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Hey there guys,
This is a blog that follows the creation of The Order of the Pure Rose, a Sisters of Battle order by Zarkin 1st things first, this is a painting blog after all so heres a pic of how the army stand now:




The Beginning

Back in 2010 I painted this Saint Celestine mini and I was really proud of it. NMM on a suit of armor is no easy task for someone who started the hobby that very same year. I spent ALOT of time not just painting her but researching and preparing to paint. Now, I like the mini so much that I've decided to base an army around her. I've got around 1500pts worth (if you're looking to get rid of your Sisters of Battle, I'll buy em up for ya)

For this blog they will be called The Pretty Sisters, but otherwise named The Order of the Pure Rose.

The Fluff

During one of the most infamous campaigns of Sororita history the Order of the Bloody Rose led by their Canoness Saint Aspira liberated one thousand worlds with only one thousand sisters from the tyrant Denescrua and his legions. Upon return the order was idolized and Aspira venerated, The Cloak of St. Aspira becoming a holy relic of the order. However, Seraphim Superior Katherine, Aspira’s second in command knew the truth of the orders success. Katherine had witnessed the extents to which Aspira went to secure victory. For every one of those thousand worlds there was another screaming out for help, only to be ignored by Aspira. When Katherine had asked why she replied, “Their lives are not worthy of MY sisters”. And so after the campaign and years of political struggles Katherine founded her own order, now known as The Order of the Pure Rose.


Essentially they are a rebellious sect of sisters from The Order of the Bloody Rose led by their Living Saint Katherine. On the purist to radical scale they are absolutely pure, believing that every innocent life is sacred and must be protected at all costs. However the Bloody Rose has a more utilitarian point of view (greater good etc).

So their symbol will be a white rose on a pink background. THATS RIGHT! Pink! My reasoning: The Bloody Roses are radicals = red, The Pure Roses are pure = white. Red + White = PINK!

Anyway, I hope you enjoying reading/looking at my blog

Thank you!

Wow, that works really nicely! I like your back story, too.

I like the idea of basing your girls with flowered tufts, like these:



For your bolter casings/helmet visors, you have a couple options I think...

Matchie - make them pink or nmm gold. I like the bolter you have with the gold-ish case! Visors: in this case, just highlight the edges with sharp edge highlights to make them stand out.

Contrasty - make them turquoise or pale pastel green, for example.

Metal -Metallics are neutral, so you could just do silver metal (greys with nmm are pretty easy for these bolters). Bright or dark metal is up to you. Grey actually works very well with both yellow and pink, for color harmony, so the more I think about it, the more this is sounding interesting.

I did something similar. my Sisters are linked below. Photos aren't all that great and the girls are packed away, now, but this is just for colors! I have several cloak colors over an aged bone armor, which almost comes out as an NMM gold. Bolters I kept straight metal, except standard sisters who have blood red casings. Visors are aged white.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-23809-6485_Gymnogyps%20Presents%3A%20Sisters%20Of%20Battle.html

Anyway, hope this helps! Looking forward to seeing more of your models!

Thanks for the advice Gymnogyps! Your sisters are awesome!

I think I'll take your advice on the visor color. Pink and then a bit of a freehand motif in white might go well.

NMM botlers on an entire force will be a little too time consuming for me I think. I think I'll just try to highlight them more to make them pop a bit.

Cheers

So I took the rest of your advice and came up with a few different options

Firstly, the pink visor with green eyes is locked in. I'm diggin it.

Secondly, I still haven't decided on a bolter casing color. Here are 3 different options, what do you think?

Yes, the pink visor with green eyes looks really sharp.

Wow that was fast with getting your test models readied and up. Bravo!

First impression, I'm thinking the green casing on the bolter is a bit too much.

It looks like you have one of the other options as matching the gold on the shoulder pads, yes? I'm leaning a bit toward that idea. Kind of like the bolter is a part of the "bling". LOL

I was just thinking this is like building an outfit for a lady, with the bolter = purse. Do you have a fashion conscious person that you could pose it to this way, and get input? LOL I'm not great at such things. I know, it might be a weird conversation, but hey it could be fun, too!

Edit: what about your original bolter casing (the yellowish/whitish ones) with some green and pink scroll work accents?

Funny you say that, cause it was my girlfriend that came up with the scheme in the first place!

The problem is, she's also stumped with the bolter casing.

I went with a dark bronze type gold in the end, pics up when I get home.

IM liking them. Kepp up the good work and i have to say i like option 3 quite a bit.

Here's a group shot of the final models. The color scheme is locked in and now to paint 40-50 of them before the tournament on the 23rd Feb



I've also tried out the scheme on a Seraphim. I'm quite pleased with it.

Thanks to Gymnogyps's Sisters for inspiration for the blue pastel against bone, it works really well as a thruster color.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here's my list of what I have to get done by the 23rd of Feburary.

