Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok, so my first squad of Sisters is on its way! I'm going to be painting them up along with my Ultramarines and some Blood Angels.


I'm trying to pick a good theme for them. I like the army, but I'm wanting something a bit different than normal. Since this is a slow burn project, I've got plenty of time to figure this out, so I'm interested to hear your ideas on this. I'm probably going to collect my favorite options and hold a vote on them.

Of course, I could always go with the regular sisters from the second battle of Armageddon (martyred lady?). Easy to find info and inspiration for them.

Otherwise, I could go a bit different with it and create a homebrew order. If you make a suggestion for this one, give me a heads up as to what you're thinking!

and to start, I'm really interested in the Order of the Martyred Heart. Nice paint and unique fluff, plus plenty of room to expand the background. I got that from the discussion about Aztec themed marines and more specifically, here:
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Blood_Jaguars

Thoughts?

godswildcard wrote:
Ok, so my first squad of Sisters is on its way!

Damn right they are.

I'm trying to pick a good theme for them. I like the army, but I'm wanting something a bit different than normal. Since this is a slow burn project, I've got plenty of time to figure this out, so I'm interested to hear your ideas on this. I'm probably going to collect my favorite options and hold a vote on them.

Of course, I could always go with the regular sisters from the second battle of Armageddon (martyred lady?). Easy to find info and inspiration for them.

Otherwise, I could go a bit different with it and create a homebrew order. If you make a suggestion for this one, give me a heads up as to what you're thinking!

and to start, I'm really interested in the Order of the Martyred Heart. Nice paint and unique fluff, plus plenty of room to expand the background. I got that from the discussion about Aztec themed marines and more specifically, here:
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Blood_Jaguars

Thoughts?

Not a big fan of the Aztec bits. I like my sisters simple.

I think the martyred lady look is good and simple to paint, plus it will contrast nicely with your bright blue ultras and red blood angels

 pretre wrote:

godswildcard wrote:
Ok, so my first squad of Sisters is on its way!

Damn right they are.


Not a big fan of the Aztec bits. I like my sisters simple.

I think the martyred lady look is good and simple to paint, plus it will contrast nicely with your bright blue ultras and red blood angels

I was hoping you'd comment! My first sisters squad provided by our very own Pretre everybody!!

Martyred Lady is certainly my favorite 'codex' order. They also benefit from having a really good special character in the form of St. Celestine, am I correct?

godswildcard wrote:
Martyred Lady is certainly my favorite 'codex' order. They also benefit from having a really good special character in the form of St. Celestine, am I correct?

Yep. Although, I like to think of her of all orders and none.

As long as you are aware that something like that just wouldn't fly with the Sisters as they are written in GW's material, I see no problem with this. It's your army, and nobody forces you to stick to what it says in some Codex (certainly, novel authors and P&P designers deviate from it often enough as well).
Just be prepared to get the odd look or two from people who are used to the original fluff.

There are more Orders than just the commonly known Martyred Lady (which to the SoB is what the Ultras are to SM, in terms of exposure) - or, to be precise, five other Major Orders, and the Argent Shroud was active on Armageddon as well.


Then there is an unknown number of smaller Minor Orders that are basically descended from the "Big Six", daughter-houses that came into being by a strike force turning a temporary base into a permanent one and dedicating their efforts to some local matter. An example of this would be the Order of the Ermine Mantle in the Cadian Sector, which was featured a bit during the 13th Black Crusade.
The Minor Orders are there to cater to our "homebrewing" needs, to provide a tie-in for custom convents.

The big question is how different you want to be, exactly - there is a certain range of what would be possible whilst still sticking to the Sisters' original fluff, but in the end they are much more uniform than, say, the Guard or the Astartes. They only use three main colours, they all have the same haircuts, and so on - the only way to really differentiate them would be by their background and/or your exact army list.
For example, I think a "moderate" approach regarding a sort of "Aztec Sisters" would be possible by trying to insert minor elements into the narrow frame presented by the Codex, such as lots of references to the world their convent is placed on, having a shrine to an Aztec-themed (but Imperial-sanctioned) local saint to protect and pray to, perhaps giving them a single colourful feather to stick into their head (this is already a major breach with protocol, but I think it could be justified by fluffing it as an act of honouring that saint). Also, the convent could deliberately only accept brown-skinned Novices, making sure that even though new members will still come from all across the Imperium they will still "fit in visually" with the image you have in mind.

But, as mentioned before, if you feel an urge to "go wild", then discard the above and do so. Whether you stick to GW's idea of the Sisters, some other source's, or your own, is your choice.

Either way, good luck!

The Order of Our Martyred Lady gets the most attention from the studio. Any famous SOB character you've ever heard of has a 90% chance of originating from that Order.

If you're putting these in as allies to UM or BA, I think a black/white or black/silver motif might look good, standing out against the blue and the red, and also using the silver to balance against the gold common to both UM and BA.

While it is thinkable that some squads stranded on a backwater jungle world might improvise their outfit, personally I am not a fan of diluting the very strong Sororitas theme with something completely unrelated. Well, at least it's not spikes and tentacles.

Although it's overdone on Necrons and Grey Knights, I don't think I have ever seen any examples of people painting their SoB as the Order of the Argent Shroud. While I would pick a better contrast color for the robes than white, it would make your army unique. Well, more unique than simply "existing" as a SoB army, lol.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
Although it's overdone on Necrons and Grey Knights, I don't think I have ever seen any examples of people painting their SoB as the Order of the Argent Shroud. While I would pick a better contrast color for the robes than white, it would make your army unique. Well, more unique than simply "existing" as a SoB army, lol.

I'm working on Argent Shroud! I'm just trying to find some time to paint so I can get some done and make a tutorial out of it.

Google to the rescue!

Well, that proved me wrong!

Also, the white tabard is actually pretty good when you add a colored border. I have been thinking of stripping and re-painting my Sisters (way back when they came out I was a pretty newbie painter), and after my latest army I coincidentally found that I really like the smooth grey look of Boltgun Metal (well, the armypainter version anyway now that GW has changed paints) after a coat of Badab Black.

Hmmm........I may have to ponder that.

The red border indeed looks good - although codexwise, this would mark the miniature as belonging to a descending Minor Order, as the Argent Shroud has pure white, but with red inner lining.
Small but important detail!

Ooooooo....the argent shroud IS pretty....