Marco does something

[Molotov]

Yes, the Battle Sister is a lovely job thus far, really keen to see it progress.

Gav's Tech-Priest is very nice, too!

[biggreengribbly]

the only planned change is to add a hand-to-hand weapon somewhere (even though I do tend to treat characters with power armour as having armoured gauntlets). Maybe a Gears of War-esque chainblade attachment for the bolter, because that's sufficiently hilariously non-feminine.

So, after this, the next stage is to work on the underbust corset that makes up Sororita power armour.

And yes, I know Sororita power armour normally has a second cloth to cover the backside (a la a loincloth, but for the bum - insert the proper name here), but that'd make undercuts that were hard to paint, so I'm going for callipygian buttock armour instead.
It seemed appropriate, given how many other features of Sororita armour are better described by the adjective "shapely" than "practical".

Erm... isn't the Sarissa essentially a GoW-esque Chain-bayonette?

Also, aren't undercuts generally a Casting concern?

In other news, I'm thinking about a slightly weird arch-militant for Hotblack (and they may push Paulus into another warband). It's not hugely original, but the idea is a character with two additional arms (perhaps bionic, perhaps vat grown), so they can wield even more weapons.
I have this vision of them drawing four different pistols in the same instant to simultaneously shoot a different assailant with each one - and I'm sure a Rogue Trader could find a job for a man like that.

.. Must....resist...urge.....Bucky O'hare...theme......

[MarcoSkoll]

I always wanted to replicate that image too, it's one of the best pictures ever  made of a battle sister.

Indeed, it's excellent. There is one issue I have with it however - the armour follows the curve of both hips, and hard armour plates can't and won't reshape like that! So while I did say I'd only made one change, I have also made some allowances to try and make the thigh armour more plausible. There's no "hips" in the upper leg plates any more, but there is now a ribbed joint so it can curve femininely.

Erm... isn't the Sarissa essentially a GoW-esque Chain-bayonette?

Well, quoting from the Witch Hunters codex: Sarissa: These vicious, spiked combat attachments are used by the Adepta Sororitas to add lethal close combat utility to their standard issue bolter.

All in all, the description makes them feel more like a bayonet (particularly as they need the charge to work). Although I will probably call it a Chain-Sarissa, yes.

Also, aren't undercuts generally a Casting concern?

Yes, but they're also a "After I've glued this to a base, I can't possibly get a paintbrush in at that angle" concern.

But on that note - while I feel a bit miserly to say it, it's unlikely I will cast her. I try to go to the effort of making my models different and unique, so it seems rather counter productive to sell copies of anything I intend to use as a PC.

~~~~~

I was out for a pub meal this evening, so not much has been done, but here is a thought. I've got a few 28mm Space Marine backpacks in the "mini bitz box" I put together for the trip (my normal one was too big to be practical), and I'm wondering if I'm just going to take the easy route here: Front & Back

It's a tiny bit small scalewise, but it's not far off what it should be - add some spike studs to the exhausts, cut off the skull on the back and sculpt on a Fleur-de-Lys, and it'd pass very admirably. (And no, you can't buy SoB backpacks separately, I've just checked). Similarly, the 28mm bolters are also a good match for size. Making both from scratch is going to be a lot more effort, and I can't see that it's going to be a huge leap in result.

So, GW's 28mm range continues to prove to be a good size match for non-heroic 54mm models.

~~~~~

I'll need to plan out the rest of the warband she'll be joining, but as I've said (in the to-do list, I think), I'm going for an Ecclesiarchy warband.  

The "leader" will be some sort of missionary. He takes the Emperor's light to the dark - and, as is sometimes the case, he occasionally has need of a powered armoured woman with a seventy-five calibre automatic grenade launcher to explain the finer points of the Emperor's creed to the people he finds there.