23 Bolter Sisters
3 Sister Superiors
2 Meltagun Sisters
5 Flamer Sisters
2 Storm Bolter Sisters
1 Heavy Flamer Sister
9 Seraphim
3 Rhinos
2 Exorcists

Pretty daunting!

Here's an update

Love em! The brass casing is definitely the way to go. never did like color on weapons, makes them look like squirt guns!

Wow yes they are looking great! Excellent final selection on bolter cases!

I really love the little detail of the freehand rose on the sleeve.

And thanks for the nod on the blue for the thrusters...

I'm sending you good thoughts, so how did you do on completing them all?

What are you thinking for basing? I really like the grey rocks under Celestine, do you think you'll continue that idea for the rest?

Edit- because I didn't realize it was 1 month till due date for painting completion!

Hey Gymn, Nah I haven't completed them. Not even close. Still got 2 Rhinos, 2 Immolators, 1 Battle Sister squad, 2 Dominion squads, 2 Penitent Engines and an Exorcist to go!

And only a month to do it in!

Whoa, I was thinking EXACTLY that for the bases. Great minds. Great minds.

@SlaveToDorkness Thanks man I totally agree, but I had to make sure it wasn't too gold, otherwise its just TOO much bling. So I made it a brass kind of color.

Zarkin wrote:Hey Gymn, Nah I haven't completed them. Not even close. Still got 2 Rhinos, 2 Immolators, 1 Battle Sister squad, 2 Dominion squads, 2 Penitent Engines and an Exorcist to go!

And only a month to do it in!

Whoa, I was thinking EXACTLY that for the bases. Great minds. Great minds.

Oooh Penitent engines! I love those models... And the tanks, can't forget them!

I'm very much looking forward to seeing what you do with them all!

These girls look great! I can't wait to see what you do with the vehicles. Good like with the competition!

This is fantastic. They really are pretty. Subbed

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Just a quick update, this Penitent Engine is HELL to paint. I've painted a lot of minis in my days but this one easily takes the cake in terms of difficulty.

There's so many nooks and crannies that I have to shove my little brush into. The white priming seems to soak the paint up, either that or the hot weather (here in AUS) just insta-dries everything.

Then I realise I've got another one to do... Just makes me wanna tip the boltgun metal over it and call it done!

Hopefully I'll get done and pics will be up soon.

I really like your style with these Sisters, they are also the polar opposite of my Sisters Venatores im currently working on, but at the same time we both use a similar colour palette (cream/bone) for the majority of the armour.

With mine im going for a dark grimy look, like they havent been able to have any downtime for months/years to repair etc. But with your's look like you are raelly going for the almost angelic fell with the pastel shades and the cleanness. I really like it, and you are really pulling the concept off.

With regards to the bases, I reckon the idea of flowers etc is perfect it'd really enhance the angelic/holy look of them.

keep up the good work, I cant wait to see how the Penitent engine turns out, im not a big fan of the model itself, but im really interested to see your take on it.

Hey guys, another update.

This time an Immolator with their Dominions




cheers

Nice! Your scheme translates well to vehicles. Keep the pink to a minimum as an accent color and this army will be pretty great!

Two things though:

paint the framework of the clear glass piece, it looks odd without it.
The lenses should have a darker color of green at the highest point 9the area where the reflective whitespot goes). You really want to take it as close to black as possible.

Thanks for the tips man, will do

No problem. I love to see out-of-the-box paint schemes. Especially on armies that tend to be so standard (SoB or Gks).

It's always good to see Sisters armies. These are indeed pretty!

those look really good ^_^ how did you get the pink so smooth?

also, did any bronies out their think fluttershy when they saw this colour scheme?

I'm really enjoying how well done these are!

With a little bit of basing they will look top notch and very different!

CHeck out my workbench if you have a minute

Hey guys,
Been a while but this update is a BIG update.

Here we go:

Hey,

Sorry about the lack of updates for a while. I've been busy with a few tournaments. Tournaments which I brought these ladies along to!

I've finally finish around 1500-1750 points worth of these Sisters as well as a display board and I'm feeling pretty pleased with my self. My first full army! (I got into this hobby just painting random single minis and a few squads)

So here are some pics of the finished (except one or 2 girls) army on its display board.








So there ya have it, thats essentially the list I ran for the 1500pts tourneys. adding Uriah and his conclave for 1750 (not finished painting yet)

I'll have a few summary style Battle Reports coming up soon too.

Cheers!

Very nice looking Sisters Army.

Overall, I like it. However, I do have some constructive criticism.

Firstly the tanks need weathering. Having them so pristine makes them look slightly like they're made out of white chocolate. A bit of weathering powder could work well, but experiment on a test model first.

Secondly this is more personal taste than anything else, but the colours look a bit TOO girly. Not awful, just a little bit shoujo.

Actually, that's given me an idea: Yurihammer 40'000. In the grim darkness of the far future there is only awww...

Anyway, I love the army, especially the bases, and look forward to seeing more from you. Good luck!

Love it Zarkin! Thanks for the army shots. They look very cohesive.