Printed Obsession - Flaming Mace Battle Nun
The last of my UKGE miniatures, I was keen to get this one to the painting table. Being a proxy Sister of Battle, I already knew I was going to paint them in the colour scheme of my custom Order: the Order of the Divine Storm. But that’s not to say that there weren't some fun new techniques that I wanted to try.
Aside from cleaning up a few support pegs there wasn’t anything I needed to do to the model before priming them with Colour Forge Standard Grey. I didn’t attach the model to the base as I painted that separately. After which I followed my usual speed painting process of basecoating the skin with Cadian Fleshtone before giving the model a zenithal highlight of Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink. At this point I also basecoated the flames on the mace with Army Painter Matt White.
For the armour I gave it a coat of Vallejo Night Blue, this is the same colour that I use for my actual Sisters of Battle, but as it is quite thin it shows through the zenithal highlight nicely. It doesn’t have quite the flow properties of an actual Contrast paint but it isn’t far off honestly. For the red robes I gave them an even coat of Blood Angels Red, and any leather details such as the belt and pouches I painted with Gore-Grunta Fur. The Battle Nun is wearing an undersuit of some kind, which I painted with Skeleton Horde. The rope around her waist I painted with Snakebite Leather, and lastly the mace I painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. I finished off the Battle Nun by giving her face a coat of Reikland Fleshshade.
For the flames I gave them a coat of Imperial Fist yellow and while it was still wet quickly blended in some Gryph Hound Orange near the tops of the flames. I then repeated this process with Blood Angels Red. Blending contrast paints with each other isn’t the easiest process to be honest, if you clean your brush then you just end up wicking the high-flow paint off the model. Nevertheless, I persevered and the end result looked pretty good. To really sell how hot the flames were I ran a line of Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink in the recess where the flames meet the mace.
For the base, I had a wooden disc lying around that I think I got from a painting rack so I stuck that down with a generous amount of superglue. I then used a file to create some orthogonal grooves in the base. In hindsight I could have sanded the base flat and then put some grooves in it but using an already smooth wooden disc saves you that step. From there I primed the base with Army Painter Angel Green. Next to get the marble effect I let a wet wipe dry for a day or so, I then stretched the wet wipe over the base and used the airbrush to coat the base in Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink (really working overtime on this model) to create that veined appearance of marble. To separate the marble tiles I ran a line of Wyldwood in the groove I had filed earlier. To finish things off I gave the base a coat of gloss varnish and painted the rim black.
All and all a quick model to get done. The flames turned out pretty good and the marble base isn’t terrible. I could have pulled the fibres of the wet wipe apart a bit more but overall I’m happy with the first attempt. Definitely something I would try again if I found the right model for it.
