Don't Know What I Expected Really

 

I sent a few Inquisition models to Squiggle's Studio to complete a while back, and I haven't shown them off on the blog yet. First up is Eisenhorn, from the Inquisitor novels released around the same time as the Inquisitor 54mm game.

Next up is Kyria Draxus, a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor armed with a Shuriken Catapult and accompanied by some weird little Xenos beastie.

Finally, there's the Daemonifuge, Ephrael Stern, and her Harlequin companion. I remember reading the Ephrael Stern comics at school and grabbed the model straight away when she came out.

Once I get back to gaming in person again, I'll likely try out each in turn and see what they can do before deciding which ones I'll be bringing along regularly or not...

Sisters of Battle First Game Plans

 

I'm hoping to get my first game of the 9th edition of Warhammer 40,000 in soon, so I took a little time to write a list using the Sisters of Battle I have available. I've not written the list for a particular mission, as that will need agreeing with my opponent, but there's not exactly a lot of variation I can manage within the models I've got. It's only going to be a 1,000 point game.

First up, I'm taking a Patrol detachment with two five lady squads, taking advantage of the fact I have a couple of spare Veteran Sister Superiors from the limited edition models.

Lacking any tanks at the moment, mobility will have to be covered by the Seraphim squad. I'm suspecting some transport tanks may be high on the purchase list to expand out to 2,000 points!

As it's the only armour I've got, I'll also throw in the Penitent Engine to run around do violence before something smushes him.

This mob will get led by a Canoness, with a second Canoness leading up a Vanguard detachment as most of the models I own are Elite . . .

I've grabbed a Dialogus to learn what they do in the new edition. They seem to hand out buffs to units or something.

Also, the Imagifier, who also seems to have an aura of useful effects.

The rest of the list is taken up by angry people. To get two org chart free Repentia Superior, there's a squad of Repentia in both Detachments. I'm aware they could likely do with some vehicles, which I don't own, soooo...

The list is then rounded out with as many Arco Flagellants as I can afford for the points. Their job is to run forward screaming with the Repentia and see who dies most / kills most.

Getting a game in isn't really my top priority right now, as I really need to focus on getting ready for the Malifaux tournament I'll be at in November, but if I have some free time to fit in a game, I may as well...

Once I've got a game or two in, I can start thinking about how the force plays and what sort of models it would be sensible to get to expand the force. The obvious one to start off would be more Battle Sisters, so I can take more varied troop choices and get a bigger Detachment rather than two smaller ones.

Going Out Out

 

Yesterday, I made my first trip to HATE club since the pandemic started. We're having a Meatspace League to get people used to going out again a bit. The club has social distancing and mask rules in place, and everyone's being super careful. I had a great game, and I'll write it all up separately.

With the world starting to open up again, I've signed up to a tournament at the start of October run by the Fast Panda YouTube Channel. It's up north but should be relatively easy to get to. Not sure what I'm taking yet, but I'm thinking that Dahshat Company is the most likely.

I've also signed up to the Malifaux Nationals in November. I don't have a painted force yet, but it's far enough out that I should be able to get the necessary models done - it's longer than I had for the OP at home challenge, and I managed that.

All in all, the world is opening up again. I'm definitely taking it very slowly and carefully - and recommend everyone else does too. It was good to get a game played in person, and talk about nerd stuff at an actual place. Here's hoping the situation can continue to improve.

Sisters of Battle Saturday - The last of this batch

Once again, all miniatures painted by Squiggle's Studio. First up is the third of the Canonesses I sent off. In this case, it's the old metal one that I'd grabbed just before they went out of stock to give me a bit more variety in model options.

Also from the "last bits and bobs of metal" we have the Imagifier, or "Lady with a Banner". I really love the squiggles that Squiggle did . . .

Also present and pretty darned awesome is the Sister Dialogus. I've always loved this model, with her weird speaker staff and loads of scrolls. Again, excellent squiggle work.

I had one metal squad of old Sisters, and it was a unit of Repentia. Mostly because I loved the idea of angry ladies with massive chainswords charging at people screaming. A little bit because Imperial Guard are bad at combat and I wanted something that is. But mostly because I've always thought they're awesome.

The old metal models are a bit limited compared to the new plastic sculpts, but they hold up OK, I guess.

 

Squiggle did a good job with alternating basing, poses and skin tones to cope with the limited poses of the metal sculpts.

I particularly like the pillar on this base helping break things up a bit.

There is no doubt, even with the old sculpts, that these ladies can and will absolutely wreck you.

The upside of the new plastics is that they allow the sculptors to do this sort of thing.

The downside, of course, is that they're not the easiest to transport.

