Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, if you read the title, you know what to expect going in here; a Death Korps Army! If you're just here for the Tau, scroll the bottom of this page.

I'm not a master painter, by any stretch of the imagination, and make do without an airbrush or any fanciness, but I've started what will likely be a very, very long-term Death Korps project (they're much too bloody expensive to buy en-masse).

So, without more needless words, PICTURES!



This is my test model; the scheme I've used before on some Steel Legion I have for my main Guard army (Cadians are bloody ugly, truth be told, the heads are horrid). I haven't done the base yet, but I'm going to go for some mud. Mud looks good on Korps. Mud looks good on Guard, period.



Since taking the photo, I added a touch of chainmail (one of the few old paints I have, boltgun metal, you will be sorely missed) on the helmet bolts, and some Gehenna's Gold on the button holding the coat up, which I'm using for the buttons and such.



As for the backpack, I kind of want to make the blanket on top a different colour, but honestly don't know what. Perhaps a very dark green, any ideas?

I'm quite open to any criticisms and feedback; this is my first time on Forgeworld infantry, and I'll be painting a bloody lot of them over the next year or so. 116 more, actually.

Footslogging Death Korps army, that's right, that's what's coming.

Expect somewhat period updates as I find time between work, university and girlfriend to paint more Korpsmen.

If you want an easy equivalent to GW's old boltgun metal Vallejo's gun metal will do nicely. Looking understated and realistic always a good look for Guard.

I've always thought that with their helmet ridges and pinned back greatcoats the FW death korps look more like late-war french than german.

Anyway, off to a good start here. I agree that the thing on top of the backpack should probably be a contrasting colour and a dark green would work as long as it's an earth tone.

Also army painter's gunmetal is exactly like old boltgun metal and, depending on your source of it, quite a bit cheaper than current GW paints.

 A Kvlt Ghost wrote:
I've always thought that with their helmet ridges and pinned back greatcoats the FW death korps look more like late-war french than german.

Anyway, off to a good start here. I agree that the thing on top of the backpack should probably be a contrasting colour and a dark green would work as long as it's an earth tone.

Also army painter's gunmetal is exactly like old boltgun metal and, depending on your source of it, quite a bit cheaper than current GW paints.

With the rough Stahlhelm design and name, Krieg, I choose to refer to them as Germans, though i know the coat is French, the gasmask British, the boots American and the rank insignia Belgian. They're a rather clever creation, with not on single piece of them unique, but the combination stands out as distinct.

Both army painter and vallejo are somewhat difficult to get locally; only on store stocks them, way the hell and gone in a place called Richmond, 1.5 - 2hrs away on the other side of the urban sprawl that is Vancouver. My group does the occassional paint pilgrimage, so I'll keep them in mind next time they go.

I'll try mixing a bit of brown with a green, see if I can get something suitably drab but contrasting for the bedroll. While Grey would likely work, I think I've already got quite enough of that.

PROGRESS!

Well, sort of. Got 4 more Kriegsmen finished, re-did the bedrolls, and there's a touch more detail.



They're rather grey, no? I find the brass and touches of red very important to break up the grey.



Rear shot of the same Kriegsmen



We've got a runner! Kriegsmen have some pretty good poses, but arms are limited. Not every set of arms fits on every body well, so I had to rely on some green stuff to space some of the arms so they'd fit. The watchmaster (sergeant), whom I haven't done yet, is the most severe, but still looks solid once primed.



The half squad, all together. Lots more left to do, and I'm going to leave the bases until I have a squad at a time finished.

3 more Death Korps finished today. All I have left to do is the Watchmaster and one more guardsmen, then I can start the next squad which arrived yesterday.



First, this is what these guys look like before washing and detailing.



The same guy, now all washed with a few added details. Washes really are awesome things.



I'm rather fond of this particular pose, though I'm not sure how I feel about having one guy in every squad priming a grenade. Characterful poses are great, but they run the risk of becoming repetitive.



The flammenwerfer. It werfs flammen. I must admit, I'm a huge fan of flamers, even before they become awesome in 6th. Nothing like torching a big deepstriking blob of bloodletters and inflicting dozens of wounds. As this is an assault brigade I'm building, I'll be spending a fair bit of time charging, so I'm stick to assault weapons for specials.



