Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Pilgrym: Order of the Crimson Hour

Vivere est Pati.

As we continued to expand the Church of the Red Athenæum, we decided that it should really have its own fighting force.  We decided that we wanted to have this military organization mimic the Sisters of Battle.  After some brainstorming, we devised the Order of the Crimson Hour.

Order of the Crimson Hour

The Order of the Crimson Hour is the military organization of the Red Athenæum, modeled after the Ecclesiarchy’s Adepta Sororitas, where only females make up its ranks (as per the Passive Decree; 0001288/M36).  Designed to root out heretics and keep order under the Steps, the Order has always remained detached and impartial to the shifting in power within the Church itself.  As such, while the Church has become increasingly more fanatical over the decades, particularly with the rise of cardinal Aseneth Levedescu, the Order has remained constant in their beliefs and practices.  Despite increasing pressure from the congregation to “embrace the Emperor’s suffering” by inflicting more holy wounds, they staunchly maintain only the severing of a hand to join the Church (which is allowed a bionic replacement, to maintain the Order’s fighting efficiency), and the removal of the larynx to join the Order (words are an unnecessary luxury; His Will is the only guiding light they need).

The Order has a very particular preference in weapons, favoring simple, functional ones that inflict the maximum amount of pain possible.  In this fashion, they are initially trained exclusively in the art of knife fighting.  A dying art in most circles due to the aggressive toll of personal injury required to become skilled, it fits perfectly with the Church’s ethos of pain.  After mastering bladework, they are instructed in the use of firearms, favoring the messy spectacle of the 12 gauge shotgun and the brutal impact trauma of .45-70 Government solid slug bullets.  Furthermore, both of these rounds are relatively simple to reload, an important facet of their firearm selection, because they pride themselves in loading each cartridge by hand, blessing every step.


I did quite a bit of work creating a shotgun that was sized appropriately. 

After a week or two of work, I think that I largely finished the first two members of the Order of the Crimson Hour.  I wanted them to have simple and functional armor, since power armor is not something easy to come by or maintain.  Therefore, like with Roland, their bodies are made from Death Korp Engineers.  Their helmets were created from the top half of a Skitarii vanguard head, with the bottom half from a female Dark Eldar model (a wych and a hellion).  I wanted only the top part of their heads to be covered, giving them a pseudo Judge Dredd look. The vanguard helmets look a lot like the Sisters of Battle helmets too, which fits since their organization is modeled after them.

I used green stuff to sculpt little parchments and seals to their armor.

Also like Roland, their legs are made from plastic fanatic legs.  To make the arms look like an extension of the robed legs, I trimmed off the cuffs on the sleeves and remodeled them with greenstuff.  Members of the Order remove a hand and their larynx as part of their initiation. To reflect this, I gave both of the models bionic hands, one made from a claw from the Mechanicum Destroyers, the other from a Wrack arm (I fashioned to to look a little like Imperator Furiosa’s prosthetic).  As a keepsake, and reminder of this sacrifice, both carry the bones of their hand along with them.  To emphasize this, I added a skeletal hand to each of their belts.  I used Brian Nelson’s plastic skeleton hands as a base, and with a little trimming and green stuff made them look like complete hands.

Although a little difficult to see, she has the bones of her hand fastened to her belt.

As mentioned in the background, I decided I wanted the Order’s favored weapon to be the shotgun, perfect for maximizing the pain they inflict on their enemies.  Although the Elysian drop troops have some neat shotguns, they were bigger than what I wanted.  To remedy this, I ended up combining parts from the Elysian and the Death Korp engineer shotguns to make the final guns. Special attention was taken to create the port at the bottom of each weapon to load new shotgun shells in the tube under the barrel.

She is the first mutant I created for the Church, although subtle, notice her pointed teeth (Dark Eldar Hellion).

Samael Urkston and the Order of the Crimson Hour.

Having largely finished the first two members of the Order, I am considering making a third.  She would likely be a Sister Superior or Canoness for the Order.  I have not decided if I will just create her to look like the other two sisters, or if I will try to experiment with giving her heavier armor, more mimicking the battle plate worn by the true Adepta Sororitas.  My first thought for creating such a model would be to base her off of a Forge World Solar Auxilia Veletaris models, due to their bulky segmented armor.  I am hesitant to buy one of the squads simply to get a single model, however, particularly when I do not know what the scale is like…  We will see…

- Adam Wier

14 comments:

  1. Inspiring work here - these look absolutely fantsstic

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    1. Thank you for the kind words! While each model took a long time to convert due to all of the greenstuff work, I think it was worth the effort!

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  2. These are so brilliant. The level of attention to detail on what initially seem very simple conversions is staggering. And again, full kudos on realistic female miniatures.

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    1. Thanks! Working on the small details is one of my favorite aspects of modelling, particularly those details to impart a little realism to models. :)

      I am glad you like my exploration into creating more realistic female miniatures for Warhammer 40k. There will be more to come for the Pilgrym Project!

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  3. Great work. Your guns are always so perfect. I especially appreciate the open-V sights on these shotguns - little details like that top off the conversion.

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    1. I am glad you approve of the shotguns! I really enjoy trying to take the often over-sized weapons in 40k and converting them into more believable ones.

      Currently I have my eyes set on trying to convert a more reasonably sized bolt pistols and hand flamers...

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  4. Great conversions, and interesting background! I especially like the fact that they carry around their own severed hands.

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    1. I am really happy with how the skeletal hands turned out, they help pull the models into character and make them look unique. :)

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  5. Great figures. That shotgun is great, although obviously spendy and time consuming to make for more than a couple of figures.

    And you should definitely make more! A full squad of these would be amazing, and useful in more games. Seems like these folks would favor flamers, chainswords, and something like a BAR would look great too...

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    1. Thanks! I knew the shotguns were important for the models, but I did not want them to distract from the characters themselves (they will become a pain if I decide to make too many more…). Creating and entire squad of the sisters would be ideal. I agree with your thoughts on the sorts of special weapons they would use, namely flamers and heavy stubbers (modeled to look like some manner of light machine gun; the BAR is a good choice).

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  6. Supremely cool and well thought out. I need to see if the new group I found is open to playing this sort of 40k stuff.

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    1. Having spent years playing Warhammer 40,000, assembling armies of models free of any real conversions, it is really rewarding and fun to focus on smaller more character driven 40k. It is certainly worth the effort trying to get your new group involved in more narrative focused gaming. :)

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  7. Another perfect model. The cleanness and attention to detail on your conversions is breathtaking! The new models bionic hand looks so shoddily grafted on, what with the ripped sleeve and bandage. I can see the bare arm being seriously infected, bruised and painful. Urkston looks good with his feather and collection of skulls too.

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    1. Thank you for the high praise. I am glad people appreciate the small details that I labor over on each model. :)

      Many of these models I am building for the Pilgrym Project will give me an excuse to play around with different painting techniques for bruises, scars, and blood. The models should be a good learning experience.

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