Saint Celestine

Ah, Saint Celestine. The original WTFOP special character.

She's fallen far in the modern version but is still quite worth her points, and has some great fiction and design concepts behind her. Much like the rest of the sisters model line, I feel she's aged considerably and I tend to prefer individuality for my armies, so I decided to convert her. But where to start?

I don't necessarily want her to 'match' my army. I get why people might want her to, but she's not really part of the army, right? She's allowed to stand out. Looking at the saints, there are several of them and I don't need to be stuck to celestine herself, so I decided to go with something a bit more heavenly and a bit more baroque. To strip away much of the grimdark feel and focus instead on uplifting and dramatic.

I am nowhere near done with her, but what I have so far gives a gyst of her design at least. I unfortunately don't the step by step pictures because I rushed ahead a week or so ago, but I can generally explain.

Wings. My daughter threw away a bunch of old toys a few weeks ago, when I first started dreaming up this army, and while taking out the trash to the dumpster I saw a bunch of her toys laying on the ground because she doesn't actually pay attention to... anything. Laying amongst the rubble that I was scooping into the trashcan, I find the perfect set of wings! (Do not judge me. Much.) Originally off a barbie sized doll from the ever after high line, one of the two versions of Cupid's daughter. So those got yoinked. I was suspicious they might be about the right size for a space marine... and was wrong. But they WERE about the right size for the much larger Scibor truescale praetorians, of which I have a couple. These models have been discontinued (and with good reason), but I figured I could do a quick bangup conversion.

As you can see, the scibor mini is a bit fragile. Its weapon/arms mount to the torso in a rather flimsy way and only go together in one way. Once built they look great but they're hardly the greatest model around. This particular one broke at the wrists almost immediately after being built, before I even got to painting. That led to me mounting some magnets in the wrists and hands, filing and brownstuffing new wrist segments, and then after I found the wings I scooped the helmeted head off the model, mounted magnets on the back and the wings, and magnetized a statuesque miniatures head (this was probablya mistake, as it gets lost all the time even in current sitting still mode. So I will be gluing once painted.)

The head is slightly on the small side, but I kind of dig that look. The wings could be bigger but are comparable to the winged figures from gw in ratio. The weapon should clean up okay with a bit of careful greenstuffing over the brownstuff and should look right as rain with paint. I am overall relatively pleased.

I still want to mount it on a suitably large and dynamic base, and I am considering cutting the feet and extending the robes to make her fly but that would make it a much more intensive conversion, and this was meant for its ease.

Obviously still a work in progress but hopefully not terrible.

P.S. please ignore the food stains on the cutting board, somebody got confused last night and decided it was meant for food (eww).

Adepta Sororitas

So. I've always loved the lore behind the Sisters of Battle. I love the Sisters of Silence. I love the Witch Hunters, and the Ecclesiarchy .  I really enjoy the total grim-darkness of their background and  most of the aspects of their aesthetic. The white hair, the fleur de lis tattoos, the way the miracles empower them, the interaction of brass, gold, silver, black, white, and red, the baroque aspects, etc. etc. etc. They're one of my favorite factions in the lore when taken alone and are just awesome when combined with the rest of the Cult of the Emperor.

Much of the art for sisters is just gorgeous. And they have what is arguably the single sexiest helmet design in the history of miniature sculpting. I am a fan.

Those models though. They're just so full of fail. Like 6 total sculpts, all pewter, bad detail, non-dynamic, the model itself is 1 piece with only the backpacks separate. And what's worse, they're so ludicrously sexist and misogynistic. razored and spiked titty-armor and naked women wearing nothing but flaggelation scars and parchment flew in the hair metal 40k in the 90s where Slaanesh was just Tim Curry with spiky bitz, but it's vaguely nauseating to me now. Yet I still want a Sororitas army.

The conclusion then was to go with a conversion. Looking around I had a BRILLIANT AND UNIQUE IDEA(tm), that I discovered very quickly everybody else had had too.

(Picture taken from Bell of Lost Souls)

But rather than turn me off from the idea, finding out I wasn't a special and unique snowflake just got me more excited, because it fits so much better than I thought it would.

So I started to lay out the bitz I would need:

• Dreamforge Games - Valkir Heavy Troops
• Statuesque Miniatures - Heroic Scale Female Heads
• Games Workshop - Special Weapons bitz (space marines)

I decided early that for basic bolters, and for some of the weapons I'd just use the valkir versions because I actually prefer their look. But the lack of helmets was a lingering upset, because I love the helmets so much. So I tried to source plastic helmets for sisters... off the one kit that has it (Exorcist). The thought of resin-casting an army's worth was nightmarish. Somebody (I can't remember who unfortunately otherwise you'd get credit), offered to greenstuff sculpt a few but even that seemed like way too much to ask. Then luckily Adam over at http://www.thediceabide.com/ pointed me to maxmini.eu and the unadvertised fact that they'll give you single bitz off their variety helmet sprues. So that got the ball rolling and I started expanding my plans with new bitz:

Eventually, I decided on a broad sampling, building a few examples of each of the options from the codex, listed herein:

• Saint Celestine (Special one off, Mostly bitz I had around the house)
• Scibor Miniatures - Praetorian (OOP)
• Ever After High - Cupid Action Figure Wings
• Statuesque Miniatures - Heroic Scale Female Head
• Zealot Miniatures - Golden Halo
• Sisters of Battle
• Dreamforge Games - Valkir Heavy Troops
• Statuesque Miniatures - Heroic Scale Female Heads
• Games Workshop - Special Weapons Bitz (Space Marines)
• Maxmini.eu - Steam knight helmets (rightmost only)
• Zealot Miniatures - Fleur de Lis Backpack Icon
• Puppetswar.eu - Crusade Icons
• Seraphim
• Dreamforge Games - Valkir Assault Troops
• Maxmini.eu - Bronze Patter Jump Pack
• Puppetswar.eu - Combat Pistols (left and right)
• Maxmini.eu - Steam knight helmets (rightmost only)
• Zealot Miniatures - Fleur de Lis Backpack Icon
• Retributors
• Dreamforge Games - Valkir Heavy Troops
• Statuesque Miniatures - Heroic Scale Female Heads
• Maxmini.eu - Steam knight helmets (rightmost only)
• Zealot Miniatures - Heavy Flamer
• Anvil Industries - Widowmaker
• Anvil Industries - Fusion Cannon
• Zealot Miniatures - Fleur de Lis Backpack Icon
• Puppetswar.eu - Crusade Icons
• Celestines
• Dreamforge Games - Valkir Heavy Troops
• Statuesque Miniatures - Heroic Scale Female Heads
• Games Workshop - Special Weapons Bitz (Space Marines)
• Maxmini.eu - Steam knight helmets (rightmost only)
• Zealot Miniatures - Fleur de Lis Backpack Icon
• Puppetswar.eu - Crusade Icons

My plan is to buy a few 'ready made' forgeworld empire priests, a hospitaller, and a lex, and I still haven't decided how I will do Exorcists, Immolators, Repentia, arco-flagellants, death cult assassins, or crusaders. Although I have some ideas for all.

More details to come as the parts get in, Possibly more or different bitz, and pictures asI have time to work on them. For now, a collection of some of the bitz.