Order of the Broken Sword - WIP

[SkimaskMohawk]

I've started to slowly collect a small force of sororitas, and build and paint them even more slowly. Back in the spring I painted up an Imagifier for a local painting competition and got hooked on how the models come together with a scheme, but stalled when it came to any more progression due to 9ths changing mechanics, and points changes, and weapon changes with the new marine book. But thats all done with and I finally decided to get cracking.

 

The Order I went with is the Broken Sword from Josh Reynold's Apocalypse. There's something about all of his works where a side faction some how becomes far more interesting and appealing than it has any right to be. The grey armour and red secondary also put me in mind of a pre-heresy word bearer scheme I've done for a buddy in the past (I bet the parallel was intentional!) so kind of felt perfect for a religious army. I'm probably going to end up using Argent Shroud like a boring person for rules, but once I get a flexible enough collection I really feel like Ebon Chalice is will get some play. Plus, the keeping of founding secret of the Imperial Creed seems like a thing the Ebon Chalice would do originally.

 

 

 

Now other than an intro post, I don't have much to show. There's the aforementioned Imagifier and some finished bases and thats...about all I have pictures of. Hopefully some wip shots of a 5-strong squad on those bases in the next day or two. 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking and feel free to offer any tips or advice for the Sororitas!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Imagifier model is beautifully done.

[Evil Eye]

Oh man, that's outstanding work! I'm loving the marble on the bases too.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thanks guys!

 

The marbles pretty simple once you get the hang of the baby wipe technique. My only problem is I want to do the battle sanctum statue in marble now and I can't quite figure out how to cover it properly lol.

 

I'm really happy with the imagifier, but changed a lot of techniques to try and get an army done so hopefully the rank and file turn out close enough.

[Emicus]

The marbles pretty simple once you get the hang of the baby wipe technique.

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[Aqui]

 

The marbles pretty simple once you get the hang of the baby wipe technique.

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Here is one video that goes into it. There are a number out there, but I book marked this one:

 

 

That said, your marble looks gorgeous, SkimaskMohawk! ^_^

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

The marbles pretty simple once you get the hang of the baby wipe technique.

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The core of the technique is basically stretching a baby wipe or dryer sheet to give you the veined look of marble. You prep the wipe, cover the area (which has been basecoated) and spray your lighter colour on. After it's dry, you peel off the wipe, and repeat the process. The only thing is that you need an airbrush or spray cans. And wipes. And gloss varnish.

 

@aqui thanks! It took me a few practice tries to really get the right feel for it, as well as colour selection. Really happy with how it contrasts the bases and the rest of the models.

Edited November 3, 2020 by SkimaskMohawk

[SkimaskMohawk]

Got some terribly over exposed pictures of my in-progress sororitas on their fancy bases

 

 

Now the question I've been asking everyone is should I finish off the visors in white, or change them to the bronze that makes up all the non-collar-and-rosary ornamentation? 

[Dread]

I vote white visors. Everythings looking good.

 

What color lenses are you gonna do on the eyes? Bright green is my suggestion.

Edited November 6, 2020 by Dread

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your models are well-painted. As for their visors, if you have Photoshop, you might as well tint them in the photos and then see which looks more aesthetically pleasing, before you paint the visors.

 

Personally, I think brass visors will look good, as they match the Sisters' gorgets. You may choose colors for symbolic reasons, e.g., white to symbolize how the Sisters view the world with the pure hearts necessary to execute their duties without succumbing to temptation, reserving bronze visors (as well as silver, red for orichalcum, and gold) as rank insignia.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Unfortunately I don't have Photoshop, it'll come down to me painting one of them with a different coloured visor. Might save bronze for celestians since its the models are the same and the fleur de Lys is rather small.

 

@dread I was thinking blue, but I'll double check Apocalypse to see if it's mentioned.

Edited November 6, 2020 by SkimaskMohawk

[Aqui]

Unfortunately I don't have Photoshop, it'll come down to me painting one of them with a different coloured visor. Might save bronze for celestians since its the models are the same and the fleur de Lys is rather small.

 

@dread I was thinking blue, but I'll double check Apocalypse to see if it's mentioned.

