There are many sources of inspiration for Armies on Parade boards – and as soon as the team at Tabletop Time saw the new Death Korps of Krieg miniatures, they knew they had found theirs. Here they are to tell you all about their vision, and how they achieved it.
Tabletop Time: We were excited to start work on an Armies on Parade board, something all of us have at various times wanted to do, but never quite committed to. The Death Korps of Krieg have often been portrayed as deeply rooted in trench warfare, and we wanted to capture that in a diorama.
There are many amazingly characterful officers and specialists in Astra Militarum armies, so we also knew we wanted to showcase a command briefing of sorts. Inspired by this, we fell in love with the idea of an ancient Shadowsword, cooked off and destroyed, then built into the trenchworks over years of battle. What better protection than the hull of a super-heavy tank to hide behind and hold your meeting?
There are a few exciting challenges when working on a display board, and one of them is how to fit in the models and make it look thematic. Considering this, we decided to create our trenches around the base size of our standard infantry, with paths being 25mm wide and upper firing levels sharing the same width.
This would allow us to showcase all the awesome running sculpts for the Krieg infantry, as Commissars bark orders and send them scurrying to new firing emplacements, as well as the static firing infantry keeping watch on the upper levels of the trench.
Another consideration is the viewing angle. Often, display boards are showcased in rooms with multiple people walking by and looking at them, so we used the lines of the trenches and emplacements to create multiple viewing angles, each revealing a different aspect of the board.
Viewed from behind, you can see sculpted sandbags and dirt running down the hills. Viewed from the front, the heads of watchful infantry and a run of soldiers sprinting toward the forward trench are visible. Of course this leaves the command briefing exposed from half the board, and an impressive Shadowsword wreck from the other. No matter where you look, there's something to pay attention to.
Ultimately, it was a treat to make, and especially to get really physical with, using techniques reminiscent of those found in the White Dwarf magazines we read in our youth – skewers, glue, sand, and a lot of love. We really hope you like our project, and our video on how we made it. Hopefully it honors the Death Korps well.
Thanks guys! We’ll be featuring more Armies on Parade progress reports as the year goes on – so keep an eye out on Warhammer Community. If you’re entering, visit the Armies on Parade site for all the rules and categories – or if you have questions, please get in touch at armiesonparade@gwplc.com.
