Hammer and Anvil Book Review

Hammer and Anvil by James Swallow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book, though not as much as the first one in the series. We get to see characters from the first book appear again in this one.  While that's nice, they remained the same characters they were in the first book.  You would think their experiences would have changed them.  The plot was much like the first book, also. None of that was really a deal-breaker for me. 

My largest complaint is that subplot threads were introduced and never tied off or even developed. I don't want to reveal the story; so I won't mention what those were.  But keep your eyes open and you will see that some things promised at the start were not delivered at the end.

Overall, I can recommend this story as a fun, light read.  If you enjoy the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Sisters of Battle in particular, you won't be disappointed.  I particularly enjoyed the Necrons, the Terminator-style of enemy in this book.  Getting to see the Necrons up close was enjoyable.



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Finishng Up With the Sisters of Battle

This week was my "mop up" campaign with the Sisters of Battle.  I managed to snag a few more deals on eBay about a month ago.  I wanted to get these off the painting table and be done with them.  I'm still flush with "New Year's Resolution Fervor" and plan to stick to the goal of keeping down the count of unpainted miniatures I acquire this year.

Without further ado, here's what I've got.

I spotted this pair of Stormbolter Sisters on eBay as a buy one get on free special.  Couldn't walk away from that.  Too bad they're the same pose.  But I've given up on pose variety for this SoB force.

 I added another Veteran Superior so that I can now have three squads of ten or so Sisters each.  I also found a Heavy Bolter Sister.  I'm not sure how good one is on her own.... but what the heck!

Here come the flag wavers.  These were both donated by Tim over at Cursed Treasures.  I have to make a flag for the actual standard bearer.  That's a project for another day, like when I actually might need that.

 At last here's my helpful Sister Hospitaller.  You can't really see it in this picture, but I painted eyebrows on her.  I have a pet peeve with figure painters who brush in these enormous, over-sized eyes on their models but fail to put on eyebrows. The Hospitaller shown on the GW site is expertly painted, but the poor girl had her eyebrows shaved off.  Why?  Some day take a look at a person at a distance.  The person's eyes are nothing more than dots with no details visible at all.  Why paint your minis with more detail than you could actually see?  It not only makes eyes disproportionate but also makes the model look like it suffers from Graves Disease.  Figures look better, in my opinion, with small understated dots in proportionately sized whites.

Well, that was a digression.  I feel better now.  Here's the picture.

That's all for now.  My mind is wandering to other things, having now thoroughly scratched my itch to collect and paint some Sisters of Battle.  At some future point, I'd like to add some Repentia for flavor, and maybe a Rhino or Immolator.  With the next edition of 40K sure to be a topic of hot debate and intense dislike, I bet these girls won't even hit the table.... at least in a 40K game. 

Sisters of Battle Seraphim

Toward the end of last year I picked up a bunch of Sisters of Battle Seraphim models from eBay and Chaos Orc Superstore.  While still expensive, this collection came in at half price!  Some of the models had paint or missing parts.  I was able to fix all that, thankfully.  My only complaint, if I can call it that, is that I ended up with two squads of five rather than one squad of ten. The lots I got both had Veteran Superiors, meaning I had either enough models for two squads of five, or one squad of nine with a throw-away.  It's not a big deal, especially since they probably will never see a game of 40K anyway!

Here's a close up of a Veteran Superior (with power sword) and a Seraphim with two hand flamers.  The Vet Superior didn't have anything to attach the model to the base.  I had to use brass rods to mount the model.  It actually looks better than the others.  If I were more ambitions, I'd have done all ten that way.

The following shots show one squad, and then the two squads together.

Again, besides the great background stories of the Sisters, what attracts me to this army are the awesome sculpts. If I had to complain, it just seems there's a severe shortage of poses for these Seraphim.  There's only two poses in my ten models.  It might just be the luck of the draw.

I have a few more Sisters of Battle to do. A friend of mine donated two more and I have two Sisters with Stormbolters and one with a Heavy Bolter.  I picked up a Hospitaller model as well.  She'll be my medic when I use these models for 5150.

