Order of the Penitent Saint: A Project Thread

[toaae]

Hello and welcome to my project thread for my growing Adepta Sororitas collection! I'm toaae, and I've been in the 40k hobby for nearly 17 years. I started with Space Wolves, moved to Blood Angels and then Orks. I haven't added a new army to my collection in a decade, but that was all perfectly planned*. I've been waiting a long time for plastic Sisters of Battle, having been intrigued by the army since I played my first game against them in 2005. In 2008, I decided I would wait for the inevitable plastic refresh before diving in. And I don't need to tell this sub-forum about that long wait.

Finally, the time has arrived and I can finally start on the army I've been dreaming of for ages. Simply put, I lose the fluff's satirical take on organized religion and how "no men under arms" is skirted by the existence of an all-female army. The aesthetic is great and the new model line lives up to it. It's just a total package for me.

I even wrote a 3600 word Index Imperialis article because I like the faction so much.

Onto the minis! I started my collection in March, and as a slow painter, this is what I've accomplished so far. Pardon the dirty photo:



A five-model unit of Battle Sisters, an eight-model unit of Retributors, and an Imagifier. This was supposed to be the start of an escalation league force for my club, but then COVID happened, delaying the league. And then my wife got a job offer that would take us back to Arizona, where our friends and family are, so, alas, these ladies won't be apart of that league.

Anyways, some better photos. The Battle Sisters unit (plus one Bolter Retributor):


The Imagifier:


And the Retributors (minus the one Bolter gal):


Individual pics of the Retributors here:

A bit about my scheme: I wanted to feature turquoise in the colors. I did a lot of brainstorming using the B&C painter, and while I had some duds (one made my wife ask if I was trying to do the Miami Dolphins in space), I eventually settled on turquoise armor with white vestments. I had originally planned the insides of the vestments to be orange, but in the course of painting the first one, decided to just stick to red. The turquoise is a custom blend, as GW doesn't have a good turquoise paint and I wasn't in the mood/was too impatient to try and find a different brand during lockdown. After a lot of trial-and-error, I settled on the following:



That's a base coat of Stegadon Green, a mid-level highlight with a 1:1 mix of Sotek Green and Kabalite Green, and a highlight of a 1:1 mix of Ahriman Blue and Sybarite Green. A 6:1 mix of Contrast Medium and Terradon Turquoise is then glazed over to soften the transitions, followed by an edge highlight of 2:2:3 Ahriman Blue, Sybarite Green, and Pallid Wych Flesh. I'm super proud of this scheme, and consider my highest achievement as an artist (as opposed to just being a painter).

Alongside the turquoise, white and red are black, gold, and two types of silver. Weapon casings are black, icons and symbols are gold (some Fleurs are white), while ornamental metallic are a brighter, blue silver and functional metallics (like weapons) are a gun metal silver. Finally, spot colors of light brown (leather), dark brown (gloves), magenta (purity seals and melee weapon grips), orange (eyes), and purple (rosary beads) wrap up the scheme. I then based them on cream-red marble tile bases, made out of plasticard and painted using medical gauze and/or dried baby wipes for masking.

------------------------------------------------
Anyways, to wrap up this length OP, this will be the center of my Adepta Sororitas project, where I'll share my hobby progress, games, random thoughts, snippets of fluff and other musings. Currently, I have a Canoness and six more Battle Sisters about halfway complete, two Mortifiers primed, and a box of Seraphim ready for assembly. As previously mentioned, I'm a slow painter, but I hope to have a full army sometime in the next year. We'll see how that goes.

*=no, it wasn't. Edited June 8, 2020 by toaae

[Aqui]

Good to see your progress shown here, toaae ^_^ Edited June 11, 2020 by Aqui

[Dread]

These are fantastic. Great colors, good background and the bases are some of the best I've ever seen. Good stuff here. It'll be nice watching your army grow.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Great job on the models!

[NKirkham24]

Looking good, that turquoise armour really works. Look forward to seeing your progress. 

[Stendal]

Love the color of the armour!

[ThePenitentOne]

Amazing colours, and I also like the Order's Icon. Obviously, I have a thing for all things Penitent.

 

Will your army include lots of Arcos, PE's, Mortifiers, and Repentia?

[toaae]

Thanks, folks!

 

 

Will your army include lots of Arcos, PE's, Mortifiers, and Repentia?

 

I plan to. Repentia, especially, have always been one of the most iconic units of the Sisters, to me, and since they are really good, I have no reason to not get a full set.

[toaae]

A canoness joins the Order:

I still have six battle sisters with their armor and white vestments complete, two Mortifiers primed, and an unopened box of Seraphim in my queue. The pandemic-malaise that robbed me of all my hobby mojo had a profound impact on my Sororitas, not the least of which was the escalation league I was building them for was cancelled. I'm planning to get a lot more done in 2021, and this canoness is just the start.

[ThePenitentOne]

Very nice! Keep up the momentum. Can't wait to see these colours on Mortifiers and Seraphim.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the Canoness.

[toaae]

Folks, I did not keep up the momentum.

