The Old World Army Challenge: Tom's Sisters of Battle, month 1: Leader Month (227 points)

All this months models

First things first on this first post proper - a timestamp pic of the Sisters. Can't be doing with starting in December now! You can see that the tank came through in the post, although motivation for vehicles is super lo...

Looking through the Google searches on the old RT 601 adventures range and the original sisters sculpts, I single across this fine example of them. I love this style of painting - blackline, freehand eyebrows, transfers, drybrushed base, no highlights and a rough shade. It just screams a love of the minis and background, and I love that these are some of the first images in the search. Yes, they're not the most technical of paintjobs, but they are PAINTED and out there, inspiring other people - and just from the little details like the neat face, EYEBROWS and drybrushed metals, you can tell that there is a lot of practiced skill behind them and that there's a lot more painted models where they came from!

These Sisters☝️are to be found here on Jason Fulford's blog:

Rogue Heresy: link

And they really made me want to paint mine up in the same style.

Unfortunately I bottled it, and kinda stuck to a 'style' I'm more comfortable with, although I've kept with kinda blacklining the power armour.

The model also recently appeared on that there popular Youtube channel Squidmar Miniatures: link, where the painters try to paint this model in a modern style. 👇

Anyway...enough. Begin!

The Canoness Veridyan

So, this month I've chosen my leader to paint. Motivation for painting is high so starting with the most complex sculpt in the army is for me a good choice. Some like to save these for a painting treat, but I found that the risk of being demotivated due to the painting grind and then having to face a difficult mini is too much of a risk for me..

Also, I figure that I've not yet truly found my flow in painting these Sisters, so any deviation in painting tekkers/decisions are best 'highlighted' on character models so that any difference makes them stand out from the troops even more.

I was extremely tempted to paint this with strict adherence to Blanche's depiction, but the kinda imagined 'painting pressure' was too big. I would have had to have used the majority of the month to paint her to the best of my ability (and painting to my best is a super rare thing for me to do), and I know for sure that is a surefire way for me to burn out quickly.

Instead, a spay cost of red on all of the Sisters - and I admit I probably sprayed it on a smidge too thickly. Ho well, I'm not gonna strip them all and start again, so....

Red armor, drybrushed orange and then yellow + orange. Maybe adding some white at the end.

Shade with a turquoise Contrast paint.

More shadows with black.

Super shoddy re-highlight with a brush.

Thin wash all over with a fluorescent red to make her stand out a little bit more.

Hopefully I'll do a picture tutorial of the stages and paints used at a later date (on a Trooper).

Canoness/Veteran Sister Superior (DDW Sculpt)

I kinda like how goofy the sword came out, and the chequers are a little less square than regulation, and an inspiration from some rogue trader space marine models which I saw on the Instagrams, but which I cannot re-find.

My drybrush layer was a bit too heavy handed, so lesson learned when drybrushing the next 5 or so models...

I also realise now that I think I should have sprayed the red basecoat whist the models were separate from the base. It's a bit of a chore now - repainting the base and trying to hide all that red which pops out from all the nooks and crannies. I think if I was an organised soul and possessed a superior mental fortitude, I'd have snipped all the tabs off the feet of the models, paint all the bases in one go, and then pinned the Sisters into the painted base.

But... one by one it is, as I think I find that easier - but not quicker...

Another Cannoness/Veteran Sister Superior, this time a GW sculpt.

I like the'traditional' plasma pistol colours, and that turquoise in the mace head is to balance the blue out a bit.

Battle Banner Bearer

And this righteous Sister carrying the battle banner 💪

The banner is just A4 plain paper, glued on with thinned down wood glue. The design I just made up. I hate painting banners, so there's usually no planning to them, just do it as quickly as possible whilst the will to do it holds out 😂

A Battle Servitor

I was super pleased with how this guy came out - it's pretty much how I envisioned him :) I like the flesh on his arm and the orange of the jumpsuit.

An Astropathic Navigator.

I've gone for little dots as highlights to try to emulate some cloth texture, and I'm pleased with how the model came out. Because he's quite simple, it was a relaxing paintjob, and kinda reset me ready to paint another.