If your marine chapter is composed of particularly pure warriors burdened with an excess of faith, they’re likely to be covered in purity seals and parchment that chronicles their great deeds. Painting these is pretty straightforward, but can be daunting since painting good purity seals means creating small lines to suggest the presence of writing. The good news is there’s an easy way to make this effect stand out.

While Purity Seals are lighter in color, they’re usually going to be attached to a model you want to prime black. Either way, I start by painting them with a couple of thin coats of Rakarth Flesh. Once that’s dry, I wash the whole thing with Agrax Earthshade.

Next I go back and highlight that with Rakarth Flesh again and then highlight a second time – including the edges – with Reaper Polished Bone (Wraithbone in GW paints, give or take). This is also when I paint the wax seal – it’s Mephiston Red, and I’ll wash that with Carroburg Crimson and then highlight it with Evil Sunz Scarlet. 

Now it’s time for the lettering. The “correct” way to do this is to use a very fine pointed brush and and paint lines with a dark brown. But if you want to go faster and have an easier time with it, I’ll let you in on a secret: Micron pens. The .005 pen gives you a very small point and is perfect for drawing the lines that work on something like this.

Using the pen start marking small lines (squiggles if you’re feeling brave), leaving the occasional space> your wording should have an “F-shaped” patter more or less, as that’s just how people read in English.

One Last Tip: Watch out if you paint over the micron ink. Water can reactivate it, causing problems like smearing.

If you’re painting Zephyrim or a Cannoness, you’re going to eventually have to paint some power swords. For more on how to paint power swords and glowing weapons, check out our guide on painting power weapons here.

The de facto faction for the Sisters of Battle have a very solid red-and-black color scheme but it’s far from my favorite for the faction. It’s one of the easier ones to paint, however.

I started by priming this model black.

Step 1. The Black Armor

The process starts with shading on the black armor. I go back over the model with a coat of Black Legion Contrast to hit any missing spots and give the model a nice, deep black base on the armor. Then it’s time to highlight. This is a multi-step process; I want something that reads as black but has more of a bluer tone. I shade up to Corvus Black first, mixing that with Black Legion, then I highlight that with a mix of Corvus Black and The Fang. This adds a bit of blue and creates a much more dynamic shading to the model which you can see in the overexposed photo above, but looks much more subtle in person. The goal here is to do thin lines of your lightest color/edge highlight color on the thighs and raised parts. You can go lighter and higher contrast on this if you want less of an armor and more of a latex/patent leather look.

Step 2. The Red Cloth

This is pretty straightforward: Just paint the cloth parts with Mephiston Red. 

Step 3. Washes

I wash the red cloth parts with Carroburg Crimson, usually doing 2-3 coats in the recessed parts to create some nice shading in the folds. I’ll also do a little bit of shading on the black armor with Nuln Oil. 

Step 4. Cloth Highlights

I come back and paint the raised parts of the cloth with Mephiston Red, and I’ll edge highlight the cloth with Evil Sunz Scarlet, hitting the tops of folds. This is also when I painted the face, using Kislev Flesh. 

Step 5. Other Basecoats

A lot of details get painted here, just laying down basecoats. That’s Leadbelcher on the gun, piping, and grenades, Retributor Armour on the gold bits, and Mournfang Brown on the leather parts. The hair and iconography – the shoulder insignias – are painted with Grey Seer.

Step 6. Washes and Shading

All of those basecoated parts get a wash. The leather and gold parts are washed with Agrax Earthshade, the Leadbelcher parts get a wash of Nuln Oil, the skin gets a wash of Reikland Fleshshade, and I wash the white parts with Apothecary White Contrast. I then come back and wash around the eyes with a tiny bit of Druchii Violet.

Step 7. The Face

I add two white dots for the eyes and then paint the lips with Bugman’s Glow. 

Step 8. Final Details

Time to cover some final details. I paint the rivets on the armor using Retributor Armour, and I come back and highlight the metal parts with Leadbelcher. The belts get a highlight with Gorthor Brown, and I highlight the white parts with Reaper Pure White, leaving lines of grey on the hair. Finally this is when I edge highlight the armor, doing a thin line of The Fang. 

And that’s it! It’s a hard scheme to photograph because of all the black armor but I’m pleased with the result – the shading on the armor looks great in person and it goes well with the red and gold. A classic Battle Sisters look.

