From Barks: Sisters of Battle (Challenge Star)(115 points)

Oh, boy. What a Challenge from the Snowlord. I knew there was a reason I had let these figures gather dust for a few years. My miniatures are never finished, just blogged about- so here they are:

Sisters of Battle, or Adepta Sororitas, are militant nuns in 40K. I used to have the 1997 Sisters of Battle Codex (but no sisters), and sold it for a song many years ago. When GW released plastic Sisters in 2019 I was sucked back in and got a few squads. I liked the classic clean and vibrant look of the red, white and black triad, so these Sisters are from the Order of the Sacred Rose.

I first painted the Sisters Repentia, to get a feel for the strong themes in the detailing. Repentia are Sisters who seek absolution in battle for their transgressions. They have the famed Eviscerator chainswords. I don't like the sado-masochistic or mortification aspects of the Sororitas, but here we are.

Sisters Repentia

They are governed by a Repentia Superior who dual-wields neural whips. She allowed me to get to grips with the main power-armour technique I would use on the rest.

Repentia Superior

With my approach nailed down, I got to grips with the squad. The white armour was surprisingly easy with Contrast Apothecary White- highly recommended. Note the gloves and corsets are a warm white leather in tonal contrast to the cool white armour (why put a corset on power armour?!). I struggled with consistent outcomes for the black and red robes. I also struggled with blue-black silver. I like having blue tone for raven-black hair, and it stands out well against the black robes. I would like to highlight it up a bit more. I painted the heads and backpacks separately. I used 1mm plastic rod and sprue to make a painting support. Finally, I used transfers for some of the scrolls, books and robes.

I put nuns' heads on sticks so I can make them pretty.

Sister Superior

Flamer

Stormbolter

Battle Sisters with bolters

More Battle Sisters

"Behold! My skullz."

I also painted a Canoness with a power sword, Rod of Office, and bionic leg:

Canoness

The centrepiece of these ladies is this Sister, based on art by Anna Steinbauer. I did some light kitbashing to give her a tome and a combi-bolter-plasmagun. She's got this "Excuse me, some of us. Are. Trying. To. Read!" vibe. I really like this model. What do you think she is reading?

Battle Sisters. Anna Steinbauer (2013)

I'm glad they're done, but I have another 30 or so yet to do- maybe next year? They came out almost exactly as I foresaw, which was nice. But it took a lot of effort to get there. The effort-to-points ratio should not be examined...

17x 28mm figure: 85 points

Challenge XII Star: 30 points

Very efficient course, Captain.
I have donated to LSWR to celebrate

Skull-o-meter™: 80 (total 88)

Slowpainter's ABC: N is for Nunsploitation

Finally, here's a sister showing how brave she is with my huntsman lodger. 'Straya!

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Okay, full disclosure here, that last picture made me squeal in terror. You know, when I see images like that I'm okay with the nothing-can-survive-minus-a-zillion temperatures we have here. Good gravy, what a scary beastie.

Okay! Back to the task at hand! Your battle Sisters look terrific. I'm a big fan of GW's Apothecary White too, and was wondering when we were chatting about this challenge whether you'd make use of it. Great brushwork with this tricky colour combination. I also really like the extra time you spent on their faces as the models are so expressive (the blue-black hair is a nice counterpoint to the white as well).

As to the Sister with the book. I think she's reading Nosrat's 'Salt, Fat Acid, Heat' . 

Great work, Barks, and congratulations on making it to the center of the Challenge XII system!

- Curt