Whilst the Ecclesiarchy is strictly forbidden to have ‘men-under-arms’ and hence the existence of the all female Sisters of Battle, they nevertheless do not discourage any citizen from taking up arms and joining a crusade in the Emperor’s name. In any case the premise intrigued me and, like the Daemonhost, Games Workshop used to produce miniatures for them but no longer does. So I decided to make my own. 

As I had already used a box of Cawdor for a different kind of cultist I needed to look a little further afield. Fortunately I didn’t have to look too far and quickly found the Age of Sigmar Flagellants. Which I suspect are a holdover from Warhammer Fantasy Battles, given the square bases included with the kit. In any case, the Flagellants were pretty much exactly what I was looking for: a bunch of disheveled zealots ripe for conversion. 

Whilst the Flagellants had a nice variety of close combat weapons, unsurprisingly they were lacking in the firearms department. Fortunately, knowing that I had plans to convert a lot of fantasy miniatures to Warhammer 40,000 I put in a sizable order into Anvil Industries for a load of arms and guns. For the Flagellants I set aside the Renegade Rifles and their corresponding Cultist Rifle Arms for use. I then grabbed my box of bits and got started on the assembly.

Aside from the square bases the other indicator these are quite old is that the bodies are one complete piece. It did however make the assembly process really quick, as I could clip out all the bodies in the kit and stick them down to bases. Then it was just a case of choosing heads and arms. As mentioned above I had gotten some Anvil Industries bits so I started with those. These worked reasonably well, I think the Flagellant bodies are just slightly too wide for what the Anvil Industries arms are designed for. But they looked pretty good, the cultist arms blended nicely with the Flagellants’ robes and the renegade rifles had a rough and ready appearance befitting a bunch of poorly equipped zealots. I rounded out the firearms with a pistol from the Cawdor Gang kit and a couple of autopistols from the Kill Team Novitiates kit. I filled out the rest of the weapons using options from the Flagellants kit, although I couldn’t resist having one of them in the stockade. For the head options I decided on a pretty even split between Flagellant heads and hooded options from the Frostgrave Cultists set. To finish things off I raided the depths of my bits for pouches and holsters to make them look a bit more like they belonged in the forty-first millennium. I went a little hog-wild here, one of them has what I believe is a ragged leather holster from a Chaos Space Marines kit. Another has some Kroot pouches. 

With the models done I could move onto the painting. And to get things started I primed the models with Colour Forge Standard Grey. I then painted all the skin with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin, tidying up with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. With that done I then gave each model a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush. 

For the painting proper, I started by giving all the skin a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. For the robes I decided to go with Wyldwood. It’s not quite as rich as Garaghak’s Sewer but is still quite a nice dirty brown. For an accent colour I went with Flesh Tearers Red, the deep red looks great against Wyldwood. I don’t why but for some reason I see deep reds as a very Catholic-adjacent colour, so it seemed appropriate to use it for my Ecclesiarchy sanctioned zealots. From there I could start picking out the details, such as Black Templar for the hair. Snakebite Leather for the wraps on the feet and any rope. Skeleton Horde for any bone details such as skulls. And, of course, Gore Grunta Fur for any leather details like all the pouches I stuck to them. 

The Flagellant models have shackles around their necks and wrists and I’m not sure why. I did check a few places but I couldn’t find any information on them. For my Frateris Militia my headcannon is that either they’re prisoners given the opportunity to redeem themselves in battle. Which the Imperium is fairly keen on if about half the units in the Adepta Sororita are anything to go by. Alternatively, these guys are so zealous they need to be restrained before battle. Or it could be both. For my models, as I wanted to keep with the ramshackle (pun intended) look for my Frateris Militia I painted the irons and weapons with Ratling Grime before giving them a drybrush with Necron Compound. A quick and easy tip that I picked up from Eons of Battle. Lastly, some of them have chains around their waist that would be a bit tricky to paint with a contrast paint so instead I quickly picked them out with Scale75 Thrash Metal before giving them a wash with Army Painter Dark Tone. 

For the bases I started by covering them with Stirland Mud texture paint, which was then washed with Army Painter Strong Tone and drybrushed with Tyrant Skull to bring out said texture. I then dabbed on some PVA glue and sprinkled on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Patchy Plains. Once that I was dry I applied some patches of Valhallan Blizzard texture paint. Lastly I painted the rims of the bases with Steel Legion Drab.

And with that we’re done! I’m really pleased with how these turned out. And to think when I initially bought the box of Flagellants I had plans to turn them into yet more Nurgle Cultists. I’m glad I didn’t, it’s always nice to do something a little different and explore some of the lesser known parts of Warhammer lore. Although as I type this it has literally just occurred to me that I should have covered them in purity seals…