Is there a doctor in the house?

Okay, another member of the command squad.  This fine lad proved to be quite valuable in that test game.  Especially when he distributes Feel No Pain to 55 fellow Guardsmen... who are behind an Aegis Defense Line.

Hey, when your only armor is your kilt, you take anything you can get!

I believe this guy is from the 5th edition box. Many Inquisitors and other retinue members have been made from this figure... but this is the first Medic.

Of course it gave me a chance to do some quick blood spatter!

Next up, the Voxcaster!

Rally 'Round the Flag

Here we have a combination of various Victoria Miniatures parts used to create a standard bearer for the Imperial Guard contingent.  Some arms here, some legs there, a little paper, some Games Workshop bits, and there he is!

The broken column is from Secret Weapon miniatures.  It was even nicer to paint than I thought it would be.

I decided to use some symbols from the Sister's contingent.  These appear on bases, vehicles, robes and so on.

If I have time right before Adepticon, I will do a few little touches here and there.  That's pretty much the story for the entire army.  Get it ready to go, and then get fancier if there's time!

Lots more to come!!!  Stay tuned...

It takes a Saint

Time to introduce the Warlord of the Sisters of the Raven.  The Living Saint... Saint Morrigan.

Dealing firey doom to all mutants and heretics, she wields her version of the Ardent Blade.

Obviously I had some fun with the fluorescent paints!  Multiple light sources such as this present challenges.  It creates a lot of havoc in your shadow areas, and it's even more daunting when there are so many light colors which are already pretty warm.

This meant 'cooling down the flesh tones as much as possible, and getting more green into the gold armor.  That would provide at least a slight contrast to the super warm, super saturated flame reflections without making it too dark.

Of course, the old saying is that "you must have dark to show light".  You can mix all the white in the world into your light source, but if it's not up against at least a heavy middle tone, it will be no dice for your light!

Here she is displayed among a few of her troops.

Carrying a torch for you

Once I finally got to read the new Sisters's codex, I knew that both of the squads would need that icon bearer.  I only had one miniature, so it was time to grab something else and create one!

Always fun!  I had a ton of extra Sister Superiors around... they of the fabulous exploding plasma guns.

So,  little chop chop of the chainsword and the dreaded plasma gun, and it was ready for some additions.  A few Empire Flagellant bits, a scout bolt pistol, a little green stuff, and voila!

Time for paint.  Yes, one more army that will use fluorescent paints.  Nowhere near as much as the previous two forces, but a little bit here and there.

The pose of the Sister Superior was fantastic as this icon bearer... a lot more 'open' pose than the usual metal Sisters.

The base was already painted, so all I had to do was pin her to it and add some dullcoate.

Standing next to the Sister Superior conversion.  I'm thinking that this will be the unit I normally attach Uriah Jacobus to... with the white robes.

Since I was thinking about putting white robes on the Seraphim, I thought that going white on this unit will not only make a nice difference between my two squads of standard Sisters, but could represent one unit that might eventually be elite enough to become Seraphim.

On to the Rest of the Unit!!!

Changing colors

After playing that test game, I thought it would be a good idea to make the two squads of Sisters different colors, as I am doing with the Highland Guard squads.

I need to be able to distinguish them from each other in a scrum, or even when they are far apart, since they have some different elements in them.

Nothing radically different... just a switch in where the colors are placed.  The biggest change was the white robes, which I will notice right away in the chaos of a game.

This Sister has a bit of a conversion... I gave her a power sword.  Once again, based on the game that we played the other day.  It's a very old Grey Knight sword.

Hopefully this will be able to do some kind of harm to space marines!

The sculpey circle

As I was waiting for various pieces of Sisters of Battle conversions to set up for priming, I went ahead and painted their bases.  Without a doubt, I love painting mt sculpey marble bases.

It's fun to paint other bases as well, but the chance to make these tiny murals is just too much to pass up.

Two of these bases are for Icon Bearers, and one is for a Sister Superior.

As you can tell, I like to make more elaborate bases for higher ranking figures or those with special wargear.  It makes it so much easier for me to spot them during the game.

That's even more important now, with positioning in terms of shooting be so critical!

Writing little sayings and messages on each one is also very fun. :-)

And, of course, they set off the character minis quite nicely!  Lots more where these came from!

The tank of a thousand disguises

Many of you have seen me go raving mad raving about the RAV 6 x 6 from Secret Weapon miniatures.  So much to like about it.  It's an elegant kit that has solid pieces, and very few of them!

The hull has only 4 pieces.  These fit together so well, they practically snap into place.  Very easy to assemble, and you don't have to soak those parts for hours either!  Just glue and paint!!

There are many weapon options that are available, easily interchanged with each other.  Even the hull mounted options are there.

However, given the two armies that I am painting, a few vehicle options were discussed after that test game on Saturday.  These were the Hellhound/Bane Wolf/Devil Dog... and even the Sisters of Battle Immolator!

I had to try out this idea, so out came the razor saw.  I cut away the storage cases on the aft of the turret.  It was very important to get a straight, clean edge.

Here's what I wanted to put in it's place.  I am not quite sure what GW tank bit this is, but it seemed to be just right to store some Prometheum or poison gas!

Fortunately, it was just the right size.  Not too wide, not too tall... excellent.

I used a refrigerator magnet on the back of the turret, while the two replaceable pieces had some sheet metal attached.

It was just strong enough to hold the pieces where I needed them!

Here you can see the sheet metal pieces.

Voila!  Insert the twin linked Heavy flamer (or Chem cannon, etc.), and you have added a host of new vehicles to your Sororitas/Guard armies!!!  As I said, either Immolator or IG flame tank... or more.

Here's a more 'standardized' Chimera load out.  The storage racks attached, and the Multilaser in place.

In this day and age where armies seem to change radically from one codex version to the next, careening wildly from one extreme to the other, flexibility is the key.  All of my armies have been nuked multiple times by these rewrites.  This is one way to stay ahead of that fluctuating curve.

There will be even more fun things added to these vehicles over the next few days, so stay tuned!!

Oh yeah, then they get painted. ;-)