Order of Sacred Absolution

[Rizara]

Hello all, I decided to start a thread where I can post updates to my own Sisters Order. Right now, I don't have much in the way of background, as I am still working on it. So I am reserving some space to add that to this first post at a later time as I work it out. So here is what I have to start. This will be a slow grow army as I am patiently awaiting the plastic sisters. Because of that, i haven't played a game of 40k in about a year and a half, and have been waiting patiently for a long while. Thankfully school took up most of that time, but now, with one plastic sister kit, I have now started on the army. At least I can maintain the buy and paint plan of invest in a unit or character, paint said unit before buying more (at least for now).

Planned color scheme

Symbol of the Order

Founded: M39.234

Leader: Canoness Superior Rizara Barros

Founder: Palatine Caitlyn O'Riordan of the Order of Our Martyred Lady

Parent Order: The Order of Our Martyred Lady

Convent: The Martyred Oasis (Island Monestary), Ishariel (Paradise World), Veiled Region, just south on the Galactic Map of Segmentum Ultima

Lore: Reserved as I work on it.

[Rizara]

As for actual models, here are the WIP shots of my Celestine. I decided to not place her on the weak scrolls and opted for a sculpted base and some slight conversion to her. I decided to add a part of the scroll to her cape in place of where the Doves were to attach, since it already looked like a seal part of a purity seal. I never cared for the doves to begin with and if I could remove the roses without scarring up the sword I would but decided to leave that, as it is just too much trouble to remove the flowers.

As for the base, I am planning to add fall colored leaves to it after painting, so the tiles will be the ruins of a former Convent/shrine/Monastery. It is hard to see but some of the floor tiles have the sisters Fleur de Lys on them. This is my first time doing an actual colomn, and I modeled it around a dowel rod that was glue to the base. I feel she is a bit more supported with this way than balanced on giant purity seals. The little bit of pinning work that shows behind her leg doesn't bother me, as I couldn't really think of a way to truly support her by hiding it in the plastic since her leg is so frail to start, and she does have a larger set of wings to support as well. Her twin bodyguards will also have similar base work, which I am working on today and tomorrow, and they will be pinned directly into the bottom of the feet, and I will extend the purity seals around their feet to drap around their respective columns.

I plan to start painting her tomorrow, and after taking pics, I realize I have to fill in the holes on the end of the scroll work, that or paint them as rivets for the fleur on the other side.

[Servant of Dante]

She looks really good on that pillar! I think I might even like it better than the normal ribbons (plus you don't have the wings on her, and personally think that improves the model immensely, especialy with how close to t he ground she is :P)

[Rizara]

Thanks, but I plan to add the winged backpack.  After seeing so many feathery wing versions of the first model, I like the new winged jet pack more.   I never liked the old cherubs, and how does she fly if no jump pack or wings.   The only 40k character with actual wings was Sanguinius, and even he was touched by chaos.  So no organic wings, mine wont be painted white either, as they need to feel metallic and mechanical to me.   They give her that nice angelic and divine appearance yet avoids the tainted chaos look as those more natural wings.      

 

As for the color scheme, I am thinking however of using teal for the purity seals instead of red.  Red feels more natural but I want to avoid the red, tired of painting it on everything, and I really want them to feel less imperial fist like in color.   The question I have now, is do I use the teal on the bolter casings as I had originally planned to use red for that, or do I go with maybe gold weapon casings and chain swords in the army.   Just have to decide before I get to painting her bodyguard since they have the bolt pistols.   

[Servant of Dante]

I've been going with anti-grav cherubs :D I too was very relieved to see the new Celestine, though she had wings, did not have organic wings.

 

Hum. well I think something other than gold for the casings would stand out more. Teal would certainly look good, imo, and I suppose the fewer colors you use the more unified the model will look (or something like that, I'm no artist (and I just recalled that you are)).

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Will the Sisters' robes be golden, an Imperial Fists shade of yellow, or desert camouflage shade of tan?

