EPIC Sisters of the Shattered Trope.

[madd0ct0r]

Evenin' all.

this is the start of an experimental force. The Sister's of Battle were (sort of)
my first 40K army I do intend to put together a 2000pt list of mechenized sisters, zealots, flaggellents and a traction cathedra.

Yep - a big rumbling catherdral on treads, big enough to carry 40 sisters, their rhinos, a priest and 20 zealots, a full squad of arco flagellents and 2 penetinent engines.

And I mean carry, for it will also be the army transport case.

now, the sister's alone will be in the region of 80 quid and frankly, I haven't the money (yet).

But pencils are free (while i can still pinch them from work) and so I've put together a few examples of ecclisiarchy, Sister and Inquisitorial armour.
Since I don't have a garage to park them in I probably won't be building these for 40K but I do have a growing urge to try a sister force for EPIC.
anyhow:

[madd0ct0r]

The first level is a traction shrine - basically the exorcist.

Next up:

Traction Chapel

Two Variants:

Episcopula; Divigilant





The first is an Ecclisiarchy Special, a holy roller if you will.
The wreck of a martyred Landraider is resurrected as the personal transport of a powerful Priest and his favourite 14 zealots. Using the tattered armour as protection, they charge recklessly towards the enemy lines, evisarators revving in anticipation.

The latter is the Sister’s answer to the Imperial Guard Hydra. Crewed by two sisters in large, ornate observation domes; the Divigilant pours a stream of heavy bolter fire into the sky, tracking those foolish enough to oppose the Emperor. The heretic approaches in many ways, and this vehicles crew have no compunction about bringing it’s firepower to bear on the foot soldiers of Chaos either.

Weaponry:
The Episcopula I am tempted to give it two fire points for its cargo and then call it a day. One load out I’ve been considering are grapeshot style cannons for trench clearing.
The Divigilant is of course armed with a pair of twin linked heavy bolters.

[madd0ct0r]

Traction Priory

Archmolator



On the Shrine Worlds the taint of heresy is quickly detected and purged in the Emperor’s name. Occasionally however, a cult has time to prepare and then something slightly less subtle is required. Completing the trinity of Bolter, Flamer and Melta is the Archmolator, a lumbering tank the size of a Baneblade. The rear half of the tank is taken up entirely with generators and oversized heat sinks, so the storm of the Emperor's wrath may pass over the Sisters inside.

Weaponry:
The principle weapon is the front, off centre melta cannon. A couple of pintle mounted storm bolters are often included for anti-infantry duty but little else.
The Archmolator cannot be distracted from its purpose.

[madd0ct0r]

Traction Cathedra



Larger again, this Leviathan sized construction is capable of supporting a few dozen Sisters near indefinitely and can carry many times that when the convent marches to war.

Weaponry:
Two oversized gargoyles guard the front door, belching flame and cutting through the ranks of any foolish enough to stand against the Cathedra.
Mounted either side of the central tower, twin linked Heavy Bolter turrets support allies on either flank, and a launch pad at the rear allows seraphim and to take to the skies.
In their zeal, the transported sister’s often crowd the deck, bringing their divinely guided bolters to the battle.

[madd0ct0r]

I gave up on my wobbly pen drawings for these three - just too much damned detail.

Capitol Imperialus, no less scary for being misspelt.



This was just the base model for the next two.



Capitol Sanctus



Based off the already rare Capitol Imperialius, and found on only a few war-torn Shrine Worlds, the Capitol Sanctus carries everything an entire convent of Sisters will need to wage war.
While not carrying any notable conventional weaponry, the foremost of the steeples often carries a Bell of Saint Lucius, inscribed with the great man’s life work. The tolling carries above the loudest battle, filling the hearts of worshipper and heretic with purpose and fear respectively.
The cloisters between the two spires house flocks of cherubim servitors, the smallest and most distressing of the Ecclisiarchy’s arco-flagellents.


Capitol Sussurra



Not all worlds are judged from orbit; sometimes a more personal approach is required. In these cases, a Capitol Sussurra – the Court of the Inquisitors is sent forth amongst the population. Belching smoke from four constantly running furnaces, the Sussurra slowly moves from one hive to the next, its crew of clerks and explicitators working non stop to process the population. Mounted between the front towers and the rear chimneys are two valkyries, ready to deliver squads of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers to any suspected flashpoints.

[EmperorNorton]

Interesting concepts, but how are you going to build these?

[TimLeeson]

This sounds like the start of a very cool project, but how are you going to do the sisters infantry ? I imagine you'd be using brown-stuff and plasticard for the vehicles but how will you do 6mm sisters ?

[madd0ct0r]

I will ask other, more skilled people then I very nicely.

That's only half joking - there are a number of very talented people out there who have already built 6mm Sister's, normally by shaving down marines.

I'm hoping that living in the biggest industrial city in the UK, i'll be able to find a firm that can 3d print models from computer designs but that's still very much a loose idea.

As it is these babies are a little down my list of things to do sadly

[LoneSniperSG]

I gave up on my wobbly pen drawings for these three - just too much damned detail.

Capitol Imperialus, no less scary for being misspelt.



This was just the base model for the next two.



Capitol Sanctus



Based off the already rare Capitol Imperialius, and found on only a few war-torn Shrine Worlds, the Capitol Sanctus carries everything an entire convent of Sisters will need to wage war.
While not carrying any notable conventional weaponry, the foremost of the steeples often carries a Bell of Saint Lucius, inscribed with the great man’s life work. The tolling carries above the loudest battle, filling the hearts of worshipper and heretic with purpose and fear respectively.
The cloisters between the two spires house flocks of cherubim servitors, the smallest and most distressing of the Ecclisiarchy’s arco-flagellents.


Capitol Sussurra



Not all worlds are judged from orbit; sometimes a more personal approach is required. In these cases, a Capitol Sussurra – the Court of the Inquisitors is sent forth amongst the population. Belching smoke from four constantly running furnaces, the Sussurra slowly moves from one hive to the next, its crew of clerks and explicitators working non stop to process the population. Mounted between the front towers and the rear chimneys are two valkyries, ready to deliver squads of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers to any suspected flashpoints.

Aren't these things seen in the SOB codex in some artwork?

[madd0ct0r]

Based off it yeah. A luverly 2 page spread of the freakshow that an inquo army should be.

Ironically, since i worked these out, i did a little digging on some Epic forums and found most of them had been done before. so less points for orgionality then i thought. bugger.

[madd0ct0r]

Time passes, I'm burnt out on my Varyngr/Squats and have finally succummbed and bought some Sisters.

£23:00 for a pack of ten basic troops. This is going to hurt my wallet.


List as planned now: 1500pts

Cannonness Wenchling: 131pts
Jumpack, Book of Saint Ludicrous, Cloak of 2+ save, Blessed Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Bionics

Cannonness Bulwark: 100pts
Bolter/Melta, Brazier of Fire, Book of St Ludicrous, Litanies of Faith

- Celestiane Retinue: 89pts
- 5xCelestians, Heavy Flamer, Melta

- Immolator: 73pts
- Immo, Extra armour, smoke

Nutter the Priest: 61pts
Shotgun, Brazier of Fire, Power armour
Rides with:

- Celestians: 83pts
- 5xCelestians, Heavy Flamer, Flamer

- Immolator: 83pts
- Immo, Extra armour, smoke, Holy Promethium


Sister Squad A: 159pts
10 sisters, Veteran upgrade, Melta, Melta, Bolter/Flamer, Book of Saint Ludicrous
- Rhino: 58pts
- Rhino, Smoke, extra armour

Sister Squad B: 159pts
10 sisters, Veteran upgrade, Melta, Melta, Bolter/Flamer, Book of Saint Ludicrous
- Rhino: 58pts
- Rhino, Smoke, extra armour


Exorcist A: 148pts
Exorcist, dozer blade, smokes

Exorcist B: 148pts, smokes
Exorcist, dozer blade

Penitent Engine Squadron: 160pts
2x Penitent Engines.


It's far from optimal, maybe about 20% of the points are poor choices, but I want PE's dammit.

[Justin Kase]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this

One question, where are you buying epic scale SoB ???

[madd0ct0r]

You can't.

There a few projects underway on Taccoms that may make it a reality, but for the moment, it takes quite a lot of extensive knife work.

I owe you an apology anyway. Due to being surronded by 40K players, I'm doing a 40K sister force first. The EPIC in the title will have to remain an aspiration for now.

[madd0ct0r]

Ok, The Sisters of the Shattered Trope:

It is recorded in the annals of the great Crusade that in 31st Milleniumm, the Emperor beamed down to the surface of IB3145 for approximetly 11 minutes, appearing much relieved on his return.

One of the ships of the fleet had been having trouble with a number of unstable reactor rods, and took the opportunity to jettison them before the fleet departed. The rods were captured by the IB3145 gravity well and soon crashed into the frozen planet, rapidly melting through the ice until they lay upon the rocky core.
Shaped through slow grinding tidal forces the planets outer layer was destabilised by these new hotspots, great continent size icebergs sliding rapidly on thin layers of water, volcanoes spewing ice slush onto previously flat plains, the face of the planet remade weekly.

It was not until M37 that the Sisters succeded in placing a shrine upon where the Emporer had walked. The planet had been long settled with a small population extracting the sticky alcholic fluid that occured where suffiecent carbon was present in the ice to react over time. This Massivley-Altered-Previously-Longchained-Ethanol was the planets main export, along with IG units.

The Sister's small shrine inspired a new wave of devotion through the population, although the wandering nature of the Ice meant it seldom remained in the same place long.


A thousand years later, the planet, now designated a Shrine World, was attacked by a minor Waaaagh. The Sisters set off to the crash site heavily armed with all aspects of the Holy Trinity - Flamer, Melta and Bolter.

None returned.

After two days, a small group of the minermen cautiously approached the site. Peeking over the crater rim, they were amazed to see the Battle Sisters surrounded by burnt and frozen corpses, but trapped in the ice up to their waists.
The sheer heat of the battle had been too much for the already damaged frozen crust, and both sides had plunged into a shallow lake, which, exposed to the biting air, quickly froze over.

