How to Paint Everything: Sisters of Battle | Goonhammer

In our How to Paint Everything series, we take a look at different armies of the Warhammer universe, examine their history and heraldry, and look at several different methods for painting them. With the release of new Sisters of Battle plastics, we take a look at this army and how to paint it with a few schemes and methods!

The Booley Method – Silver Armor

As soon as GW started showing off the new Sisters models I knew I needed to buy them – the models are as 40k as it gets. I don’t have any long history of playing them or really know the fluff surrounding them particularly well, nor do I have any real idea how their rules will shake out yet. Not being attached to any of the “official” orders opened me up to figure out a custom scheme that I could use with any set of rules I wanted, and I could pick colors to work well with the rest of my armies. Though they’re unlikely to take the field at the same time as my Imperial Fists or Blood Angels, they may still find themselves getting support from my Knights.

Knowing I want a neutral color for the armor and that I’d be basing them on the same dark urban bases as the rest of my army, I immediately gravitated towards a bright silver. It was going to be very simple to paint, a big plus since Sisters are looking like a fairly model-heavy army. The next color to pick out is for the robes. It needs to be distinct from my red or yellow armies, but still a color that works well with them. I was immediately drawn to blues, but RichyP was already painting sisters with blue robes, so I shifted around the color wheel towards red and landed on purple robes. As a bonus, purple works well thematically with the army of the church, and I already knew how I wanted to paint it from working on my titan.

1. 1. Prime black. Pretty self explanatory, just make sure its a nice smooth coat. If you want super shiny silvers this can be a gloss primer – personally I prefer a more subtle sheen and end up matte varnishing everything anyways.

1. 1. Airbrush the entire thing in Vallejo Metal Color 77.711 Magnesium.

1. 1. Airbrush from about 2/3 above with Vallejo Metal Color 77.703 Dark Aluminum.

1. 1. Airbrush from almost directly above with Vallejo Metal Color 77.701 Aluminum. Running through all three of these silvers gave me a great transition from darker metals in the shadows to brighter silvers on top, cutting down on the steps I’d need to do later.

1. 1. Cover the entire thing in Citadel Nuln Oil Gloss. The Vallejo Metal Color paints go on extremely smooth, leaving a perfect surface for the gloss wash to run right into the crevices and pick out all the details.

1. 1. Basecoat all the robes with Reaper Master Series 09265 Deep Twilight.

1. 1. Using a soft brush, carefully drybrush Reaper Master Series 29819 Twilight Purple and 09296 Malvernian Purple over the robes. Drybrushing this is both quick and gives a little bit of texture, perfect for fabric.

1. Paint the owl.
   • Browns: Vallejo Model Color 70.822 German C Black Brown, Citadel Agrax Earthshade, VMC 70.983 Flat Earth
   • Blacks: Scale 75 SFG-00 Decay Black, S75 SC-03 Graphite
   • Golds: S75 SC-72 Viking Gold, Citadel Druchii Violet, S75 SC-75 Citrine Alchemy
   • Flesh: Citadel Wraithbone, Citadel Contrast Guilliman Flesh
   • Black Hair: Citadel Wraithbone, Citadel Contrast Black Templar
   • Weapon Metals: Vallejo Mecha Color 69.058 Gunmetal, Citadel Nuln Oil Gloss, S75 SC-65 Heavy Metal.
2. Drop her on an urban base, toss a bit of weathering pigments at the feet, and varnish.

On this model I started with her head glued into the body – in hindsight I would’ve kept it separate and glued in at the end. Given the presence of dangly robes I strongly suggest working with her pinned to a cork rather than directly attached to the base, the inside of some of the robes is very visible but also difficult to get a brush to from above.

RichyP – The Speedy method

I wanted to try and get the box done within a week of launch because that’s now my thing apparently, so I needed a quick and easily reproducible paint job, my other cross to bear is that it’s also expected that nearly everything I paint have Baharroth Blue involved…

Presenting the Sisters of Barry

I don’t have step by steps for this one sadly as I was to eager painting them all in a crazy rush to remember. Fortunately it’s a really easy process to follow.

Step 0: Primer

For the power armoured Sisters I had to hold my nose and prime black. For all the other units (except the Penitent Engine) I primed in Wraithbone.

Step 1: Base Coats

Paint the face, hair, flour de lis, visors on helmeted Sisters and raised parts of the armour in Eshin Grey.

Paint the Cloth areas in Thousand Sons Blue, it’ll take a couple of coats over black.

Step 2: Highlight 1

With the 2nd coat of Thousand Suns blue still wet, paint some neat Baharroth Blue into it to blend in some variations, pull the Baharroth towards the brightest areas.

Highlight the Eshin grey areas with Dawnstone Grey (selective amounts)

Draw lines in the hair with Dawnstone Grey

Paint the skin in Kislev Flesh.

Paint metals in VMA Steel and S75 Elven Gold

Step 3: Highlight 2

Do a couple of edge highlights of Baharroth Blue on the creases to exaggerate the highlights

Paint a few dots of white on the shiniest parts of the black armour e.g. Toe caps, knuckles, centre of knees and so on.

Using the same white to draw some more lines in the hair, and to dot the eyes.

Highlight faces with Wraithbone + Kislev flesh (about 1:1) and quickly blend in Darkoath Flesh

Step 4: Final stage

Wash the eye sockets with Druchi Violet, (also paint some under cheekbones and where the hair meets the skin.

Paint Drakenhof Nightshade into the folds of the blue.

Tidy up some of the highlights with thinned Thousand Sons Blue, and thinned Abaddon Black.

Wash the steel metals in Nuln Oil and the gold in Skeleton Horde.

Bonus Smouldering Corpse

I include this one because I’ve been asked a few times from people how I did the smouldering corpse.

Paint the whole thing in Wraithbone (sounds counter-intuitive I know), dab In some thinned pure white so that the recesses are brighter still.

Wash with Casandora Yellow, again with Fuegan and finally with Blood Angels Red in various places over the whole area (mix for variation).

Once it’s dry, drybrush with Abaddon Black and finally Eshin Grey.

[Optional fake OSL]: hit the surrounding area with thinned Blood Angels red and highlight brightest parts of armour with Luganath Orange.

Here’s the completed unit, based with Valhallan Blizzard:

And with their pals: