Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Mordheim 2019: Sister of Sigmar WIP

All progressions from a higher to a lower order are marked by ruins and mystery and a residue of nameless rage. - Cormac McCarthy

Earlier this year, Eric showed some initial models for a Roadside Picnic inspired undead warband, for the upcoming Mordheim 2019 event. Not content with building just one warband, I resolved to create a group of Sisters of Sigmar. When approaching creating a Sisters of Sigmar warband, I decided a complete overhaul of their design was necessary. The original Sisters of Sigmar models have not aged very well. They have a very caricatured Viking-warrior/nun aesthetic, complete with metal belly plates and starched robes. They are also posed very awkwardly, with nearly every one of them holding their oversized weapons aloft in one hand and a raised, clenched fist for the other. For my redesign, I wanted to go for a hooded/cloaked wanderer look. This warband has likely been through the ringer and are used to roughing it in the wilderness. While I am only at the work-in-progress stage on the first model, I wanted to show some pictures of the model and see what people think.

The base of the model is made from a heavily trimmed down necromunda Cawdor ganger. I extended the length of the model’s torso and resculpted the upper cloak. Next, I sculpted a half-cloak covering her right arm. I replaced the model’s head with one of the hooded heads from the Wood Elf Glade Guard and did a little detailing on the hood itself with greenstuff.

Although the conversion is based on a plastic Cawdor model, I took pains to distance it from the original model.

I was able to use the arms of the base Cawdor model, however I needed to replace the hands with smaller ones from the Idoneth Deepkin and the Nighthaunt range. Like the with the hands, the original feet were exchanged for smaller ones taken from the Wood Elf Glade Guard (the Cawdor boots resemble clown shoes, ha ha). I still need to do more sculpting to detail her boots (I am thinking of adding a strap or two with buckles) and to create her pants.

I felt obligated to convert a hammer for the model, as they are an iconic element of the Sisters of Sigmar.

The Cawdor kit does not come with many close combat weapons, and those it does have are comically huge, therefore I needed a different source for giving the sister weapons. Her sword is from one of the Easy to Build Myrmourn Banshees models (likely intended to be a dagger, ha ha). The head of her hammer was converted from the tip of the blade of an Eldar Harlequin. As a nod to the original Sister of Sigmar models, I sculpted a twin-tailed comet as a clasp on her cloak and two comets on the head of her war hammer.

I did extensive greenstuff work to create her cloak tunic.

I still have a lot of work left to do on this model, as well as starting to create additional warriors to accompany her, but I am excited with my progress. I think the model is recognizably a Sister of Sigmar, despite not resorting to some of the warrior nun tropes seen in the original models. Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated, as it is still early in the building process, when I still have a lot of flexibility and time to make changes. Thanks!

- Adam Wier

15 comments:

  1. Dunno if you've come across these but this guy made truescale scouts using Necromunda Goliaths:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/9i9ymj/killteam_musclescouts_complete_flexing/

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    1. Thank you for the link! That is a good use for the Goliath models. They work surprisingly well as scouts.

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    2. Yea they really do. I'd make the attempt myself but I know the primitive looking torso armour would bother me and I wouldn't have a clue how to make the necessary alterations.

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  2. Wonderfully put together and the sculpting is top-notch; it certainly has the living-rough wanderer vibe about it, but it seems lacking in the 'holy sister' side still to me. Unless of course that was the intention, pushing more the idea that they're a group of 'female only allowed' survivors in a similar vein to Escher in Necromunda rather than the original Viking nuns?

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    1. Thanks for the kind words. I envision that the holy sisters would replace their holy robes and regalia when heading out to battle. I want them to look more like wanderers than Holy Sisters, with small details suggesting their upbringing.

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  3. Wow! That is pretty great, particularly the pose and the hammer.

    I guess I am a little confused about the direction you are going though, Sisters of Sigmar looked like battle nuns because they were battle nuns... so are you also making battle nuns, or are these going to be female Sigmar warriors, without the "nun" aspect?

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    1. While I want these to be Sisters of Sigmar, my thoughts of what they would really look like differs significantly from the official ones. I want to have some iconography from Sigmar, namely the twin tailed comets. In terms of the nun imagery, I want that to be very minimal. For this model the only thing that I really kept was the cloth wrapped around her face.

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  4. Excellent work Adam. I really like the wanderer nun look on her, sort of like a bhikkhu nun or mendicant wanderer. Of course she needs more chastity spikes and skulls.

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    1. As I continue to work on the model I will add more details. We will see if I can work in some skulls or spikes. :)

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  5. Excellent work Adam! I would have never guessed that the head of the hammer was from anything Harlequin related, good use of a bit. Cannot wait to see where you go with the rest of the group!

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    1. It is amazing what you can do with a little re-purposing of components!

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  6. I like this a lot. The head covering and collar are evocative of nuns of a long-gone era, while leaving all of the attire practical.

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    1. I am glad you noticed the covering around her face. That was about the only nun imagery I kept. We will see what I do for the other models. They need to be dressed for the harsh elements. How else will they enact holy vengeance on the enemies of holy Sigmar?!

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  7. Absolutely brilliant. A warband of these is going to look amazing.

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    1. I am looking forward to starting working on the next model. It will be interesting to see where the converting process takes me!

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