Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Mordheim 2019: Sister Superior

We are the Hammer of Sigmar.

Although I already built three Sisters for my Mordheim 2019 warband, the warband is still far from being complete, needing a few more heroes and regular warriors. Since heroes are so important in the game, since they are the only way to acquire wyrdstone, I felt it best to try to build another. Aside from the Auger and the Matriarch herself, the only other hero choice in the Sisters of Sigmar warband is the Sister Superior. I decided I wanted to create a heavily scarred Sister in battered platemail who has survived the last 20 years through her faith and grit.

Pious Vorne provided the perfect foundation for a Sister of Sigmar.

Ever since the release of Blackstone Fortress, I wanted to convert a Sister of Sigmar from the model of Pious Vorne. The original model is one of my favorites in the set and I decided it would make the perfect foundation for a battle-scarred veteran of Mordheim, one visibly battered but still defiant. I started by modifying her breastplate, expanding the waist (which was incredibly thin, nearing the point of absurdity) and adding additional plating on her back. Additionally, I added some flame detailing on the sides of her armor and a twin-tailed comet buckle on the leather strap on her back. I drilled holes into her shoulder pad and added small spikes created with plastic card. Her arms were created by combining Viorne’s arms with those of Inquisitor Greyfax. While the legs were largely kept the same, I replaced her feet with smaller boots from the Isharann Tidecaster from Age of Sigmar.


20 years in the City of the Damned has not slowed this warrior down one bit!

I replaced the model’s head with a head sculpted by the talented Polysmith for our Imperial Guard collaboration. The head has expertly sculpted burn-scarring on the left side of her face. To build on this wound, I sculpted an eye-patch. To further the battle-scarred look of this veteran, I partially removed two of the fingers on her left hand.


Three of the beleaguered, but unyielding Sisters of Sigmar.

Like the earlier members of the warband, I took special effort to create a war-hammer for her that is grounded in reality. For this veteran I wanted a brutal and functional two-handed war-hammer. I shaped the head of the hammer from a random piece of plastic, carving a grooved striking surface for hammer’s front and a sharp blade for the back (perfect for piercing armor!). She is also carrying two small daggers which I shaped out of small pieces of plastic (one can never have enough daggers surely?).

I am really pleased that I was able to pull off my initial vision of a Sister using the Pious Vorne model. Like the other models from Blackstone Fortress, the model had a lot of subilty and character that was easy to transition into a devotee of Sigmar. Only a few more heroes left to build for the warband!


- Adam Wier






13 comments:

  1. Please do not take this as a criticism as the miniatures look fantastic but I feel these miniatures should look older. All of the warband so far look to be in their early 20's. So these are orphans taken in by the church just before the comet fell or salty dogs in their 40's fighting against the aches and pains of 20+ years of fighting? If the latter surely they should look older? Just a question.

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    1. This was certainly something I considered heavily when making the models for this warband. As you said a lot of them do look pretty young. Most were probably pretty young when the comet struck. If I had more experience sculpting faces I would have probably just sculpted my own (maybe sometime in the future). The Augur of the warband is much older and I spent time resculpting her face to show the wrinkles and age. The next Sister Superior is also much older looking as well. Hopefully they are to your liking. :)

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    2. Thanks for the reply. Just to confirm he miniatures are very much to my liking. Looking forward to seeing the band grow

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  2. Hi Adam,

    This conversion is perfectly executed again and I agree that Pious Vorne is indeed a perfect foundation for your Sister Superior. Her hammer is awesome and really completes her more realistic appearance. I love how much effort you put in all the lovely details (ie her waist, lost fingers etc.).

    As always I'm looking forward to see what you'll present next.

    By the way, I had a similar vision for the Rogue Psyker from Blackstone Fortress. I saw him and knew exactly what to do with this model and I nearly finished this project. If you're interested you can see it on my blog ;-).

    Best regards and keep on the amazing work!

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    1. I am glad you like the Sister Superior. I really love adding all the little details as I think it really helps bring the characters to life.

      Thanks for mentioning your blog! It is always great to find another blog with a like-minded hobbyist. Your Tzeentch warband is really striking! That rogue psyker is a wonderful model to build off of. The blue flames give a nice eerie glow and contrast you your warband.

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    2. Thanks for your reply. I totally agree on the fact, that all these deteils bring so much more character to your minis and make them look outstanding!

      I'm really proud how the blue turned out and catches the desired tzeentchian? vibe.

      I really appreciate your words about my work! Last year I came back to this amazing hobby after a long, long time and now I'am trying to get involved in the 28 community. As a passionate rookie I'm still trying to find my own style and try improve my skills nearly every day. And so far I'm overwhelmed with joy about all the responses to my work. Thank you and keep on inspiring me with your work ;-)

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  3. Great conversion. Well done, the war-band is really coming along.

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    1. There are still a lot of aspects I would like to explore with the warband. I am not sure how many more models I will be able to fit in the warband. All of their wargear really adds up quickly....

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    2. If you are playing a campaign you will need spares to add as you gain gold and to swap in as you take casualties. If one off battles, it depends what gold limit you set on warband size!

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    3. During the event these are for I believe we will be playing a few games. So it will not be an entire campaign. I really do need to try and finish a few more standard Sisters. I think I am spending too much time on each of the models. Ha ha

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  4. Frankly awesome work. I'd like to paint miniatures like yours, and have your attention to the smallest details.

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    1. Thank you for the kind words! Maybe one of these days I will start sculpting and casting my own miniatures... Something to consider. :)

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