2021 was an even worse year for me in terms of production, which you can read about in the recap in my Ork thread if you really want. But now, I want to focus on the future, on what I hope to do better in 2022. And at the center of that is my Adeptus Sororitas collection.

Currently 15 models in 4 units, I'm setting the goal to attend LVO 2023 with a full army of Sisters. To achieve that, I'm going to focus on making sure my hobby efforts are producing completions, namely to the tune of at least one unit a month. I'm also going to try and complete at least one non-Sororitas unit a month, but the Order of the Penitent Saint are my priority.

 

Currently, this is what I have in my hands:

In Box
5x Seraphim
Assembled

9x Repentia

1x Repentia Superior

6x Battle Sisters

1x Exorcist
In Progress
6x Battle Sisters

2x Mortifiers

I don't know what the list I'll take to an event more than a year away will look like yet, but I have some idea on what units I'm going to want to have. I'll work to knock out this stuff in the first half of the year, and then start hammering down what else I need to field a decent list in the fall. I do know that you can add Morvenn Vahl to the list; that was my favorite model GW released this year.

Here's to the new year!

[toaae]

First unit done. It's labeled as a Battle Sisters unit in my logs because that's what it was intended to be when I built in in late 8th edition. It's no longer a legal unit with the two storm bolters in a small unit. This isn't really a problem; I'll just be making Dominion units out of them with the special weapons and then group the bolters into BSS squads eventually.

But, anyways, here they are!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Sisters.

[Bonzi]

Very sharp color scheme done very well. Love the turquoise color.

[WAR]

Nice

[toaae]

Another month, so another completed unit. Two mortifiers join the Order:

With these two complete, I have finally finished all the models I had built for my Sororitas before I moved in May 2020. Like, it only took two years, but I'll claim whatever victories I can in this hobby.

[RolandTHTG]

They look good!

Edited February 14, 2022 by RolandTHTG

[foxlight713]

The Gloss finish on the bases is fire, perfect for that nice crisp marble finish.

[Wulf Vengis]

Beautiful colors and very well painted.

Very good work toaae.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Mortifiers.

[Inquisitor lorr]

Very impressive! That is an awesome shade of turquoise you’ve got there.

[toaae]

Thank you for all the kind words.

Sadly, my malaise in regards to the state of the Ork codex led me to not playing any games this spring. And if I don't play games, I don't paint. It's a funny relationship; I consider painting to be my favorite part of the hobby, but it all feeds off each other. Painting stuff makes me want to play more, playing makes me want to paint more. If part of that chain breaks, it all falls apart for me, as it did this Spring. I missed my March goal due in part to working on an Exorcist (that looks sick, but it's a lot of work), and without gaming to push me to keep things going, I took a break.

Also, I had weight loss surgery in late April, so it was easy to focus on my well being (I'm down 145 pounds from a year ago, a truly staggering amount I previously didn't think I could do) and put the hobby off. But I played a few games in the local summer league with my Orks, and while I still loathe that codex, it lit enough of a fire to want to get back in deep with my Sisters.

So the goal has changed: just get a playable army on the table, and then focus on painting it. Let the gaming motivate the painting, like it did pre-pandemic. So, in the last week, I've built:

 

A rhino, Morven Vahl, 7 Battle Sisters, 6 Seraphim, 10 Zephyrim, a canoness, and 4 repentia. Before that, I converted a Dogmata (hate the official model) out of the limited Tarriana Paulos, and I've already started painting her:

Spoiler

Also a look at her base, which just needs its rim painting black:

Spoiler

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by toaae

[WAR]

Looking good @toaae can’t wait to see more. 

[toaae]

Another update! Two in less than two weeks? What is happening?

I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to build the whole army:

 

Obviously, the models not on bases need to be put on bases. The Zephyrim and Seraphim will have their bases completely done in the next week, so I can just precariously balance them on their flight stands until the models get painted, the repentia in the bottom left just need to be slapped on bases (the ones in the top right are on 32s, but that's a super temporary thing), and the two models on paint bottles will be moved to bases soon.

The list:
Bloody Rose Battalion
Morven Vahl
Canoness
Dogmata
Hospitaller (non-Force Org)
Repentia Superior (non-Force Org)
x10 Sacresants w/ Halberds
x8 Repentia
x4 Repentia
x3 Paragon Warsuits w/ Swords and Multimeltas
x2 Crusaders (ordered, just waiting for delivery)
3x5 Battle Sisters
10x Novitiates
2x5 Zephyrim
x6 Seraphim w/ 2x2 Hand Flamers
x2 Mortifiers
x6 Retributors w/ 4x Multimeltas, Simulacrum, 2 Cherubs
Rhino

This is basically a net list, with me just making sure I have two units I really like the models of (Paragons and Sacresants); neither are a bad unit, so it's not a huge trade off. I'm super excited to play and paint this list; I love each an every model in it (I'm mid on Crusaders, but 22pts is hard to beat), and I can't wait to see it on the tabletop soon. I've been an Ork main for a decade; I'm so jazzed to really pour myself into this faction.

Update on the dogmata: I hope to finish her this weekend. Her base has been black-rimmed, I've painted the head, and the body is in a great place: