My Sisters (Order of the Vermilion Veil)

[tvih]

Much to my own surprise I actually finished the other three during the same "waking period" ("same day" doesn't really apply with my sleeping patterns)

In my "army lore" they're actual quadruplet sisters taken in by the Sororitas and working together as an extra-efficient dakka team bringing the Emperor's justice to xenos, heretics and traitors alike.

[WarriorFish]

Excellent work here, the colours are great and the eyes make the models pop - nicely done!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Retributors. How will you decorate their bases? Edited November 16, 2019 by Bjorn Firewalker

[tvih]

Good job on the Retributors. How will you decorate their bases?

 

Sand base, like my other armies (will) have. I just need to get some 32mm slot bases first. But looks like there's no hurry since I just woke up and the army sets are long gone, so no codex for me.

[tvih]

Current info from FLGS was that they should have the exact number of boxes incoming as there are preorders made, so I might get a box after all. Post office is on a national strike here though so hard to say if the boxes will be here on the release day since there are delays. If they are and I indeed get one, I might take a 1k (metal) list to a gaming day on the 30th as "backup" for a 2k marine list that I also need to test (having not played with that codex yet either). And if I play with that 1k Sisters list, it'd actually be the first time playing standalone Sisters! Edited November 19, 2019 by tvih

[tvih]

Dear Diary.

Excuse the crappy phone pic, but here's the most recent addition to the Order:

I've also been sidetracked touching up/finishing some older models that I had "completed" in a hurry to get them on the table to round a list. Still some of that left to do. I'll probably post pics of some of them later.

I must say the Argent infantry color scheme has been growing on me more again despite some misgivings sometimes in the past. I've refined my washing skills a bit which makes the armor look a bit crisper than before on average. I had a tendency to overdo it in the past which made the models look too dirty at times. Also the fact that I've started using Mephiston Red which is a base paint instead of Wazdakka/Evil Sunz which are layers helps quite a bit with the reds, not needing as many layers. White is still a pain but it is what it is.

Further is the niceness of the new Order Conviction. I only wish I had four multimeltas (instead of two) to put the Storm of Retribution stratagem to proper use, it feels to me the best weapon type to use it on given our general lack of long-range anti-tank.

All this brings me back to the vehicles and Junith. Again. It'd be nice to keep painting Argent infantry with the plastics even though red & black have kinda always been my "thing". OooML infantry would have easier time with the cloth parts due to no white but much more work with the armor highlighting. But most importantly their vehicles would look ten times nicer and of course could take Junith. The Argent vehicles are annoying me enough that at times I feel like I should just create an infantry detachment with AS, stacking for 4++ SoF instead of vehicles to get them where they're going hopefully somewhat alive. But it'd really cut down on my heavier firepower plus of course I already have the vehicles so simply leaving them in the parking lot seems silly especially since I'll be struggling to field enough points in a pure Sisters list until spring or so even while using the vehicles.

I considered the cheap trick of black vehicles for Argent earlier, but other than indeed being a cop-out it also was before Junith came into the equation. There's of course the whole metal/plastic era separation in itself, it would make for an otherwise convenient Order split. Why do I have to be so OCD about this stuff?

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Excellent painting on your sisters!

[tvih]

I'm supposed to be working on some Primaris for a game tomorrow, but with the army set now in hand, how can I?! 

[tvih]

So, after lots of hand-wringing I more or less decided to go for vanilla because of Junith. At least in this case vanilla means my two favorite colors, so that helps me overcome the hipster side of myself. Black miniatures are such a pain to photograph without a good light setup, for which I always lack the space, so it's just regular room lighting in this one.

Overall I'm fairly OK with how the test miniature itself turned out, particularly the cloth parts (though even that is poorly represented by the photo). The biggest problem is that in the time it took me to paint this, I would've painted 3-5 Argent Sisters Despite having had a fair amount of practise with edge highlighting infantry recently with my Crimson Fists, the Sisters are so much more delicate. Plus this highlight scheme - while less conspicuous than the one I used for my Templar vehicles in the past - shows errors more easily than my low-contrast Fists.

Also, here you can finally see my lazy basing scheme on a Sisters miniature

[tvih]

Not sure why I had the weird misconception that Arcos & Repentias would somehow be quicker to paint... well, I can certainly say that was indeed a misconception after spending half the day getting the Arcos & Repenties cleaned up and sprayed, and then the second half getting these two done:

I have very little experience painting human skin, but I guess these are passable. The Arco's sickly skin is perhaps a bit different from what I envisioned, but eh. It'll do. I'm also apparently firmly keeping up with the tradition of always painting my favorite minis first rather than practising on the less-favorite ones first.

Oh, and poor Arco for having to run on that rocky ground barefoot :P

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Sister Repentia and the arco-flagellant.

[Slasher956]

Oh, and poor Arco for having to run on that rocky ground barefoot

 & thats just the start of their penantance :p

[WarriorFish]

A day well spent though ;) I'm slowly being sold on the new Repentia.

[tvih]

I quite like the Repentia models, will most likely buy an additional 5 to round out the unit in the future. Not sure if/when I'll ever get around to painting my metal Repentia though!

[tvih]

Oops. I just realized the Arcos and Repentias are supposed to go to 25mm bases. Typical. Though what's particularly strange is that my army set seems to have come with 4x25mm bases and 3x28mm bases, rather than 7x25 like it's apparently supposed to. Not that I'm in any shortage of extra 25mm bases.

[Lemondish]

Oops. I just realized the Arcos and Repentias are supposed to go to 25mm bases. Typical. Though what's particularly strange is that my army set seems to have come with 4x25mm bases and 3x28mm bases, rather than 7x25 like it's apparently supposed to. Not that I'm in any shortage of extra 25mm bases.

 

So I had taken that to mean the arcos were supposed to be on the 28s, but I admit I haven't cracked open the instructions to see what's what. 

 

The place I ordered my lovely resin bases from asked me what I wanted to do, so I figured I'd stick with what came in the box instead of going with all 25s. 

[tvih]

Yeah, I rechecked the actual instructions and actually Repentia are supposed to be 28mm and Arcos 25mm. The product description on GW site said 25mm for all. Well, this still leaves me one 28mm base short, those I don't have spares of. I guess I'll make one from foamboard.

Edited December 4, 2019 by tvih

[Dread]

I dumped mine out last night and have 4 28mm and 3 25mm in my first box. Haven't checked second box yet. As for the repentia, I'm gonna have to do some sculpting on them before I can like them. 2 of the 4 heads I like and not liking the shorts, will trim and add tattered robes. Then I should be good.

[tvih]

Could be worse... could be yoga pants :D

[Dread]

Haha, if they were skin tight then they'd look like skin.

 

But I have to way the pros and cons, is it going to be worth all the trouble or just build and enjoy?

Edited December 5, 2019 by Dread

[tvih]

More or less another full day's effort later:

Seeing as the Superior is a separate entry these days, I guess this counts as the first table-ready unit from the army set!

They're all rather tanned since I lack a lighter skin tone paint than Kislev Flesh, but since they're running around in a rocky desert hell of an area I guess you kinda end up a with a tan in such a place anyway, not even wearing armor

[tvih]

Dear Diary of Dullness, today it's general progress and melee Order ponderings.

 

Been slowly plodding away. I repainted Amalia into OooML because why use 3 hours to paint new minis when you can repaint an already painted one? First five BSS are waiting for highlighting and heads to be finished, have been for several days now... and now the same stage for the rest of the Seraphim.

I'm thinking of just adding barrel extensions to signify inferno pistols to two of them. Bolt pistol only unit isn't exactly effective, after all. If the Seraphim/Zephyrim kit ends up having two of each special option - I guess it should - then I can do a more permanent change. Funny thing, my OooML Seraphim having infernos and Argent Seraphim having flamers, when, considering Argent's Conviction, it'd be better the other way around! On the upside new 32mm bases arrived so maybe finally those Argent Seraphim can actually stay upright?

 

In other ponderings... I've been contemplating my melee units and running into another Order debacle there too. So many people seem to be running a separate Bloody Rose detachment for them. Which admittedly makes sense, it does make them quite a bit more effective. I'd kinda like to do it myself, but of course the problem is that my forces are already going to be split between two Orders. Adding a third makes list-building quite difficult since there's three detachments.

 

With how I already painted my Repentia, they could be reasonably fielded as either BR or OooML. I also have 10 or so metal Repentia to consider, and since I like how the multipart Repentia look I'll probably get a box of those too. That'd then mean having two Repentia Superiors, which I could paint one for BR and one for OooML. But then there's also Zephyrim and Imagifier to consider. For HQ I'd just likely go with a Priest. I've been thinking maybe I should order the "Missionary with Chainsword" model for true WYSIWYG use as well as to stay as cheap as possible points-wise; sucks that as is all three of my priests are "Legends" and I haven't even painted them yet.

 

I guess it's either commit to actually making the Zephyrim/Imagifier BR and then not being able to field them in some cases to stay color-WYSIWYG, or paint them either way and use interchangeably between the two Orders and confuzzle your opponents ("all the melee dudettes are BR" not being that hard I guess and should be fine for non-tournament games). At least both are primarily red and black rather than completely different colors when/if used within the same detachment. Of course there's also the matter of transports, I'd probably have to dedicate at least two Rhinos to this melee detachment.

Edited December 13, 2019 by tvih

[tvih]

While working with rebasing the Seraphim I also figured I'd finally get around to Celestine. Ever since I painted her for ETL some years back she's been laying around unused, suffering from a bad case of crappy red paint like the rest of that completion, but with her huge cloak it was more prominent. Finally got around to fixing that. Unfortunately it seems I managed to put her on the base a bit off-center. So much for the stability increase I guess, hah!

[tvih]

Regarding my Bloody Rose ponderings, I was just calculating things and based on what I've been thinking of buying plastics-wise, I should have about a 2k list in the end consisting from a BR Vanguard + OooML battalion if I go that way. Well, actually that list does include Celestine who I'm still uncertain on "upgrading." For this metal one  problem is I sold my extra metal Seraphim a year ago or so, so I don't have a metal one to convert into a second Geminae. I also changed her AGAIN to a 40mm base since that's what the new one uses (thought it was 32mm due to the GW product description) and pinned the arm the cloak so hopefully she stays together better.

[vossyvo]

Lovely work in here tvih!

Been reading through your posts, great inspiration for those of us just starting out with SoB.