As soon as GW started showing off the new Sisters models I knew I needed to buy them – the models are as 40k as it gets. I don’t have any long history of playing them or really know the fluff surrounding them particularly well, nor do I have any real idea how their rules will shake out yet. Not being attached to any of the “official” orders opened me up to figure out a custom scheme that I could use with any set of rules I wanted, and I could pick colors to work well with the rest of my armies. Though they’re unlikely to take the field at the same time as my Imperial Fists or Blood Angels, they may still find themselves getting support from my Knights.

Knowing I want a neutral color for the armor and that I’d be basing them on the same dark urban bases as the rest of my army, I immediately gravitated towards a bright silver. It was going to be very simple to paint, a big plus since Sisters are looking like a fairly model-heavy army. The next color to pick out is for the robes. It needs to be distinct from my red or yellow armies, but still a color that works well with them. I was immediately drawn to blues, but RichyP was already painting sisters with blue robes, so I shifted around the color wheel towards red and landed on purple robes. As a bonus, purple works well thematically with the army of the church, and I already knew how I wanted to paint it from working on my titan.

Prime black. Pretty self explanatory, just make sure its a nice smooth coat. If you want super shiny silvers this can be a gloss primer – personally I prefer a more subtle sheen and end up matte varnishing everything anyways.

Basecoat: Airbrush the entire thing in Vallejo Metal Color 77.711 Magnesium.

Airbrush from about 2/3 above with Vallejo Metal Color 77.703 Dark Aluminum.

Airbrush from almost directly above with Vallejo Metal Color 77.701 Aluminum. Running through all three of these silvers gave me a great transition from darker metals in the shadows to brighter silvers on top, cutting down on the steps I’d need to do later.

Wash: Cover the entire thing in Citadel Nuln Oil Gloss. The Vallejo Metal Color paints go on extremely smooth, leaving a perfect surface for the gloss wash to run right into the crevices and pick out all the details.

Robes: Basecoat all the robes with Reaper Master Series 09265 Deep Twilight.

Using a soft brush, carefully drybrush Reaper Master Series 29819 Twilight Purple and 09296 Malvernian Purple over the robes. Drybrushing this is both quick and gives a little bit of texture, perfect for fabric.

Paint the owl.

• Browns: Vallejo Model Color 70.822 German C Black Brown, Citadel Agrax Earthshade, VMC 70.983 Flat Earth
• Blacks: Scale 75 SFG-00 Decay Black, S75 SC-03 Graphite
• Golds: S75 SC-72 Viking Gold, Citadel Druchii Violet, S75 SC-75 Citrine Alchemy
• Flesh: Citadel Wraithbone, Citadel Contrast Guilliman Flesh
• Black Hair: Citadel Wraithbone, Citadel Contrast Black Templar
• Weapon Metals: Vallejo Mecha Color 69.058 Gunmetal, Citadel Nuln Oil Gloss, S75 SC-65 Heavy Metal.

Drop her on an urban base, toss a bit of weathering pigments at the feet, and varnish.

On this model I started with her head glued into the body – in hindsight I would’ve kept it separate and glued in at the end. Given the presence of dangly robes I strongly suggest working with her pinned to a cork rather than directly attached to the base, the inside of some of the robes is very visible but also difficult to get a brush to from above.

The Argent Shroud are one of the easier schemes for the Sisters, but still a striking one. The canon paint scheme for them uses red and bone-colored robes.

I started by priming the model black.

Step 1. Undercloak + Armor

I start by painting the undercloak areas with Mephiston Red, and while I’m at it I Paint the bolter. Then I hit the armor with Leadbelcher. 

Step 2. Gloves + Cloth

Next I highlight the gloves with Corvus Black, then I hit the top/outside parts of the cloak and cloth with Rakarth Flesh.

Step 3. Washes

The whole model gets washed with various colors – I wash the cloth parts with Seraphim Sepia on the bone sides and Carroburg Crimson on the red sides, and wash the gun with Carroburg as well. The armor gets a thorough wash with Nuln Oil.

Step 4. Face + Hair

I paint the face with Gorthor Brown, then wash it with Druchii Violet. I come back and highlight it with Gorthor, then dot the eyes with white and paint the lips with Bugman’s Glow. The hair is Dryad Bark washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with Dryad Bark and a mix of Dryad Bark + Wraithbone.

This is also when I do highlights on the gun and cloth. The red cloth gets highlighted with Mephiston Red and then Evil Sunz Scarlet, while the bone parts get a highlight with Rakarth Flesh and Reaper Polished Bone. 

Step 5. Final Details

Then it’s just a matter of finishing off the model. I edge highlight the bolter with Evil Suns Scarlet, do some highlights on the gloves with Mechanicus Standard Grey, and paint the gold parts with Retributor Armour, then wash it with Agrax Earthshade. 

