Some newbie questions regarding Piety and Pain

[Corvus Fortis]

Hello, everyone!

 

Just happened to get my hands on Sisters half of Piety and Pain and it is my first sisters kit. And I wanted to clarify some momemnts before getting to assembling/painting.

 

1. Should I give plasma pistol to palatine or keep it as cheap as possible? Doesn't seem like much of an investment point-wise, but still I am not sure.

2. What is the current best loadout for retributors? Are combi-weapons worth it? I understand that Sisters are currently in a state of transition to new codex and many things are unclear, but still want to hear your opinion. Looks like any weapon more or less viable. Also, can I use retributor models in BSS as a heavy weapon models, or there's some kind of distinction?

3. Can I easily reassemble immolator as rhino and vise-versa without magnets, like rhino/razorback kit? Also, can I switch weapons without magnets like, say, for stormraven? I know that magnets is the best way, but just never happened to use them and prefere not to glue weapons if possible.

4. How to paint transparent stained glass bit? Are there any special paints for it?

5. What are the best kits to expand colletcion after such starting point? I was thinking about canoness, couple of BSS boxes for troops and engines of redemption box.

 

Thank you for you answers!

[Closet Skeleton]

You can't assemble the Immolator as a rhino out of the box as its a new Deimos Pattern kit not an old MKII rhino chassis like most kits. You would need a regular rhino roof and the front from the Sisters Rhino kit to make a deimos pattern rhino out of an Immolator or Exorcist.

 

I just used a few layers of Lahmian Medium to undercoat the window. I haven't painted it yet but contrast paints thinned with contrast medium will work as will a lot of regular washes..

Edited June 9, 2021 by Closet Skeleton

[RolandTHTG]

Hello, everyone!

 

Just happened to get my hands on Sisters half of Piety and Pain and it is my first sisters kit. And I wanted to clarify some momemnts before getting to assembling/painting.

 

 

Welcome to the Sisters. While I haven't gotten many games yet, I can give some modeling answers.

 

 

1. Should I give plasma pistol to palatine or keep it as cheap as possible? Doesn't seem like much of an investment point-wise, but still I am not sure.

 

The standard thought for support characters is to keep it as cheap as possible, but the point investment is small enough that unless you're fine tuning for a tournament you shouldn't notice the difference. 

 

2. What is the current best loadout for retributors? Are combi-weapons worth it? I understand that Sisters are currently in a state of transition to new codex and many things are unclear, but still want to hear your opinion. Looks like any weapon more or less viable. Also, can I use retributor models in BSS as a heavy weapon models, or there's some kind of distinction?

 

 I don't know the best loadout, but combi weapons can be decent. Adding one is an easy way to make the unit eligible for the Holy Trinity stratagem. The retributor models are fully interchangeable with the BSS squad models, including some of the arms and backpacks being swappable (I actually listed the easy arm swaps in this thread: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/361350-new-plastic-kits-loadouts/ ). Those models are also the only way to add a multimelta to a BSS squad. 

 

3. Can I easily reassemble immolator as rhino and vise-versa without magnets, like rhino/razorback kit? Also, can I switch weapons without magnets like, say, for stormraven? I know that magnets is the best way, but just never happened to use them and prefere not to glue weapons if possible.

 

I believe that the new kit is non-swapable, as it has a different top plate from the regular rhino. I don't know about the weapon switching. 

 

4. How to paint transparent stained glass bit? Are there any special paints for it?

 

The recommended method I've seen to keep things transparent is to use washes or glazes on the glass bits to add color without opaqueness. 

 

5. What are the best kits to expand collection after such starting point? I was thinking about canoness, couple of BSS boxes for troops and engines of redemption box.

 

Those should both be good, will give you a playable core to expand around. 

 

[Purifying Tempest]

Unfortunately, the Immolator top and the Rhino top aren't going to play well enough to allow conversions.  However, if you wanted to magnetize the Immolator turret weapons, that should be easily accomplished.  I think the weapons may stick in there with friction for a time, even, as those sockets are a pretty nice way for the weapons to attach to the turret.

