Sunday, February 24, 2019

Sisters of Battle Tactical Squad, Immolator and Tribute Figure for Iain


The first 40K army I collected was Sisters of Battle way back in 1997. They were an all-metal range and so quite expensive to create a viable force (though I understand new plastics are now on the horizon). Nonetheless, I slowly amassed a decent sized 'army' and spent many hours painstakingly converting and painting them. 

I had a real soft spot for those gals, even though they almost always got zapped on the tabletop - I think the sculpts are still some of the best GW has produced and they just fit so well with the whole grim-dark 40K backstory.


A few years later, Lady Sarah and I were planning to take our first European vacation together as a married couple. At that time we were poor as church mice and were struggling to save our pennies for the trip. Anyway, some unforeseen expense came up that pretty much ate the piggy bank and threatened to force us to cancel our plans. Well, I did something that I'm sure a few of us have done and that's look at what's in the collection could be let go for fast, ready cash. 

After some hand-wringing I sold my Sisters collection on eBay. I remember they fetched a fairly decent price, which allowed us to have a wonderful couple of weeks loafing around France. While I wouldn't change my decision for the world, I've keenly missed those figures ever since. 

C'est la vie. 

During Challenge VII DavidB posted a wonderful force of Sisters to which I waxed nostalgia for my long-lost collection. IainW commented on the same post, complimenting Dave and saying that he had a box of unpainted Sisters that had been sitting in storage for years - I  quipped that he was a lucky sod.

Well, to my great surprise, this past summer, out of the blue, I received a large parcel from Iain containing not only his Curtgeld, but also a sizeable collection of unpainted Sisters and their attendant options. Yeah, I know, wow. Iain refused to take a penny for them - he said he just wanted to see them painted up. As you can imagine I was pretty humbled by his generosity and so was committed to getting some of them done for this Challenge - and so here we are.


Here is a Tactical Squad with an Immolator APC tagging along as support.

When cleaning up these figures for painting I was considering what colours to go with. While perusing the web I found many very interesting and vibrant schemes, but you know, I have to say that I still prefer the bog classic black and red livery. It just seems to work so nicely with the figures. 

I based the troops on 32mm MDF rounds, with a square base reserved for the Sister Superior (thanks Byron!). I then glopped on some GW texture medium to give the parched ground effect and then coloured and drybrushed to taste.


In order to give the black armour a bit of contrast I did a highlight with P3 Denim and then applied a wash mix of diluted GW Drakenhof Nightshade and Vallejo armour grey wash. 


The Immolator was good fun to put together, but I still find I'm very much hit-and-miss with vehicles, so I'd call this clanker 'functional'.



Finally, as a HUGE THANK YOU to Iain, I painted up another Sister Superior for him to have as a memento of both his minioning this year and as a nod to his very generous gesture. Thanks again, Iain! 



Curt


22 comments:

  1. What an amazing gift and beautifully painted by your good self - bravo chaps!

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    1. Thank you Michael. I agree, it is an amazingly thoughtful gift.

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  2. That's a great gift and are painted very nice by you.

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    1. Thanks Hein, I'm pleased with how they turned out and was happy to gift one back to Iain for his generosity.

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  3. Well they do look most excellent Curt and I'm sure Ian is pleased as punch to see the results!

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks Christopher, they've been a great trip down memory lane for me.

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  4. Perhaps we'll get plastic Sisters and I'll be compelled in buying a whole army of them! :))
    Great painting, as usual!

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    1. I'm hoping so too. I've already picked up some beautiful 'Not-Sisters' resin stuff from Wargames Exclusive and should have that up sooner or later.

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  5. A generous gift indeed but your wonderful paintjob did justice to the figures are paid respect to the gift at its best. Well done, Sir!

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    1. Thank you Stefan. I often find these gifted figures bring out the best efforts ini paintjobs - must be the good karma. :)

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    2. Funny you should say that Curt - I always find that in ones I am painting to gif to others :-)

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  6. Somehow I kissed these during the Challenge - lovely job! I always wanted to paint up a force of these ladies but never got to it. However, you have me sufficiently inspired to splash out and acquire a Sister Repentia fig for use in Necromunda, perhaps on a solitary mission of penitence to scour the underhive of Xenos

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  7. Kissed? Woops! Freudian slip?
    I meant Missed of course... :-P

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    1. Actually, I rather liked the original reference. I'm sure the Sisters appreciate it as well (secretly, in their hearts of course, as they reduce you to your component parts in uttering such salacious heresy). :)

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