The White parts are painted Grey Seer, washed with Apothecary White, then highlighted with Reaper Pure White.

The order of the Bloody Rose aren’t super complex visually but they have a striking scheme with lots of blood red armor. They were also all over the place at the end of Ninth edition when they suddenly had great rules, but I rarely saw armies painted in the Bloody Rose style, which is a shame.

I started by priming this model with Grey Seer, which was the right call as the Order of the Bloody Rose have white cloth, but created a common problem for Sisters models.

Step 1. The Undercloak

I am going to level with you: I hate the Battle Sisters kit. Every model has a flowing cloak and there’s very little space to get in there with a brush. For some models – like the one I’m using here – you can get in there but as we’ll see on others, you have to do a subassembly to get things done right, and that’s insane for a model with this size and points cost. Anyways, I primed the model white for the outer cloth, and that means I needed to paint black on the inner cloth. This was a couple of coats of Black Legion Contrast, which I then highlighted with Corvus Black.

Step 2. The Red Armor Base

Next up was the red armor. This is a coat of Blood Angels Red Contrast paint. Though if you prefer, you could also do Mephiston Red with a wash of Carroburg Crimson.

Step 3. Red Armor Highlights

I come back and highlight the larger, flat parts of the armor with Mephiston Red, then highlight that with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The final level of highlights and the edge highlights are done with Wild Rider Red.

Step 4. Other Basecoats

There’s a lot going on here visually, but not as much as it looks. I painted the cloth again with Grey Seer, covering up any mistakes, then I painted the metal bits with Leadbelcher, the hair with Imperial Fists Contrast, and the skin with Cadian Fleshtone. I also got ahead of myself and washed it with Reikland Fleshshade.

This is also when I realized the gloves were supposed to be red, so I painted those with Blood Angels Contrast. I’ll then wash those with Carroburg Crimson.

Step 5.  Details and Shading

More details work and some shading going on here – I wash the metal parts with Nuln Oil, and I shade the white cloth with Apothecary White, doing some blending with that and Grey Seer. I wash the hair with Casandora Yellow. The gold parts are Retributor Armour. 

Step 6. Washes and Highlights

I do a little wash of Druchii Violet in the eye recesses of the face, then add two white dots. I hit the lips with Pink Horror. For the hair, I paint lines using Dorn Yellow. I do some highlights on the cloth using a mix of Reaper Pure White and Grey Seer. The gold parts are washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Step 6. Final Details

Just a few final details to go – I edge highlight the metal parts with Runefang Steel and use the same color to pick out the rivets. 

And that’s it! It’s one of the easier Sisters schemes, though it has the two-toned cloth which makes things a bit more complicated – Our Martyred Lady definitely avoids this problem. If you still want to paint red, white, and black, but don’t want to paint black armor, they’re a good alternative.

The Ebon Chalice are my favorite scheme for sisters, with white and red robes that just look amazing next to the black armor and gold details which really pop. They’re harder to paint than the Order of Our Martyred Lady but worth the extra effort.

I started by priming this model black, which caused problems but I’d rather paint white robes over black than black armor over white.

Step 1. Undercloak

Any time you have a different color on the underside of the cloak you want to make that your first priority. It is way easier to fix mistakes on the armor and you’re going to make more mistakes when you’re painting the cloak than the armor. Anyways this was done with a couple of thin coats of Mephiston Red.

Step 2. White Basecoats

Now it’s time to lay down the white parts. I do this with 2-3 thin coats of Grey Seer. We’ll work up to pure white. I hit the tabard, sleeves, and back of the cloak. This will be shaded with Apothecary White Contrast and then highlighted with mixes of Grey Seer and Reaper Pure White.

Step 3. Undercloak Shading

I shade the red cloaks with Carroburg Crimson, then highlight them with Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet. 

Step 4. Armor Shading and more Basecoats

Next up I shade the armor and add some additional basecoats on the other details on the armor. The armor is highlighted with Corvus Black and then a mix of Corvus Black and Thunderhawk Grey, though The Fang would also work here just as well. 

The gold details are painted with Retributor Armour and the metal bits like the boltgun and the piping are painted Leadbelcher. 

Step 5. Final Details

Time for the final details. I shade the metal bits with Nuln Oil and shade the gold parts with Agrax Earthshade.I paint the rivets with Retributor Armour. The eye lenses are Mephiston Red highlighted with a spot of Evil Sunz Scarlet.

