Painting the Fantascape Gothic Ruins Bases:

Part of the Oath of Moment for the Repaint of the Ark Angels I undertook to re-base all of the models to somthing suitable for my Fanatically Religous Sisters of Battle.  To be fit for purpose the bases had meet the follwoing requirement:

• Ruined Cathedral style
• Functinal as a base with flat enough areas to accomodate the sisters flowing Habits.
• A range of standard GW base sizes including 25mm, 40mm and the Large Oval bases

There are a few manufacturers out there and in the end I went with Fantascape.

This is How I am painting them:

• Preparation
• Wash in warm soapy water
• Undercoat with Halfords Grey Primer
• Basecoat Citadael White spray
• Stone Surfaces
• VMA:MudBrown:Water in 4:5. Wash in stripes across the base
• VMA:DarkSeaGreen:Water in 4:5 Wash the Remainder of the White.  Pull and feathewr the Edges as you go.
• Heavy overbrush of VMC:Offwhite, 
• Drybrush of VMA:White once the overbrush is thoroughly dry
• VMA:Olive Drab: Water 1:1 Wash into the cracks and around edges.
• Drybrush of VMA:White 
• Darklight the cracks again with CW:Devlan Mud Wash
• Soil
• Paint any soil, or areas under stones like on the back of the oval base rather than the gravelly debris on the surface, with C:Calthan Brown
• Overbrush this with bleached bone, then wash all soil, and other sand-based debris with CW:Devlan Mud.
•  Grass
• Glue on C:Static Grass Clumps with CyanoAcrylate glue

This is an unashamed rip of the original article.  I have posted without the authors paermission and modified it to colour pallette I have at my disposal. I have reposted this for my own reference purposes.


Key
VMA: Vallejo Model Air
VMC: Vallejo Model Colour
VGC:  Vallejo Game Colour
C: Citadael
AOC: Windsor Newton Artists Oil Colour
CW: Citadel Wash

Glory to the God Emperor!

I have completed the Oath of Moment.  The Thunderbolt was the last item completed.

2 Imagifiers:

 One is a conversion of a very old and OOP model, the other is an out of the box from the latest catalouge.

10 Battle Sisters with Bolters:

Why have 10, When you can have 17!
  

 This part of the Oath of Moment was over subscribed by 7 models.  With these I can now field two complete units of 20 sisters of battle with Imagifiers and spevial weapons.  I wam slowly comming around to the idea that SoB units are best fielded around 15 members with Heavy bolter and Storm Bolter combinations.  I have run a few games with Heavy Flamers and Flamers, but they almost never get used.  Thes euints are castles.  flamers are wasted.

1 Heavy Flamer:

Another oversubscription.  I Pledged for one, and instead completed four!  NBow that I have them I am struggling to see how they fit in.  It would seem to me that they would be best suited to dominions, used in blocks of four in a fast vehicle to cut down enemies in drive by flamings. However Dominions dont bert them.  The Other option is the Retrebutor Squad.  But Exorcists are just too good in the slot.  SoBs have a very strong Heavy slot, and the competition is just too great to field one of these squads.

 

1 Thunderbolt:

Somthing to give the SoBs some presence in the air.

 A Multi role fighter, I have had mixed success with this, It has seen action three times and been shot out of the air every time.  It arrives, kills somthing hard to reach and is then Annihilated.

 

Once It turned up on second turn with a ground attack load out, blew appart an Avatar, then was jumped by two phoenix Bombers and destroyed.  The second time it came on, it splashed a squad of  Nurgle Marines, then was jumped by a Chaos Dragon thingie, and was destroyed.  The Most Recent game it arrived second turn, loaded for anti air, destroyed a Warp Hunter being used as hidden artillery, then was cut out of the sky by an aegis Defense line quad auto cannon.

I think it is still a must for any game as Anti Air role.

So what next?

Well, I think I will continue with the theme of no new purchases untill I have made a dent in the storage cupboards of unmade stuff.  While venturing into the grey cupboards of doom looking for parts, I have uncovered:

• 3 Sororitas Rhinos (Half finished)
• 1 Sororitas Exorcist (Half finished)
• 1 Sororitas Army Box (2nd Edition)
• 7 blisters of  Battle Sisters (Assorted)
• 15-20 loose Sisters of Battle of various types
• 3-5 Seraphim
• 1 Avenger Class Flyer

So I think another Oath of Moment is Required:

I will not purchase any more models from any genre

Until the Adepta Sororitas of the Ark Angles

 Have a Mobile Force Organisation

This I Swear before the God Emperor of Mankind

Ave Imperator! Domine Libra Nos!

I will complete:

• 2 Imagifiers
• 2 Heavy Bolters
• 10 Sisters
• 3 Rhinos
• 1 Exorcist

 This I will do before moving on to other, already purchased and unused models.

The prototype

Arch Magos stood on the balcony overlooking the courtyard of the third vestibule for lesser forge gate number three. He was here to greet a delegation of the Echelsiarchy, The most holy Deacon Augustulus.
The Deacon thought he was here to discipline the arch magos, but no one disciplines an arch magos in his own forge.
The duumvirate had sent notes to his forge when the flow of tribute began to slow, curious as to why this might be.
When the trubute of manufactured goods stopped altogether the demands become strident and even insulting which had led to this, the most outrageous sleight of all: A Deacon of the false omnisiah, standing as if he had any right to in this holy place, making demands of his Forge.

The most vexing aspect of this interruption was that the machine that he'd been working on an secret for months was ready. He had only had to do was switch it on and prototype would comence its operation it would begin to produce a material wealth not seen in the Forge for many months. All the machine needed to function was a small amount of raw material to function, a few common earths mixed in with an incantation, plus a sprinkling of powdered soul.
For many months now, the more exotic materials had been quietly harvested from the helots of other forges, a small price to pay to restore the wealth and power that were the due of his forge.

The Deacon stood surrounded by his retinue in what he undoubtedly thought was an intimidating pose. to his left stood Sister superior Shira, Palatine of he Ark Angels, resplendent in here full battle plate. Behind the Deacon drawn up in battle array stood ranks of sisters of battle, proud adaptus sororitas, committed devotees of the false emperor.
Two bearers came forward with a great scroll held before them. A third servitor, used its Maniples to unroll the great scroll to the appointed place.
The deacon stood before the scroll and began to read:

"by order of the Duumvirate the most holy Govenor X and Arch Magos Y rulers most justly and rightly appointed by the god emperor of the Demesne of Vanadian. Arch Magos Amun is reqested and required to Open his forge to the just and righteous inspection by Deacon Augustulus of His Holy Church.
This Comands the Lords of the Duumvirate in the Name of Him on Terra,

Silence fell over the inner bailey, High over the courtyard perched Sister Superior Sabine Sabbat.
Arrayed about her were her battle sisters, members of the holy order archangels they were silent but for the whine of the suspensor which allowed them to carry the massive heavy Bolters, typical armament of the Retrobutor squad she commanded.
Sabat and her squad had dismounted one block back and made their way to their current vantage point through the plasterboard interior walls of the jab block behind this one. Sabat now saw the wisdom of the move. While her eyes gave her an in paralleled view of the courtyard below, the prey sight of her 'Sabat' pattern helm showed her so much more.
Behind the wall of the reception courtyard the palatine stood in, Sabat could see several war machines. Prey sight painting them in blood red, power levels were spiking as servos warmed and guns were cycling through arising rituals.
With a thought, Sabat clicked open a channel to Palatine Shira. And sole the code word "Goge".
The Palatines response was equally brief: "Fire"

An oath of Moment

I'm nearing completion on my Oath of Moment! In fact I have blitzed it, exceeding the requirements by almost double for the infantry. I painted considerably more than 10 Bolters; four instead of two heavy bolters.
I am about to complete the Navy thunderbolt.
During the course of painting the sisters, for the oath of moment, I got all excited to have purchased 100 25mm custom bases and two flying bases. The bases are gothic cathedral ruins from Fantascape. I rebased almost the entire army with these from the old home made "snowy ruins" theme.
The new models are all airbrushed, and compared to the old method of 9 to 12 thin layers they are much brighter it comes with a sacrifice though. The colour graduations are not as uniform.
The question is now, what to do with the reward. Well, forge world just started releasing Warhammer 30k. As a reward for completing close to 25 models and a vehicle that have bee languishing in cupboards for close to 10 years I will allow myself to buy Angron and an Avenger.
The next model to be built in an oath of moment will be a Dice tower.

Soroitas Squad Magda Veterana

Again, these Models were finished years ago.  I field Soroitas squads as infantry in blocks of 12-15, with 2 heavy weapons.  Their job is to hold the objective.  they make a tough resilient road block, and are difficult to shift.  They remain somwhat weak in close assault, but for short to medium range firepower, they are devastating.  currently they are tooled up with flamer and Melta as a multi role unit, but I am thinking of swapping out the flamer for heavy flamers.  I am near to completing my Oath of Moment, having painted the four heavy flamers I have had sitting around for years, i will be able to do this.
The Cheribum is the Faith point marker that (Under the old rules) Sister Superior Magda Veterana contributed to the faith point pool.

First Battle in the Ruins of Medusa

The Ark Angels are participating in a campaign over on The Ruins of Medusa.  Here they are seen dismounting from a Rhino, before wasting the retinue of lord Arrrrgle.  The Ark Angels are relic collectors.  They seek to recover holy relics of the Imperial creed, where they have fallen into the hands of heretics, or where they are endangered through conflict.
As the Campaign is all about recoverign relics, I thought it time to trot out the Adepta.

Retributor Squad Sabine Veterana

These models were finished years ago.  Of all of my Sisters of Battle, the Retributors have remained the most consistently fielded unit.

The vaugeries of Games Workshop codex design have left this little unit effecive and lethal through all of the codexes.  Four heavy bolters are lethal enough, four heavy bolters with Faith in the Emperor guiding the rounds to the Rending rule make them truely scary.  Despite these women being at the top of any enemies target priority list, they are often one of the only units left standing at the end.

Battle for Sanctuary 9000 in Tortuga Marches

These Sisters were all hand painted in approximatedly 9 layers each.  Strating from a black undercoat, then a Codex Grey base coat up to white, layered with very thin paint in a heavily charged brush.
I have never had the models to change out retributoirs as Multi Meltas, and I do not see the point of fielding a mixed weapons unit.