 

Ret loadouts are kinda up to the owner.  I don't think there's an obviously wrong answer.  I do think that the combi weapon loses a lot of value if you're sporting Heavy Bolters, though, and I normally use it to enable Holy Trinity with my sergeant (so combi-melta with flamer rets and combi-flamer with MM rets), but I also tend to stick to Crusade and PL... so there's a little less pressure on me to optimize every single point.  I would probably still advocate the combi-melta on the HF rets, though, as that's A LOT of wound rolls you're adding +1 to.  Overall, though, if you wanna rock the competitive scene, up until this week, MM rets were the best pick... but I think HF rets are going to get a new lease on life.  HB Rets are probably going to lag a little based on how many are strapped to our hulls.

 

The Immolator canopy answer was the best one I've found: lhamean medium it, and then carefully use contrasts as a glaze-like paint.  It looks amazing, and you won't be disappointed.

 

Battle sisters are always a great way to expand - they are our only troops... and the army looks like it will be more CP hungry than ever, so dropping 3 CP for a specialist detachment when our troops are so versatile just seems like a miss.

[Purifying Tempest]

To expand a bit more:

 

Retributors are just normal battle sisters assigned to the squad.  I don't believe there is any special training, as they're expected to be able to operate those weapons even when assigned to the general-use battle sister squadrons.  The only squads (historically) that had special training were Celestians and Seraphim, and those are kinda more honorifics as opposed to elite training squads.  There is not really a division of training within their ranks, but more a hierarchy of seniority and accomplishment.  I'm kinda glad that they're representing that more in the rules, even at the expense of the rets losing those nice rules.  Now that does not account for any of the newer units, but I imagine they're going to ease into the existing lore fairly seamlessly.

 

Do bear in mind that I believe the Ret sprues in Piety and Pain are the stock ones you get in the box.  So you'll only receive 2 MM bits on that sprue.  Given that you're also looking at Battle Sister Squads, you get 1 HF/HB bit on that sprue.  So regardless of what your intentions are... if you think you ever want to run a MM squad, definitely build 2 out of that sprue... you'll thank yourself further down the line.  Flipping back to the Ret loadouts, since the heavy weapon models are interchangeable, that means the extra "Retributor with boltgun" bodies are 100% flexible with normal Battle Sisters, hence putting more emphasis on owning boring old Battle Sister models if you plan on adding a body-buffer to those Retributors.

[Corvus Fortis]

Thank you very much for detailed answer!

[Maschinenpriester]

I would recommend expanding your force with a BSS box. So you could use all the additional weapons from your Retributors box and have a lot to play around with.

But thats just me regularily playing around with lists and liking to have all options available. In case you wand for weapons of a kind, It is possible to cut off the tip of the Melters or the flamers and glue some spare tips on if you have a friend that has some at hand or you have some bits from lets say a space marine army.

 

I did not give my superior a kombi weapon because I love the pose with the book. But in general I like having kombi weapons on my superiors. Especially if you go the flamer route.

 

I also recommend magentizing the Immolator it is quite easy to accomplish. I just had the pleasure to paint mine recently and am currently working on the retributors.

 

For painting the window I can highly recommen Game Inks from vallejo. Got a set only to do this, because I dont have any contrast paints, and they are soooo expensive. THat was definitely a cheaper option to do it. I mixed the Inks with some medium and painted 1-3 layers depending on the colour. After that I finished with a gloss varnish to achieve the glass look.

 

I recommend keeping the glass part seperate first and masking the glass part before priming so the metal paint sticks good enough to the rest of the frame. Also it is easier to paint the metal frame before you paint the glass in my opinion.

 

I hope that helps.

[ThePenitentOne]

To expand the army, I'd consider holding out until the CP box drops- you're likely to be able to get substantial savings to compound the savings you've already received by going with Piety and Pain. Building armies out of boxed sets is my favourite way to do it- I may not end up with exactly the army I would have buying a unit at a time, but the savings are hard to beat.

[Purifying Tempest]

Yeah, if the Combat Patrol is the old Collector set + Rhino... that'd be great value.

 

For those who don't know:

 

1x Canoness

10x Battle Sisters (Flamer + Stormbolter, Superior with Boltgun and Chainsword, Simulacrum)

5x Seraphim (Bolt pistols on all, Superior with Plasma pistol and power sword)

4x Repentia

3x Arcos

1x Penitent Engine

 

And now possibly a Rhino.

 

Definitely a great place to start.

[Emicus]

I'm certain it's possible to make or find a 'hatch' for the Immolator after you remove the turret to make it a rhino.

 

Harder part is removing the heavy bolter in the front.

 

Just taking off the turret it's a great counts-as anyway :)