And that’s it! It’s a striking scheme and if I were painting an entire army this is the scheme I’d go with.

The Valorous Heart aren’t the most visually interesting of the canon Sisters Orders, but they do have some fun quirks. Their most distinct visual feature is the lining on their cloaks, which makes them a bit more work to paint. I started by priming this model black, but then had to break it apart to reach the underside of the cloak.

This was mostly so I could get a proper angle on that inner cloak.

Step 1. The Undercloak

The Undercloak hast to be fully painted at this point. That’s Grey Seer, then shaded with Apothecary White and highlighted with Grey Seer and Reaper Pure White.

Step 2. Red Striping

Next is the red striping on the interior of the cloak. This is a hand-painted line of Mephiston Red, highlighted at the edges with Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Step 3. Re-Assembly

Time to put the model back together.

Step 4. Black Armor + Cloak

Time to highlight the armor. That’s  two-step process of Corvus Black and then a mix of Corvus Black and Thunderhawk Grey.

Step 5. White Parts

At this point I also do more of the white parts – the Gloves, Helmet Visor, and icons are all painted with Grey Seer. I also use Grey Seer to paint the line around the edge of the black cloak.

Step 6. Metal Parts

The Metal parts of the model are painted with Leadbelcher, then washed with Nuln Oil.

Step 7. Final Details

And now for the final details. The leather straps are Gorthor Brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade, then edge highlighted with Rakarth Flesh. The gold parts are Retributor Armour washed with Agrax Earthshade. The white parts are washed with Apothecary White, then highlighted with Grey Seer and edge highlighted with Reaper Pure White. The metal parts are edge highlighted with Runefang Steel and I use the same color to do the rivets.

The eye lenses here are Mephiston Red with a spot of Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The Order of the Sacred Rose offer a major departure from the more standard Sisters schemes. Oh they still use red, white, and black, but the difference here is the white armor. White armor is tricky; it’s hard to shade and highlight well and so my cheat is that I almost never actually paint things white. Instead I opt for an off-white, which allows me to both shade and highlight the model more easily (I can edge highlight with white) and is easier to lay down as off-whites usually have better consistency. On top of that, when you put off-white next to black like we will on this model, it will look all the brighter.

I started by priming the model with Grey Seer.

Step 1. Black Basecoats

I start with the undercloak as usual, but hit all of the black parts with a few coats of Black Legion Contrast. 

Step 2. Highlighting the Black

Next it’s time to highlight that. Pretty easy method I use most of the time I highlight black – shade up to Corvus Black, then highlight that with a mix of Corvus Black and Thunderhawk Grey. For this model, I’m edge highlighting black parts with Mechanicus Standard Grey.

Step 3. Metal Bits

Time for the metal bits. They’re all painted with Leadbelcher. 

Step 4. Shading & Highlights

I’ll use Apothecary white to shade key parts of the white Armor, like just under the helmet visor and under the rounded kneepads, then I come back and clean that up with Grey Seer and do an edge highlight with Reaper Pure White. 

The metal bits get a wash of Nuln Oil. 

The eyes are Mephiston Red with a dot of Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Step 5. Final Details

Just a few odds and ends. I edge highlight the metal bits with Runefang Steel, then use Runefang to do the rivets. I edge highlight the cloth and gun with Mechanicus Standard Grey.

And that’s it! Pretty easy, but it looks great on the table. That said, they definitely have more of a gray look than white – if you want a brighter look, you can highlight the armor panels after step 3 using a progressive mix of Grey Seer and Pure White to get a brighter look.

I wanted to try and get the box done within a week of launch because that’s now my thing apparently, so I needed a quick and easily reproducible paint job, my other cross to bear is that it’s also expected that nearly everything I paint have Baharroth Blue involved…

Presenting the Sisters of Barry

I don’t have step by steps for this one sadly as I was to eager painting them all in a crazy rush to remember. Fortunately it’s a really easy process to follow.

Step 0: Primer

For the power armoured Sisters I had to hold my nose and prime black. For all the other units (except the Penitent Engine) I primed in Wraithbone.

Step 1: Base Coats

Paint the face, hair, flour de lis, visors on helmeted Sisters and raised parts of the armour in Eshin Grey.

Paint the Cloth areas in Thousand Sons Blue, it’ll take a couple of coats over black.

Step 2: Highlight 1

With the 2nd coat of Thousand Suns blue still wet, paint some neat Baharroth Blue into it to blend in some variations, pull the Baharroth towards the brightest areas.

Highlight the Eshin grey areas with Dawnstone Grey (selective amounts)

Draw lines in the hair with Dawnstone Grey

Paint the skin in Kislev Flesh.

Paint metals in VMA Steel and S75 Elven Gold

Step 3: Highlight 2

Do a couple of edge highlights of Baharroth Blue on the creases to exaggerate the highlights

Paint a few dots of white on the shiniest parts of the black armour e.g. Toe caps, knuckles, centre of knees and so on.

Using the same white to draw some more lines in the hair, and to dot the eyes.

Highlight faces with Wraithbone + Kislev flesh (about 1:1) and quickly blend in Darkoath Flesh

Step 4: Final stage

Wash the eye sockets with Druchi Violet, (also paint some under cheekbones and where the hair meets the skin.

Paint Drakenhof Nightshade into the folds of the blue.

Tidy up some of the highlights with thinned Thousand Sons Blue, and thinned Abaddon Black.

Wash the steel metals in Nuln Oil and the gold in Skeleton Horde.

Bonus: Smouldering Corpse

I include this one because I’ve been asked a few times from people how I did the smouldering corpse.

Paint the whole thing in Wraithbone (sounds counter-intuitive I know), dab In some thinned pure white so that the recesses are brighter still.

Wash with Casandora Yellow, again with Fuegan and finally with Blood Angels Red in various places over the whole area (mix for variation).

Once it’s dry, drybrush with Abaddon Black and finally Eshin Grey.

[Optional fake OSL]: hit the surrounding area with thinned Blood Angels red and highlight brightest parts of armour with Luganath Orange.

Here’s the completed unit, based with Valhallan Blizzard:

And with their pals:

Greg “Klobasnek” Narro has painted some lovely sisters for a minor order of his own creation – the Order of the Gilded Thorn.

White Armor. Prime the model white. I live in the very hot and humid American gulf coast, so I use Stynylrez White primer through an airbrush rather than risk a spray can. After priming, I spray the whole model Ulthuan Grey, before applying a coat of Apothecary White Contrast over the entire model. If you live somewhere less sweaty, you could probably substitute the two airbrush steps for just priming with Grey Seer.

Black inner robes. This part is annoying, because a lot of these robes are quite tricky to get a brush to, but I find it’s worth it for the extra contrast. Don’t worry too much about these highlights or making sure you have 100% coverage of the robes, a lot of this isn’t really visible from the table.

• Basecoat the inside surfaces of the robes and sleeves with the black of your choice.
• Highlight with Death Reaper (Two Thin Coats)
• Second highlight with Graphene Grey (Scale75)

Orange outer robes. When I first started this army in the metal model era, this was a simple basecoat wash layer highlight job, but I’ve found that many of the robes on the new plastics are too smooth and flat to take to washes well. That means it’s time for the voodoo magic of wet blending.

• Basecoat the entire robe with Jokaero Orange.

Wet blend your shadow color (I’m using a discontinued AK 2nd Gen paint, Dark Rust, but any terracotta color should do) into the recesses by placing a line of the shadow color in the deepest part of a fold, placing a line of Jokaero Orange on an adjacent ridge, and smooshing the paints into each other in between, running your brush parallel to the fold. Repeat from one side of the model to the other.

• Apply a targeted wash of Reikland Fleshshade on the buttons and on any sharp creases
• Apply a fine edge highlight on the buttons and the most raised edges using Ungor Flesh. Be sparing with this.

Leather. In addition to the belts and gloves every Sister wears, don’t forget to paint the sword hilt like this dummy did.

• Basecoat Rhinox Hide
• Highlight Mournfang Brown

Aged gold. This is intentionally a colder, less yellow gold to make it a bit more visually distinct from the orange robes.

• Basecoat Viking Gold (Scale75).
• Wash Druchii Violet
• Highlight Moonstone Alchemy (Scale75)

The finishing details. Some of these will be different model to model, but here’s the common bits:

Collar piping: Black Metal (Scale75)

Purity seal parchment: Zandri Dust, Agrax Earthshade, Birch (Scale75)

Purity seal wax: Wine Red (AK), Druchii Violet, Wazdakka Red

Ornamental leather (scabbards, books): Royal Cloak (Two Thin Coats), highlighted by mixing in small amounts of ivory.

This is also the time to clean up any messes on the armor with Ulthuan Grey, and to do a final edge highlight of the black parts with Uniform Grey (Army Painter). You will also obviously need to do the hair and face, but there’s a whole HTPE for that.

Basing. This army goes on resin bases that I apply a marble effect to using my airbrush and used dryer sheets.