Today was the first day in Munich which I would call a(n early) summer day – sunny, warm, really could have been worse… so I chose to take a nice walk after work and drop by one of the hobby stores of that city. Yes, there are actually quite a lot of hobby stores in Munich, even though I normally only visit one of those on a regular basis.

This one isn’t that one,  to be honest. It used to be the best store for RPGs and Tabletop in the city, but that’s a long time ago. Nowadays its fame has waned a lot, more often than not they won’t even bring in the major new releases… a pity…

Three things to warm my heart: a big Roleplaying Book about Roleplaying Games and two sisters with weapons I like...

Three things to warm my heart: a big Roleplaying Book about Roleplaying Games and two sisters with weapons I like...

So I entered the store expecting nothing – and got quite a lot. To my astonishment they had two copies of Shannon Appelclines “Designers & Dragons” – I missed that book from Mongoose Publishing when it had a very limited release last year. Well, as you can see I didn’t miss it this time – once I have read it, expect a review!

They also had some old blisters with Sisters of Battle there, and they were cheaper than from Games Workshop’s Mail Order. I couldn’t pass that up, too.

If I had a melter, a melter in the morning, a melter in the evening... shooting all time...

If I had a melter, a melter in the morning, a melter in the evening... shooting all time...

Here we have a Sister with Multmelter, one of my favourite miniatures, both as a sculpt and as a weapon. I guess this sister will become part of my first unit of sisters I am currently working on. Or she will be the first to join a celestian squad… we’ll see…

Either two whips or a whip and some gun... we'll see...

Either two whips or a whip and some gun... we'll see...

The second miniature I chose is a Sister Repentia Mistress. At the moment I own no Sisters Repentia and as I’m not feeling too well about the unit and the sculpts, I am not sure I will go and buy some Eviscerator-wielding miniatures… but I do like this mistress, so I might well convert her to a Celestian Superior by exchanging one of her whips with a gun… gotta take a look at my Bitz Box…

Anyway, I learned something today: never underestimat the old shops in the city. Sometimes they might surprise you with old blisters – and new books you were actively looking for…

One of the great things about eBay (or flea markets, second-hand shops…) are those surprise deals you can get… you know, things you did not expect or hope for and you suddenly do get hold of them. Mind you, I dislike unpleasant surprises, like all people do… and I have loads of unpleasant surprises nowadays, at home, at work… and apart from that, everything is boring, mindless routine… getting up, going to work, working like hell, going home, grocery shopping, chaperoning the child, getting too little sleep… I could go for drugs, but then, some little pewters coming by are probably more healthy for my little fat body…

A box of metal sisters... with guns...

Now my big wonderful purchase of this week: two shiny boxes of Sisters of Battle! Still wrapped in plastic, a wonderful thing… normally if some sisters turn up on eBay (painted or unpainted) they sell for prices that are close to those you have to pay when ordering directly from Games Workshop. Too high for me… but this time I was lucky: somebody put up those two boxes (and some more I wasn’t interested in) for prices that were around half of what you usually have to pay… I saw, I bought and here they are…

The more important box is, of course, the basic Battle Sisters squad. I am still making plans for my “interim” battleforce – interim meaning: until they finally reboot the army with plastic kits – but there’s no way I couldn’t go without two of those and if I have to pay 25 € for ten sisters instead of almost 60 € – all the better!

Seraphim for the win! Yeah, bad rhyme...

The second box is a small squad of five Seraphim. That one will come in handy for my interim force… originally I had no plans for including those in my interim force, as I thought the models were weak. But when I look at them now, holding them in my hands… yeah, those are great ones, too.

All in all a great start for my collection. The seller also had a penitent engine for sale, but well, my budget wasn’t that big… but who knows, there might be surprises in the months to come… I’ll keep my eyes open on that!

Yeah, I know those are no Nuns with Bolters, but at least they are dancing… and I really like this video anyway “Bread, Fish and Rock ‘n Roll”…

Well, with my new PC running (and running smoothly, I might add) it seems I am back into business… and time to write done some things that came to my mind during the last weeks and days…

My friend Boswell gave me a nice bee in my bonnet. He sent me the following music

and suggested that it would be just the perfect parody music for the Sisters of Battle marching to war. The funny thing is that of course I knew this song quite well, they used to play it quite often on the radio (still do, perhaps) when I was a kid. So I knew the sound, I knew the feel – but neither did I knew the singer or the lyrics nor would I have ever guessed that it would fit (on a dystopian parody level) to 40K. It’s always astonishing as how much music we listen to, subconsciously, without ever caring about it and then, suddenly, you get the idea and everything just makes sense.

So we have this splendidly annoying song, “Dominique” by Jeanne Deckers, better known as “Soeur Sourire” (Sister Smile) or “The Singing Nun”. As in itself, it is a happy little chanson sung in a strange, partly chirping, partly pretty rough voice on Santo Domingo, the founder of the monastic order of the same name. And with him (and them) being inquisitors of their own right, there is a fine connection on that matter between them and the Witch Hunters of the 40K universe.

Well, the original french lyrics are here, and here with english translation. Actually, those lyrics are far more religious than the official english lyrics that were sung by Debbie Reynolds in that strange movie they did back in 1966… so let’s get to my 40K-version. Fortunately, Dominique can be a female name, too, so there is no problem associating (and keeping) that signature line “Dominique-a-nique-nique” for my song, too. So, here is the Refrain in my version

Refrain
Dominique, nique, nique,
Come get your bolter in your hand,
For there is work to do.
We’ll burn heretics at the stake
All for the Emperors good faith
For the Emp-e-rors good faith!

Like the original I tried to do seven stanzas for the song. I have to admit I couldn’t  always keep up the original rhyme scheme of ABAB. Often I ended up with ABCB instead. And some of the rhymes are quite silly, or repetitive but then that’s just like the original. Besides, if we consider the dystopian background of 40K, I won’t think the “real” Sisters of Battle ever get enough time to think about literary merits…

1
We are led by faith and fury
Our prayers are divine
So it’s always sure, we
Will be just as furious as fine
(Refrain)

2
If a planet’s in disorder
And heretics are abound
We will kill them for their
Freedom until no one’s here around
(Refrain)

3
Exorcists and Immolators
Seraphim and Sisters all
Give no chances for those traitors
And the heresy shall fall.
(Refrain)

4
But of course we won’t be girly
And we don’t like playing fair
One heretic? All heretics!
We’ll kill every person there
(Refrain)

5
With bombardments and with bolter
We’ll cleanse every life that’s there
With no life left to get tempted
Our mission’s goal is fair.
(Refrain)

6
For some dreadful bad heretics
We’ll show how we’ll put them in
For those insulent fanatics
There’s our Penitent Engine.
(Refrain)

7
Come get this song a finish
‘Cause I’m afraid we have to go
There are mutants and heretics
Wherever we shall – and will! – go
(Refrain)

Of course if I were a singer or good with editing videos, I would present you the ultimate video, consisting of my singing (or, better, the singing of some nice girl or woman – my own voice is more like that of a rusty steel door) and featuring scenes from that Debbie Reynolds movie

And I would mix in some senseless 40K violence, which of course would have to be shot anew – don’t know any decent Witchhunter movie out there… probably something of that kind, only with bolters…

Wouldn’t that just be one great music video?

And, yeah, thinking about stuff like that makes me look like some stupid fanboy… but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, I guess…

Spaces Wolves Comic: The Protagonists

Another day we should hastily forget… and concentrate on the future! My wife and child will go on their travel tomorrow and I have some free days next week – could be the best hobby time for years!

But today, no real time, so just another quick link: soon there will be a new Space Wolves (and, judging from the two images posted, Sisters of Battle as well) Webcomic on the Space Wolves Blog. Drawn by some person called NachoMon, the drawings look promising, reminding me of some newer franco-belgian artists. Perhaps less Loisel and more like those people who conceive and draw the current Spirou et Fantasio-One Shots. So, less classical Ligne claire than a fusion of french style and (hopefully) japanese dramaturgy.

Quite looking forward to that. I am a great admirer of comics and manga, but I never grew fond of most comics about Warhammer (be it Fantasy Battles or 40K).  Sure, there will always be Pat Mills’ Redeemer - but that’s just one great mini-series among a huge lot of unremarkable comics, at least to my humble opinion. I won’t expect Girl Genius here, but if it’s nicely done, I will surely enjoy it.

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