[Rizara]

Harriet yes, writer I am not though which makes working on some background fluff harder for me. I get great ideas, it's just organizing them in a way that sounds plausible or natural is where I suffer. For example, the idea I have for my orders founding is that a palatine and a strike force of sisters was away from their home monestary for over a year helping to cleanse neighboring systems of Orc infestations. Upon their return, the palatine begins to notice oddities within the convent, especially with the canoness and her upper eschelon of fellow sisters, and also a particular priest/bishop. Turns out she ends up discovering heresy within the ranks in the form of a gene stealer cult. Using her contacts and her loyal battle sisters that she previously commanded against the orcs begins a purge, while also contacting her imperial naval contacts. Ultimately in the end, she and her loyal sisters end up evacuating the planet and the entire planet becomes cleansed through orbital bombardment. However, the remaining loyal sisters after another year of grueling inquisition testing and inspection are finally cleared as clean and pure sisters of battle, and because of the process they are given their own minor order and relocated to a new world from one of the nearby systems they helped to purge.

 

Like I said, I can do decent short stories or summaries, it's the details that trouble me, and finding more information on gene stealer cults hasn't been easy without investing in the most recent codex for lore, which may already be online to begin with.

 

I also have to work out an icon for my order. That is a bit trickier, as fitting it to the name that I have picked is hard. I like the order name, because it means basically they are dedicated to their religious purpose and released from guilt or punishment. It really works with the background idea, as they felt guilty of their former convent (released from the sins of their fellow sisters) and have proven themselves still faithful and loyal to the emperor.

[Rizara]

I want to avoid the yellow on the weapons as well, but most sure if doing the teal would be too much. It looked good however when I played dawn of war using the colors, even though the purity seals were still red, the teal weapons stood out. Maybe I can do a different shade of teal, perhaps make the purity seals and optics (eye lens and scopes) brighter and have a white highlight, and base the weapons a bit darker in the teal range. The power weapons will be black highlighted up to teal for a power glow effect, something I have used before in the past. The gold idea was just a thought, as I am already limiting the gold metals in the army as it is, but it might be too similar to the yellow robes, and black cased weapons with black armor feels like too much black.

[Shifte]

More yellow Sisters! :D

Purple can contrast well with yellow, too. Might work for the bolters.

[Son of Carnelian]

Honestly seeing Celestine at the head of a Rebel Alliance fleet is a dream crossover. As for the model itself, it looks great attached to the pillar. 

[Rizara]

Yeah I had my armada box sitting on the table when I took the photo, decided to keep it because the darker background enhanced the image, just had an extra effect of it being Star Wars.

[WarriorFish]

A good start, looking forward to seeing more of your Celestine :tu:

[robofish7591]

WOW, that base looks great.  I think I like it more than her floating on the ribbons!

[Rizara]

here are the Twins, their bases are finished being sculpted. I took part of celestines scroll work to help extend the scrolls coming off of their feet, to have it trailing down the column and back into the air. The idea was they are hovering, so the exhausts would allow the scrolls to bounce around, so using the extra bits from celestines original scroll work, gives them the going back into the air look as they trail the ground first. Back packs are not attached here either and will be attached after painting. Sadly not a great detailed picture, but it showcases the base work and how I have them mounted. When I get painted shots, I will have to make sure I get my camera to work out, get the lighting right, and may have to go to the local store to get better lighting on top of that.

[Servant of Dante]

They look good! I'm looking forward to seeing these painted :)

[Rizara]

slight paint update. I got some paint going, but alas, I really need to find some better lighting, both for taking photos, and for painting the details. Curse this old 100 year old house.

