Sisters of Battle – Order of the Sacred Rose

The Sisters of Battle have come together, and I store my projects while gathering them in these sorting boxes. But this isn't a good overview, so while sorting out and taking stock, I decided to set up sheets for my projects that I can manage in photoshop and see which units go together, even after a break or being distracted by some shiny new stuff.

It might seem like a bit over engineered, but I wanted to have a proper overview on the poses and duplicates (I began doing this for 1990s Necromunda and 3rd edition of Blood Bowl, but expanded it into 40k 2nd).

The project currently covers 55 infantry models and 2 vehicles. Which gives me the following layout.

Army List

• Canoness with Banner bearer
• Squad of 7, Sister Superior, Hvy Bolter, Flamer
• Squad of 7, Sister Superior, Hvy Flamer, Flamer
• Squad of 7, Sister Superior, Multimelta, Melta
• Squad of 5 Seraphim, Sister Superior, 2x flame pistols
• Squad of 5 Seraphim, Sister Superior, 1x flame pistols
• Squad of 11 Frateris Militia
• Immolator
• Uriah Jacobus
• Redemptor Kyrinov
• 2 Priests
• 2 Missionaries (yes, I am aware, that these are 0-1 choices)

I am still looking for the third pose of the preacher (at a reasonable rate and not eBay prices). As for the Frateris Militia, I would like to boost that unit up a bit. I have three Mordheim Zealots that I already put on 25mm round bases for Inq28, so these are a good fit for alternate poses matching the theme and not breaking that whole mid to late 90s limitations of the project. Beyond that, I have Redemptionist Cult and Cawdor from 90s Necromunda, so those gangs could be used to raise the number of models and points (well, at 4 points each they are barely noticed on the point budget) occasionally. Otherweise

At 55 models it isn't the smallest project you can go for, a bit larger than a Space Marine army but surely more compact compared to Imperial Guards or Orcs.  Now it is time to choose the coat of arms. The poster guys - in this case girls - are the Order of the Martyred Lady. Basically all of the early Sisters miniatures were painted in that black with red contrast.

Even with Sisters of Battle being a bit niché (well, they received a bit of push after the latest re-release of their army), most of them are indeed painted like the Martyred Lady in black. And that just wasn't something that I was looking for. There are 6 different orders, split into Convent Sanctorium and Convent Prioris. The later being based on Terra, would be a better fit of an ally for my Imperial Fists, so that narrowed down the "canon" to Sacred Rose, Ebon Chalice and Argent Shroud. As Ebon Chalice is pretty close to Martyred Lady, they were ruled out. Argent Shroud looked interesting, but as there are vehicles included in this project and painting metal on large flat surfaces is a bit of no-no, I kept on thinking about the Order of the Sacred Rose. White as a main colour on a power armour wouldn't be my first choice, but with the Sisters of Battle power armour being more detailled and broken into multiple smaller surfaces, certainly a better base to do so than old Space Marines.

With the white rose, looking very similar to the coat of arms of House York (war of the roses) and the sketches from the Warhammer Community page, it shouldn't be hard to come up with decals or ideas for banners. As for the white paint job, I looked up a few videos on that. WarhammerTV covered them with Contrast Paints, which seems like a reasonable approach. That method is used by The Painting Coach and Juan Hidalgo as well, so that confirmed my plan. However vehicles are a bit tricky, here are no proper information on how they are painted, and the artwork in newer releases (Imperial Armour and younger Codex books) is contradictory. I think that the two-tone theme of the Rogue Trader Crimson Fists (picture from the RT compendium), but using the Sacred Rose colours would be a good option to give it more depth and make it look less plain.

As for conversions, John Blanche did a great sketch with some proper ideas for the Codex. And with the available named characters only covering Uriah Jacobus and Redemptor Kyrinov, there is certainly need to do something for the heroines of the Sisters, like St. Praxedis of Ophellia VII or Helena the Virtuous. Yes, both fluff wise not part of the Order of the Sacred Rose, but still having the option for a named female character to lead the army. Due to the lack of proper models, I was thinking of kitbashing a canoness and bits from the Sisters of Sigmar (maybe Bertha Bestraufrung). But I have one of the newer Canoness models from early 00s in blister here, yes not 90s middlehammer anymore, but would fit the purpose.

So next step, squeezing in a test miniature over the holidays.