And with these four Repentia from the army box, that's everything from this commission batch. I'd definitely recommend Squiggle's Studio if you are looking to get an army on the table. While I definitely want to get a few more Sisters to bring the size of the force up, there's going to be a few other things getting painted before I buy anything new...

Sisters of Battle Saturday - Mostly Not Sisters

With the new Sisters of Battle Codex going up for pre-order today, I thought it would be worth putting up a few more of the models I had Squiggle's Studio paint. First up, we have the Canoness model based on the old John Blanche illustration. I've ended up with a few different Canoness models, so I have the option of swapping different ones in for different load outs if I need to.

The Sister Hospitaller is the old metal model. As the new one comes on a massive scenic base I asked for her to be put on a larger base so I wouldn't have any problems at tournaments or anything like that. Adding the street lamp was an excellent touch and I think it stops the model looking drowned on the base.

The underhive of Terra is a dangerous place, but the Word of the Emperor needs to be brought to all the dark places.

Arco-flagellants are one of the nastier bits of the 40K background. Criminals and heretics are turned into cybernetic berserkers to charge at the enemies of the faith. I'd ended up with a whole bunch of these - I had three old Finecast ones I'd picked up when the Inquisition could take them, the three monopose ones from the Sisters army box, and another box of ten I'd got in the "Supply Drop" box.

The sculpts are all all super dynamic and varied. I've got them all in KR foam now, but I am a little nervous for them . . . 

Here you can see the three older Finecast models alongside one of the new plastic models. The better material allows for much more dynamic and detailed poses, and I'm a huge fan.

I understand Arco-flagellants are pretty good in the current book, so I'll be curious how they turn out in the new one. 

I've got a nice little horde of them, so it should be fun to have them run around the table and charge into things.

Finally, I've got the Penitent Engine from the Sisters Army Box. It's basically "what if Arco-flagellant, but strap them into a big walker?" Getting a couple more is almost certainly on the cards when I expand the force a little beyond the thousand points or so I have at the moment.

November Painting and Hobby Review

As November drew to a close, I managed to finish up my first Shasvastii. This is one of the Nox Troopers from Operation Wildfire, who basically serve as line  troopers. I'm really pleased with how the paint job has come out, and a special thanks to Joel Traveller who suggested adding a second colour to the gun to stop it looking too unrealistic.

I also dropped some Contrast paint onto "Trista the Loremistress", another one of the Reaper Silver Anniversary models I picked up to help me get back into painting. I'm definitely building up a good head of steam now, so pretty happy with how that went!

As I previously mentioned, I got three Inquisitorial figures done for "Purge the Pit" - which I'm now not going to. A bit sad to be missing it, but it was definitely the right choice.

So, how are the "quarterly goals" going?

Q4 Goal

• Paint 6 models

Q4 Stretch Goals

• Finish Skaven test paints
• Assemble 10 Malifaux models - IN PROGRESS
• Paint 10 Malifaux Models
• Clean and paint club terrain crates
• Assemble and Paint Diehard Miniatures Undead
• Paint Purge the Pit force - CANCELLED
• Order Organiser
• Infinity MDF Case

It's not too bad, all told. I've now got five of the Malifaux figures assembled, and I've started on my Shasvastii, which weren't on the goals list. I've also noticed that as I go, more stuff is ticking up a warning on my Kanban Board that I've owned it for a year and not painted it.

To make sure I don't lose track of stuff I still want to paint and assemble, I've set up a Shelf of Shame page to keep track. The list currently isn't too bad. Of the five items on there, I still need to find the Diehard Undead in the Big Pile of Boxes. Then I'll need to assemble them at the club. Similarly, the Warhounds have only just ticked over, and should probably be added to the club hobby go bag.

Meanwhile, the Tsyklon and the Libertos are for my Nomads force and I need to do some test paints for those to determine how on earth I'm actually going to paint them. Once that's done, they're both lined up in my "first painted Nomads list" I've drafted up.

That leaves the club terrain crates, which are a bit of a "boring" project. Still, they're plastic, so I can dig them out and work on scraping the mould lines on them in between work that needs a bit more concentration.

The good news is that the one year mark is doing it's job. I reviewed the stuff that is "ticking over" in December and have already added a couple of things to the eBay pile on the grounds that I can't really justify holding on to them.

In other news, while I'm trying not to buy new stuff as I paint the existing stuff . . . I really couldn't say no to this. So, queued up after the Skaven are Sisters of Battle.

On that subject, I've at least started getting some base layers onto the Grey Seer. He's going to get a little more attention lavished on him than clanrats will, but I'm still not going to go too hyper detailed. I do have an army to paint, after all!

All in all, a pretty good month. I'm diverging a bit from the "planned" stretch goals for the quarter because things have changed, but that's not the end of the world. I'm still getting stuff painted and having fun.