Fury of the Faithful: Adepta Sororitas and Black Templars

[Brother Zeal]

Evening all,

Over the last few months I've been planning to build an army consisting primarily of Adepta Sororitas with an allied detatchment of Black Templars, and at the weekend I was lucky enough to get hold of one of the new Sisters of Battle box sets, so said plan is now very much on the table. Or hobby desk, to be more accurate.

I initially painted up this model as a character for my homebrew INQ28 project, however I really enjoyed painting it and plan to paint up the rest of the girls in the same scheme. I had intended for this model to be the Canoness for my Sisters force, however after finally holding the sprues in my own hands and spending a lot of time going through the new Codex, I've decided that this lass will instead serve as the Sister Superior for the squad of Celestians that I'll inevitably pick up when their kit is released.

Now I'm not a fan of the Canoness model in the box set, so I left her on her sprue and turned my attention instead to the Repentia Superior model:

I quite like how this turned out, however I've experimented with a few alternative loadouts and would appreciate any suggestions as to which would be most fitting look for a Canoness:

Shortsword varient, will obviously take steps to make it look more Imperial and less WFB Wood Elf barbaric Aeldari blade.

The "Avant, daemon!" option, with the Crozius serving as a Null Rod.



Something of a reflection of one of the old Daemonhunter Inquisitor models.



Reading from The Book of Armorments, Chapter II, Verses IX-XXI. Simply because I had the bits to hand...

No Black Templars in this debut post, but I'm working away on an Emperor's Champion model that will set the standard for the rest of his detatchment. I'll have pics up once I figure out which style of black armour would suit him best...

As always, I welcome any feedback for improvement!

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Always need to have a Holy Handgreande of Antioch handy. Sisters look good in green. Looking forward to seeing what you and others do with the new kits

Edited December 4, 2019 by PowerHungryMonkey

[cretacianborn]

I love the power sword and bolter combo. I'm a simple man. However the book and staff of office look cool too!

[Trokair]

Nice work on the new sisters. I have also been toying with converting the Repentia Superior into a Canoness, so nice to see what others have done, especially as you have toyed with so many options. I defiantly like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, though the one with book and bolter also looks cool.  

 

If you are just setting out on your journey with Sisters, then this currently running event might be for you: Facing the Unknown II, a community hobby event about starting a new army; runs until lend of February 2020.

[Brother Zeal]

Always need to have a Holy Handgreande of Antioch handy. Sisters look good in green. Looking forward to seeing what you and others do with the new kits

Cheers! Even in the grim darkness of the far future, one must be sufficiently armed to deal with vicious beasts, regardless of size or supposed innocence.

I love the power sword and bolter combo. I'm a simple man. However the book and staff of office look cool too!

The book and the staff were originally reserved for a scratch-built Confessor model, but it turns out I have no sculpting skills whatsoever, so said bits have languished unused in the bits drawer for quite some time. Even if I don't use them for the Canoness, I'm sure they'll find a place somewhere in this army!

Nice work on the new sisters. I have also been toying with converting the Repentia Superior into a Canoness, so nice to see what others have done, especially as you have toyed with so many options. I defiantly like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, though the one with book and bolter also looks cool.

If you are just setting out on your journey with Sisters, then this currently running event might be for you: Facing the Unknown II, a community hobby event about starting a new army; runs until lend of February 2020.

Thank you! I had considered signing up for the Facing the Unknown II event, but with my hobby butterfly syndrome being as rampant as it is at the moment I doubt I'd fulfill my oath. If I'm ever starting a new army, I always like to take it slow, working out what method of assembling/painting/gaming suits me best.

I prefer to run my armies in small squads, so the 10 Battle Sisters that came in the box are being divided into two squads of five:

The first five Sisters I built were assembled the way GW intended, sans the lovely knight helms from Anvil Industry. At this point, I was just getting a feel for the kit, hence the lack of any significant conversion beyond changing the Sister Superior's loadout. After assembling these five, however, I felt confident enough to start cutting and hacking to produce models that were different from those in the first squad:

Not a huge update, but I think it's a decent start to the army. I'll do a wee bit more work on the second Sister Superior to make her seem more commanding, currently she just looks a bit... meh. Any suggestions?

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Great conversions so far! I'm really a fan of the green armor turned out really cool!

[Trokair]

Fair enough, and good luck with the project, let the hobby butterflies take their flight of fancy.

 

Nice conversions. Is that a mechanical arm on the grenade thrower?  

