Death Korps Riders 1st Squad.

 

"Recon the top of the next ridge and then swing South-West to complete our patrol" the Sergeant said and kicked his mount into action as the other members of his squad raised their lances in salute and followed.

The Death Riders rode their mounts through the rocky terrain up the ridge, the beasts clawed hooves finding purchase in even the worst conditions and loose scree.

In a loose line the five riders crested the ridge and came to a halt, looking over at the vista before them.

The Van Meersland wastes stretched in every direction they could see, and more importantly the defence lines of the Vraksian renegades were laid out in great detail as they observed.

Great diagonal zig-zag trenchlines spread in either direction, communication trenches and gun pits moving away from the front, but the skyward pointing barrels of the artillery pieces were clearly visible, silhouetted against the sky.

The Sergeant pulled a picter from his backpack and began taking picts for high command and army intelligence to look at.once he was finished, his men looked to him to set the pace as they began the long March South-West and back towards friendly territory.

*****

The next models of the 261st Siege Regiment have been completed and these are a mounted section and accompanying Commissar.

These models are 3D prints of STLs from the creator RedMakers on MyMiniFactory. I was taken by the more dynamic poses of the models as opposed to the more static poses of the Forge World models which used to be available.

These men follow the previously described paint scheme of the Grenadier's, as this is the uniform of my chosen regiment, and I must say I am more then happy with how they have turned out.

The Sergeant and a Lancer:

I wanted these to reflect a little differently then the standard line troops, so the white stripe down their shoulders was added as a flash detail, the red pennant was just a "what colour can I pick up without looking" choice.

Another Lancer and the Flamethrower:

In the normal rules for the Death Riders, they are not allowed to have a special weapon (Meltagun/Plasmagun/Flamer) but after seeing the STLs I decided to play loose and fast with them in order of Rule of Cool!

These are the first unit for a squadron of Death Riders, I have three five man squads printed and a five man command squad, I just need a fourth squad to complete the squadron in the future.

The Mounted Commissar:

This was the model which started this section of the army, as RedMakers were offering him as a free STL, very heroic posed model that he is.

The red scabbard on the sword was to tie in with the riders, the rest of him was painted as the other Commissars from the previous post.

His mount, like all the other Death Riders, is simply Reikland Fleshshade straight over a light grey undercoat.

I use a cheap grey primer I picked up from The Range, but Citadel Grey Seer would work just as well as a base for this.

The bases were finished in the way previously described, with sand, sawdust and AK diorama paste mixed together and then some modelling barbed wire added.

I am only claiming a Rank and File box on my Hobby Bingo card for this post, as I have better character models I want to paint, so I am keeping the boxes available for them in the future.

With that in mind, it fills one box for 10 points and setting myself up for a line with the Elites box later on,:

For the OPC, there are six riders and six mounts, and at ten points each, gives my score a boost by 120 points!

This leaves me with 330 out of 6,000 points completed.

Until next time, have nice day...

Death Korps Grenadiers 1st Squad.

 

Morning rose on Vraks, the sunlight hazy through the dust kicked up by the artillery duels continuing day after day.

In the dull morning light, the Grenadiers of the 261st Siege Regiment finished their prayers and gathered their gear.

Weapons were slung over shoulders, ammunition packs counted and stocked up, along with any grenades needed. Metal rattled against metal as the armour plates they wore were checked for damage and securely fitted.

They moved along the trench towards their jumping off point from the orders circulated from higher command.

Other platoons of the regiment gave them salutes or nods as they passed, for these were the Grenadiers, the ones who had already made their peace with the Emperor and we're essentially 'Dead Men Walking'.

Ladders were finally pulled into place and each man took his assigned position. Ready to climb out of the security of their trench and charge across No-Mans Land, to glorious death, in service of the God-Emperor of mankind.

*****

With some time for hobby, I made a good start on my Krieg force. The models are 3D printed and whilst not direct scans of the out of production Forge World grenadiers, are close enough for my liking that I am comfortable printing a force of them all together.

I decided to start with a Grenadiers squad including a Heavy Flamer team (always loved the FW model, so when I found the STL it was a must have), and a couple of Commissar models I found at the same time.

My choice of regiment is the 261st Siege Regiment, because I preferred their old colour scheme in the Imperial Armour books:

I really liked these with the more British looking Khaki overcoats, as opposed to the more French Blue scheme I've been painting for Fraser.

I also liked the contrast of the dark grey body armour over the lighter khaki greatcoats.

