Poena Studios

Annually, the r/minipainting discord server hosts an army painting event throughout the year. People flock to the channel to paint up armies or board game miniatures (such as for Cthulhu: Death May Die). I decided to participate this year, and give myself a challenge of painting four full armies.

Note that I’m I’m using the term “army” fairly loosely for these Age of Sigmar/ Warhammer armies as my definition is less “these are strict 2k point armies” and more a “what the heck do I have that is either a box set (Ordo Hereticus) or shares a keyword (Astra Militarum)”?

This year, the focus is on “Stillmania”, or breaking down a larger army into smaller, more manageable chunks. Instead of doing a full 2k army in a big batch, for example, you might start with finishing one regiment from start to finish, then move on to the next one. I thought this was a decent idea, hence the participation!

Below, you can see the armies I hope to finish throughout 2026.

Skaven Stillmania Army #1 (65)

• Small
  • Clanrat x60
  • Gray Seer x1 (Leader)

• Medium
  • Stormfiend x3
  • Warp Lightning Cannon x1 (he’s on a 120mm base, but only 92mm high if my Google fu is correct, so I think it’s still a medium).

The Gray Seer will lead this mini rag tag group of rats. I had painted some Skaven before, but I have a theme I want to try this time around – I’m looking to make these look like a construction worker crew! The Gray Seer will be the site foreman.

Astra Militarum, Stillmania Army #2 (47)

• Small
  • The Commissar’s Duty x 1
  • Severina Raine x 1
  • Death Korp of Krieg x 10 (the box literally just says DKOK, so assuming they are infantry of sorts. I should open it and look).
  • Krieg Combat Engineers x 6
  • Gaunt’s Ghosts x 6
  • Hell’s Last x 5

• Medium
  • Lord Marshall Drier x 1 (Leader)
  • Death Riders x 10
  • Heavy Ordinance Artillery x 1 (130mm base, but does not meet height for large, I think).

The Lord Marshall Drier will be the leader for this motley crew. I picked up these purely because I had a Sisters of Battle Kill team and saw a cute comic that had a Krieg crushing on a SOB. The other Astra units are ones that caught my eye here and there, and since I don’t have a points value of army planned out for them, I figured this challenge was a good excuse to toss them all into an army pile and figure out the point value later. Gaunt and his crew are in there since someone recommended the book series and I’m enjoying it (though I prefer Caine, if I’m being honest). Speaking of Sisters….

Adeptas Sororitas, Stillmania Army #3 (74)

• Small
  • Celestian Sacresants x 20
  • Celestine the Living Saint, x3 (this has 3 models per the box, not 3 packs of Celestine!)
  • Paragon Warsuits x 6
  • Battle Sisters Squad x 33
  • Dogmata x 1

• Medium
  • Morven Vahl x 2 (One will be leader)

• Large
  • Triumph of Saint Katherine
  • Immolator
  • Exorcist

One of the Morven Vahl models will be the leader. I have two packs of Sanctorum Guards and one Purgatos Mission that I got as a present for some holiday, and they’ve been unopened on the shelf for a while, hence the whopping numbers of Sacresants and BSS. Ordo Hereticus, Stillmania #4 (33)

• Small
  • Battle Sister Squad x 11
  • Inquisitorial Agents x 7
  • Ministorum Priest x 1
  • Inquisitor Greyfax x1 (Leader)
  • Adeptus Arbites x12

• Large
  • Immolator

Inquisitor Greyfax shall lead this army! I was tempted to mix it in with the Adeptas army above, but since it’s its own box and over 25 models, figured I’d set it to its own. I like the narrative feel of this box, so whether it’s any good in actual gameplay is secondary.