2nd Edition Sisters of Battle, Order of Our Martyred Lady

Armour as black as a dark thing... robes also very dark black. Yep, I really didn't notice how GW changed the colour scheme over the years for the Order of Our Martyred Lady.I do actually really like the darker look though - very nuny ... nunny(?) ... makes them look like nuns. I like the few additional red trim bits too, but I've introduced a little yellow to lift the characters and vehicles. Everyone likes hazard stripes - even nuns. 
 

It's not a big force yet - 6 sisters, a classic Rhino, Cannoness (yet to be named) and 5 Frateris Militia. The militia back then were basically similar to imperial guard conscripts with a brutal WS 2 BS 2 profile. The only good thing is you get a plus to BS with some guns at short range which isn't bad for a meat shield... I mean valuable citizen that the sisters would surely not use as a meat shield every single game...

I've had the metal sisters for a number of years and picked a bunch of them up off eBay in about 2012ish for an old army. They army had fallen out of use a long time ago, and these were crying out for for a new life. I got the cannoness more recently in an eBay bits lot for a few pound, but she was missing her raised icon, so I gave her a power maul to replace her missing hand. 

The legendary Frateris Militia came straight from my junk box. Led by the famous Peter Crotchplate ... an old 90s Goliath ganger who had been rolling around the bottom of the drawer as the butt of a number of jokes. Next to the left is Greco - legendary Wardancer with a weird gun conversion who also was in the junk pile. Further to the left... a bretonnian archer with a 90s chaos warrior head and a few milliput additions. Added to them was an ancient catachan and a 90s Orlock ganger. Many if these had been converted as Diggas for a Gorkamorka campaign that never really happened, and now they've been pressed back into service on the front lines of 2nd edition.  They were quick to paint too. My new tip is that if you thin gore grunta contrast it makes a good skin tone contrast!

Official frateris militia models do exist, but they're pretty rare and expensive. At some point I hope to get a few to scatter in the units for good measure. 

Back to the ladies firing guns on a sunny day in the grassy green fields of what was once not quite such a grim dark future. That said, a full suit of armour on a hot sunny day would probably get grim pretty quick. No wonder the battle sisters were angry! 

I did my best to copy the freehand door designs on the side of the rhino and they came out pretty good. I'm not a huge free-hand lover (well, I like looking at good freehand...) as I get inpatient if a design is complex, but these were good fun.

The original lore for Sisters of Battle puts them very much on the front line - functionally being the first line of defence for imperial worlds. There's no mention of Planetary Defence Forces and while waiting for Space Marines or Imperial Guard, they were there to save the earth from the scum of the universe. It also explains why Militia were a thing. It was also amusing to read that Militia were made up in part of ecclesiastical admin workers and other hopelessly unprepared types - which also explains the less than shining stat-lines. 

Exactly what job Peter Crotchplate had in the ecclesiarchy was a mystery. Master of re-education would be my guess...