Colnel Blazdemona Kurn - Converting a female Imperial Guard Commander like it's 1995

 

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through an old White Dwarf and came across that famous article about Steppenwolf. I'm not sure if anyone remembers it, but basically, a guy who worked for GW in France had created a Chaos barbarian hero who was his general through tike and Space- 40k, fantasy, necromunda and more all in different variations from mounted and on foot, on a chariot and in terminator armour. I always loved that article.

Recently working on my Valhallans I had an idea - maybe I could convert my own general, something unique for the army. Many years ago in about 2008 when I came back to warhammer, I had my first guard army. The army was for a custom planet called Haddrack- a sort of volcanic Death World where gas-masked warriors lived beneath a barely breathable sky in hive cities. Ithe army sort of never really blossomed, but they had a few squads, a sentinel and a chimera and several games mostly against the Tyranids. 

At the time I had an idea - wouldn't it be cool to have a female commander? - there weren't any at all at the time, so I bought a metal battle sister model with a heavy bolter as the gun was separate so I could replace the arms. I  converted her with a big fur Pelt over her shoulders and different weapons, but other than cutting away the details it was pretty basic and still looked a lot like a battle sister. Regardless,the Princess of Haddrack appeared on the scene and left them I to the battle. The old army colours was a reddy-orange armour and grey coats. They were all converted using cadian plastics and to be honest it was a bit of a mess. 

Anyway, fast-forward to 2026. I'm digging through some boxes of old models. The army was long retired and what they had was drafted to other projects, but what couldn't be saved was basically just spare parts. I found the model I'd made and had a thought - what if she survived that last battle where she died to a pack of genestealers... and what if she joined my Valhallans. Somewhere I  the back of my mind d, memories of Steppenwolf and the fact she was a 1990s metal model sealed the deal. I stripped off the dodgy old conversion and went to work rebuilding her. 

One thing was for sure, I wanted her to look a lot less like a battle sister than before. I also wanted to keep her armament pretty similar which back then was a sort of hand made power fist with a circular saw blade built in for reasons that mostly relate to playing Quake 3. I didn't try to do the saw, but went looking for a new power fist. 

The build was completed in a day, but I spent a good few hours fiddling with her - first of all, I had to clean the model and cut away more from her old conversion. It's a shame I don't have a photo of the before and after. For her years commanding the original force from Haddrack, she had been converted with a fur Pelt across her shoulders with a lot of the original battle sister pads remaining. I cut those away with clippers and also cut away the remaining robes that hang from her arms. The hat came from a Vostroyan and was in my bits box for many years. I cut both the hat and her head ever flatter until the two pieces fit convincingly. Actually no greenstuff was used on this model, and all the sculpting was in standard milliput. Seemed more 90s, and actually I like the softer material and the durable finish. 

In terms of parts, I had a pair of plastic shoulders from a tank crew frame, and the canteen on her waist is an old cadian part. Her bionic arm comes from a skitarii ranger while the fist and plasma pistol come from the heresy Mk6 marine kit. Her cape is a 5th edition fantasy chaos warrior bit which actually was glued to my old unfinished "King of Haddrack" who was part of the same old project. The last part used was something I can't identify. I had a metal tube that looked like a smoke stack in the bits box with a round cup on the end with a skull on it. I cut the cap off and used it to replace her medallion. Copious quantities of milliput were used to make her upper arms and to meld everything in, as well as to build the bottom of her great coat and all the fur trim once the model was dry enough to handle it. I haven't gone to these lengths in a long time to convert something.

 Here's a work in progress of the model glued together and filled in:

To match her new model, I wrote a short back story. I love a good back story with a couple of hooks in it... GW should give me a bunch of money to write the book! Okay maybe not, but I enjoyed it, and she has been back in action. Always nice to cobble a model together from spares and create something you like. For second editions she is being used with a power fist, bionic arm, refractor field and master crafted plasma pistol.

