Sisters of Battle Seraphim and their Bases

When the original, to Artificer's Workshop, boxed set of Seraphim arrived a few years ago the attachment of the feet to the jump to the base was seen to be naff. The Seraphim seemed unable to get higher than a tired child could jump. With little further addoo the feet were cut clear from the base attachments and the minis made up as if they were on the jump. Some time passed as other SoB minis were acquired and added to the army.

Eventually a latent dissatisfaction surfaced. The Sister Superior. While the other minis were reasonably cool the I am pointing my power sword to the side pose grated on the overall coolness of the squad. It made no difference to performance on the table top none the less but it detracted from the hip poses of the other girls. Browsing eBay and the GW site it became apparent that an alternative Sister Superior existed and was cooler, plasma pistol and power sword pointing up. She looked as if she planned to serenely jump over her enemies and then plasma them in the back.

At the moment the prices of the SoB minis on the GW site is exorbitant. Looking on eBay for a bargain demonstrated that prices there for single SoB minis were as bad as on the GW site. You know - auctions that start at 0.99p with 1.99 p&p for a basic bolter foot grunt SoB mini. That's a minimum of 2.98 for mini with no special attributes - 2nd user and perhaps needing a strip paint job. From GW at 10.75 for a pack of 3 makes £3.58 per mini, no p&p required. So the start cost of many eBay used SoB minis is only 0.60p less than that of GW. Doh. On eBay amazingly many when p&p is added in go for more than buying from GW. Duh. Perhaps many eBayers do not realise that GW still sell SoBs.

Anyway to shorten a long story I bid not for one but for 5 as no one seemed interested in this auction - after all any spare could be sold at profit on eBay. And I got a bargain - a squad of 5 for £12.50 including p&p - makes it £2.50 per mini £1.08 less than basic SoB minis and when you think about Seraphim its just over £5.00 per mini less. In the end 4 are keepers, so one of the 5 and one of the originals, the sister superior are going on ebay and the Seraphim squad is growing to 8 from 5 with a plasma pistol instead of a boltpistol.

Moving on to the the bases which is why this post was started. Here the preference is for the Seraphim to show a bit of shapely leg with a good bit of air under. Some thin wire, courtesy of paper clips and the GW pin drill forms the basis of this procedure. The base end of the wire is curled into a loop and superglued flat to the plastic base. A coin in supeglued inside the base and polyfilla is used to elevate the base surface and add some extra ballast for the metal minis floating impailed on the unfolded paper clip several inches above the table. The point end of the metal post is slotted into a hole drilled in the tabard or foot of the Seraphim. Here below is the original squad, now sundered as the Sister Superior has been cashiered.

Sisters of Battle Exorcist and Sororitas Command Squad

The Exorcist is now close to finishing. There are two brass plinths above the side doors that have icons to be attached and there is a bit of touching up to finalise it, but it seems to finally have acquire the baroque quality that has been sought in the rhinos and the Immolator.

Here is how the Exorcist now looks -

In addition a Sororitas Command Squad has been acquired. 5 Celestinians led by a sister superior all mounted with the Cannoness in an Immolator. The actual banner bearing mini seems to have dropped from the GW catalogue. On ebay the mini and banners go for exorbitant prices. Here I have chosen to have a banner implanted beside the SoB. The banner has been made in paint supplied with windows and printed on a cheap printer. Looks acceptable. As the latest WD has missed its deadline here its not yet known if this level of hardware is still allowed in a Cannonesses body guard. Finally another SoB project is also on the go. While attempting to get another Seraphim on ebay somehow 5 were acquired. Actually they were a bargain. Single Seraphim minis seemed to go for £4 plus while 5 were obtained for a tenner. 4 are for keeping and one to be returned to ebay.

 

Finecast Inquisitor Karamazov and Grey Knights Inquisitorial Warbands

The new and only Inquisitor finecast mini has reached the Artificer. The GW site states that due to the expected demand orders for finecast are limited to 5 per customer. In the local independent stockist the boxes sit on the shelf, no restrictions and a 10% discount from list price. Why would anyone want 5 Karamazovs anyway? As a independent character and as a legendary individual how could you field more than one anyway. Actually this is a question I have never seen asked anywhere probably because the rules clearly identify unique characters of which only one is allowed per army. So why would anyone want more than one.

