Sisters of Battle Canoness and Heavy Weapons

Back again with a few more Sisters of Battle from the Plano case. I wanted to get a few more heavy/special weapons girls done before my planned New Year's Day game and the Canoness managed to sneak in there too.

What a superb model this is eh. I love painting Sisters from the '90s and this is one of the best ones. Unfortunately her original backpack got lost by a previous owner (it had a flaming brazier or two on it) so she's sporting a regular one.

The combi-flamer is pretty cool as well.

She's got the classic white bob, I took the opportunity to change the hair colour on some of my previously painted Sisters, just to make sure all of the Sisters Superior and Canonesses have white hair. Apparently in the lore it's a tribute to Saint Katherine, the original Martyred Lady.

Another heavy flamer and a meltagun, which may come in handy.

And two girls with heavy bolters. These will be great fighting Orks as there's sure to be a target-rich environment.

That should do it for now. May the light of the Emperor shine down upon you!

Victoria Miniatures Human Bomb and 40K Ork Heavy Weapons

Here's a model that's been hanging around primed for some time, that I finally buckled down and painted today. It's Victoria Miniatures' "Penal Guard Human Bomb" sculpted by the talented and prolific Bobby Jackson.

I think I got it as a free add-on to an order made years ago. It's a resin casting of course, and very reminiscent of the old GW Human Bombs that were part of the Imperial Guard. Decals are from the excellent Death Korps of Krieg decal sheet that was in my folder for some reason!

Of course back in the dim distant past of 40K there was a part of the Imperial Guard Astra Militarum called the "Penal Legion". These were composed of chaps whose crimes (desertion, murder, overdue library data-slates etc.) were so heinous that they merited assignment to the Penal Legions... essentially food for powder. Penal Legion troopers were equipped with explosive collars that could be triggered by a commissar to thwart a desertion attempt or "pour encourager les autres" in the event of a lapse of squad morale. But the worst of these offenders were equipped with explosive harnesses and became human bombs. 

Believe it or not, there were actually rules for deployment and use of human bombs, although mercifully these have been absent from 40K for some time now... as I was writing this post I've been looking for those rules (I could have SWORN that there was an example of template/blast weapons in a rulebook that used an exploding human bomb) but have come up empty... nothing in the Compendium, Compilation, Codex Imperialis, Codex Army List... Penal Legions yes, but human bombs nada. If any readers remember where those rules were (other than in the Citadel Journal list linked above) I'd be grateful if you'd post in the comments.

 

Anyway that's it for this guy. Pretty fun to paint if you don't think too hard about what his fate is likely to be. I seem to remember that part of the fluff was that there was a chance that the explosive harness wouldn't detonate, and if it didn't, the penitent was forgiven!

EDIT: Here are the original rules and background for human bombs, from WD 109. Thank you to reader Scott A. for the reference, much appreciated!

The other thing I've been doing the last few days is painting some old metal Orks for the Red Star Boyz army. My plan is to pit the boyz against my Sisters of Battle in the New Year's Day 2026 game.

Here we have a heavily armoured Nob and a plasma gunner. 

Heavy plasma and heavy bolter. The heavy weapons in this lot are separate castings, except for the heavy bolter boyz that are one-piece models. 

I've painted the pants in the universal camo pattern that all the Red Star Boyz wear.

Heavy (I don't know) flamer? Another heavy bolter, and "rokkit launcha".

These old metal Orks were pretty cool weren't they?

I still have a bunch of metal Orks left should I ever get the urge to paint more, but I think now we'll be good for the game. Sadly the 5th Ed Ork codex doesn't really have a "heavy weapons squad" entry so I'll have to figure out how to fit these new models in - maybe as a Tankbusta squad??

Killzone Upgrade: Shrine Statue

I'm always on the lookout for terrain and other stuff for my Sisters of Battle, so when I got an email from Games Workshop back in July to say that the Shrine Statue would be made available on a temporary basis, I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. Of course GW themselves operate on a different timeline...

 

One of the annoyances in ordering stuff for delivery to our local Games Workshop WARHAMMER store is that the company gives you no idea when your stuff has arrived. After waiting four months I decided on a whim to check the order status on my Warhammer account... was I ever surprised to see that the order had been delivered two weeks before. They certainly kept that to themselves.

So off I went on Thursday night to the Warhammer store to pick up my goodie, assembled it on Friday night, and painted it on Saturday. It's a pretty neat terrain piece and is certainly impressively large, I guess that explains the $50CAD price tag (not unreasonable for a GW kit nowadays I s'pose). But it was pretty easy to put together.