Haddrack, the death world. A violent landscape of simmering volcanoes and seismic cataclysms. A world where a once proud warrior culture thrived in scattered hive cities buried beneath the surface - fuelled by an economy born of rich mineral deposits and industry.

A decade ago, without warning the Tyranids came. Terrible ships descended from the scorched skies upon the benighted surface and war raged in the ashen wastelands. In the final battle, Blazdemona led her people as Crown Princess alongside her father the King of Haddrack, but her command squad was overrun. Summoning all the martial prowess of her people, she slew three genestealers in single combat - her Haddracki disc gauntlet hewing their alien bodies with horrendous power, but it was not enough. With a roar of rage, one of the beasts tore her left arm from her body and she was cast to the ground. Just when all seemed lost, the King of Haddrack intervened. Bundling his only daughter's stricken body into his royal cloak. He threw her on the back of his Fire Dragon Harkonus and whipped the beast towards the evac point. She was evacuated in the final off world transport mere moments before the surface was ignited from orbit by an Imperial cruiser in a roiling plasma wave that destroyed all life on the surface. The imperium had triumphed, but there was nothing left and the king had sold his life to ensure his daughter's survival.

With no home, the remnants of the Haddraki defence force were absorbed into the Guard. Some units were taken as far as Armageddon Prime to be refitted. Blazdemona was left behind, her wounds so severe that she spent over a year recuperating before finally being fitted with a new bionic left arm on Valhalla. Thirsting for revenge against the aliens, she enlisted immediately where her skills helped her rise to the top once again on that strange frozen planet so unlike her home world.

Some say that even a decade after the tragedy on her homeworld, she still longs to return. One rumour even has it that the Royal skull pendant she bears is actually a cypher that can open the ancient blast doors of Haddrack once again, and that in their final hours the warriors had created a weapon known only as Omega. A weapon that still lies dormant - just waiting for a command from the royal line. 

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...

Sisters of Battle - Squad Complete (new plastic models)

I finished my first squad of new battle sisters. These come from the army box set, and use a matching scheme with my Everchosen entry from a few months ago.

They're really nice models. I have to admit, that I was beginning to think that we would never see the mythical plastic sisters in this lifetime, but here they are! They were easy enough to build, but I painted them as a batch, and with a scheme this complex, it was a bit ambitious. It was just too many layers of paint coupled with a massive amount of detail that made it a bit of a slog to the finish in the end. I started painting them in December and made it about 3/4 of the way through, then ran out of steam and had to do some different projects for a bit to build up strength for the final push!

I'm happy with they came out, but a bit daunted to tackle the rest of the box. That said, Squaduary is coming up again soon and I have those small units of Repentia and Flagellants to work on, so that might help push through a little more of the force.

The paint scheme itself is started with an airbrushed coat of purple that is highlighted in purple and white before being given a coat of Vallejo Transparent Red. After I've set the basic blend on the armour up, it's all brush work till the end. I enjoy painting the yellow parts, but the robes are a bit of a pain. They just become very monotonous to paint given their size and the number of clean layers required. Overall, they're a nice looking squad, and a great start to the army. I also repainted my older converted Exorcist to match the scheme, so I'll do a post about that soon.

Ready to face the forces of Chaos?

Everchosen - I'm a Winner!

Just a quick update post to say that my Battle Sister made it through, and that I came first in my local competition! Next up, I'll be going on to represent the store in the online vote.

Just for fun, I also entered the open category, and snagged 2nd place with my 40k Skaven Dragoon conversion. All in all it was good fun, and I think I'll probably enjoy going into the online vote too. I'm not expecting much as I'm sure the serious golden demon guys are going to be out in force, but It's just nice to get a little bit of recognition, and it is a very big global stage, so it should be interesting.

I had a bit of a look around the internet, and I think quite a few people entered Sister Amalia into Everchosen, so I'm sure I'll be up against some very directly comparable models in the next round! (I've seen a few that made it through), so at least I can see how I do compared to them!