The box was disappointingly small for the price. There is one concept that GW have dropped at the moment which is value added. If the mini had come with a unique sculpted base that would be something perhaps, or a bit of scenery etc. Here are the contents of the box :

The components are highly detailed as promised. The attachments to the sprues and the mould lines on the components suggest a degree of skill required to assemble and paint this satisfactorily. The progress of this mini will feature on the blog, like the immolator and the exorcist - which is still finishing up.

The www has had some debate regarding the worthiness of Karamazov inclusion in a competitive listing. A number of reasons have been suggested but.... In the Grey Knights codex Inquisitorial henchmen warbands listing the Jokaero weaponsmith the question is does the inconceivable customisation rule apply to Inquisitors that join this unit. And if not why not. Imagine Karamazov with a 1+ save, or an on the move multimelta with rending, or an invulnerable save. Worthy of thought. Why shouldn't the JRO not customise his employing inquisitor. It makes no sense that the warband gets it but the Inquisitor does not.

New Penitent Engine finecast mini?

Finally got hands on a copy of the latest WD380 to look at the first part of the new SoBs Codex. Everywhere I had heard that it was nothing new and whether it would be a good thing or not depended on the points costs of the minis - which will be in the next part. But look at the penitent engine on page 97, perched on on foot, with a banner and no silly flame projecting horizontally from one of the flamers. Is this a new penitent engine???

Change in Focus or Not

The workshop has realised that over the past 4 years of blogging that the GW world has moved on. The Daemonhunters and Witch Hunters codices have gone. In came this year the Grey Knights with their own codex, and now through White Dwarf a release of of dedicated Sisters of Battle codex.

The Daemonhunters are dead! The Witch Hunters are dead!

Long Live the Inquistion! Long live the Inquisition!

The inquisition in the mordant and morbid universe of 40k is the superglue cement that fixes the order of the Imperium together through the living manifestation of the Emperor's will, his arm of justice and worship of the true believers. Decay, disorder, corruption and Chaos manifests elsewhere within the defenders of humanity including all Space Marine Chapters, the Imperial Guard and the vile alien menaces.

The Inquisition is the truth and the life of Humanity!

The change in the codices has resulted in some losses and some gains. The SoBs have a more Ecclesiarchial face now - hurrah. Sadly the Inquisition appears to be described as an appendage to the Grey Knights in their codex whereas in reality the reverse is true.However see the previous post suggesting ways around this.

Grey Knights and the INQUISITION

The Grey Knight's codex has been about for a while. The first part of the new Sisters of Battle Codex in the latest White Dwarf, this month. For Inquisition afficionados there seems to be little hope for collections of minis. What to do with all the stormtroopers squads apart from another squad in an IG army. What to do with the Inquisitors and their retinues. Doubtless the Witch Hunters &  Daemon Hunters codices are not continuing to shift as many minis as GW wished, while SMEGs (Space Marine Egguivalents) still do. SMEGs do well in tournaments, at least in the minds of the hottests hard list internet list followers. Some 40k afficianados feel that this is not actually helping the hobby. The game is about fun : -  states GW! Obviously ULTRA-kill is for some the end in itself, a bit like go faster stripes on cars. What the ULTRA-kill listers want is that wargames succeed or fail on the genius of the back bedroom armchair general regardless of tabletop skills. What ULTRA-kill listers forget that in real life and on the table top battles are settled by the skills and superiority of the opposing Generals. There is no ultimate list to guarentee a win and compensate for or hide bad gameplay.

This finally brings Artificers Workshop to the trigger for this post which was the post by Caldera on BOLs regarding Dark Eldar vs Grey Knights. In this post he disses the Inquisition and Inquisitors retinues to laud the Grey Knights as yet another SMEG (YASMEG). What is the point of another codex if its YASMEG? Actually the Inquisition embedded in the GK codex has oodles of potential for throwing out some interesting and  fun units to play with. Retinues are no longer limited to a specific number of  types of henchman. Think about it, a retinue with 3 stormtroopers with meltaguns (18pts each) plus 3 multimelta gun servitors (10 points each) plus 2 Jokearo weapon smiths (35 points). Total  - 154 points for melta goodness plus weapon and armour upgrades guarenteed each turn, the weapons smiths can fire lascannon, multimelta of heavy flamer firepower at the commanders choice! Add a an Ordo Malleus Inquistor with terminator armour, psycannon and force sword plus hammerhand psychic power for 110 points total. Add transport and here is mobile doom for any armoured vehicle commanded by a terminator with potential for a 1+ armour save and its not YASMEG!! And it can be assembled from existing daemonhunter mini collections. Amazing. Great.