[Brother Zeal]

Great conversions so far! I'm really a fan of the green armor turned out really cool!

Thank you! It looks a bit naff when it's the only colour on the model (see sister centre-right below) but as soon as another colour is added it pops and looks much better (see sister centre).

Fair enough, and good luck with the project, let the hobby butterflies take their flight of fancy.

Nice conversions. Is that a mechanical arm on the grenade thrower?

Aye, it's from one of Anvil Industry's clever wee upgrade kits for their Regiments range. I had to clip and cut the original shoulder joint to make it fit, but fortunately the sister's pauldron hides the joint itself so it doesn't look like a botch job.

Now for an update! My brothers were very considerate this Christmas:

So between working away on the Battle Sisters squads and tinkering with the base of my ongoing Emperor MkII, I started work on the Saint. Aside from magnetizing the wings, the only alteration I've made to the body of this model is the sword:

I'll likely be running both Celestine and the Emperor (counts as Guilliman) in the same army when facing certain opponents, so I figure two blades of divine heretic-frying flames are better than one! The biggest change to the model is the base itself. I wasn't a fan of the excessively long purity seals keeping the Saint aloft, so I made a custom base for her:

I deliberately angled the model to make it look as though she is swooping down towards an enemy, rather than have her angled as though she is gliding or rising upwards as the original pose suggests.

Now, quick update on the Black Templar front. I had planned to make a Vanguard detachment of three Terminator squads to accompany the sisters, but I found an unassembled Venerable Dreadnought in one of my drawers and decided that he will join the crusade.

I know that the Bolter & Chainsword hosts a number of admirably zealous BT players, so any suggestions you lads can offer as to making this dude suitably crusade-worthy would be much appreciated!

[Brother Zeal]

Happy new year all!

Just a quick update today. Finished the body of Celestine:

For some reason her eyes haven't photographed well; there's more contrast between the white pupils and the blue glow around them. I'll need to add a bit more Ceramite White to them when I highlight the base.

Next steps: drybrush the base, hit it with contrast paint, highlight, then onto the wings!

[Sword Brother Adelard]

For the dreadnought, chains are an easy addition for extra Templarness. I also converted my own Ven dread to hold a sword using the fingered fist hand from the plastic kit.

 

I like your pose, very 'kool aid man'.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

The body turned out really great so far, looking forward to seeing more of it completed!

[Brother Zeal]

It’s been well over a year since I last updated this wee log - I wish I could say I’d made significant progress with this project, but that would be a lie. I planned to post an update once I’d completed everything from the Sisters starter box, but that would mean a few more months of radio silence. Practical - smaller updates, more regularly, improve motivation!

After targeting every conceivable detail, the first squad of Battle Sisters is finally complete:

I decided to go with bare heads in the end, partially to give the army a more human theme than my fully-helmed Space Marine forces, but also to challenge myself to improve my ability to paint faces.

Next up is a quartet of characters who will be accompanying the completed army:

As a testament to my remarkable observation skills, I’ve only just now realised that skull on Cherubael’s base hasn’t been painted. That’ll be getting a lick of paint tonight!

One of the many additions to this army is a kitbashed Imagifier, who is still very much a WIP. I added some of the new Tesseract Glow to my witch’s brew of a DIY contrast paint, and I can’t decide if I like the result or not. It certainly made the green armour more vibrant, but at the cost of removing the metallic sheen all of her Sisters have:

On the subject of experimentation, I tried an alternative colour scheme for a small squad/kill team that may end up becoming a separate project:

The scheme is much darker than the main Sisters force, so it was an interesting study in using a more muted palette. As much as I like the result it was very time-consuming, but we could just chalk that up to my inexperience in painting purple. This Sister will eventually get her own wee squad for use in either Kill Team or as a retinue dedicated to following one of my many Inquisitors around.

And last but not least, Brother Kool Aid now looks much more zealous:

He’s not cosplaying as Abaddon, his arms are just being painted separately! He’ll be joined soon by some other Black Templars as I continue kitbashing.

As always, I’d appreciate any advice or feedback on how to improve my work, and hopefully I’ll have more stuff to post over the next few weeks. Edited March 21, 2021 by Brother Zeal

[Torbenos]

I really enjoy the vibrant colour for your Sisters of Battle, they'll certainly be a force to make an impression once they're amassed in numbers. Brother Kool Aid too looks excellent, the shield truly adds a lot of interest to the chassis of him. Like thow lovely rondels on the marines but super sized. I look forward to seeing more.