As a bonus, I know most people haven't seen DK in person; they're fairly uncommon and all. Therefore, here's an idea of scale. Unlike Cadians, who are often the same height, or slightly taller, than Marines with huge heads, DK are actual proper 28mm scale. Marines are comfortably taller, and look suitably heroic in comparison. Also, I need to find a use for this chaplain; he's just got altogether too many Dark Angels bling to use in my Blood Ravens without pretty enormous amounts of filing and greenstuff. Possibly deathwatch?

These are looking really cool mate ;D Only problem is: Guardsmen aren't made for assault xD Even despite the +1WS it was better in.. 4th I think it was when you could take CCWs and Laspistols :/

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
These are looking really cool mate ;D Only problem is: Guardsmen aren't made for assault xD Even despite the +1WS it was better in.. 4th I think it was when you could take CCWs and Laspistols :/

It's the same school of thought as the Tyranid tervigon list; all my platoons respawn when they're wiped out, and they have orders which make all their lasguns assault 2 12''. I know it's a silly idea, assaulting Guard, but the Assault Brigade list can actually, in theory, pull it off.

Especially when there's 120 of them charging at you.

 MajorStoffer wrote:

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
These are looking really cool mate ;D Only problem is: Guardsmen aren't made for assault xD Even despite the +1WS it was better in.. 4th I think it was when you could take CCWs and Laspistols :/

It's the same school of thought as the Tyranid tervigon list; all my platoons respawn when they're wiped out, and they have orders which make all their lasguns assault 2 12''. I know it's a silly idea, assaulting Guard, but the Assault Brigade list can actually, in theory, pull it off.

Especially when there's 120 of them charging at you.

Yeah but it kinda sucks when Kriegian Company Command Squads don't get orders.. So the only advantage you have over regular guard is that +1WS :/

Alright, squad one is nominally finished. Bases are still to-do, but I'm fairly happy with the end result.



This is the whole squad, with the recently finished Watchmaster in front.



The squad from another angle.

All together they look quite solid, though they need mud. Lots of mud.

I've got a second squad all scrubbed down ready for assembly, but first I have to finish some Assault Marines I've been putting off for a while. My marine list is pretty terrible, so I'm looking to shake things up with a few other add-ons.

Yeah but it kinda sucks when Kriegian Company Command Squads don't get orders.. So the only advantage you have over regular guard is that +1WS :/

Death korps do benefit from orders!
And as for use of your dark angel chaplain: The death korps fought alongside with the dark angles in the siege of vraks, so you could get a small dark angles task force like what I did with my DV dark angles. Nice models, similar paint scheme to mine. 143rd kriegsmen are the best ofcourse.

 timthehierodule wrote:

Yeah but it kinda sucks when Kriegian Company Command Squads don't get orders.. So the only advantage you have over regular guard is that +1WS :/

Death korps do benefit from orders!
And as for use of your dark angel chaplain: The death korps fought alongside with the dark angles in the siege of vraks, so you could get a small dark angles task force like what I did with my DV dark angles. Nice models, similar paint scheme to mine. 143rd kriegsmen are the best ofcourse.

Death Korps actually have pretty snazzy orders now, and unique advisors, special wargear, the works. The Assault Brigade is quite smashing. Makes the seige list look a little unimpressive, to say the least, in comparison.

As for the Dark Angels, I actually only have the one model: I didn't get Dark Vengeance, but one guy bought three, and just gave me the chaplain. I was thinking of getting a few of FW's older armour marks, and making a small Fallen list using the Chaos rules for when my normal Guard have to do double duty as traitor guard in team games, but that's a project for a ways off yet. At most, the "Dark Apostle" with some chosen and regular marines, maybe some old-model Terminators instead of the chosen.

Progress begins once again! Finished some assault marines for my Blood Ravens, but they're not terribly exciting, and I won't sully a DK blog with marines.



I've got the next squad built, which took a while. Every Death Korps Watchmaster comes with a specific arm arrangement, namely holding his rifle tot he side while throwing a grenade, so I opted to use some other bits to make this one different.

Expect some painted models monday or tuesday; my work hours have been cut enormously, so until I find a new job to replace it, I will have some more time to get stuff painted.

What's better than painting one guardsmen? PAINTING THREE!

Yes, very exciting, shocking, mind-blowing even.



Spent about 3.5 hours on these guys. I find doing more than 3 at one go is tiring and boring, leading to mistakes or skimping on detail.