When he's preaching to the slightly less unenlightened (i.e. the not trying to kill him) however, she is an obvious emblem of the Ecclesiarchy. Who would hide their righteous cause from the masses? The Emperor's chosen should not be crawling around in the shadows - wherever they walk, they should be a beacon!
Unlike the Inquisition, I can't see a missionary and his entourage being inclined to sneaking around and clandestine meetings with shady contacts, so her sticking out like a sore thumb wouldn't be a disadvantage in the same way.

After the missionary and her, I might have a penitent of some sort; or some form of book carrier/savant who can immediately seek out passages for the Missionary to read to the masses (not that the Missionary wouldn't know extensive reams of scripture by heart); or maybe I can think of something a little more unusual and unique.

Either way, I'm expecting to cut back on the military might of the rest of the warband to compensate for having a Battle Sister in there.

[Molotov]

It strikes me that these bolters are the closest to the Godwyn-De'az - They certainly would complete this model.

[MarcoSkoll]

Oh dear - I've already been trying to resist putting in a Forge World order (I only managed to resist buying a squad of the Shadow Spectres while I was up at WHW because the Exarch wasn't out yet), and then you show me something that even has the chain-blades in it.

I guess I probably will (and I think I'll have to try and placate my love of the Shadow Spectres with the idea of making a 54mm one), but I'm away on a boat holiday right now, so I'll have to use one of the regular plastic ones I've got as a stand-in until I can order some fancy new ones.

Unfortunately, I see my MarcoSkoll photobucket account is on a server they're doing maintenance on, which means I can't show you the even the rather unspectacular scale of the work I've done so far today.

The thing is, I wasn't very impressed when I took the pictures yesterday, because they showed up a load of imperfections that weren't immediately obvious to the naked eye. So I've not exactly advanced onto new and glorious additions, but I've been trying to sharpen and straighten edges, smooth down armour plates, and generally improve the quality of the work I've done so far. Hopefully, it'll help make the end result a bit more professional. It at least looks better in pictures - still a bit patchy, as it remains a mix of Green Stuff and Procreate*, but better.

*I find Procreate a bit too stiff. It holds edges well, but for most work, I prefer Green Stuff. But when I'm doing general bulking, I use ProCreate - partly because it's cheaper, partly because I welcome the extra stiffness when applying putty to a wire armature. (I do use Milliput for some things, but it's harder to work with, so I only use it in certain cases.)
So, sometimes ProC shows through the top GS layer (where I've cut it back, where I've decided not to build it up, etc.) which gives quite a few of my recent models the appearance of having some miniature form of reverse vitiligo.

[MarcoSkoll]

Sorry, updates are slower than expected. I've looked at one of the models I was doing for Katlien's warband and decided I was going to start over, so the Sororita got the short end of the stick.

Still, she has had some more work done. Basic shape of the corset, some of the studding and the start of the Ministorum's symbol.



The rest of the studs will wait until after I've corrected the stupid mistake... yeah, no lacing for the corset.

Still, and I had to switch to the other camera for this one because it's the only camera I have which will focus at less than inch, here's an incredibly unflattering close-upof the work on the corset.

Neither camera picks this up very well (it's more obvious in real life) but you can just about see the crude shapes of the corset bones underneath the crumples and crinkles of the corset material.

As I said before, I've been trying to smooth the various surfaces and plates. This one makes it very obvious that I need to deal with the space around the top of her greave, but it does show that it's at least smoother than in the last set of photos.


~~~~~

In other news, Katlien's warband isn't even finished yet, but I still have plans to add to it.

It started with a basic three character formula - an Interrogator (Nyi Laysen, the model who I've decided I need to redo) and a Drill Abbess (Vera Canton)...

... but I've decided I love the picture on p392 of the RT RPG book (the lady with reams of parchment for a dress), and she's going to be conscripted (if downgunned a bit from that bolter), hopefully in time for Van Helser's event in July.

I'm thinking she'll be the pilot for Katlien's personal shuttle, another individual the Inquistrix has recruited from the employ of the many rogue Inquisitors Katlien has "removed" over the years.

Katlien is occasionally known for granting the more useful acolytes/servants of such heretics a chance to earn absolution for their involvement with their former master's taint. And that's what I'm thinking for the parchment dress - the reams detailing a list of the crimes she committed against the Imperium in the service of her previous Inquisitor, each sheaf ended with a writ of penance.

No name yet though.

EDIT: Here's that picture.

[Tessio Niri]

Wow this looks like a masterpiece in the making. Loving the work so far. Keep up the great work.

Regards T.

[precinctomega]

Excellent work on the Soroitas, there.  Can we see a scale shot?

R.

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, I am away from home and most of my collection, but then I remembered I had the half built Paulus, as well as the spare bits from Stone in my bitz pot, so one precariously balanced head later, here you go...

Again, sorry about photo quality, I'm down by my normal laptop and can only edit with the camera's built in functions.

She'll be about 57mm when done (if you include the heels on her armour). A bit taller than average, but I'm sure I've done the "varied heights and why I use 1:30 scale" speech enough times by now.

[MarcoSkoll]

Fething fiddly work, but the backpack is on its way.



It still needs some lots of clean up, some studs around the bands on the globes and assorted rivets, but it's not too far off being done after this stage has hardened.

I admit that I only realised after I had done it that there are normally four ridges around the top - it's ages since I last saw an SoB backpack, so you'll have to excuse that one. But it's not exactly completely official in shape anyway, given I've been lazy and based it off an SM backpack - and in this case, I think the three ridges fits this backpack shape better, so I'm not planning on fixing it.

So, it's not quite right, but I'm just going to call it a Ione pattern backpack. It's a rare variety sometimes seen in the Segmentum Pacificus, and known to be used by some Covents in the Carthax sector. Local production of the pattern is on the Sollemne forge-worlds.

[Hadriel Caine]

This is going to be awesome. Incredible sculpting mate.

[MarcoSkoll]

Two terribly unflattering macro photos. However, unflattering is good, because I look at the pictures and go "bleh, that's horrible" and then go and try to neaten it up, so I think it it's going to improve the end result.

Sorry in advance - They both really needed a wash and a go with an old brush to shift the plastic and putty shavings, but I'm short on time before I have to start getting ready to head out this evening.

So, holes for the corset lacing. Pelvis armour needs the edging neatened, but it's on the way.


Backpack. Still needs a touch up with the Dremel, but now has rivets and studs - LOTS of rivets, but it does help disguise its origin as lazily converted from an SM backpack.

[Molotov]

She's shaping up to be an exceptional model.

[Dolnikan]

She looks really good, the armour looks nice and the backpack looks convincing, hardly anyone would notice the difference without being told about it.

[MarcoSkoll]

Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been involved with other things, so no actual sculpting has gone on.

However, for the sake of blogging...

For now, I'm planning on holding off on a Forge World order. Much though I love the Phobos bolters, I think I'm going to try out the plasticard before spending £11.42 when I only need one bolter. The bitz sites also seem to be a bit short on Forge World parts right now, so that's not an option either. Maybe I'll get some stuff when I'm next at WHW, but the prices are "generous" even without adding postage on top.

However, my Heresy order arrived today, which included some of their weapons sprues - they should work for my "unheroic" scaling, at least after a little conversion. I also got myself a set of Size 2 Clay shapers to go with my size 0 set, a new pin vice to replace the much hated one I currently have, a hundred 40mm bases and a lot of green stuff.

My order of brass rod (a hundred 12" lengths of 1/32" rod, mostly for armatures) and aluminium mesh (mostly for vehicle building projects) hasn't yet turned up, but hopefully will soon.

Current plan of action:
- Tidy my room so I have the space to work properly.
- Finish the Sororita and Katlien's warband for the Summer 'Clave. Considering calling Katlien's pilot Evelyn.
- Try and get the Stormtrooper "commission" done so its owner has the option to use it for the Summer 'Clave.