The Warhammer Community team have been going Astra Militarum mad over the last few months, kitbashing a bunch of treacherous dogs and loyal Imperial regiments out of the Cadian Shock Troops kit and a few odds and ends. But what if the Cadians – cracked planet and all – simply aren’t tragically doomed enough? And what if a lone squad simply isn’t sufficient for one man’s towering ambition?
For that, you need Joel and his Death Korps of Krieg – we turn now to the madman who has smashed together an entire army of Astra Militarum with a lot of Veteran Guardsmen boxes.
Joel: A while ago I painted the Veteran Guardsmen for Kill Team, and since then I’ve wanted to branch out into Warhammer 40,000 with the Death Korps of Krieg. When the new range of Cadian miniatures were announced, I saw so much potential in the Field Ordnance Battery – particularly the bombast field guns – for Krieg conversions that it was the perfect time to expand into a full army.
The Veteran Guardsmen box has so many details and extra parts, it’s a joy to convert with – even for someone like me, who isn’t very confident with kitbashing.
I already had two squads of infantry, since I wanted plenty of options for specialists in my games of Kill Team, but I built and painted a few more regular lasgunners to flesh out the squads a bit. Fortunately, I really liked the 143rd Company colours that were on the box – it made painting them up quite easy, since I could follow the Citadel Colour painting guide, which works as a simple method for batching them too.
All my Warhammer 40,000 miniatures and terrain are based with snow, and I love working out where snow might land or gather.
For my Field Ordnance Battery, I spent time figuring out how I could get the crew to look like they really belonged on the models. With the pieces available in the Veteran Guard box set – plus the crew pieces in the kit itself – there are plenty of options. My favourite detail is the tin cup resting on the side of the gun, filled with much-needed recaff in this cold environment.
The biggest challenge was getting the gunner to sit correctly in their seat, as the feet and hands needed to be at very specific positions. After that, I decided to try building the second gun without adjusting the poses too much. I found that by making the crew look busy, the model didn’t lose anything – the second crew are clearly just prepping their artillery!
The colours for these artillery pieces were adapted from the blue used on the Guardsmen themselves, using Dark Reaper and highlighting up to Thunderhawk Blue so the whole army looked uniform.
After painting up the Ordnance Battery, I moved on to my Rogal Dorn. It required a lot less converting – I mainly just switched out the spotter in the turret for a Korpsman with some sneaky hand swaps. Of course I added some spare shovels hooked onto the tank, too – they’re such a staple Krieg tool.
The kit itself has a tonne of extra pieces which give it loads of character. It was really fun to play around with transfers, applying lots of symbols and numbers, then adding battle damage so they didn’t look out of place.
At this point I was deep into “can I put a mask on it?” territory. I decided to keep the skull masks for characters or leaders, and while it took a while to make the gas mask fit, I think the result works really nicely. Lord Commander Joakim Franz Humbert XXXVII here was built from Lord Solar Leontus – and will count as him in any games I may eventually play, but I mostly just loved the potential for a mounted Krieg hero.
My most recent conversion is a custom Command Squad. The Platoon Commander himself has some armour pieces taken from the Elucidian Starstriders box, to stand out a little more as a leader, but he’s kept the skull mask. The most important character here is the Regimental Mascot, because a lovely dog friend is as inspiring to the soldiers as any flag.
I still have plans for a few more units to add. I am definitely in need of a Commissar – though in the Death Korps, it’s his job to keep these fellas from getting too zealous – plus I can’t resist using the new Attilan Rough Riders kit to convert some lance-wielding Death Riders. There’s still so much potential with all the new kits available to the Astra Militarum!
Thanks Joel. This stunning army will be on display at the Warhammer Store in Leeds for a while – pop in to check them out, chant the Litany of Sacrifice, and plan your own rad-soaked regiment.