My Watchmaster, with a plastic laspistol and an arm from an extra Krieg tank commander I have (I'm not much more exposed tank commanders, so I didn't use the one I got with my DK Vanquisher.)



I was originally going to use the arm as an "all-clear" signal or something, but it didn't fit the torso well in that pose, therefore, he's drawing a chainsword; a good, classic and solid look. The laspistol is a touch large.



By point of bayonet! I've got three guys in this squad in various states of stabbing someone, or about to.



I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, even if there was a miscast. There's a notable ridge in his coat and boot from misaligned molds. I made a halfhearted attempt to file it down, but it's in an awkward spot, and in the end, just looks like another fold in the coat.



Everyone likes a little grenading in their day.

Next on the agenda; three more Kriegsmen, and I'll be Blood-Ravening a Captain Sicarius, as I'm tired of losing every single game with my marines, and he's got a decent model. I'll probably post him when I'm done, as it's a little more interesting than just tactical or assault marines.

More Progress!



2 squads of guardsmen are finished, 20 models out of the 140 I'll be needing.

Hell, I'm not even going to have a legal army until September at the earliest.

Deathcore! Looking good, can’t wait to see them based and finished. How are these guys to clean and put together? I’ve been thinking about starting an army for months

 TheFireDrake wrote:
Deathcore! Looking good, can’t wait to see them based and finished. How are these guys to clean and put together? I’ve been thinking about starting an army for months

Hell, absolute hell.

See, each arm belongs with a specific model, but there's no way to actually tell what goes with what. Even the intended arms and such don't fit particularly well; at least half of my guys have greenstuff armpits to make them actually fit together.

The command squad I just built was easy (though the vox caster was horribly miscast, so I'm seeing about getting him replaced), as each model comes on a "sprue" with his intended gear, the rest, not so much fun.

They are, however, fun to paint; loads of detail, and as you can see, look pretty good all put together without enormous effort invested in.

Seeing as my vox caster is wrecked, I'll likely focus on basing my two finished squads, and finish a few marine odd-jobs (Apothecary today), and work on the trivial matter of 2 12 page history papers for the summer semester. Seeing as one of them is on the Soviet Commissariat, I ought to see about working on a commissar.

i share your pain, frigging arms arent labelled adequate enough to know what fits what so ive taken to GS in the gaps. It does make interesting variations but as long as the watchmaster and flamer models are good im happy to botch up the rest. Have you had any snapped lasgun tips and single legs on the running models yet? they are my bane! loving the colour scheme! , ive gone winter camo and 2 platoons down is becoming a lesson in patience and pain!

badgermeister wrote:
i share your pain, frigging arms arent labelled adequate enough to know what fits what so ive taken to GS in the gaps. It does make interesting variations but as long as the watchmaster and flamer models are good im happy to botch up the rest. Have you had any snapped lasgun tips and single legs on the running models yet? they are my bane! loving the colour scheme! , ive gone winter camo and 2 platoons down is becoming a lesson in patience and pain!

I've had one foot break off, one of the running models, and one lasgun came with the stock broken, but they were easy enough to re-attach.

The one thing that's been bugging me are the handles on the entrenching tools/bayonets; they break really easily getting them off the sprue. Also, the shoulder armour which is, for some insane reason, not sculpted on, is a royal pain to glue on as well. It has become much easier though, but I've got 120 or so models left to do.

So many men.

Guten Tag Herr Kommandant.

DK Commanders are probably my favorite models in 40k. They're the perfect example of how a model can look great without needing a ton of bling, but rather characterful posing (which doesn't always need to be the "I'm hitting you while yelling" variety) and well thought out aesthetics.

I blame the fancy jacket. There's something about that model and how he wears his trench-coat that screams "I'm badass"

He looks fantastic!

In an effort to procrastinate on finishing a paper on the Soviet Commissariat, I decided to paint Farsight.

Why Farsight? Truth be told, I'm an ardent Imperial player, but I must say I rather enjoyed the fluff in the Enclave supplement, and the idea of having "The Seven Samurai IN SPACE!" which is basically the idea behind his command team, is totally awesome. Furthermore, I only invest in armies with a distinct playstyle from what I already have. My armoured company is about long-range firepower with some focus on maneuver and use/negation of terrain. My marines are my small, elite infantry force, though decidedly mediocre at present, with a slight emphasis on assault. The Death Korps will be my proper horde army; lots of assaulting and close-range volume of fire, with artillery. Tau, finally, offer me the chance to run a deathstar army, with a focus on deepstriking and disruption.