As for paint, I hit the Internet for ideas and found a chap on Reddit who helpfully explained how he painted his model in one day. "That'll suit me down to the ground," I thought. The formula was to spray undercoat the statue part with Wraithbone spraypaint, apply some Seraphim Sepia shade, then drybrush back up with Wraithbone. I certainly wasn't up for paying $30 for a can of spraypaint that I'd use once, so I undercoated with Krylon satin white and brushed on the Wraithbone. I left the "statue part" separate from the base and painted each separately for ease of access. The base part I attached to a 3" round base and sprayed black, then painted the skulls with Celestra Grey, then Wraithbone. I washed both the statue and the skulls with Seraphim Sepia then drybrushed back up with Wraithbone, done.

I drybrushed the base bit with Dark Rubber and Mechanicus Standard Grey, then painted the brass bits Retributor Armour washed Agrax Earthshade. The candles were painted Khorne Red, then highlighted Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet. The flames were painted Corax White then Imperial Fist contrast paint. Looks OK I reckon.

Here's the piece alongside the giant Sisters Cathedral, I think it'll fit in nicely on an urban table for the Sisters - the next outing I have planned for them is a game vs Orks for New Year's Day. I managed to pick up a used copy of the 5th Edition Ork Codex on the weekend so that should do.

Lastly... a bit of a Warhammer rant. I was surprised but not surprised to see some shrinkflation on the GW paint front. Wash pots were 24ml but now are down to 18ml. Was there a corresponding 25% reduction in price? I think you know the answer.

Cheers!

Executioner Transports

I finished the first of 3 vehicles for the Executioners. 2 rhinos for the tactical squads and a razorback for the command squad. I wasn’t sure how the metallic colour scheme would hold up when it came to vehicles. I was especially concerned about the golden stripe as it takes a layer of yellow wash to pull it off. I’m fairly happy with the result and will be pressing on with the rest of the vehicles. I hope to have a few more finished by the middle of October.

Revised color scheme from Imperial Armour Badab 

Razorback

That’s it for now. I’m moving on to another rhino, venerable dreadnought and a drop pod. Hopefully I can get them done a little quicker.

Thanks for visiting!

Executioner Infantry Done!

 Judging by my low number of blog entries, it would seem that I’ve been rather idle this summer. Hobby time has definitely been in short supply this summer, but I have been working on stuff. Mostly I’ve been building models for a few small projects for the upcoming analogue hobbies painting challenge. What I intend to paint for the challenge and what I actually end up painting are often different, but I figure I at least need to have a few options. 

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve finally been able to sit down and paint which has finally allowed me to finish all the remaining infantry models for the Executioners chapter. This encompasses 3 tactical squads, 1 sternguard, 1 assault squad, 1 terminator squad and a command squad. I also completed a Chaplain, apothecary and (presented in this post) a librarian. The only thing I’m missing is a techmarine, but I’ve never really liked them. A lone marine running around repairing tracks and tightening bolts during a battle seems a bit silly. It would make more sense for them to be riding around in some sort of armored recovery vehicle. Hmmm…now I want one of those!

Tactical Squad

Sternguard 

Next up is a large assortment of vehicles for the chapter. I’m hoping to get the bulk of those finished before, or more likely, during the painting challenge.

Thanks for visiting.

Executioner Assault Squad

 Summer has been extremely busy and along with changes at work, has seriously impacted my painting time. Despite this, I have been working on my Executioner space marine chapter and have the remainder of the infantry approaching completion. First across the finish line is the assault squad that I have pictured below as well as my jump pack Chaplain. The Chaplain is the old metal model that I picked up on eBay last year.

I’m hoping that during the fall, I have more time available so I can actually finish the Executioners. I have a Sternguard unit, a tactical squad and a librarian remaining which will complete the infantry component of the force. After that, I have numerous vehicles to plough through which I’m hoping to get done by the end of the year. We’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for visiting!

Spring Projects

 Since the end of the challenge I’ve really gotten behind on posting on the blog. That doesn’t mean my painting has been idle. In fact, I’be been painting quite a bit. Much of it were odds and ends left over from various other projects. The most prominent one has been a return to the Executioners Space Marine chapter. I painted a test squad before the painting challenge, but hadn’t been able to work on them again until recently. I’ve painted up the command squad, terminator squad and a second tactical squad. 

Apothecary and veteran 

Champion and veteran

Standard Bearer and Captain

The chapter decals all came from Fallout Hobbies. They have a big range of space marine chapter decals for all the various Badab War factions. The quality of the decals is quite high and shipping is pretty fast (and expensive to Canada). He also has flash sales on a fairly regular basis with 15% off.

In between each squad I would also paint a vehicle for Gaslands. I’ve added three so far using this strategy!

The first one drops oil slick and glue. The second one drops mines and caltrops and the third is a ramming specialist.

Hopefully I can stay motivated to keep posting in a more timely manner.

Thanks for visiting!