Winning was quite fun too, as I was presented with a mysterious golden envelope. Unfortunately, it just continued instructions on how to enter the second stage of the competition, and wasn't stuffed full of gift vouchers!

Sister Amalia Novena - Everchosen Painting Competition

I'm entering the Everchosen painting competition today, so I thought I should post my work on the blog too. It's been a while since I last posted on here, but I have been working on some miniatures, so with any luck, more posts should be coming soon.

This was a cool model to work on. I wanted to do something for the competition, but was undecided about which model to use. I've always liked sisters of battle (and have an old army of the metal ones at home too), so I knew I was going to pick up the first ever plastic one when she came out. Given the timing, I figured that she would make a good entry for the competition too. I also often end up painting female models for competitions. I think it's because I spend so much time painting burly dudes that by the time I get to picking something "just for fun" I'm in the mood to switch it up a bit.

Build-wise, I made a few changes. I took away her bolter and added a sword from a Mechanicus infiltrator. Mostly to make her look more interesting for the competition, but it is a cool part and it wasn't that hard to do. Other than that, I added the archway. After painting, I added some "broken glass" to the arch too (seen at the bottom from the back). There are a few bits scattered on the floor too, but they aren't that obvious and don't really jump out in photos. Nevertheless, I think of it as a bit of an "Easter egg" for anyone who bothers to look at her long enough. The arch is the side struts from one of the citadel building kits, just cut to shape and re-joined at the top and bottom.

As far as paint is concerned, I went full NMM. I'm honestly not the best at non-metallic metals, but that's pretty much why I did it. I always try to push myself with competition entries, so it was an obvious choice. I laid down the base colours and blends on her armour and sword with the airbrush, but after that it was all good old-fashioned brush work. I also added some fairly subtle OSL in the form of the candle and lamp. I'm quite happy with the candle, but I feel like I could've brought the effect through to the actual model better. It doesn't really matter though as I'm happy enough with it as a bit of throw-away wow-factor.

That probably just about rounds it up. Everchosen is decided by public vote, so who knows how this thing could swing. I'm sure I'm  not in with a look-in for the grand prize as the really serious painters are sure to be out in force. A local victory would be cool, so I could at least make it to the online voting stage, but I guess we'll see.

Saint Celestine, Sisters of Battle Painted

Well, here's a project I started in January 2017. Nothing like finally blowing the dust off of a miniature and getting it off of the "to do" list.

I'm not sure what inspired me to work on my Sisters of Battle, I think it might be the news that GW are working on the plastic miniatures. That and all of the Inquisitor Martyr that I've been playing has left me with a hankering to work on something Inquisitorial.

Handily, I was also looking for a new project to experiment on with some paints that I picked up at Salute this year. One of the stands was selling old Vallejo paints really cheap (I think they were old stock or something that had been gathering dust in storage). I picked up a few, but I held back because I wasn't sure if they would have survived. I was a bit cavalier about what I got as well, as I just bought them because they were cheap. Anyway, one of the colours I got was Transparent Red, which as it turns out is rather vibrant and nice to use. I also used some Vallejo Emerald which is a really nice saturated green that I used as a base for the power weapons and things.

Overall, I think that they're some of my favourite models I've painted this year. There's something about them that really captures my own personal style; from the strong contrasting colours to the mix of both non-metallic and metallic techniques. Even the weathering on the robes and the bases are some of my trademark bits, but I don't usually get the chance to do it all on one place.



As far as the paint scheme is concerned, I wanted to try a few different things. For the red armour, I actually based the models in purple and then highlighted it in purple and white before adding a coat of the Transparent Red, which gave the armour a sort of plumb kind of look that I was going for. It was fun to add the high contrast shine to it too, and I mirrored that reflectiveness almost everywhere; from the yellow to the black and even a little bit on the hair.

