From Barks: Seraphim and Cherubim (and skullz, oh my) (40 points)

Finally, I've painted some skullz! Here are some more Sisters of Battle to accompany my little force from last year. These are Seraphim, jump pack assault troops. They're intricately fiddly to paint, but do look rather nifty.

I'm undecided on the flight stands. They look cool, but I don't feel they have a strong attachment to the model. They leave the rest of the base a bit bare, so I added some greebles from Imitation of Life. There is a big washer beneath each base to add heft and drop the centre of gravity.

The Seraphim Superior's purity seal is a wax rose!

I took the opportunity to paint some cherubim, which are vat-grown bio-constructs designed to look like babies. No truth to the rumour they are lobotomised infants, no. These cherubim are carrying ammunition canisters and a censer. At some point I may add more details to their scrolls.

Definitely Churchillian

8x 28mm models (40 points)

Importantly, these should push me beyond 10 000 total Challenge points!

Even more importanter, the Skull-o-meter™detects 29 skullz.

Nothing like a handful of 40K minis to generate a mass of skullz. These figures all look great, I like the rather subdued palette with the occasional splash of colour, it really suits the models. The Cherubim are one of those grimdark parts of the setting that crop up in a lot of artwork, so seeing them on the table always adds that little bit of extra flavour to a game.

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!

________________________________

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

From DavidB - Sarah's Balloon - Sisters of Battle (60 points)

These are the Soritas models from the limited edition set made available just before Christmas. My middle daughter Kolleen has been gaming with a fellow soldier and his Blood angel force and my Cadian 7th Cav force. She has been using my Soritas model, but she is not too fond of the green and brown and ranks of gingers therein. For Christmas she actually asked for Soritas of her own and my wife and I picked up the limited edition set for her big Christmas gift. She spent all night putting them together and pouring over the book.she even made a list of what she wishes to acquire in the future. Even more astounding is we celebrated her birthday today and she had me collect a box of saurris warriors as she wanted something to build and to her dinosaurs are really cool. I'm a bit sad as I wanted the limited edition set for myself, but then out of 4 kids who would've guessed that my girly girl beauty queen, cheerleader, basketball cross country, Honor society daughter would deign to geek out and want a force(s) of her own and war game with her dad. The others are not as keen , but still paint and write on occasion.

The new models blend really well with the old metal castings and do have some extra flair.

The colours were all dictated by Kolleen. She wanted blue grey power armor and blue surcoats with orange interior lining. She has her mother's Germanic blond looks and wanted her troops to have blonde hair with a streak of white that she inherited from me...Kolleen doesn't need the fancy hair highlights as genetics provided that bit for her.

The seraphim are the test models and the other requirement is a simple recipe for her to follow when she completes the rest.

Black undercoat highlighted with a white gloss when the black dries. Space wolves grey contrast paint over the power armor highlighted with Frostbite from P3 paints. The surcoats are painted in P3 Cygnar blue highlight the coated in leviathan blue contrast paint.P3 Arcane blue does edge highlights. The orange is Gryph hound orange Contrast paint with P3 Khador red highlight for cleanup and edge highlights. The wings are frostbite P3 with the Contrast paint Apothecary white followed by White scar white. he flesh is done by taste and the blonde hair is boot strap leather with successive lining from several light browns and tans the white streak is bleachbone. a light wash of Reiksland flesh shade ties the hair and face together. the brown leather is Contrast wildwood over P3 bootstrap leather. p3 blighted gold is used on the gold decorations with a touch of a shiny gold to add detail.

Not too shabby for a small amount a work and worth every minute to make a daughter happy. she will probably be off painting the rest of her force after I head out .

I was saving these to submit for  to O'Grady's Gulch, but I had to pass on Benito's Brook as I just stowed the Peninsular War  French Dragoons and British Infantry. I"m a big fan of Benito's Napoleonic troops and didn't want to rush them with perceived time pressure which for me is becoming not quite so perceived. Instead I will attempt to summon lady Sarah for a lift to Fran's Fjord . I do not have suitable bubbly refreshments and libations of grapes is a bit too cultured for my tastes. It is quite cold in the North this moment and I do admire the firewater for it's ability to warm the belly. When consuming Firewater it is best to consult with the Irish who have mastered  the production. This particular variety is my new favourite as it is really smooth with notes of chocolate and coffee just for being aged in a stout beer barrel. it is a wonderful addition to a mug of coffee on a cold night too!...but it is still best in a five finger glass and served at room temperature.

5 28mm seraphim for 25 points plus another 30 if lady Sarah would be kind enough to provide transport ?

***

Excellent choice on the whiskey there David, I just finished a bottle of that off with my son the other day!  If you are looking for another whiskey to try, I am not onto a bottle of Redbreast Irish whiskey that a friend suggested that I am really enjoying, it is worth checking out.

Anyway, onto your second submission of the day...

I am sure Sarah would be thrilled to provide transport for these religious freedom fighters (or fanatics depending on your view point).   Another great paint job with white, which is such a hard colour to get looking right.  I always have issues with it looking either too bland (all white) or too dirty (too much shade) but these look perfect, great work. I also really like the jump pack design on these models.

Anyway, off you go into the wild blue yonder with Lady Sarah....  Let's hope the snow lord doesn't get jealous of all the trips people are taking with his Lady!

Oh, and maybe it's the whiskey goggles talking, but with the jump packs (and other large assets these ladies bring) they look bigger than normal 28mm models, so I rounded you up to 60 points.

- ByronM