Painting my Sisters Conundrum

[Blackcloud6]

The thread I started on painting my Sisters' vehicles has made me realize I have small problem in painting the rest of my Battle Sisters.

When I started gathering my sisters, I bought some "used" stuff. One day I was in Toledo, Ohio and stopped by The Game Room (a nice store and I recommend stopping by if you are ever in T-Town) and they had some nicely painted Sisters in their used bins. They were priced well so I bought as many as i could. But they are not all painted in the same way. At the time that did not matter to me and it still may not. My plan for my Order was not to do one of the "Codex" ones but one I call the "Order of St. Anna." (Named after my wife for a couple of reasons... one is that she has to be a Saint to put up, without complaint, of my many hobbies). A back story I was thinking of is that this order got started as a amalgamation of remnants of a few orders that took heavy casualties in some crusade thus the variance in squad/team uniforms.

Here is what I bought:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m89/blackcloud6/Sisters%20of%20Battle/016C672D-F9E9-435C-9E87-33525F1A8113-1558-000003824E5E1557.jpg

Note that they are different schemes, some are major and some are minor (the Seraphims are all the same). But I can organize them by squads or even 'fire-teams' of four or five. I actually like doing that as on the game table I can recognize a unit quickly and match it to the list. I know that the whole order should probably be uniform but I don't mind a mix of uniforms if done in a organized manner. What do you think?

I have two more Battle Sisters squads to paint:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m89/blackcloud6/Sisters%20of%20Battle/3504EE85-3D60-492B-9B26-4456F94184D7-1558-000003824FCF3168.jpg

So, how do you think I should do those? Do each squad different, one base of red and one in black maybe?

I've decided to do the vehicles in the black/red trim scheme because I like that scheme.

[Aegwymourn]

If they are pewter models you could always strip the previous paint/primer off of them. It is actually quite easy with the metal ones, plastic takes far more time/energy in my experience. There are a number of different cleaners that will remove the paint and leave the model in pristine condition (some brushing might be required for some of the tighter spaces). Since I live in Canada I use a product called Simple Green. It is a de-greaser found in the automotive section of any large store. I dunno if they have that specific product where you live but perhaps someone could offer an alternative product.

If you'd rather use them as is how you have broken them down seems to be a pretty good start. Breaking them down by squad and if you only have a couple of that type you can always paint additional ones to match so you have a full squad.

[Blackcloud6]

If they are pewter models you could always strip the previous paint/primer off of them. It is actually quite easy with the metal ones, plastic takes far more time/energy in my experience. There are a number of different cleaners that will remove the paint and leave the model in pristine condition (some brushing might be required for some of the tighter spaces). Since I live in Canada I use a product called Simple Green. It is a de-greaser found in the automotive section of any large store. I dunno if they have that specific product where you live but perhaps someone could offer an alternative product.

If you'd rather use them as is how you have broken them down seems to be a pretty good start. Breaking them down by squad and if you only have a couple of that type you can always paint additional ones to match so you have a full squad.

Thanks you for the suggestion and the thought did cross my mind. But they are painted too nicely; I would not have the heart to strip off the nice paint jobs. Also, I am itching to get the Sisters on the table so I don't want to double my workload. I still have tons of orks to paint. :-0

[Iceman]

Yep. You have a problem. When I first built my SOB army about 8 years ago, I couldn't make up my mind so I painted them based on their force organization slot (Elite, Troops, Fast Attack, Heavy Support). Unfortunately, I found that every time I wanted to switch weapons or Sister Superiors around it required a repaint. I finally gave up when the White Dwarf codex came out and painted them all the "standard" black armor and red robes colors.

Moral of the story is that it just works better if they are all the same color. I recommend that you go with the color scheme that the Seraphim are in since that seems to be the widest-used scheme and you don't seem to care so much what color scheme is used. Since all the robes are white, you can just repaint the armor of the others, which should minimize the rework and "destruction" of the existing paint work.

[Dalleron]

Just a suggestion.

You could have the background of your army being somethin along the lines of this: There was a crusade in which multiple Orders were involved. Due to attrition, the Cannoness superior put some Sisters in different squads/units to keep them close to full strength. That said, if you go that route, I would still have the bases painted the same colour, so there is some unifying element to the army.

[Blackcloud6]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think Iceman's suggestion of going with the silver armor/white robes is a good idea. I'll do that with the new paint jobs. But I think I''ll keep the others as is and maybe they can become special squads like the black ones a Dominion squad and the red ones the Command squad.

I don't think I'll do the vehicles in the silver/white scheme though. I don't like white vehicles. I'll likely go with black/red.

[badlybuilt]

I have painted mine the scheme of Order of the Valour Heart out of the witch hunter codex. I paint them in squads of 10 just cause thats how they get pack away. The way I tell them apart is different coloured hair. The special weapons get 2 of the each weapon painted an appropiate hair colour so that they can always be placed within a squad.

When it comes to ret or dom squads I just tend to mash in whichever hair colour scheme is remaining.

My tanks are ( or will be ) all the same basic paint scheme , but will have different decals and certain items like the immo guns and rhino storm bolters painted differently to tell them apart easily.

My seraphim and repentia are painted different cloak colours just because there is no need to mix and match them.

[Blackcloud6]

Thanks again to all of you that have helped. I've decided to go with the Argent Shroud scheme in the old Witch Hunters Codex for the overall Order since that is what the majority of the figures of the ones I bought are painted. The red armored ones will become Celestians in the Command squad and Celestian Squad. I will buy a a few more to fill those two units out. The black painted figures, although two different schemes, will become the Dominium Squad. Therefore my elites will have different armor to stand out.