Psychopomps (photos before farewell!)

[Evil Eye]

Yeah, even as B&C's resident Sh*tlord-in-Chief I do find Slaaneshi-corrupted Sisters hackneyed as hell. Aside from the fact that "Oh well they're girls so OBVIOUSLY they'd fall to Slaanesh!" is really bloody dumb (even from a fluff point of view it's silly) it's been done to death, to the point where even when it's done well it makes me groan. I actually find the idea of Slaaneshi CSMs taking Sisters as slaves less irritating than "Sisters of Slaanesh"- at least the former makes sense from a fluff standpoint, whereas the latter is just...stupid. I still think that Sisters being on the receiving end of Slaaneshi shenanigans all the bloody time is dull- not "problematic" or whatever, just dull. And I say that as someone whose first entry for the Inspiration Friday challenge featured a Noise Marine carrying off a wailing Sister neophyte to Emperor-knows-what horrible fate.

 

I think it's a tricky one. On the one hand, the 40K universe is a horrible place to live and Sisters shouldn't be exempt from all the atrocious things that happen to everyone just because they're girls- Chaos does not believe in chivalry (except maybe retro "Killing the innocent is even more pathetic than not killing at all" Khorne). On the other hand, though, the monotony of "Oh look, the Sisters of Battle are fighting the forces of Slaanesh, I wonder what could POSSIBLY happen?" is just...boring. Because the end result is always always ALWAYS "get corrupted into scantily-clad female Noise Marines".

 

Personally I think Slaanesh/Sisters can be a formula that CAN work...if done well. If they're victorious against the forces of Chaos then that's awesome. Not to say they can't be defeated without the end result being awful; personally I think whatever foul fate befalls the Sisters needs to be played for genuine horror rather than edgy "lol so kvlt" or worse still, attempted sex appeal. Sex appeal has a place in Slaaneshi armies (they were conceived in the 80s after all) but Sisters are not a suitable vector for that sex appeal. I'm building a harem of mutants (male and female, once I find some suitable male models) for my Chaos forces, and fluff wise they will be just that- mutants, underhiver scum and cultists. They gave themselves willingly to the Emperor's Children- they live slave's lives, but they literally worship the EC and thus will do anything for them. Sisters would never willingly allow their flesh to be tainted by the touch of a traitor; any Sisters captured alive by the EC are going to be subjected to things that...wouldn't be suitable for me to write down here, let alone modelling. So even though the possibility of Slaaneshi Sister converts is possible (and if played for nightmare fuel could actually be really, really effective as a way of portraying the sheer savagery of Slaaneshi marines), the "reality" would be as far from "sexy" as humanly possible.
 

Anyway, on topic:

 

I actually think the idea of requisitioned Sororitas vehicles is a cool one. Even if it were possible, I don't think tied-up Sisters on the exterior would be necessary- thouggh a few severed heads/hands and the like would up the horror factor without being tacky. I think given the large amount of Eldar abuse in the army, a few grisly Sororitas trophies is hardly overkill.

[Kierdale]

The reason for the Sororitas rhino was that I had a Sistersesque head (that of the Dark Eldar slave I used to make dark apostle Angra's Daemonette slave) and found a small fleur-de-lis piece in the local craft shop, from which I made some Green Stuff copies...

 

However the two (edit: now three) of you have prompted me to have a rethink. I wasn't planning anything other than gory but anyway there is another more fitting foe of the Psychopomps, one whose Bitz I do now have more of...

 

And the sister head will end up on a spike somewhere else in the army still.

 

Anyway, I'll be offline Sunday to Wednesday-ish, so hopefully I'll have something to show you on Thursday.

[Evil Eye]

Oh, I'm not against the idea of using a Sisters Rhino- I was just having a minor rant about how many awful Slaaneshi Sisters conversions/fluff pieces there are out there. Sorry if I caused confusion.

[Servant of Dante]

 

 

Thanks, all.

Oh, Squigsquasher, I forgot to mention I do have some Tamiya weathering powders (excellent they are, too). I'll use them on the rhinos and perhaps on biker tyres too for consistency.

 

Though I'd like to do a relic predator and a laser destroyed vindicator (both magnetised, naturally) sometime my priority is these two rhinos and a third one which is a captured Sororitas one. Mainly black, I'll paint it separately.

Then the dreadclaw and after that I doubt I'll have time for much before Armies on Parade.

Sigh. It seems that 9 out of ten times if Sisters have any interaction with Chaos, it's Slaanesh. That being said, I still look forward to seeing what you do.

