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IMO the sisters model aesthetic is perfect. Also the Blanche artwork is also one of my favs. Both work.

No, it's not realistic, but I'm not into 40K for realism.


There are "female warrior" models that are oversexualized in ways that would make me not purchase them, but the Sisters are just awesome.

Gen.Steiner wrote:
Given that we have no idea of the composition of their armour plate, I think it's safe to say that, yes, they are indeed fit warrior-nuns in heavy armour.

Say what you like, but let's all be clear that these are (and rightly should be) hyper-sexualized models wearing obvious fetish gear. The 2E Codex cover *is* definitive, and she is depicted wearing fetish boots and a corsetted latex rubbersuit. Pretending that it's at all protective is nonsense. That the Repentia weren't in B&D gear was a major disappointment to me, esp with the whip-wielding leader.

Just as Black Templars are obviously Khornate, Sisters are obviously BDSM Slanneshi.


For reference:

I'm bothered by the fact I'm not sure if that's a joke or not.

 Insectum7 wrote:
IMO the sisters model aesthetic is perfect. Also the Blanche artwork is also one of my favs. Both work.

No, it's not realistic, but I'm not into 40K for realism.

I do not want 40k to be realistic, I just don't want it to be dumb.

Everyone already knows my opinion of Blanche's "art" "work", so I will not devolve this thread in to a discussion on his "artistic" "capabilities".

 Melissia wrote:
Everyone already knows my opinion of Blanche's "art" "work", so I will not devolve this thread in to a discussion on his "artistic" "capabilities".

I like to think he made it as a satire piece, but GW ended up taking it seriously.

It is less embarrassing than the alternative, that is to be sure!

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Insectum7 wrote:
IMO the sisters model aesthetic is perfect. Also the Blanche artwork is also one of my favs. Both work.

No, it's not realistic, but I'm not into 40K for realism.

I do not want 40k to be realistic, I just don't want it to be dumb.

Oh, I fully agree. The SOB aesthetic is well into the realm of "not dumb", in my mind. It's crazy, sure, but not dumb.

The Repentia models are interesting to me, I feel like I should like them a lot less. They're wearing ridiculous outfits, but there's a bit of art in the book that goes a long way to selling the idea for me. And even though the outfits are ridiculous, the poses of the models I can still take seriously. Ultimately I think it's the attitude of the model that makes it work, in my opinion.

 Insectum7 wrote:
IMO the sisters model aesthetic is perfect. Also the Blanche artwork is also one of my favs. Both work.

No, it's not realistic, but I'm not into 40K for realism.


There are "female warrior" models that are oversexualized in ways that would make me not purchase them, but the Sisters are just awesome.

I completely agree with this post. Sisters do not require any amount of redesign, apart from purely technical considerations (such as the classic cloth drapery issue). I would say redesign beyond the technical is much more likely to be a detriment than a positive. They have a very unique and striking look. It ought to be preserved.

I am just utterly sick of boobplate being pasted onto female models in games of all types.

It not only looks dumb, it also is honestly pretty lazy.

There is a whole world of nuance separating the sexes, slapping on a pair of gratuitous tits and calling it a day is just bad, as is armour inexplicably being twodimensional.

OK, if we don't like the definitive Sisters of Battle look, then let's look at Witch Hunters:


In particular, the nude Penitent is excellent. That would have been a good alternative to B&D fetish gear.

I think the Sisters design is superb. Certain elements of their design are undoubtedly present and poorly done in a lot of other places. I don't disagree that endlessly recycling some design element (like the pointing unit NCO) is dumb and lazy. A whole slew of poor examples does not render each and every instance of that same thing terrible. Super soldiers are pretty commonly portrayed in sci fantasy and a lot of them look totally boring; but Space Marines look pretty awesome nonetheless.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I am just utterly sick of boobplate being pasted onto female models in games of all types.

It not only looks dumb, it also is honestly pretty lazy.

You know what though? I totally agree! I think the overuse of boobplate is damn stupid.

I just think that it happens to work for the SOB for a couple of reasons. One being that unlike so much other boobplate out there, the Sisters remain fully armored. They're not flashing thigh and midriff in the way so many examples do. Sisters are so much more "Catholic-Metal" than whatever a WOW Dark elf is.

The other main reason is that it's right in line with the docorative aspects of the Imperial/Ecclesiarchy's sometimes exorbitant opulence. Cathedrals on titans, pipe organ missile launchers, golden eagles on the prows of starships, the Throne of Judgement, not to mention the Blood Angel nipple armor. It just fit's right in.

I contrast them to the preferred direction for female Cadians, which should be simple, straight forward and practical. The head swap in otherwise completely standard, probably ill-fitting uniforms. Sisters are the military arm of the unimaginably wealthy church that just loves to bask in it's own decadence.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
OK, if we don't like the definitive Sisters of Battle look, then let's look at Witch Hunters:


In particular, the nude Penitent is excellent. That would have been a good alternative to B&D fetish gear.

Yeah that's one of the pieces that I like, too. Although I wonder if they went with the final model because the leather and mask is showing less skin. When I just looked up the models, they showing less skin and were actually more tasteful than I remembered.

Oh man, Sisters flashing skin would be dumb indeed - outside of Repentia, where charging into battle protected only by your faith in the Emperor and the sincerity of your penance is the whole point.

My buddies always lay into me about the Exorcist being a dumb design. I seriously don't get it why they would object to the love child of a tank and a pipe organ in an army of battle nuns. It's pitch perfect!

I guess I would be okay with the boobplate if the armor did not also look so thin it may as well be metal-painted spandex.

Give me this (though it does not have to be as exosuit-ey) and I will be silent.

Just to be clear, I hope you don't think anyone is asking you to be silent. Just disagreeing about my fav faction here. To me, these discussions are always about SoB and not just fastening some wider ideological point onto SoB because they happen to be female warriors. That is, I am a SoB fan particularly; not just a fan of the concept of female warriors generally.

No no, I just meant that I will be happy if that happens. I know no one is trying to silence me.

Except from the Modstapo.

I am rather ambivalent on the concept of SoB as a faction, but surely you must agree that the picture I showed could work just as well? It clearly has the Imperial themes going as well as the flair and fanfare of the Ecclessiarchy, and its design almost makes the suit look like a little cathedral. The back-thingy reminds me of an Imperator.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I guess I would be okay with the boobplate if the armor did not also look so thin it may as well be metal-painted spandex.

I don't know how thin it really is. Space marines are literal giants, so maybe the model just looks thin in comparison. Maybe it can be thinner because it doesn't have to support as much weight, or maybe because it's made from a fancier material, or maybe it really isn't as good as Space Marine power armor, but in the granularity of the tabletop game it's still good enough to warrant a 3+. I think there's room in there for it to work.

It plainly covers more than carapace armor. If it's made of better stuff you could attain the 3+ without it actually being as thick/protective as Marine armor.


Edit:

That's a pretty cool pic, but I think it suffers a bit from the gigantism syndrome that sometimes happens with armor. I know marines are big and all, but I like the idea that something doesn't have to be big in order to be effective/tough etc. The size of the Primarch models is ridiculous. Once I saw the Guilliman model in person I knew they just weren't for me. The whole "my awesome thing is bigger than your awesome thing" just bugs the heck out of me. Lean and mean has it's place.

I think the gameplay stats are pretty borked in general anyway (I still do not know why your average IG Major can eat two heavy bolter shells while naked and live where any of his men would be blown to pieces in even in armor).

It's a matter of plausibility, I suppose. I do not really buy that SoB armour is as protective as PA if it looks like they are wearing nothing at all.

It's a bit cluttered for me. I think there's so much going on with it it becomes hard to appreciate. Mind you it's still better than some current models.

It's just a concept picture. It is way too detailed to be translated perfectly into a model anyway.

I know. It has a lot of potential though.

Ashiraya, I actually hate that design. It's really generically executed.

How on earth is it generic? I have seen nothing of its like before.

SoB is just another dime a dozen boobplate case. I could grab anything out of WoW and it'd look like SoB!

I hate the shoulder-shields. Honestly the only thing I like about it is the chestplate, the rest I'd prefer current minis' aesthetics for.

I think if they took the current Sororitas minis and gave them the look of a medieval breastplate-- say, something of a more ornate breastplate than this-- but kept the rest, it'd look rather nice.

I'm kind of through with any sort of campaigning against the boob-plate, I just don't care enough any more and would just prefer plastics period, boob-plate or not, but if I WAS given a choice...

People will burn me alive for saying this but I wish GW would discountinue the Space Marines and have Deathwatch take over their slot, then focus on the SoBs

Seriously, they gave so much attention to the Space Marines, which (while technically original) is a very hard to protect IP due to how prolific the concept isit is, but the concept of armored battle nuns is actually fairly unique (I know there are other examples, but none are as famous as the SoBs, while there are enough space marine clones out there that some people do indeed think GW is the one plagarizing it) and probably a whole lot easier to defend.