After I complete these, it will be time to move on to something else.

Sisters of Battle Redux

The absence of faith is the mark of the weak.
The absence of faith is the mark of the heretic.
The absence of faith is the mark of damnation.
- extract from "The Stern Codex"

 I have been very fortunate to come across more Sisters of Battle at reasonable prices.  I found six blisters of Battle Sisters at the Chaos Orc's Superstore.  I have no idea how often they restock.  But I will certainly be watching for more deals.  My only complaint is that all six blisters had the same three poses.  

I added a few more models to round out the force.  This adds twenty more Sisters, bringing my grand total to a whopping thirty one models.  That's one full squad plus a minimum sized squad.  Fortunately I'm not planning to bring this up to a 1500 pt army, at least not initially.  I just love these models and have enjoyed painting them.  Here they are all together. I threw in some background stuff just to break up my desk top.

Here is a close-up shot of the Veteran Superior and a few Battle Sisters.

I picked up a Canoness and an Inquisitor model to round out the leadership needs.  I know Inquisitors are now under the Grey Knights and no longer with the Sisters of Battle.  But I don't care about what the books say anymore.  I just need stat lines.

So that does it for this update.  I've been on a roll with the Sisters of Battle between painting the models and reading the book. I was ready to put them aside for a bit.  But last week I found an excellent deal on Seraphim models on eBay.  Unbelievably, there was a "buy it now" price which was great.  So I picked them up.  Chaos Orc had three more for a great deal, but they lacked jump packs.  I was able to find those on eBay as well.  So now I have ten Seraphim that I can split into two 5 Sister teams (I have two leader models in the mix).  It was still a pricey deal at about $70, but that's half price!

One of the Sisters even came pre-painted.  Just check out this pro job:

Really?  I'm afraid so.

The former owner even puttied over the armor lines on the legs. Oh baby. Sexy. I got a good laugh out of this.  But she's going to take a bath in Simple Green today.

Faith and Fire

Faith and Fire by James Swallow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I liked this book.  If you are a fan of 40K, particularly of the Sisters of Battle, then you should find it an enjoyable read.  If you didn't understand that last sentence, then stay away from this book.  You're going to be confused. I'm a sucker for the Sisters of Battle "fluff", and so I am the target audience for the book. 

A lot of people have criticized this book.  It had its problems, but nothing detracted from the entertainment value.  Sure, the plot is predictable and the characters a little bit lacking in depth. The story lulled in spots.  But overall it was just great fun and met all my expectations.  Check it out if you have the chance.



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Sisters of Battle

Sisters of Battle is one of those armies that I always said I'd get around to doing.  I love the sculpts and love the fluff.  I just always had something else that took priority over starting on Sisters.

That was back in the day before Sisters were cast in pure gold.  These days I cannot afford to play in that rarefied strata of society, and plans of a Sisters of Battle army are long gone.  Even eBay sellers have gone mad with SoB greed.  Slop some paint on a single Sisters model, call it "pro painted", and then ask $20 for it; that seems to be the operating wisdom these days.

Were it not for the generosity of a friend, I would not be able to show you my new and tiny collection of Sisters.

These models were as fun to paint as I had expected them to be.  I went with the Order of the Ebon Chalice paint scheme, as given in the old Witch Hunter's codex.  (The codex was sadly my only step taken in building this army.  I think it's one of the best GW codices that I ever saw.)   There are 11 models total, not likely to grow much beyond that count.

I will use SoB in skirmish or scenario play 40K games.  I can add in an Inquisitor and some Imperial Guard to round out things.  Honestly, I'll probably draft them into service for other non-GW games.  I'm already thinking of other meanings for their iconography and gender bias.  I can shove them into some 5150:SA games.  I'll find a way to make use of them and have an excuse to get more of them.

However, I won't be buying Seraphim models.  At $14 per model, a "codex legal" squad costs $70.  That makes Seraphim the one of most expensive squad in 40K.  I really have better things to buy for that price than five models.