How many projects are too many

The second Sisters of Battle Exorcist is still not finished although there has been some work on the crew with the servitor/loader almost done. Time has been spent instead on the greater daemon of Khorne and Inquisitor Karamazov. On the shelf at the same time is an unfinished unit of Arbites. Started with the rumour last summer that the new Sisters of Battle Codex would again include the Arbites, also there on the shelf is the squad of rouge trader era Bob Olley sculpts that were to be fitted out as IG veterans for the Belisimite abhuman IG army. Lying under the painting table is an untouched Hellhound in its box.  On the shelf beside the painting table is the Steel legion. 2 partly finished platoons of 2 squads each, plus 3 special weapon squads with missile launchers, lascannon and mortars.


All these projects don't register as unfinished business but rather as future pleasure. As each project gets finished another gets initiated so that there is always a buffer of several painting or modelling projects to attend to or ignore. This seems to be the way this Artificer's Workshop moves forward Is this a common way or do most gamers start and finish each project as the materials come to hand?

Heavy Support for Sisters of Battle

One problem with the Sisters of Battle is that their heavy support choices are limited. 3 choices and only the Penitent engine can be taken in a squadron.

Penitent engines are random fun up to 3 can occupy a single organisational slot. Hence at 85 points a mini using them in strength can be done. This is needed due to their high target potential and also their unpredictability. The downside of the all metal penitent engine is the work to construct robust mini. If this were not so off putting there could be a horde of up to 9 of these crazed beasts to deliver mayhem across the entire battle field.

Exorcists are more robust but again the random number of shots from these venerable machines can be irritating, and the ability to take several of these 135 point tanks in a squadron would be great.  Always add a storm bolter to the Exorcist to give it a little greater survivability, by leaving it with a weapon once the first choice weapon is destroyed by your opponent.

Finally there is the sensible choice with a Retributor squad armed with heavy bolters and mounted in a rhino or Immolator. Sigh

Exorcist Coming to Completion

On the painting bench is the second Exorcist. In the background fluff these baroque tanks are described as mobile shrines in addition to weapons of war. These tanks have been inscribed over the centuries with imperial texts recording ancient victories and exhortations to the faithful, and incantations of destruction on the enemies of the Emperor.

Sisters of Battle Tanks, Rhino, Immolator and Exorcist Reinforcement Progress

It has been quiet on the blogging front but that does not mean things have not been happening on the painting table. The reinforcements for the Sisters of Battle are close to completion. The Rhino is essentially finished, the Immolator is almost finished as it is awaiting the workshop to make some purity seals. The Exorcist is least close to finished. The periscope view points on the hull need a little touch up. The script on the hull and other surfaces needs finishing and the crew such as they are need to be painted. None the less the SoB are close to completion. Except that another troops choice squad would be nice, plus some Retributors, a few more Celestinians, and another Rhino and Immolator. That is for another day as next up as the Exorcist finishes will be Karamazov to be finished and painted. The "finecast" arms of his seat have been almost beaten into shape with the help of a little green stuff. And at the same time the greater Daemon of Kohrn legacy mini has made some progress and will get a bit more TLC on the painting take ones the current SoB project is completed.

Below are the pictures :

Finecast continued

What are the problems with finecast. One of the consequences of the enhanced detail inherent in finecast are the plethora of mould injection points. Secondly the finecast material is softer than even the plastic that GW uses. This makes it easy to accidentally damage the components as they are removed from the sprue or while cleaning flashing from components.

Secondly and worse is the discovery that fine cast is not so fine cast. Components from the above kit required a good bit of green stuff and trimming to align the front and rear arms of the throne of judgement. If this is a consistent finding with finecast then its not so fine.

Fine Cast - Is That So - Inquisitor Karamazov

Those of you who have followed this blog will know that a fine cast Inquistor Karamazov had been acquired some time ago. The cycle of construction has taken this mini on to the work table finally. Pictures of the kit were posted here some time ago. The finecast components were as advertised finely detailed - but some problems arose with the finecast material. More later.

Diversions from the Sisters of Battle

Some of the mini's in the collection have been inherited, some acquired because of their look and some obtained by chance. Often these minis not fitting in to the grand scheme of army collection or what is current languish unloved. Last week the time had come for some of these. Some abandoned Termagants, a Plague marine standard bearer had been sent by mistake by a with an order. An Eldar farseer had been ordered on a whim. All these minis had languished on a shelf unloved unpainted until the time came to break from the Sisters of Battle project.

Addendum :

The Farseer's robes were painted with Hawk Turquoise and washed with Leviathan Purple. To get the deep yellow on his armour the advice from the GW "How to Paint Citadel Minatures" was followed. Solar Macharius Orange, washed with Sepia and then yellow layered on top. The schemes were simple to apply. Perhaps a longer diversion into an Eldar Collection is possible.

Arch Confessor Kyrinov inspires Celestinians

The Sisters tanks have been on the back burner this week. Some progress has been made on them and the second Immolator is almost finished but as a diversion Kyrinov has been completed. This is an old GW mini, still metal and not fine cast and unchanged since the second edition SoB codex. In this codex on page 7 there is a picture of Kyrinov on a pedestal inspiring some Valhallan IG to storm in to the attack. this gave the idea for the base, posing Kyrinov on one of the cases from the GW battle field accessories and leaning 2 SoB plaque icons against it to give a sisters feel to the mini. Although an older mini the sculpt is excellent. Kyrinov's state have been updated for the latest Sob Codex from WD last summer. As an addition to a Sisters force fora mere 90 points Kyrinov comes with WS 5 BS 5 initiative 4 fearless , a force weapon with an additional twist and a rosarius invulnerable save plus extras including faith extras. Plus and its a big plus he allows a Battle Conclave up to 10 minis from arcoflagellant through crusader to death Cult assassin.

Here he is in close up :