 

I know what I say shouldn't really affect your decision making, but please don't have Sisters tied up on a Slaanesh vehicle. Every Sister's player has seen that kind of thing a hundred times, and I just find the whole thing unpleasant.

 

Yeah, it's a bit messed up how often that dialog occurs.

 

If you are set on sororitas trophies, I would go for severed heads or similar, rather than whole sisters tied up on the vehicle, a bit less problematic.

 

I really want to create some khornate sisters at some point though, not that it is super relevant to who they are fighting but I feel like sisters are most likely to fall to Khorne (rage and violence, plus witch hate), then Tzeentch/Nurgle(hope in the emperor/stubborn resolve), and only finally Slaanesh(mainly out of an obsession with purity rather than some sort of sexual theme, I don't see sisters or marines as being particularly vulnerable to that aspect of Slaanesh's portfolio).

 

You could do the Khorne thing, but the only "canon" (and no Ciphas Cain doesn't even fit into the air quotes canon) fallen Sister is Miriael Sabathiel from (one of) the WH40K CCG and a Dan Abnet short story (according to the 40K wiki).

 

So a group of Sisters falling to chaos is reeeeeealy stretching the "canon", and the purity and resilience of soul is a huge part of Sisters fluff, so I'd rather stay away from that kind of thing.

 

Of course, you can do way you want, but I'm not going to accept it as part of my headcanon.

 

 

Yeah, even as B&C's resident Sh*tlord-in-Chief I do find Slaaneshi-corrupted Sisters hackneyed as hell. Aside from the fact that "Oh well they're girls so OBVIOUSLY they'd fall to Slaanesh!" is really bloody dumb (even from a fluff point of view it's silly) it's been done to death, to the point where even when it's done well it makes me groan. I actually find the idea of Slaaneshi CSMs taking Sisters as slaves less irritating than "Sisters of Slaanesh"- at least the former makes sense from a fluff standpoint, whereas the latter is just...stupid. I still think that Sisters being on the receiving end of Slaaneshi shenanigans all the bloody time is dull- not "problematic" or whatever, just dull. And I say that as someone whose first entry for the Inspiration Friday challenge featured a Noise Marine carrying off a wailing Sister neophyte to Emperor-knows-what horrible fate.

 

I think it's a tricky one. On the one hand, the 40K universe is a horrible place to live and Sisters shouldn't be exempt from all the atrocious things that happen to everyone just because they're girls- Chaos does not believe in chivalry (except maybe retro "Killing the innocent is even more pathetic than not killing at all" Khorne). On the other hand, though, the monotony of "Oh look, the Sisters of Battle are fighting the forces of Slaanesh, I wonder what could POSSIBLY happen?" is just...boring. Because the end result is always always ALWAYS "get corrupted into scantily-clad female Noise Marines".

 

Personally I think Slaanesh/Sisters can be a formula that CAN work...if done well. If they're victorious against the forces of Chaos then that's awesome. Not to say they can't be defeated without the end result being awful; personally I think whatever foul fate befalls the Sisters needs to be played for genuine horror rather than edgy "lol so kvlt" or worse still, attempted sex appeal. Sex appeal has a place in Slaaneshi armies (they were conceived in the 80s after all) but Sisters are not a suitable vector for that sex appeal. I'm building a harem of mutants (male and female, once I find some suitable male models) for my Chaos forces, and fluff wise they will be just that- mutants, underhiver scum and cultists. They gave themselves willingly to the Emperor's Children- they live slave's lives, but they literally worship the EC and thus will do anything for them. Sisters would never willingly allow their flesh to be tainted by the touch of a traitor; any Sisters captured alive by the EC are going to be subjected to things that...wouldn't be suitable for me to write down here, let alone modelling. So even though the possibility of Slaaneshi Sister converts is possible (and if played for nightmare fuel could actually be really, really effective as a way of portraying the sheer savagery of Slaaneshi marines), the "reality" would be as far from "sexy" as humanly possible.

 

Anyway, on topic:

 

I actually think the idea of requisitioned Sororitas vehicles is a cool one. Even if it were possible, I don't think tied-up Sisters on the exterior would be necessary- thouggh a few severed heads/hands and the like would up the horror factor without being tacky. I think given the large amount of Eldar abuse in the army, a few grisly Sororitas trophies is hardly overkill.

Responses color coded

 

Thank you!

