Sisters of Battle against a corrupt Imperium

Deployment :

Artificer had one of his infrequent games of 40k today. No table, the gaming area was one of the GW battle mats. The game was fun and played for fun. Rules were adhered to but reinforcement were allowed. Total points were not exactly matched. Shooting was accurate but saves were made expertly. As a result a fund draw was achieved and both players had a good time without any dramatic change in the opposing forces.

Here is the situation at the end of the final turn :

Sister Superior, Exorcist and Priest - Whats on the Painting Table

Sometimes its difficult to finish a project either because something extra keeps on being added, sometimes because new projects get started before existing ones are finished. On the painting table at the moment are 3 Seraphim to add to an existing unit of 5, one sister of battle with a heavy flamer to replace the standard flamer in an existing squad, 3 additional sisters of battle to add to the existing Celestinian squad, 8 Brettonian, 1 grey knight terminator from a squad of 5 assembled and undercoated only. Finally there are the Brettonian shields that have turned out to be the most intricate part of the Brettonian regiment. Painted brown wood on the inside with a boltgun metal rim washed with devlan mud and painted blue outer surface with added transfer and matt varnish to seal. It takes longer to do a shield than a Brettonian.

An example of an extended project was the Exorcist.
Ideas to enhance the mini kept coming as the project progressed. Here it is being led out by two battle priests. It is to be joined eventually by a second Exorcist. The kit is bought and it is waiting some clear space on the painting bench before work commences. The aim is to build on what has been achieved with the first kit bash to produce a second and more interesting variant.

Brettonian Shield Wall Again

Back at the Brettonian. Some time ago a large unit of Brettonian men at arms was started and then languished as the paint scheme failed to fall in to mind. Things have changed. Ideas have cystallized. Now there is a project rather than an idea of trying painting a Brettonian unit. Colours are muted browns, apart from metal objects, even those are washed down with devlan mud. The project is using a lot of devlan mud and gryponne sepia and even ogryn flesh as washes on base brown colours such as graveyard earth, tausept ochre,bleached bone and vermin brown.

The project has become to create a peasant revolt Brettonian peasant army compatible with the current Brettonian codex.

Shield Wall

A while ago some Brettonian Men-at-arms were acquired, and languished primed in white. The plan was to create a regiment of 28 minis as a core for a peasants revolt Brettonian Army. The problem was painting that many minis. A simple scheme for painting was needed. After a while a scheme evolved and her is the start of the shield wall :

Adeptus Arbites

Disappointingly the Arbitrators no longer feature in the WD Sister of Battle codex. The only troops choice allowed as SoBs. Anyway here are the Arbites acquired sometime ago for use in a SoB army now progressing to completion. Colours have been chosen to blend the the Chapter of the SoB being recruited locally - the Sisters of the Verdant Deed. Colour scheme was as follows :

Base coat white spray
Knarloc Green washed with Thraka Green
Shoulder pad Iyanden Darksun with white highlight on insignia
Shotguns, boltgun metal and Tausept Ochre washed with Devlan Mud

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.