Anyways, here is an above shot to show the color of the base work. Wondering if it is too bright, need to look into weather affects for it I guess. Might also look better once I add the leaves to it.

and here is a front shot of her. I have most of the yellow done as well, may need to work on a finer highlight and adding an army icon to the back perhaps (such a huge void of yellow on the back of her cape like drape. Again, I will work on this some more over the next week, around work schedule and finding a better source of light. This old house, every light fixture is a chandelier, so all the lights face towards the ceiling, not down, and those that do face down, well 10 foot tall cielings make the light more diffused when It reaches where I need. My lamps are in need of replacement as well. Maybe I can get by the local hobby store on my next day off for just a day of painting, nothing better for painting to me than in flourescent lighting.

Anyways, I am working on her armor next, thinking of adding some chipped paint to it, since she does see war. oh yeah, quick fix to those little indents on her scrolls, I decided to add some more purity seals to the back side, since the other side will have a metal Fleur de lys on it, I was thinking, that symbol got blessed twice so they placed it on the rivets holding it to the scroll work.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Why are Celestine's hands flesh-toned in color? I thought she was in full power armor (minus the helmet)?

[Zaemie]

Why are Celestine's hands flesh-toned in color? I thought she was in full power armor (minus the helmet)?

Nope. Celestine goes bare handed into battle so that she can saint-slap the enemies of the Emperor. The touch of her holy flesh sears the soul of the unrighteous.

[Rizara]

Sadly she wears the armor of Saint Katherine, and while Saint Katherine had a similar figure and frame of just about every other battle sister, her hands however were tiny short little nubs, and sadly her armored gloves were too cramped for Celestine to wear, and instead of getting a new pair crafted, she rushed off to war bare handed. It is because of these soft hands that she is able to summon doves to her bidding for the imperial doves refuse to eat seed out of an armored cold metal glove.

 

So yes, this sadly didn't get changed with the new plastic sculpt, while they gave her a new back pack, the rest of the models design was taken from the original design and that one was also bare handed.

[Servant of Dante]

I like the yellow robe!

[sedibear]

yeah the color scheme worked out much better than I thought it would, and I already thought it was going to look nice.

 

The yellow could use a little dulling down, but that's personal preference. :D

 

Great work. That army is going to look amazing.

[Servant of Dante]

ooo! I wonder how a Seraphim Sepia wash would look on that color? Or maybe ahead earthshade?

[Rizara]

Made a little more progress tonight. After much thought last night, i decided on an icon or symbol for my Order. This will mostly be placed on vehicles of course, but since Celestine has such a large cape like drapery, I had to paint it there.

So here is the icon I did quickly in Photoshop.

The idea behind this, is since there founding order was the Martyred Lady, they kept the cross, but replaced the halo'd skull with a teal rose. They changed the color of the cross to a pale grey, this symbolizes the loss/ordeal they faced, while the rose symbolizes their rebirth as an order. It also works because one of the meanings of a Teal rose is that of the rejuvenation of the spirit so this can represent their rejuvenation of purity and purpose, the spirit to continue fighting for the Emperor.

As for Celestine, tonight's progress was first, addressing the depth issue of her cloth. Yesterday I tried to relax (my day off and all), and so I tried to see how painting in the bed while watching TV all day worked out. While it wasn't really bad for basecoating, getting detail and depth was a different story, as I struggled with the yellow all day. Tonight I got it looking the way I wanted it, and it has some depth now, and I didn't go with the pale yellow I used for the upper highlights and kept a more golden yellow. I also ended up highlighting her armor (though its hard to see in the image), and added a base coat to the metal tubing and under suit. I also finished the scroll work, purity seals (can you believe Celestine's armor lacks those, the heresy of it lacking righteous blessings from the Emperor), and I painted on the Orders Icon. I also started adding the highlights to her backpack and base coated the wings. I got an idea instead of giving her actual gold wings, I am going to make the feathers of her back pack be the same golden yellow color of her armor. She will be the only one with them, so might as well make it match the army more. So the top feather joint that connects to the backpack will be black, with the rest of the feathers being golden yellow.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Celestine's robes look good. Excellent work on the embroidered Order symbol.

[WarriorFish]

Very nice! Can't wait to see her done :tu: