Kristof65's Sisters of Battle project for 2022 (40k 2e)

[kristof65]

So back in December I decided that one of my hobby goals for 2022 would be to finally complete painting one of my 90s era 40k forces. Upon inspection of my forces, my Sisters of Battle army seemed the most likely candidate to start with, as it only has 24 figures and a vehicle.  Up on my whiteboard I have a spot to track my progress on the army with a goal of working on them at least a little bit each month, with the intent of having the army complete before midnight Dec 31st. 

These are going to be from my own made up Order of the Ebon Tower, with a color scheme of cream/ivory armor, purple cloth with red linings and purple weapons. The symbol is a black tower using the same decal I used for my Soldiers of Dalend models, seen here.  This is not a coincidence - the black tower decal was originally designed specifically for this army, it just got repurposed for my fantasy Dalend soldiers. 

Eight minis and the Immolator were partially painted with crappy 90's paint jobs (using craft paints), eight were simply primed white, and 8 were unassembled. 

As inspected the partially painted ones, I didn't see anyway to make them look good with such a crappy base coat on 25+ year old paint. So into a can of Simple Green they went - though I now regret not snapping a photo of that bad paint job:


That was Saturday.  Monday night I pulled them out and scrubbed them with a toothbrush which took off about 75% of the paint, and threw them back in. Tonight I pulled them out and did the toothbrush thing again. They're mostly clean now - trying to figure out if I can get them any cleaner:


Those of you who have more experience stripping with Simple Green than I do - is this as good as I'm going to get?

These ladies are primed white already, still trying to decide if I want to use a white, gray or black primer as my base coat. I'm leaning towards white, but am still undecided. If I use something else, these might have to go into the Simple Green as well. 

 

Next are the eight that were unassembled, plus the backpacks for them and the primed ones. I spent some time cleaning flash off of these, putting them on bases, etc. My standards for prep have gotten higher since the 90s - I could see marks of previous half-hearted prep efforts. 

 

So for the backpacks, I've filed off the fleur-de-lis in preperation of putting my decals on.  I did a much better job of filing these smooth than I did back in the 90s, so those stripped ones are going to have to get filed to match. Instead of using decals, I may try to figure out how to stamp something out of green stuff, or 3d print something. 

I will probably leave the fleur-de-lis on the seraphim's backpacks, as I don't want to risk messing up other details trying to file them off. 

The final part of this project is the Immolator tank. 

As you can see, I sculpted (poorly) some towers for the Rhino doors, but I decided those weren't to the quality I am capable of now.  So I fired up Fusion 360, and designed a replacement door with better detail:


It's on the 3d printer now, so we'll see how it comes out. 

I'm pretty happy with my progress on this project this month, so I'll probably set it aside until mid-February and go back to painting Warmaster for my upcoming game. 

Look for another update then - and poke me with a sharp stick if you don't get a monthly update from me.  

[Glitterwolf]

Nice project!

You can find a lot of Sisters on Thingiverse to print for free should you want to expand the army.

 

[kristof65]

19 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

Nice project!

You can find a lot of Sisters on Thingiverse to print for free should you want to expand the army.

 

Thanks. 

And quit enabling! The idea behind this project is reduce the unpainted hordes, not make them bigger! 

[Glitterwolf]

3 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

Thanks. 

And quit enabling! The idea behind this project is reduce the unpainted hordes, not make them bigger! 

 

3D files don't take up much space in your cabinet/drawers...just saying.

 

Enabling me?

Noooo that would be if I showed you some of those files on thingiverse...right?

 

 

[Froggy the Great]

Onslaught Minis' 6mm "Sisterhood" jump troopers make great mobile-frame fightercraft for starship games too, just saying.

 

[kristof65]

90s Era conversion vs modern resin 3d print.

 

I think I picked out my primary colors, too.

 

For the cream, I'm going to start with 9058 Bone Shadow, then highlight all the way up through the Bone colors triad and adding 9061 Linen white.  I'll probably prime white, then airbrush a base coat of Bone Shadow, as it shouldn't effect the final shades of the other colors too much.

 

For the purple, I'm going to go with the Royal Purples triad (9022 - 9024).

 

Accents will be black, red, gold and silver

 

 

[kristof65]

I 3d printed a tower emblem for the backpacks.

 

 

 

[kristof65]

On 1/28/2022 at 9:09 AM, Glitterwolf said:

 

Curse you @Glitterwolf.   I'm seriously contemplating printing one or two of these for the army now. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

On 1/26/2022 at 11:03 PM, kristof65 said:

Those of you who have more experience stripping with Simple Green than I do - is this as good as I'm going to get?

Pretty much, metal seems to clean the easiest, although I've found going over the nooks and cranies with a pin or exacto tip is often needed. 

[kristof65]

7 hours ago, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

Pretty much, metal seems to clean the easiest, although I've found going over the nooks and cranies with a pin or exacto tip is often needed. 

That's exactly what I wound up doing, but thanks for the confirmation. 

[kristof65]

Progress has been made. Primed, and an airbrushed base coat of MDP Bone Shadow 

[Glitterwolf]

Progress!

 

 

[kristof65]

3 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

Progress!

True, dat. 

But looking at them now, I'm wondering if I went too dark using the Bone Shadow as my undercoat. 

Over the years I've generally learned to trust Anne's choices for the triads, but this one has me second guessing if I chose the right triad to use. 

I guess we'll find out, as I hope to get some colors blocked in on these ladies this coming weekend. 

[kristof65]

Got the Nightshade Purple blocked in. It's almost black. Again, I'm second guessing my triad choices here, but I'm going to push forward, and trust in the triad choices.

 

Besides, I see "More Contrast" given as feed back so often, it can't hurt to start dark, right?

 

 

Next up will be blocking in red and black.

 

Still trying to decide how to do skin and hair and keep them straight, as I want a variety among these 25 ladies.

[kristof65]

I have been working on these ladies, I just haven't posted because it really doesn't look like I've done much. 

 

 

If it wasn't for my monthly motivational chart, I probably would have set them aside by now.