Approximetly half the convent had perished in the cold of those two days, none to the orks. Afterwards, Cannonness Practicum, ordered the wholesale usage of the Snow Screw Pattern Vehicle, as was in wide use by the civilian population. Sufficiently armoured it offerred the same protection as a Rhino but with the ability to cross Ice, open water and the difficult bits in between.


http://screwasylum.wordpress.com/200...ssian-vehicle/

[Chaos and Evil]

Aww I thought this would be for EPIC.

[confused but smiling]

i love the idea of the Capitol Sussurra

Not all worlds are judged from orbit; sometimes a more personal approach is required. In these cases, a Capitol Sussurra – the Court of the Inquisitors is sent forth amongst the population. Belching smoke from four constantly running furnaces, the Sussurra slowly moves from one hive to the next, its crew of clerks and explicitators working non stop to process the population. Mounted between the front towers and the rear chimneys are two valkyries, ready to deliver squads of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers to any suspected flashpoints.

i think the best part of this is the valks and inq stormies flying off and enacting the Emp's will, with shotguns and hotshot lasguns.
The stormtroopers would need a way to open locked doors and get to the heretics, how about underslung shotguns? i'll post a pic up soon, basically a bolter grip with a peice of round plastic in front and behind so it looks like this

(

http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/e/e7/M4masterkey01.jpg/400px-M4masterkey01.jpg

)

[madd0ct0r]

Aww I thought this would be for EPIC.

Sorry E&C, maybe some of the larger warmachines. I'll be 3d modelling them anyway so we could always upload them into the Otterbot.
Also depends on further developments with the Zomboie' sister...

(names deviously changed slighty following the protocols of the Whiskered One)

[madd0ct0r]

i think the best part of this is the valks and inq stormies flying off and enacting the Emp's will, with shotguns and hotshot lasguns.

yeah, well you would. bloody valkyrie nut, I'm surronded by them.



and to avoid treble posting -



In the big Fluff post a little way up, there is a linky at the bottom showing a Russian Amphirol.

While capable of a fair lick over land, (certainly enough to be close enough), it obviously suffers a slight issue with manouverability.

forward and back are the two opposed screws turning oppositely,
Same way allows it to 'crab' sideways (Very useful for tight parking spots at the Nunnery) but as for pivioting like a tracked tank?


instead of the sharpenend cylinder used by the russians, I propose two very long cones (with maybe a very short transition piece between them) so the most of the time, only the very central part of the ice srew is sitting in contact with the ground.

This means that with both screws turning the same way (ala crab), and a spike dropped from the chassis at the centre point (Hydraulic, to punch into the ice a little), the vehicle spins instead of crabbing.

the effect of the long cones avoids huge bending forces along the ice screw due to the centre barely moving over new ground while the tips are whipping about.


The larger War Engines, which for me, will all be mounted on this kind of chassis, will have to overcome some additional problems.
Most of them can be solved by having a pair of opposed ice screws on each side, giving handling similar to a tracked vehicle, and with half the height gain for using two single ice screws.


The Sisters livery will be white and blue. I may be breaking out the dip again...


also: http://kuksi.com/artworks/sculpture/
Page 6, tope left (Mary Milita) - it's got me thinking...

[madd0ct0r]

disapoint starts here.






Top right: pure white undercoat (car paint) + dip (Oak woodstain)

Bottom right:
Armour - Cobalt blue
Bolter - Ocean Blue
Green bits - Permenant Green Light

Bottom Left:
Armour - Orange
Bolter - Deep Cadium Red
Hair - Amarillo Cadium Yellow

Top Left:
Same colours as bottom right, except reversed bolter is also Ocean Blue


White undercoat + dip = bone and win for robes.

I didn't expect the blue to work with the brown dip - for majority blue it did however. Not as chilly as I hoped, but maybe ashen / mournful?

Green eyeshadow can work, but not if overdone. Toothpick might be the easiest way here.

Orange and that red haven't enough contrast against each over (not a bad thing in this case). It was a wildcard but I do like the effect.

Top left looks like she needed more spin time to shed dip. Not sure what caused that. maybe not enough spin time. The dip did overpower the blue robes a bit though. Simple enough, the classic "Reverse the colours" trick for elites will not be used here.
Instead I propose Elites replace the green details with the reddy orange used on bottom left.

Thoughts?

[madd0ct0r]

One was painted by my neighbour, his first ever model. It says alot about my development (and lack thereof ) of brush control.

Predip:


PostDip:


Kinda camo pattern ya?

This photo was taken under sunlight, but I think I may have to invest in some testors dull coate.


Also. A wee bit of terrain that may be finding it's way into a cathedra later:

Mosque Shpaed alarm clocks!
(the smaller dome is the on off switch)
One is broken and was free. The other is my alarm clock and cost £2.50


Possible uses:
40K terrain;
EPIC Terrain/Objective;
back to back, with a bit of filler + treads = Epic Capitol Santcus
with stained glass windows, two minor parts of a 40k Traction Cathedra