This is a free program that works like Photoshop:

 

https://www.gimp.org/

[SkimaskMohawk]

After a bit of work I've decided to go with the white visors. My ulthuan grey is pretty thin from a revival attempt so I finished up making it solid, shaded it a bit and I'm a lot more happy with where it's headed. I still have to do wrap the squad up with highlights on the armour, metals and brown leather but they're almost there.

 

Most of my time has been devoted to painting Ephrael Stern whos been sitting on my desk...well since she released. I've been having a blast trying to improve my glazing skills and painting black with more depth to it and she's about 70% done as well. My current dilemma is the pose and what it means for the paintjob. Stern appears to be dropping, but there's very clearly floating things which rules out being underlit by her powers levitating everything. Instead, I think she's supposed to be dropping from a webway gate that she created (like in the end of the comic), which is what's causing other debris to start floating up towards it. So I'm considering some mild top-down lighting, but I want it be the yellow-orange of the comic which would clash with the blue of her daemonifuge powers. Should I hand-glaze or make a really thin airbrush glaze and apply it on low pressure?

 

Any help/suggestions on the Stern situation would be very appreciated.

[Dread]

That's a hard one to answer. I'm thinking the air brush, no streaks or strokes that way. Sometimes glazes don't smooth in my experience.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Ya I'm leaning airbrush too. I did some work on an abbaddon recently that unintentionally captured the feel of what I'd like to see on stern. I'll have some pics of the battle sisters and stern up tonight, they're both progressing super nicely and I'm really looking forward to finishing them off.

[SkimaskMohawk]

And quick bump with the pictures;

 

 

And kind of the subtle lighting ill try to do, but in orange/yellow

 

[Joukernaut]

great work! your models look amazing.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your Adepta Sororitas members are coming along well. Is the one hovering amid flying bricks an Inquisitor (and sanctioned psyker) wearing Sororitas pattern power armor, so enemy snipers won't recognize her as a VIP and a priority target? As she has no jump pack, and the various Adepta Sororitas Orders will never recognize a "witch" as a Sister...

[Dread]

Thats the Ephrael Stern model. She is a devoted seraphim. She had her own graphic novels back in the day and they chose a panel from the book to do the model. Of all the cool pics they had to work from they chose this one.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Your Adepta Sororitas members are coming along well. Is the one hovering amid flying bricks an Inquisitor (and sanctioned psyker) wearing Sororitas pattern power armor, so enemy snipers won't recognize her as a VIP and a priority target? As she has no jump pack, and the various Adepta Sororitas Orders will never recognize a "witch" as a Sister...

So dread kind of touched on it.

 

Ephrael stern was a seraphim superior, but through some convoluted 2nd and 3rd edition graphic novel stuff got infused with the faith of an entire Order of sisters and also died three times before the end of things. She's now able to basically manifest psychic phenomena without being an actual psyker (like creating webway portals ever she wants, and overloading a culexus Assassin).

 

As for her status among the sororitas? I've only read the graphic novel, not Heretic Saint or the fluff in Pariah, but after her third death in Daemonifuge the grey knights say she's untainted and she gets buried with honours by the sororitas, so maybe they're fine with her? The inquisition hates her though.

 

@joukernaut thanks man!

Edited November 15, 2020 by SkimaskMohawk

[ThePenitentOne]

Great looking army- love the basing and the all metal Imagifier banner- never really like GW's stone banner.

[SkimaskMohawk]

I'm wrapping up the Battle Sister squad, but I've been putting a lot of work into Stern. There's still work to do, a lot of fine details to tweak or refine a bit more; parchment, gold, eyes, sword and base are the major areas left. The white is overexposed so I'll try and to fix that on the next pictures or glaze down the white to make it a bit darker to match the darker tone. I've tried to make her armour and cloth ragged and scored and pitted to match the feel of being on the run and hunted by the imperium (and others). 

 

 

 

 

 

Great looking army- love the basing and the all metal Imagifier banner- never really like GW's stone banner.

 

Thanks! The bases really help tie stuff together and finish off the tone.

[RolandTHTG]

Stern looks good!

[Dread]

You're doing her the justice she deserves. Beautiful!

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thanks guys!

 

I was going to wrap up the battle sisters yesterday but then I realized they're missing their cherub!

 

Idk if it's the best choice in game, but I have an inferno pistol on the superior so I figured why not. Feel that maybe the simulacra is the more flexible option, but it's also triple the price and relies on your current pool. That being said, I could shave off some points from other places if I needed to.