 

When you're a Sisters player, it's a little more than dull, but maybe I should just grow a thicker skin. But it is a fluff abomination.

 

Sigh.

 

Not going to get any argument about that form me. But it's still overplayed.

 

Thank you ever so much!!!

 

yep.

 

yep.

 

And she's probably going to try to kill herself if it really looks like she's going to be captured. Something like firing with one hand and holding a krak grenade with the other (minus pin, of course). Prime the thing when the enemy really gets close.

 

 

The reason for the Sororitas rhino was that I had a Sistersesque head (that of the Dark Eldar slave I used to make dark apostle Angra's Daemonette slave) and found a small fleur-de-lis piece in the local craft shop, from which I made some Green Stuff copies...

 

However the two (edit: now three) of you have prompted me to have a rethink. I wasn't planning anything other than gory but anyway there is another more fitting foe of the Psychopomps, one whose Bitz I do now have more of...

 

And the sister head will end up on a spike somewhere else in the army still.

 

Anyway, I'll be offline Sunday to Wednesday-ish, so hopefully I'll have something to show you on Thursday.

 

Eh, I think a well done Slaanesh captured Sisters Rhino is almost a good thing in the face of all the crap that is out there. But I've already seen your question the the Black Templars forum, so I see you've decided to move in that direction. The important message from this post is that once you told me that you where going to do it "tastefully" I trusted you to do just that (even though I don't like seeing Sisters defeated, but nobody likes to see their favorite army crushed in fluff).

 

And there are plastic Sisters heads (in the Exorcist, and formerly the Immolator, kit). But that's a liiiitle pricey for just 2 heads.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Servant of Dante

[Kierdale]

Yes, I intend to do it as a Templar one instead: I have more suitable bitz, they’re a more fitting foe in the Psychopomps fluff, and it avoids the Sisters/Slaaneshi topic.

 

 

And, thanks to Teetengee’s entry in last week’s Inspirational Friday: Retro Chaos: Huntsman, I hereby vow to model a headless version of Doomrider within one year from this date.

...likely to count as a winged Daemon Prince of Slaaneshi (I might model the bike flying, or riding along a wall). Perhaps his bike’s gun can count as the burning brand. Put lots of White Scar helmets on the back of the bike as trophies...

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Fallen Sisters is a nonsense fluff-wise, for sure, but so is pretending that the blood-soaked, sensation-seeking deviant mind of a follower of the god of excess wouldn't haul captured Sisters off to a terrible fate or wouldn't, say, put them in bondage and display them. Of course they would. Would you care if you had, say, Khorne Berzerkers in bondage suspended from a Knight? Is it a promotion of sexual violence against women thing? I'm not being snitty, I genuinely want to understand the opposing argument.

 

And why the double standard? Kierdale's Dark Apostle has a Daemonette pet/slave. My WIP Lord has a Daemonette pet/slave and nobody has said boo about either. While it's totally possible that no-one has seen my WIP thread, it doesn't explain why no-one seems to care about the DAs pet. Daemonettes are female.

[Evil Eye]

Yes, I intend to do it as a Templar one instead: I have more suitable bitz, they’re a more fitting foe in the Psychopomps fluff, and it avoids the Sisters/Slaaneshi topic.

 

 

And, thanks to Teetengee’s entry in last week’s Inspirational Friday: Retro Chaos: Huntsman, I hereby vow to model a headless version of Doomrider within one year from this date.

...likely to count as a winged Daemon Prince of Slaaneshi (I might model the bike flying, or riding along a wall). Perhaps his bike’s gun can count as the burning brand. Put lots of White Scar helmets on the back of the bike as trophies...

Oooooh, that sounds fun. For what it's worth I'm converting a Chaos jetbike out of an ancient metal Talos, so if you fancy giving him a new ride I can recommend that as a starting point (if you can find one). Old DE stuff in general looks really chaotic/Slaaneshi.

[Kierdale]

Res, let's all let it lie.

To paraphrase Dr.Strangelove: you can't fight here, this is an army thread ;)

Plus I think Daemonettes would enjoy anything done to them... ;)

 

 

Squgsquasher: he's got to have wheels! No wheels, no biker.

 

 

EDIT: and this is me signing off until Wed :)

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Fair enough.

 

Just seems like an odd thing to object to, when you consider what that universe is like and how it's depicted on the tabletop.

 

Pile o' skulls - cool

Sister in a hog-tie - beyond the pale

[Kierdale]

No photos as progress has been slow, but I had an idea for weathering the daemonic-possessed Rhino (the one with the Eldar tentacle-wrapped to the front, and the 80s shell suit camo scheme): paint it as if the weathered areas are bleeding. Rather than sponge on a 'primer' colour then paint metal inside that, I'll sponge/dapple on blood and paint metal within that.

[Evil Eye]

That's a great idea. DO EET.

[Kierdale]

Some WIP shots of two of the rhinos (I've been too busy to work on the Templar one).

First up is the typical tentacles-Slaanesh one Rejoice and abandon all hope.

The tentacles are not finished (I see I missed one coming out the rear right engine), and there will be blood where they exit the vehicle (and at heavy weathering points). No blood on the captured Warlock. After that I'll do metallics and finish with some weathering powders. I heavily weathered this one (more than the others will be) as it is possessed and simply will not die (so long as it has Eldar souls to feed upon).

Not as far along. The gallows-rhino. More purple tentacles to add, highlight and shade. Perhaps vivid green tentacles coming over from the pink side of the vehicle. Must matt-varnish it too.

[WarriorFish]

The patterns and details on the Rhinos are brilliant, I can't wait to see these done :D

[Evil Eye]

That is quite magnificent. I'm really loving the first one in particular.

[Iron Skull Mask]

Man this project is so cool. Thumbs up for your original work and thanks for the inspiration.

[Teetengee]

Fallen Sisters is a nonsense fluff-wise, for sure, but so is pretending that the blood-soaked, sensation-seeking deviant mind of a follower of the god of excess wouldn't haul captured Sisters off to a terrible fate or wouldn't, say, put them in bondage and display them. Of course they would. Would you care if you had, say, Khorne Berzerkers in bondage suspended from a Knight? Is it a promotion of sexual violence against women thing? I'm not being snitty, I genuinely want to understand the opposing argument.

 

And why the double standard? Kierdale's Dark Apostle has a Daemonette pet/slave. My WIP Lord has a Daemonette pet/slave and nobody has said boo about either. While it's totally possible that no-one has seen my WIP thread, it doesn't explain why no-one seems to care about the DAs pet. Daemonettes are female.

Basically, because a. slaanesh is so often protrayed for only the sex/drugs/rock and roll theme, and especially sex when female characters are involved, and not in an empowering way. The Daemonette slaves are a little different because daemons aren't really human, and because Sisters should be particularly against such things, whereas a daemon is no different from a regular person at best in their response to such things. Moreover, Sisters being sexualized or brutalized in almost every context they appear in outside of their own (and even within) fluff can be problematic. So in short, yeah, you are kind of on track about the problems with it by saying it is a sexual violence thing, but it is a bit more complicated than that. Still, Kierdale has spoken and taken a different direction at this point, so I will leave it at that.

 

@ Kierdale: What did you do to create the rents the tentacles are coming out of?

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

Res, let's all let it lie.

To paraphrase Dr.Strangelove: you can't fight here, this is an army thread

Plus I think Daemonettes would enjoy anything done to them...

Squgsquasher: he's got to have wheels! No wheels, no biker.

EDIT: and this is me signing off until Wed

As Kierdale said, let's let this subject lie, few off topic comments have had to be remove. End of the day the Psychopomps are really cool, Kierdale done a lot of really cool work & that what important to me.

Some WIP shots of two of the rhinos (I've been too busy to work on the Templar one).

First up is the typical tentacles-Slaanesh one Rejoice and abandon all hope.

The tentacles are not finished (I see I missed one coming out the rear right engine), and there will be blood where they exit the vehicle (and at heavy weathering points). No blood on the captured Warlock. After that I'll do metallics and finish with some weathering powders. I heavily weathered this one (more than the others will be) as it is possessed and simply will not die (so long as it has Eldar souls to feed upon).

Not as far along. The gallows-rhino. More purple tentacles to add, highlight and shade. Perhaps vivid green tentacles coming over from the pink side of the vehicle. Must matt-varnish it too.

I'm really looking forward seen how the Eldar rophies turn out. I think I may have already ask this before, but how did you find converting the Eldar trophies? This is something I might try out on my next Iron Warriors Vindicator later in the year.

[Kierdale]

Thanks for the comments.

I hope to have both rhinos finished by the end of the month. The Armies on Parade deadline looms

I want to have the three rhinos done. The raptors done. I have a handful of (still on their feet, fighting) Biel Tan guardians to finish off. A Farseer converted from another WHFB mini I’m very glad I picked up before it went OOP, who is the commander of the Eldar in the diorama. Five more harlequins nearly done. A solitare to be posed dueling TDA lord Sophusar...

And the board to make. I doubt I’ll have time to make more models other than those.

That leave the dreadclaw, 5 more noise marines, more bikers and more cultists to be done post-AoP, sadly.

 

 

Looking at the purple tentacles on the pink/blue rhino gave me an idea to try on a future vehicle. I painted the tentacles so that they are steadily getting smaller (of course) but, due to the contours of the rhino, in photos sometimes they seem to get bigger and smaller. That’s a natural effect of whatever angle you’re looking at the model from, of course. But how about if I painted stripes on a model, so that, from one angle, they appeared to be of perspective-defying constant width (i.e. actually thicker as they went across the model and away from you).

I’d probably take a photo of the model, Paint some stripes across the photo and use these as a guide to paint the actual model. It would only work from that one magic angle, but still...

 

 

Crazed mumblings aside ...

Teetengee I drilled some pits into the rhino and cut away at these with a modelling knife, cutting slivers out so they were crater-like. On the top hatch I think I also mangled the edges with some plyers.

Insane Psychopath it wasn’t hard to model the trophies. In the case of the spellsinger-come-warlock on the Rhino frontplate, she was already in a crucified-like pose so it was just a matter of clipping away the metal base and hiding that and other vegetation that crawled over here with Green Stuff tentacles crawling over her. That’s the (modelling, at least) reason for the use of tentacles here rather than chains.

In the case of the two on the gallows-rhino, these are guardians from the basic squad kit. With the shuriken catapult cut off the right hand you can quite easily pose the hands so the right fist is inside the open left hand. Hiding this behind their back and wrapping it in chain also helps to make them look bound. The legs come as a left-leg, right-leg pair of bits and are usually posed with their feet quite spread. If I remember correctly I glued them as I wanted them and used GS to fill gaps at the waist and bum.

Not hard, really.

Oh, one thing I didn’t use here but have on another model is if you want an open right hand for an Eldar: the harlequins box has a few open right hands (I forget the weapon. Harlequin’s embrace or something like that) which you can cut off and stick on a guardian wrist or whatever.

[Kierdale]

Some more rhino WIP shots.

The tentacles need a third shade of purple adding (the lightest). After painting on the second shade I realised I hadn't so much highlighted the tentacles as simply painted one side of them lighter. Do you think it looks weird and I should repaint them as if the lighter purple is a highlight, or leave them as they are, with the two tones simply as disruptive patterns (and add the third, lightest, purple to the edge)?

Then there are green tentacles to add snaking across from the other side.

And there's the as-yet-unpainted 'jester'. Is he a turncoat guardsman? A former scout? Who know? Either way, I like how the gunner's head has him seemingly talking to the jester (by coincidence, I'll add. I realised I had some spare scout biker lets and so decided to add someone riding on the front of the rhino).

I actually plan to add more riders, removable, in the future. Some with melta-bombs on poles (Fury Road-style) to count as combi-meltas).

You can also see the Slaaneshi icon on the hatch. Some green tentacles will be grasping at that.

And the other is almost done. Once the tracks are on I'll add weathering powders.

I admit I've overdone the weathering on this one, and will restrain myself when doing the other two rhinos!

These two hacked-off statue faces have been disfigured so one looks happy, the other sad.

[Evil Eye]

That freehand work is gorgeous! The Slaanesh icon in particular is awesome.

As for the splinter Rhino, I don't think you've overdone the weathering. Granted I'm quite fond of heavy-handed weathering, but I think it works well against the pale pastel colours.

 

How are you planning on doing the third Rhino?

[Kierdale]

Thank you.

 

I'll upload some photos of the 3rd rhino soon.

 

I just had a thought: I'll model the jester chained to the rhino too. On a leash. Like iforgetthecharactersname in Mad Max 2.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Thank you.

 

I'll upload some photos of the 3rd rhino soon.

 

I just had a thought: I'll model the jester chained to the rhino too. On a leash. Like iforgetthecharactersname in Mad Max 2.

That would be the Doof Warrior.

[MaliGn]

Nah, he clearly said mad max 2, I know the one he means, but likewise don't know the name.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Oh smeg, my bad, I blame lack of sleep from insufferably hot weather. :| Edited August 25, 2016 by SanguiniusReborn

[Slave to Darkness]

I had a shell-suit in similar colours way back in the 90s.

Unfortunatly so did I :lol: