Lienna's Project log:- Order of the Repentant Heart

[BadgersinHills]

Wonderful stuff! :) 

[Lienna]

A quick Friday update, getting close to finishing the tank now. Most importantly I've tried my hand at painting the order symbol of my order. Pretty proud of how it came out all things considered!

 

[Master Umbra]

Awesome freehand and creamy finish on the fabric!

[Lienna]

Managed to finish off the Rhino over the weekend and made a start on painting the Immolator turret for it, though that's still in 8 pieces on my desk. I'm pretty happy with the end result here though I think I could have done better on the little windows, still it was a great time to be had bent over my desk with this tank. If I were to do another I'd leave it in more pieces for longer, it could feel quite clumsy trying to paint some of the details while holding an entire tank.

 

 

That brings me to a 7-strong BSS squad, 1 Cannoness, a Rhino (with an immolator option soon to come) and a Repressor, all in all they look great as a group, but They are certainly missing bodies. Fortunately I'm becoming somewhat of a painting and modelling addict, so I ordered a BSS squad, time to test out those new-fangled plastic sisters!

 

Lastly for today my Penitent Engine arrived, it's been disassembled and stripped but they didn't do a great job so I finished disassembling it and am now in the process of getting the last bits of paint and glue off. The amount of glue they apparently used to put it together has me quite intimidated but I think I may be in love with the model, so many details on this glorious hunk of lead(? maybe tin?). It didn't come with a base so my 3D printer is busy making me one so I can get this ready to earn it's driver absolution.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the Rhino and the Repressor. Is the marbling meant to evoke the Order's temple's marble edifice?

[Lienna]

I've always imagined the marbling as part of the order's history. My thoughts are that they were originally a mission of Valorous Heart sisters sent to investigate a vain Cardinal. The gaudy armour was intended to appeal to the preacher's vanity and help the mission pretend to be his newly appointed bodyguards. Long story short, the Cardinal might have been an unbearable man to be around, but he was a loyal follower of the Emperor. After years of investigating him the sister's visit the paradise planet's only hive city and uncover the actual problem on the planet, a genestealer cult. Long story short, one exterminatus later and the handful of surviving sisters return shamed to their order, refusing to rejoin until they have atoned for their mistake, and thus they became the first battle sisters of a new order: the Order of the Repentant Heart.

 

 

I've been painting away eagerly this week, which will make up for the fact that I'm away from home next week and can't do any painting! I've finished the turret for the Immolator. While I do love the look of the new model, there's something great about the utility of the old one, being able to pop off the Immolator turret and swap it for the Rhino turret seems incredibly handy.

 

And then I've made a start on the Penitent engine, mostly finishing the 'pilot'. I don't think the poor guy's having a very good time of it, half of those wires go directly under their skin! I still have a few touch ups to do, including a set of wires I completely missed, but I'll have plenty of time to do that while I finish up the rest of the model!

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Lienna

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Great job on the Immolator!

[Lienna]

I've finished and put together my Penitent engine along with a 3D printed base. I decided to paint it entirely in Order colours, the order of the Repentant Heart are proud that they are able to give these people the redemption they need. Penitent Engines are a celebration of their fine work. After taking photos I noticed I missed a layer on some of the marbling and I still need to varnish it as the weather has been wet today.

 

As a side note if anyone knows who at Games Workshop decided that the Sisters needed a humongous chunk of articulated lead as their dreadnought option, my girls have a machine they want to hook them to... I realize I'm late to complaining about that, but this thing is terrifying to handle for fear that it's going to fall apart under it's own weight.

 

Finally we have a full army so far, shot from the Ikea bookshelf they stand watch in, it's looking a little light on bodies so I'm going to have to open up that Battle Sister squad box soon, I'm thinking of making 5 dominions with 4 stormbolters and a squad of 5 basic sisters, though not sure which weapons to give them, perhaps 2 meltas and a combi melta on the superior, feels like a nice thing to put in an immolator? I also picked up a metal sister superior on Ebay so my first squad can actually have a leader.

 

Before those though I feel I should revisit the other half of this project log, Shadow War Armageddon, I still have 80% of the terrain to paint for that. I tried out using an airbrush to basecoat one of the pieces and it worked pretty well, but I feel I wasted a lot of paint in my cheap airbrush with the massive paint pots, though a lot of that may have been first time using an airbrush problems. It's only a cheap one with a can of condensed air to power it which I picked up at a car boot two years ago.

[Lienna]

I've finished another piece of SWA terrain, no pictures atm, because I'm sure a large yellow rusty building isn't post worthy.

 

In other news I've made my plastic SoB debut! The first 2 squads are made, or at least part assembled anyway. In total that's a BSS with superior with combi melta and chainsword, 1 sister with meltagun and 3 with bolters. And a Dominion squad with superior with chainsword and 4 stormbolters.

 

I've painted the first Dominion as a tester for the plastics. In doing so I slightly tweaked my recipe. My purples are now a little deeper in the recesses, the armour now gets highlighted up to full white, both the gold and silver also got an additional highlight. Finally the lightest grey of the marble is half a shade lighter which helps the middle shade stand out more. Let me know what you think, honestly at this point I don't know what more I can do to improve.

 

 

Lastly today I spent some time working on faces. I've decided that my Dominions will all wear helmets and my BSS will all be helmet-less. However as the superior is holding her helmet and one dominion has an opened face mask I still have two faces to do for this squad. Don't mind the D20 for scale, was showing these to some roleplayer friends and it seemed like the best reference :-p

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the storm bolter wielder.

[Lienna]

Not much of an update this weekend. We have guests coming over who are very Covid conscious, the painting station had to be cleared up 48 hours ago so that the dining table was clean for the board games we'll be playing. I am looking forward to the day we look back at 2020 as the bizarre anomaly it has been.

 

Still I managed to get two of the remaining Dominions done. The sister superior and second storm bolter wielder. The superior is the helmet carrying alt pose that gets used fairly religiously among sister players as far as I can tell. I added an old sword sheath I found in my bits box to represent the chainsword. Also the bird carrying holy text for flair.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Again, beautiful work on the Sisters.

[Lienna]

It's a monumental occasion that I can celebrate completing a squad. Technically even my metal bss is incomplete, missing superior to lead them. So finishing the Dominions requires party hats all round.

 

Well if party hat means sabbat pattern helmets.

 

 

Beyond this squad I've been assembling a certain organ tank. No pictures I'm afraid, but it's part assembled and sprayed ready for a rather intimidating paint project to begin!

 

But first the other half of my first battle sister box. To take a break from the sea of power armour I started on the cherub. These things are darn creepy, I immediately decided to ignore the angelic facade and go full on angel of death with raven wings instead of pure white ones. After getting the base coat done I'm very happy with the colour choice, these should really stand out from all the white around them, while the gold and purple keep it looking part of the same army.

 

 

That's all for now, thanks for looking, more sisters coming soon!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on the Sisters.

[Lienna]

Another small update today. I've finished the Cherub and first two standard bolter sisters, feeling rather proud of my work on their tiny faces.

 

 

The last 3 sisters of the squad are next on the painting table.

 

I've decided to put my exorcist on a partial hold, doing bits of it as and when between other units. Even doing the exhaust pipes is taking an age! Next up will be the arco-flaggelents who I've been constructing over the last couple of nights.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Lienna

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful works.

[Lienna]

Thought I'd try something new today, as I finished my sister squad the meltagun wielder I had modeled inspired me to write a short story, helping to explain where she had lost her hair and her arm. If you aren't interested in amateur fiction, just skip the stuff in italics.

 

Alecia laid uncomfortably in the rubble of a ruined hab-block, wrapped in a dirty grey sheet to disguise the polished sheen of her power armour. The PDF sergeant had laughed when they asked them for the cloth. A squad of five elite warriors of the ecclesiacy, dressed in gleaming marbled and gold armour, asking him for rags!? How could he have not? A swift application of her superior's chainsword had cut through the laughter as easily as the man’s wrist, and the sheets were soon acquired.

 

The city they waited in was a battleground between the Imperium and a heretical uprising. The front line was holding, but vulnerable, and the PDF had chosen this moment to lose a pair of their Lemon Russ battle tanks. That's where the Order of the Repentant Heart came in. Alecia longed to be on the front lines, killing heretics by the dozen in the name of the Emperor. Instead her squad had been assigned to solve the tank problem, before the captured vehicles were able to flank the Imperial defences. So she waited, meltagun in hand ready to ambush her quarry.

 

Eventually their patience paid off. Trundling down the road came two battle tanks. The vehicles showed minor damage, scrapes and burn marks from when they were captured by the heretics, but nothing that would make them any less dangerous. Their new owner’s had seen fit to weld crude spikes over the vehicles and pry off holy acqiullas. The five women remained hidden in their cover, letting the front vehicle get within optimum distance to hit with both melta and krak grenades.

 

In silence they waited. Until they could hear the grinding of gears as the tank's machine spirit tried to fight against its corrupt crew, the smell of the sub-par promethium burning through its engines.

 

"For the Emperor!"

 

Alicia heard her superior's battle cry and made to push herself up off the floor, but her makeshift cloak got caught on an errant piece of rebar. While she struggled to get free she heard the sound of grenade impacts, the hiss of a melta fire and the scream of a heretic boiling alive. Precious moments later Alecia managed to free herself, getting up to her feet just in time to see the rearmost tank blast their position with its battle cannon.

 

The resulting explosion sent the five warriors through the air. Scattering the squad across broken brick and rubble. Alecia felt her meltagun slip from her grip, slamming against a wall with a spark seconds before she slammed into it herself. The dull pain of impact was followed by the sharp pain of her suit's medical system injecting her with a potent cocktail of painkillers and combat stims. Glancing around she saw her superior lying motionless, though her power-pack monitor reported a heartbeat. To her left she could barely make out the other three sisters through a cloud of dust. As she watched the traitor vehicle's sponson opened fire upon them. Heavy bolter explosions threw more dust in the air, then a fateful red mist as one hit its mark.

 

Alecia felt panic rise in her throat before washing it down with the twin cocktail of faith and determination. The Emperor had put her here, had deemed her worthy to fight in his name. So fight she did. She struggled to her feet, the wobble of her legs being countered by the strength of ceramite plating. Clutching her dented melta she marched towards the heretic vehicle. Her voice building in strength as she began singing.

 

'The Emperor guide my hand,

As I guard thy holy land,

Heretics will soon take flight,

Once they see your righteous might.'

 

The tank's weapons turned to her; a cannon shell soared overhead, slamming into a wall. The heavy bolter then roared to life. Bolt shells drew a trail of fire towards her. One hit home, but bounced off her shoulder ricocheting away before exploding midair.

 

'The Emperor protect my shell

As I wade in this foul hell,

All the weapons that they field,

None can pierce thy holy shield.'

 

She raised her meltagun, taking aim at the tank before her and squeezed the trigger. The weapon hissed as the water in the atmosphere around it turned to steam. A near invisible beam of pure heat slammed into captured Imperial armour. In under a second the metal casing had turned red, then white-hot before turning to molten slag. Alecia felt a wave back heat from the weapon. By all right the weapons machine spirit should have cut the beam off, let the weapon cool. But the Emperor had other plans this day. Alecia drew the beam back across the tank, rapidly turning solid vehicle to fluid wreckage. Her hand burned, but she kept firing. The smell of burnt hair filled her nostrils, but she couldn't stop, not while heretics lived, not while the hymn was unsung.

 

'The Emperor lend me might,

For all I need to do is fight,

By bolter or melta or holy flame

I shall slay them in your name!'

 

 

When Sister Superior Valestra came to she was greeted by a scene of carnage. Three members of her squad laid bloodied and surely dead near the wreckage of the tank they had first ambushed. But most curiously of all was the second tank was gone, all that remained was a pool of setting liquid metal with remnants of a turret and tracks protruding out of it. Collapsed by a wall was Sister Alecia. Her face was blistered with second degree burns. Small clumps of hair were all that had avoided burning away, and her weapon appeared to have fused with her arm. Perhaps the most disturbing thing was despite all of this, she was smiling.

 

Hope you enjoyed. Was her meltagun acting on the divine will of the Emperor, or did the smashing of the weapon against the wall break it's overheat safeties? I like the ambiguity often seen in the Sister's holy powers. Are they really invoking their faith in the emperor? is it low level psychic ability? Or have they simply been trained so well that their actions appear to be miraculous?

 

I've now finished the sister squad, it has a sister with meltagun. Not Alecia herself I imagine, but certainly her gun, which is treated as a minor relic, even if it tends to cause almost as much damage to it's wielder as it's target. For practical reasons the current active wielder of the weapon tends to shave her head. This missing arm either makes her well suited for using the gun, or is because she has used it! The superior also has a combi melta, though I realize that's hard to see in the shot. I'm no tactician, having not played a game of 40k since 5th? edition. But I like to think a pair of meltas should be enough threat to make vehicles or monsters not want to get too close to these girls. Worst case they only miss out on one boltgun shot at long range, so it doesn't seem much of a compromise if their enemies are keeping at range.

 

 

So that's the Battle Sister Squad complete, time to move onto something a little different. The less official part of the Sister's armed forces. Arco-flagellants and a Preacher. The Flagellants are by the box constructions, I'm trying to paint them in a way that clearly ties them to the order, so I've maintained the purple robes and the gold/silver weaponry for this first basecoat. Hopefully this will tie them into the army enough despite the lack of any white armour. Naturally I've finished their bases in the same style too which will only help. Though I foolishly only did 10 bases, despite needing an 11th for the Preacher. The Preacher is an old inquisitorial henchmen, I shaved off the inquisitorial symbols, added an aquilla which I think was from an old space marine kit? His backpack is a pair of flamer fuel canisters, which I topped with fleur-de-lys taken from the top of the cage style simulacrum. This is then topped with a spikey bit that I believe is meant to be an Ork jaw guard? But for me it made a nice half halo. The cherub is also from the simulacrum, while the chain that it is attached to the book via is a complete mystery to me, I imagine its from a very old Warhammer fantasy set? Any thoughts on what else needs to be done to make this mini more priestly would be welcome. I've fairly happy as is bar needing a little greenstuff to hide the seams and trying to find a chainsword from somewhere.

 

 

That's all for today, thanks for looking and have a great week!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Again, beautiful works. The short story is well-written.

[Lienna]

It's been a couple of months, it turns out that a new kitten is a lot of work! But you're not here for cute, furry excuses, you can find pictures of cats anywhere on the internet!

 

I've finished both my Preacher and my Arco-Flaggellents, I know these aren't the most popular unit on the tabletop, but I'm quite fond of them, they demonstrate exactly how low the Imperium is willing to sink while defending their worlds. For the order of the Repentant Heart repentance is a big thing, so it seems only sensible that they have a large number of these repenting sinners on hand in order to die in the Emperor's name.

 

 

As usual I notice 90% of my painting mistakes when I take a photo and see them blown up on a computer screen. Somehow I've managed to miss the entire underside of the cherub's skull! I'm pretty happy with this mini, while it might not look like your traditional preacher, it still has enough priestly vibes to be obviously one. The cherub and spots of purple really help tie it into the army as a whole, while still having its red garments stand out.

 

 

Finally have a couple of closeups of the Arco-Flaggellents, these were a great chance to try a lot of different skin colours. In total there are four different skin recipes between the 10 minis. I'm trying to have a good balance of different tones in my army. I'm generally really happy, though looking closer I think I may have gone overboard on the scar tissue on the pale characters! The Arco-Flaggellents aren't wearing tattered rags, but simple robes in the order's colours and armed with weapons of burnished gold just like the women they fight alongside. The order of the Repentant heart isn't ashamed of these abominations, they are proud as every one has a chance to earn it's way back into the Emperor's light.

 

 

That's all for this update, I currently have a plastic penitent engine and 5 Seraphim on the painting table, though it's still early days on painting those.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Lienna

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine works. The arco-flagellants seem unusually buff for what are supposed to be lobotomized servitors, though. Is anyone else reminded of the Pillar Men from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?

[Lienna]

I guess in the far flung future they can use a combination of dangerous drugs to stimulate muscle growth. It's barely start on what they do to make marines! It probably slowly kills the victim, but I'm not sure the Imperium cares!

 

Now for something completely different.

 

I'm sure most people here are aware that GW have been giving away a free mini each month. I managed to pop down to my local store before lockdown 3 and picked up this disease ridden fella:

 

 

This is the first chaos marine I've ever painted. I see the appeal, which I suppose is the point of the free mini promotion!

 

With that out of the way back to the "good guys", and nothing says good guys like a robust criminal justice system. You know, like strapping criminals to giant robots and hooking their nervous system to a system designed to cause indescribable pain.

 

 

I've all-but finished the main chassis, so there's only really a couple of finishing touches and the 'pilot' to go. The massive tangle of wires feels intimidating, but the rear section next to the 'injectors' is completely invisible once assembled. This is my pledge for 12 months of hobby for Jan, looks like I'll be done with time to spare!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Penitent Engine is well-painted and detailed.

[Lienna]

Been a little while since I did an update, you may have seen the finished Penitant engine in the 12 months of hobby thread, but if not here it is in all it's penitant glory.

 

 

So that was month one completed, time to move on to next month, I've pledged 5 seraphim from the SoB army box. These are some of my favourite sisters minis. The original metal ones were one of the few SoB units that weren't marine equivalents. In a universe where big guns on bigger vehicles is seen as the premium military strategy these women grab a pair of pistols and a jetpack and go titan hunting. The idea of a seraphim squad melting the leg off of a chaos knight gives me such Snowspeeder vs AT-AT vibes and I love it.

 

 

Finally, a little diversion. I got hold of a handful of Catachans recently and decided to paint one up in magma camo. I rather like it, think I may do a squad or two in time.

 

 

That's all for today. Next time I'll likely be doing more seraphim.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job.

[ThePenitentOne]

First time seeing this thread... Fabulous work!

 

I LOVE that you carried the colour scheme to your penitent units- the PE's are fabulous, but the purple splashes on the arcos and the preacher are also a really nice touch. I've always painted my penitent troops differently than the Holier troops, but this army made me rethink that- I think it looks great.

 

I also really like the that the new PE has marbled legs like the rest of the unit rather than being metallic. Would not have predicted it would look as good as it does. I might have the legs of mine echo the rest of their scheme rather than metallic now that I've seen it. My classic PE are already painted, but I've got 6 brand new mortifiers still on the sprue.