalence of the other rules for this mini. Add a Preacher to a squad of death cult assassins and put them in an Immolator for toasting the target prior to assault. Then you have 5 x Weapons Skill 5, Initiative 6, Strength 4, Power Weapons Attacks 2 with re-roll for any misses. Give the Preacher an eviscerator with 2 attacks and a re-roll and rosarius for survivability for a total of 145 points plus Immolator at 65 points. Becomes slightly scary as a serious total disruption and decapitation assault unit, no?

Sawing up Osgiliath

Time has been spent or wasted, depending on how it turns out - see previous posts on the Steel Legion Mortar squad's bases. Some nice stone work has been extracted from the ruins of Osgiliath and made into walls protecting the mortar squad. Just decoration of course and does not give the squad a cover save of any sort unless behind real and agreed cover. Some liquid green stuff has been used to vary the bases from the usual gravel, flock finish. Work on the green stuff hand for the loader has proved more time consuming than anticipated but is probably nearly there. And the Bob Olley veterans have been examined again, perhaps 2 of them to get special weapons from a forgeworld Death Corps resin sprue.

The Sisters of Battle have not been forgotten as the real reason for acquiring the Osgiliath ruins was to enhance the jump pack Sister of Battle bases. And the last squads heavy flamer has been ordered from GW.

The prices on ebay are bonkers at the moment with steel legion and sisters minis advertised with steeply inflated p&p charges which along with unrealistic start bids ramp up the total cost to either within a few pence of the GW price of a new mini or in some cases beyond the price new from GW. It is all crazy.  

Metal or Plastic or Finecast or?

Which is best?

The answer is that there isn't any best. It comes down to a subjective choice of what the individual modeller prefers. At my local (independent) store some preferred plastics while here at Artificer's Workshop metal minis are the preferred option. In a sense this post is academic as metal is on the way out as far as games workshop is concerned. And to be fair and impartial the quality of the latest plastic releases have been superb. No doubt everyone has their own preferences but here the plastic Grey Knight Terminators are recognised as superb. 

(Why does blogger insist on american spelling when american english is more and more infiltrated by britishisms these days - a bit like the french hatred for franglais, see recognised. By the way I know the answer - rhetorical question directed at blogger.)

Back to topic. The future as far as metal goes is undoubtedly finecast. Here despite reservations identified in previous blogs it is recognised (that "misspelled" word again) that this is the future. Current problems will doubtless be ironed out.

The question posed on this blog is really what do you prefer to play with on the table top. The answer here is metal minis - hence the focus on Sister of Battle and Steel Legion and Bob Olley Rogue Trader era minis. Why because they are heavier and subjectively seem more substantial when placed on the table. Plastic minis here and there are definitely plenty of them often have a coin glued inside their GW base to give more weight when deploying on the table. Does anyone else do this? Does it produce more wins on the table top - probably. Try and see.    

Steel Legion First Platoon

Imperial Guard allies for the Sisters of Battle. 

The first platoon has been completed.

The design used for this platoon is for assault. Hence no heavy weapons, all assault weapons with grenade launchers and the sergeants having plasma pistols to provide a little bit more bite. Two power weapons with the commissar and the platoon officer.

Platoon Command Squad

1st Squad

2nd Squad

Both Sergeants are minor conversions, replacing the rotting Ork head hand with a hand with a plasma pistol hand. One plasma pistol is Forgeworld. The other is a combination of bits from the scrap box glued to a laspistol but.  The Ork head had to go as the Sisters of Battle would not approve.

Allies for Sisters of Battle and head transplant

The reintroduction of allies to 40k has given a reboot to the Imperial Guard collection. Unfortunately the previous incarnation of IG collected was of an abhuman dregs of humanity hive rejects cannon fodder battalion. This contained Ogryn, ratlings and ratkin, penal legion and Chem Dogs. Probably not the sort of company that a righteous witch hunting Sisters of Battle Canoness would willingly ally together with except in extremis. The sisters were probably more likely to hunt down and exterminate that sort of force along with the planetary governors who thought it a good idea to assemble. Hence the need for some more IG minis to be recruited. As a starter a Steel Legion plasma cannon armed sentinel has been recruited and painted.

 To make the base a bit different, instead of the usual sand, bits of slate have been glued down to make an assembly of stone that the sentinel is marching across. The best way to get slate is not to buy from the GW. Instead find an old roof tile, take a hammer and pound it to pieces. Otherwise some redundant slate used to decorate driveways and flower beds can be handy.

 Finally the head transplant has been coming on. Its beginning to look cool?

Sister Superior Head Transplant

Back to the Sisters of Battle. Instead of a Retributor squad a third SoB troops choice squad has been commenced after coming across some sisters on sale on ebay for a reasonable price, and at a considerable saving on the GW price for these metal minis. Bring on the plastic SoB that have been rumoured to exist this past year. 

By co-incidence all of these minis were sisters without helmets and it seemed a good idea to try to have a sister superior with hair rather than helmet. But she had to be the standard Sister Superior as one of these was going for a reasonable price on ebay. So a bit of transplant surgery was required to adapt a spare Immolator plastic head for the. Here are the steps accomplished so far.      

 Saw off the head with the GW saw.

 Remove as much of the neck as possible with craft knives and the GW clippers

Cut a notch in the neck of the plastic head.

 Blue tack the head in place to see how it looks. The next step is to rebuild the neck with green stuff.

Purity Seals

Certainly  purity seals are the bling of the Inquisition, Grey Knights and Sisters of Battle. The question is can they get enough of them. The GW provides molded on purity seals on some minis and customizable purity seals for some such as Grey Knights. But if you want to up the purity and worship of the Dead Emperor stakes more purity seals are needed. There are a number of options to getting more purity seals to add to minis. ForgeWorld sell a packet of resin purity seals for £6.50 plus p&p. These seals are well sculpted as might be expected but are a bit pricey for what you get. 

Grey Knight Terminators and perhaps other Grey Knight plastic sets also have spare purity seals that can be used elsewhere.

Finally it is possible to make your own purity seals with paper superglue and some green stuff. Here are some made recently. 
 The pictures speak for themselves I think. Stick the bits of paper together

 Add the green stuff and depress the center with the end of a paint brush handle.

Undercoat and then paint.

And finally cut out of backing paper ready to apply.

To this.

Sisters of Battle Time to Audit

This Sisters of Battle project originally started a few years ago and has evolved in its own direction without conscious guidance as models were chosen for availability, fluff, looks, or changes in the codex last summer. Do other collections armies evolve in this casual way or are they as appears in the 40k blogosphere carefully planned for mathhammer. I don't know. These Sisters have had a few outings along the way with mixed success. One lesson learned has been that the extended Seraphim wire connection to the base ( as seen on a previous post) does make them a tad unstable on the table, but psychologically intimidating to their opponent as there seem to be more models present than actually is the case. The collection has been listed with Army Builder which is posted below showing the planned final listing. The only minis yet to be collected painted and added are 5 boltgun armed sisters, one sister superior and one heavy flamer and one meltagun to complete that 3rd troops choice. And that's it, 1996 points.

One of the first units collected were the Seraphim which gave the detachment the honor of being named the (Emperors) Jumping Girls.