Honestly yes. SoB is horribly bland and generic. The most interesting SoB stuff usually doesn't look like generic female space marines. It's their crazy cool Repentia models and Pentient Engine. They are fluff wise and look wise so cool looking compared to the rest of the line.

They need more models that show off their extreme faith and religious zealousness (as opposed to the Space Marines warrior zealousness). Stuff that only they can do due to their faith and beliefs. Weapons that only work for them to make them stand out ect. They need to have cheap repentia soldiers/slaves that could act as meat shield units and have explosive collars around their necks.

Make them cool. Make them unique and the players will come GW. It's okay to have them in power armor too, but it shouldn't be the main focus of the faction.

They stand out and give the army a reason to exist other than just female space marines because female space marines.

I don't think the SoB should be squatted, but they do need a moderate reworking from a visual stand point with some minor fluff reworking. I hate the lore of how they were sacrificed to make a space marine stronger by using their blood. That gak is lame and doesn't make me want to play them or even justify their existence.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
People will burn me alive for saying this but I wish GW would discountinue the Space Marines and have Deathwatch take over their slot, then focus on the SoBs

Seriously, they gave so much attention to the Space Marines, which (while technically original) is a very hard to protect IP due to how prolific the concept isit is, but the concept of armored battle nuns is actually fairly unique (I know there are other examples, but none are as famous as the SoBs, while there are enough space marine clones out there that some people do indeed think GW is the one plagarizing it) and probably a whole lot easier to defend.

Whaaaa? GW's Space Marines are the space marines other space marines aspire to.

But I'm wondering why there's yet another new SM faction, the Deathwatch, given a codex while the Sisters languish. Deathwatch, like the Grey Knights, should have remained just a fancy unit or two. The SOB are far more interesting as a faction.

 Ashiraya wrote:
How on earth is it generic? I have seen nothing of its like before.

I feel like I have seen it a bazillion times, usually as an enemy armor in a video game. I guess the novel part is that a woman is inside of it?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Insectum7 wrote:
GW's Space Marines are the space marines other space marines aspire to.

Very true. SM are great from a visual design perspective. Calling them boring seems a bit spoiled. But it could be like people complaining about Sisters who don't really like them anyway. "Sisters are terrible because [they are not what I want] and GW should change them [to cater to me even though I don't really care about them]." Ahem, Sisters do have an existing fanbase who already like them, and quite a lot actually!

I think we are made to feel like something MUST be wrong with Sisters because GW ignores them but it's really just another case of something being wrong with GW.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I guess I would be okay with the boobplate if the armor did not also look so thin it may as well be metal-painted spandex.

Give me this (though it does not have to be as exosuit-ey) and I will be silent.

Spoiler:

But is has boob plate !
When you say that the SoB's power armour is thin, are you speaking about the miniatures ? The Witch Hunter cover or the Blanche's... "art" (I usually love his work, but this one...) ?
I think the sisters' armour on the Witch Hunter codex are okay, and, IIRC, the models too. But, keeping the exact same design, if GW make plastic sisters, they could do them thicker.

Would you be ok with that ? Or do you really have a problem with SoB's design ?

 Insectum7 wrote:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
People will burn me alive for saying this but I wish GW would discountinue the Space Marines and have Deathwatch take over their slot, then focus on the SoBs

Seriously, they gave so much attention to the Space Marines, which (while technically original) is a very hard to protect IP due to how prolific the concept isit is, but the concept of armored battle nuns is actually fairly unique (I know there are other examples, but none are as famous as the SoBs, while there are enough space marine clones out there that some people do indeed think GW is the one plagarizing it) and probably a whole lot easier to defend.

Whaaaa? GW's Space Marines are the space marines other space marines aspire to.

But I'm wondering why there's yet another new SM faction, the Deathwatch, given a codex while the Sisters languish. Deathwatch, like the Grey Knights, should have remained just a fancy unit or two. The SOB are far more interesting as a faction.

You would not believe the number of aspiring video game makers (and I'm not talking amateurs, I mean people who are in a full 4 year college program spending money to do this. Although the mere fact they would spend money on such a program is questionable in of itself) who think the Space Marines i have are woefully generic and uninspired, despite the fact that some of those models predate video games. It's sort of a case of Seinfeld is Unfunny (basically the originator of something is found to be unoriginal because of how prolific it is, but was considered original during the time).