The Death Korps of Krieg are rolling out with a fantastic new army box that’ll be available to pre-order on Saturday. Warhammer Community conscript Joel recently earned the honour of getting the box early, and he’s painted them to join a wider force.
When I originally saw the first wave of Astra Militarum kits a couple of years ago, I knew they would fit in really nicely with the Krieg kill team I had. I especially liked the bombast guns and the Rogal Dorn tank, so I decided on a small kitbashing project to make them into the Death Korps (a project we have previously featured here). That project has expanded quite a bit – and as soon as I realised more plastic Kriegers were coming, I wanted a full army.
I was privileged to acquire an early Death Korps army box, and I’m very happy with how nicely it fits in with my other pieces.
Once I cracked it open, I made a start on the Death Riders. They are such an iconic Krieg unit that I’ve been really excited to get them into the list. The kit itself is lovely, and there are a bunch of different ways to build them with swords, lances and guns. This is a completely stylistic choice, however, as they come equipped with all three on their datasheet.
These aren’t the normal horses of the Attilans though, these steeds are pallid chimeras changed through millennia of genetic tinkering. I loved how the ‘Eavy Metal team painted them, and decided to go with their scheme using my own recipe, shown below:
Death Rider Mount Skin
Deepkin Flesh base coat
1:1 Lahmian Medium/Carroburg Crimson Wash
1:6 Gal Vorbak Red/Lamian Medium shade for veins, tubes and lower leg
1:2 Pallid Wych Flesh/Lahmian Medium layer for body
Add White Scar to previous mix for highlighting
1:1 Gal Vorbak Red/Pallid Wych Flesh for lower leg highlight
For Lord Marshal Dreir I used a scheme similar to the rest of the cavalry, but spent a lot more time on him as befits his status as head of the whole operation.
I adore the huge, revolver-like shotguns the Engineers have, so other than the sergeant and the bomb controller, they all got them. There are some really lovely details on the backpacks, such as a blowtorch and a guy carrying a bunch of extra stick bombs, and as a fan of the skull masks it’s a great kit. I definitely want to get more!
The last thing I painted was the Artillery piece. This was my favourite part of the set, as it’s like a little diorama in itself. I picked the siege cannon, though I’d like to add a multiple rocket launcher when I can. This kit is full of detail, such as the maintenance trooper with a toolbox and spanner, with another on controls and one more barking orders, though there are plenty of extra options included, not to mention all the potential for conversions!
I was overjoyed to see that there is a tin cup as a separate piece. This is glorious. It was placed with appropriate reverence amid a bunch of gear to the rear, melting the snow around it.
Before I’d seen the new Krieg release, I had actually converted some Rough Riders and a Heavy Weapon Squad, based on existing Attilans and Cadians. On the Rough Riders, the conversion was easy – the boots, the bottom half of the coats and the whole horse worked really well already. For the top half I just cut the bottom half of the coat off and glued in the body.
The trickiest part was making the arms. I had to remove some of the very Attilan design cues and add in Death Korps pieces, but also had to keep the positions of the arms correct so that the reins and lances worked. I have never spent so long converting a kit in my life, and whilst I am extremely proud of how this unit looks, I doubt I will do another. It’s really nice to have a variety of different cavalry in my army though.
When it came to heavy weapons, it had to be mortar squads. I feel like they fit the aesthetic perfectly (and it’s totally nothing to do with the ease of converting, I promise.) Similar to the bombast guns, I just had models around them looking busy to finish them off, which worked really nicely again. The tin cup made its debut here. Krieg Heavy Weapons squads can’t actually field mortars now – but I can just count them as one of the other types of heavy weapon squad.
I love how this army all looks together between my converted units and the lovely new Death Korps kits. I love having a Warhammer 40,000 army that has 17 cavalry models in it, too. Next, I’m desperate to get my hands on some of the new Krieg heavy weapons and the Krieg command squad, but I also have a sentinel and a bunch more standard troopers to paint up soon too. I’m definitely going to be busy for a while!
The rest of Joel’s army can be seen in an earlier article, here. If you want to see Joel's army in person, you can see it on display in the Warhammer World store right now!
The first wave of new Death Korps of Krieg miniatures is available to pre-order on Saturday in the form of an Army Set. This will also be the first place to acquire the new Codex!
Joel’s Death Korps reinforcements are part of his #WarhammerChallenge pledge for 2025. Join in yourself, and you could win £100 in virtual Warhammer gift vouchers. Post a picture of your hobby progress to X or Instagram using #WarhammerChallengeCompetition between now and the 26th of March to take part; Terms and conditions apply.