So the full Grenadiers Squad look like this:

I took extra time on the bases, covering them with a mixture of AK Desert sand paste and sand with some sawdust thrown in as well, then as it was drying I added more sand on top and some coiled model barbed wire to add details.

Eventually I want to get some AK wet effect, and add some puddles into some of the dips on the bases for puddles and mud.

The squad sergeant and special weapons:

For a bit of a spot colour, I painted the power cables of the weapons in yellow and washed them with Earthshade to make it a dirty, weathered look, but still bright enough to draw the eye to details.

The Grenadiers with their Hellguns:

These will be the meat of the army, as they are the mainstay of the units.

To get the weathered effect on the armour, I started with a Basillcanum Grey base layer and washed with Earthshade. I then layered up the grey with Mechanicus Standard Grey leaving the darker patches as either dirt or camo as you choose to look at it.

Next I pulled a couple of Commissar STLs and printed those, here are the results:

The Commissar with the chest plate and the bolt pistol held out will join the higher command squad for the company, whilst the second man with the sword and the "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer" held behind his back will join the platoon command squad keeping the men moving forward. 

As a size comparison, I wanted my 3D printed models to be scaled to match the proper GW models (in this case a FW one).

I wanted to scale them to match, as that way I can add my forces to Fraser's for a future big game if we choose to do one at Element Games.

Turning to the points for Hobby Bingo and the OPC this year.

Hobby Bingo, these models give me a "Rank and File" box and a "Leaders and Heroes" which adds 20 points to the total and ticks off another two boxes on the bingo card.

As for the OPC, at 10 points each, these models give me 120 points off of my 6,000 point total.

There are a lot more Death Korps coming, along with the renegade Vraksian forces as well. The first couple of battles for the campaign will have to be played out using counters as I haven't got the time at the moment to commit to finishing two full armies, but as things get finished expect to see more from Vraks.

Until next time, have nice day...

February fun.

 

A Valentine's Day message:

Until next time, have nice day...

The Siege of Vraks campaign.

 

"Herein follows an examination of the most lamentable Siege of Vraks, bastion and Armoury World of His Most Divine Emperor, of the plans of those treacherous and heretical rebels that led to its downfall and the glorious sacrifice of the Emperor's Imperial Guard among the grim and hardy regiments of Krieg, and those misguided Mortals who have unwittingly venerated the Powers of Chaos, at a terrible cost in blood, but worst still -- to the eternal damnation of their own souls".

+++Inquisition report on the Siege of Vraks+++

*****

Welcome to Vraks, a system in the far off Scarus Sector. We are making planet fall on Vraks Prime, armoury world of the Administratum and recently turned renegade by apostate preacher Xaphan.

So I'm a member of the FB group "Vets* of Vraks" and the creator of the group wanted to run a large scale campaign over the year following the course (or our course) of the Siege of Vraks.

Having a Krieg army I signed up, and started to print and paint stuff as fast as I can (not fast enough) in order to take part.

The Siege of Vraks was a series of books by Forge World around 2010-ish and the trilogy covered the war from its humble origins, as most wars generally start out in the 41st millennium, all the way up to the full on Chaos invasion and Daemonic assault of books two and three respectively.

They basically covered everything which Forge World had released for either the Imperium or Chaos at the time, minus a few things like the Elysians which had their book before.

These were also the books where the model range and look of the Death Korps of Krieg were solidified, as beforehand they had simply been an alternate paint scheme for the Armageddon Steel Legion.

So the organiser of the campaign drafted in a fair few of us from the group who wanted to take part and assigned us a place on the campaign map below:

This is the actual map from the books, as the fighting takes place in the trenches over the Van Meersland Wastes.

My assigned area is in the 30th Corps, as the 261st Siege regiment, famous in the books for being the first to force a breach in the first defensive line, we'll have to see if I can live up to that.

We're going to get given a mission each month and have three weeks to play the battle out and report back our results, either victory, minor victory, minor defeat or defeat.

We can use whatever set of rules we want, from the original books all the way up to current 10th edition 40k if we want.

For my part I'm going to stick with my tried and true 5th edition 40k and use the Imperial Guard codex for the Krieg and Renegade Guard lists, and when space marines show, I can use the Marines and Chaos codexes respectively.

I know this seems like a strange choice, but I don't want to dig out everything from storage in the loft to find the older books when I have this set on my bookshelf ready to go.

I'll be posting after action reports on here as the campaign progresses (hopefully).

So back onto painting...

Until next time, have nice day...

*Meaning Veterans not animal doctors!

Death Korps deployed to Vraks.

 

Until next time.

Vraks secedes from the Imperium!

Until next time...