McFarlane Toys: Warhammer 40,000 Adepta Sororitas Battle Sister Review

There is a huge amount of material about each and every Warhammer character or character set, and the Battle Sister is no different. If you’re an outsider looking in like I am, then you can take a look at the Warhammer wikipedia you can get a general idea about everything going on. But basically it kind of boils down to armored warrior nuns.

Or…something like that.

Regardless, I am all the way in for everything from this line, from new characters to minor paint variations, so this was always going to get bought. But the fact that it is predominantly black and red—my favorite color combination—means that I was double-in.

This is a great design. There’s a lot going on in terms of texture and aesthetics. There are armored parts and (sculpted) fabric parts along with spikes and tubes and skulls and rivets and so on. It’s a busy design, but it’s the right kind of busy, the kind of busy made for miniatures so painters can go nuts embellishing all of those design elements.

The faceless aspect of so much of the army-builder types in Warhammer adds an air of mystery to the individual figures. It could be anyone under there, and obviously you can have a small legion if that’s your thing and it’s not like “a bunch of Sallys” all standing around. Plus, the aesthetic lends itself to multiple venues.

Essentially, it’s just a fun line to collect, even though the release pace could be kicked up to three times the current speed.

The sculpting of all of those elements is impressively sharp, and the paintwork is equal to the sculpt, with sharps silvers, golds and whites to bring out all the various details. There’s not much in terms of weathering, so if you want a figure that looks like it’s been through a few battles it probably won’t have much of a “used” feel to it, but McFarlane sells flay grey artist versions for adding in all the detail you want on your own. I am still resisting giving that a try, but it is definitely a thing I’d like to get around to doing one day.

As good as the figures look, the harsh truth is I would not be as in as I am currently in if the articulation wasn’t up to my ideals in terms of a modern action figure line. Thankfully, despite a few hangups, the articulation does a good job across the board. The sister has a ball shouldered head, butterfly jointed hinge-disc shoulders, double jointed elbows, ball jointed wrists, ball-jointed torso, disc-hinge hips with very minimal swivel—one downside to McFarlane’s stuff—double-jointed knees and ball-jointed ankles with toe hinges.

The hip flaps do get in the way of some leg motion, but it is a softer material with a very nice amount of flex to it so you can kind of work around it. The articulation that isn’t affected by design elements works excellently, and I found that there’s nothing that can’t be done with a little bit of fiddling to get her to balance. That backpack does shift her weight off a little, and couple that with the fidgety nature of the ankles—they’re hard to get into just the right spot in some poses—the end result is that it will take a bit of doing to get her to balance just right, but once you do she’ll be there for the duration.

For accessories, she comes with a boltgun and a chainsword, both of which she holds very well in either hand. They both look extremely brutal. Literally everything about Warhammer belongs on the cover of some ‘80s power metal album, and it is awesome.

The Battle Sister brings some hardcore feminine juju to the Warhammer line, despite the fact that there is nothing dainty about this figure. Plus it’s red and black. Can’t. Go. Wrong.