Playing with that Emerald paint, I also had the opportunity to try to develop my wet blending skill a bit more. I used this to get the blend on the power weapons. In the past this has been something that I've struggled with a bit as it isn't exactly my forte. I think I finally get wet blending though, and I actually got good results with the technique. The thing seems to be - basecoat the whole area and let it dry. Basecoat again and then highlight in the direction you want; blending a bit as you go, but still adding a few mixes of more white or whatever. Then, this is the part I never got -  go back with a dry brush (too much water will just remove the paint you've added, and blur all the transitions; pulling towards the brightest point. You just have to clean and dry the brush between all of the transitions and work fast enough that it doesn't dry completely. A bit hard to explain, but that dry step really makes a lot of difference and allows you to smooth things without taking the paint off.

Anyway, that about does it for now. Check back later for more updates.

Inquisitor Greyfax - Non Metallic Metals Pt 1

fresh from my painting table, I'm bringing you the first WIP images of Greyfax in gloriously gold NMM (non metallic metal). This is still a fairly new technique to me, but I consulted with the divine angels themselves for a slice of godly wisdom (also known as reading Angel Giraldez's Painting Miniatures from A-Z Masterclass Part 2, and trawling the Internet for inspiration).

I started with a few layers of airbrushed Browns, yellows and finally white, before switching to the ordinary brush and using a series of glazes and highlights to try and push the contrast as much as possible. I'm not finished yet, and I've been using her left leg as a sort of proving ground for the technique, but I thought I'd bring you all the initial results of my hard labour.

Once I've finished the gold to a standard I'm happy with, I'll discuss the technique in more detail. For the minute though I'm just really enjoying building up the effect slowly. I think the telling thing was when someone saw it in progress and said "nice gold" not nice yellow, so I think it's working. I'm still trying to push the contrast further though, and will be darkening the Browns to amplify the effect as I go.

I've also started planning out the other colours with black for the corset type armour (which should make her waist look smaller and therefore extenuate the femininity of the armour) and a dark regal blue for the cloak. I'm still not sure what to so with the inside of the cloak (red maybe?). The smaller pipes/details will be silver, but again it will be NMM, so that'll be another stretch. Well, I guess I can only blame myself.

What you're looking at is probably the fruits of about 4-5 hours work.

Check back later for the next instalment, where I'll hopefully be talking about how to paint NMM gold with a finished example of the technique!

On a side note, am I the only one thinking Gray Fox every time I see Greyfax.

"Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon!"

"Snaaaaakeeeeee!"

Saint Celestine Underway

Always on the lookout for nice minis, I couldn't resist picking up the Triumvirate of the Imperium box. It helped that I actually have an army of Sororitas (Sisters of Battle) and that I could split the set with an avid Mechanicus fan, so I got Celesrine (plus guards) and the Inquisitor as a cool new project.

Rather than just another project in a long line of many, I'm planning to paint her up for the upcoming competition at Salute. I have some lofty ideas and we'll see how that works out as we go. For the moment, I've been trying to decide on a build. I'm keeping her in a few bits for ease of painting, but at the moment I'm mostly preoccupied by thinking about what to base her on. Given that it's a competition it should be something nice and impressive ... Hmmm, it's a bit of a conundrum....

Painting wise, I'm thinking non-metallic metal style gold for the armour. I've looked at a few tutorials and taken in a lot of info, so I think it'll be possible. Regardless it'll certainly keep me busy for quite some time! (And with any luck will be suitably impressive if I can pull it off).

Sisters of Battle Exorcist Tank

Just for fun, I'm bringing you one of my older projects today - Namely this rather nice Exorcist that I converted for my old Sisters of Battle force.

It's basically the Immolator Tank with a few spare missiles that I got on eBay attached (I think they come from the Dark Eldar plane, not the Voidraven, the other one). The turret has also been reshaped and modified to allow for this. I then built some extra armour for the front using the spare doors from the Rhino sprues. All in all, I'm surprised how good it looks!