vincit omnia sanguis

When Games Workshop announced the new Sisters of Battle project, I was cautiously excited. One of my best mates in high school had collected them back in the late 90s, and I'd always liked the miniatures. As the sculpts started to be revealed, my caution gave way to regular excitement. I decided to get the boxed set on release! Yeah!

Which was lucky, as it turned out that you had about a twenty minute window to decide if you wanted it, when it was released. Bloody hell.

shiny

 It has since turned out that the monoposey nature of the original boxed set was giving way to more genuinely multipart models, although I haven't gotten the new kits yet (they release next week, after all). This is good, because while these are good sculpts, I don't want every single flamer sister to be standing on a smouldering daemon, you know?

In the meantime, though, I had to figure out how I was going to paint them. So! The first few months of 2020 have been a combination of new sisters and my Old World Army Challenge gnomes. I can't show you those (you have to follow the Challenge blog!), but I can show you my sisters.

From Codex: Sisters of Battle. © Games Workshop 1997

I knew I wanted Order of the Bloody Rose. I've loved the design since 1997 and while I'm not a tremendous fan of the new 'everyone is angry all the time for some reason' fluff, the design still speaks to me. I also knew I wanted to try doing more work with Contrast paints after the results from the Canopian Battletech project. Finally, I am sick to death of painting black casings on bolters, so let's bring in some white.

Conclusion:

I need to get a better handle on the whites (I've since bought the Contrast Apothecary White to help with that), but I'm pleased with the red. It's a little scruffier than my original vision, but practice makes something else.

I think I like silvers instead of golds for the detailing, as that's in keeping with the original design, but I could be persuaded.

I also think I'll keep the rosary beads and other religious artefacts in bones, onyx, ivory and similar colours, although I do admit that the use of onyx against black robes was possibly a less than clever decision.

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Next up, an archo-flagellant. These really have their grounding in Inquisitor rather than Warhammer 40K proper, but they migrated into Ministorum-aligned forces pretty quickly after their introduction. They are a truly horrible feature of the Imperium's nightmare dystopia, so I want to paint them in a ~Blanchitsu style:

(Taking these photos in my new lightbox dramatically improves the paint job, doesn't it?)

This is pretty successful. I think I want to push the Blanche-y aspects even further, although the reaction from folks in the INQ28 community has largely been very positive. Blanche commented that he'd painted some recently, so I may hold off until I see what he's done. Or I might get impatient and just do mine!

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Finally, a Sister Repentia. I conceive of these models still wearing their under-armour, a slightly translucent future-rubber analogue, so I attempted some translucency on her booty shorts and vest. Here we go:

the ballet flats are a crucial part of the redemption process

The translucent effect hasn't quite worked as well as I would like, although it's okay. I think I need to do a couple more layers, and let more flesh colour into the mix. On the other hand, I am pleased with the chainsword's weathering.

The model is also my first experiment with Contrast flesh (Guilliman Flesh), although I still highlighted with Kislev and the scars in Pallid Wych. I actually really like it, as flesh is another element with which I struggle.

I feel like I am becoming a convert to the Ways of Contrast - at least for models where I want a scruffier, Blanche-y, washy effect, which I was already doing for a lot of miniature painting.

Archo-flagellant. Sourced online; almost certainly by John Blanche.
© Games Workshop

The smoke makes it difficult to get any undercoating done around these parts, so I'm not sure when I'll next be able to work on any parts of the sisters. In the meantime, watch this space for a forthcoming Necromunda battle report, featuring horrible cultists...