Last week the we covered the first steps on my road to Goonhammer Open. If you need a recap, Goonhammer Open is on September 4th, and the narrative event requires 125 PL worth of painted models. Unfortunately, I do not have 125PL of painted Sisters of Battle. This is, as they say, a bit of a problem.
In my previous update I talked about how I converted up a unit of Paragon Warsuits to better fit my vision of how they ought to look. And hey, they’re 13 Power Level! Let’s knock those out real quick and it’ll be a good bit of the way towards my goal. Plus I want to use them in Crusade games I play in the meantime!
Doing the white went easily. Just Ulthuan Grey then White through airbrush, followed by a dilute grey pinwash. Then I banged out the burgundy tabards pretty quick. All according to… oh… Oh no…
Why is there so much trim? Why is it everywhere? Why is this happening to me?
Well, that took longer than I expected. While I am quite happy how they turned out, I did not enjoy painting these very much. There’s so much filigree and trim and fiddly little details that aren’t really optional to paint like I can sometimes get away with on normal sisters. That said, with a little bit of work on the heads and some extra purity seals draped off of their chassis, the Paragon Warsuits really feel much less like Adeptus Mechanicus models.
Whew. That’s done. Now I just need to stick these on some bases, let’s open up my Sector Imperialis bases and see what size they… FIFTY MILLIMETERS?! MOTHER F….
After a bit of cursing, picking up the Large Base Detail Kit (which is, ironically, a bit soft on its details), some Greenstuff, and some more paint, I’d finished up a batch of bases. 4 50mm bases for the trio of Warsuits and the Hospitaller who is inexplicably on a 50mm base, along with all the already cleaned up 32mm Sector Imperialis Bases I had in my bases box. At least these will be ready for when I finish up some more infantry Sisters.
And done. Finally. After that I needed a bit of a palette cleanser, and another part of my Goonhammer Open panoply had arrived. A smaller KR Multicase bag with foam to fit my Sisters. While I needed the space of a larger bag for my Imperial Guard, a 2 case shoulder bag will do just fine for Sisters of Battle, and be far less unwieldy as well.
So I stole a few hours and did something completely different after all that trim. Now it should be pretty hard to confuse my bag with anyone else’s. Honestly, it was amazingly relaxing just doing some calligraphy and painting on a flat surface after all that trim. I planned everything out on a little piece of card in pencil with guidelines, googled some fonts for illuminated manuscripts and borrowed them for inspiration. Then I put on a light coat of bone color that I could just barely see the letters through, painted them roughly in with black, then airbrushed bone over top of that, followed by a shade near the edges in Burnt Umber. The golden S is Retributor armor and Ultramarine, with Burnt Umber layered thinly over top to shade and outline.
The letters flowed way more naturally than I expected off of a nice brush, and it has a very satisfying glimmer to it that is near impossible to photograph. Overall a fun diversion, but back to work.
To round out the week I painted up a Missionary who will be joining the Crusade. I really love this model. It’s old, but it has so much character that’s very different from modern models. He painted up way different from modern models as well. The different painting experience helped a ton and has really fortified my resolve to go back to painting white power armor. He’ll get his base painted the next time I have all my basing colors out again.
So, let’s look at the score at the end of the week!
Days to Goonhammer Open: 40
Power Level Completed this Week: 16
Power Level Complete: 45/125
Well, that is certainly a little less dire looking than last time. During the coming week, I may reconfigure my list a tiny bit. While this has been a very good framework and gotten me started, I’m realizing I will likely be adding a few Power Level along the way for Canoness Upgrades, and I may want to just sacrifice 2 Command Points during the final 125 point game to run a second patrol Detachment alongside a Battalion rather than a Brigade. That would ease the troop choice painting burden, as well as let me add a second Canoness and Agent of the Imperium. All told, that may add up to roughly 10 PL that is already painted.
It’s starting to look like I might actually be able to do this.
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