It'd also cost only slightly more than one of my planned Death Korps platoon to build the entire Enclave list I have planned out, so there's that.

So, worry not, there will be many more Death Korps, I just wanted to branch out a touch, and got bored of my marines and have no real intention of buying more, but Crisis and Broadside suits, well they can be fun to build and use.

Without further ado; Commander Farsight



I have no idea how I'm going to transport this guy. Absolutely no idea.



I'm still considering going over the brass with some drybrushed gold, to make him look a touch more like the studio paintjob, but i'm rather fond of the darker, warm colours.



For basing, there's a few ork players i've asked to gather random bits and pieces of junk I'll be using, likely on sand.

Longer-term, I also plan on building an allied Guard force for the Enclave; there is a human population in the Enclave, and I figure they ought to get some showing. Only question is what to use for the infantry. I've considered combining Fire Warrior bits with the soon-to-be released Warlord Games Japanese infantry, to maintain the rather Japanese theme to the Tau, or mixing Victoria Miniatures bodies with some more high-tech Pig Iron heads with some tau odds and ends. I'm open to suggestion, but this won't be for a long time, I just like planning and scheming in advance.

Alright gents, I've had most of a Command HQ squad done for a while now, save the damaged vox caster I just had replaced a few days ago, so in the meantime, enjoy bodyguards and a banner so epic it can't fit in one picture (My camera can't focus properly on it if I try and get it in one frame.)



I'm very fond of the command squad models, they're fairly sedately posed, but it fits what they're supposed to be doing (Commanding from the rear, not running up and hitting people), and they've got very well designed and detailed models. Not pointless bling either, everything on them has a purpose, which FW has spelled out point by point across their books involving the Korps.



The bannerman himself is a touch stuff; I couldn't settle on a good pose or his pistol arm, but I'm still pleased with the result. It just didn't look right to have him aiming at something, but the arm is so straight it doesn't look natural down either, meh, c'est la vie.



I loathe freehanding, but I know I'll have to to finish off this banner. I'm not entirely sure what I want to put in the little raised surfaces, probably names of battles; Vraks and Amarah from the FW books themselves, and then maybe add some as I use the army in campaigns/apoc games, as my group tends to try and make things themed.



The Death Korps, as they were yesterday. Techpriest is primed, ready to go, vox caster is now too. I also got a nice chunk of Krieg from a member of our group who doesn't play them anymore. He sold the painted stuff, but had a few units left unused, so I got another Command HQ squad, one platoon HQ and one infantry section for about 1/3 retail. I'll be putting those together today.

Expect some Enclave stuff too sometime in september, Farsight himself was basically a test (damned expensive one at that, but hey, I live dangerously), and I'll be building that army in random spurts here and there.

Nice looking Command Squad, the red as a spot colour really makes them stand out from the platoon infantry whilst still remaining coherent with the army. The Commander is a epic model, and the banner looks great too. I like the idea of adding campaign names as the army progresses, very characterful.

It's been a while, but I haven't been idle.

A little bit of progress for you lot today; Techpriest Militant, Vox Operator, a Platoon Commander and a wider progress shot of everything I've got going on.



Omnissiah be praised, this techpriest is finished. One of my favourite old metal models, and I've long been horrified of it going to finecast, so I got it while the getting's good.

Fairly simple paintjob, but the model doesn't lend itself to a bunch of intricate paint details; he's mostly armour, tubes and cloak.



The rear of the enginseer, a little more to work with, and I'm pleased with the end result. Not sure what's up with the tube/pipe snaking off to nowhere.



The original of this fellow was horribly miscast, but the replacement is solid. For electronics; screens and the like, I've kept them consistent for each army, so my standard Guard are red, my marines are green, and I think I'll stick with the light blue on his screen for the Korps, another colour to break up the gray.



A touch too close on the photo for my Platoon Commander, but how much do you really care about the swordpoint or laspistol barrel?

This guy is from a PCS and infantry section I got for half price off a guy who's sold his Korps army, but had these two leftover. They're older casts, not quite as good as the ones I've ordered myself, back when FW really did have no QA, but there's nothing critically wrong with all but one of them (big chunk of resin between the folds of his coat, I should be able to paint it as if it's natural, who knows).

I'm going to have three platoons in the end for this army, so I'll need to think on how to make future commanders more distinct.



The Horde, as it stands.

I've got a few concurrent projects; Sicarius off to the side there just got a promotion to 1st Company to act as my Chapter Champion, seeing as I won't be allowed to use him anymore with the new Marine rules, and there's some marine torsos beside him I want to strip so I can make more efficient use of the new Marine boxes; no point in paying $50 for bits if you don't use them after all. I've also got some abandoned, but based and primed terminators in the very back I'm not sure if I'll ever use, as terminators just aren't that good anymore with so much AP2 floating around. Lastly, if you're eagle-eyed you might spot some of Victoria Miniature's not-Mordians left over from a Kill Team project of mine.

Next on the to-do list, however, will be to finish my platoon command this week, and get some marines done after the release at the end of the week.

As for the Tau, I'll get around to getting Farsight some buddies at some point, but it's not pressing.

Comrades, I have been steadily working on more Krieg, and present a snapshot to you today.

The unpainted infantry section in the previous picture is finished, but there's not much of real consequence to see there, save for Mr. Frag, as I like to call him.

Anywho, what I've got for you is Mr. Frag himself, my Platoon Standard and some assembled, but as of yet unpainted Grenadiers (Awesome looking models, absolute horror to build).

Without further ado, pictures!



Banner! Krieg has many banners, might be their #2 export after men. Easier to paint than my Regimental standard, not dissimilar to the normal plastic banner.



Meet Mr. Frag. From the front, he doesn't look too special, does he?



From the side, the true story emerges! (I may have had extra grenades).



And yet more grenades! I wonder if anyone will get mad at him for not holding a lasgun.

For my next project:



Those hellgun cables are an absolute nightmare.


So, at present I have the following:

HQ:

Marshal Karis Venner, Company Command Section, Carapace, Techpriest, Regimental Standard

Troops:

1 Platoon
- 1 Platoon Command Section w/ 2 Flamers, commander with carapace
- 3 Infantry Sections, 2w/ Flamers, 1w/ Melta.

1x Grenader squad w/ 2 Plasma guns

I'm planning on one identical platoon, a 10 man engineer squad with carcass rounds (confers shred to the unit for 10 points) on their shotguns and a demo charge, a Quartermaster Cadre (every unit within 3'' of any member of the cadre gains 6+ FNP), two heavy weapon squads (autocannons and lascannons), an aegis, a heavy mortar with carcass (St 5 AP4 large blast ignores cover shred, gets hot) and an allied Armoured Battlegroup with 1 Vanquisher (already have the Death Korps one, I'll take it home and touch it up and post pictures before too long), standard battle tank and a demolisher.

On the Tau front, I have a crisis team built my girlfriend bought me for my birthday, a second I bought for myself yesterday and a riptide.

I plan on watching Pacific Rim while building the riptide. Might borrow a mate's Trygon or something to paint concurrently.

Grenadiers Ahoy!



So, the big functional difference between these guys and line infantry are (aside from the nightmare of building them; those cables are hell) how I painted the armour. In previous infantry, given they wore relatively little armour or breastplates, I did one of two things; leave them black from the primer and highlight/drybrush/weather, or paint entirely metal and wash for the breastplates.

For these guys I didn't feel the shinyness of the breastplates would work; this armour is more functional, but is too significant a part of the model to just leave flat black, so I used a method I know a lot of people standby; I painted them grey, and then washed extensively (say 5 coats on average). Very time consuming, but I'm pleased with the result.



I tend to do batches of three for infantry squads, but I've got two things I'm not happy with with this batch; guns and helmets. I'm not sure if I highlighted the helmet sufficiently (my line infantry are a bit more beat up, heavier weathering to represent the often re-issued nature of Krieg equipment), and the guns.



The problem is when I glued the power cabling in, by some fluke of physics the superglue spread up from the base of the rifle in complete disagreement with gravity, and thus reduced the detail level on the rifles; some more than other, depending on how combative they were feeling. I don't quite know what to do with them to make them look good. Any ideas would be appreciated; for now I'm just sticking to weathered metal.



Also, one of this fellow's feet snapped off when I was taking them off their sprues, and disappeared to some dark corner of my room, so I used a spare normal foot to replace it; doesn't fit quite perfectly, but his pose isn't too un-natural.