Death Korps of Krieg Commissar.

Impassive, unreadable due to the gas ask covering his face, Commissar Juan Boerkaunt watched the assault begin. He has heard stories of the Death Korps of course, they all had as they received their postings from segmentum command.

He had been slightly put out by being assigned to a siege regiment, rather then an assault regiment, where he felt his skills would be of more use, but he was slowly beginning to be impressed with these fanatical men of Krieg.

The son of a tank officer, born on the volcanic world of Tallax IV, Juan had been inducted into the scholam on his seventh birthday and was earmarked for Commissariat duties. 

With this new campaign, his second as a full Commissar, he had been expecting a posting to a regiment which needed a firm hand and led by example in combat.

In truth, the Krieg were so well disciplined that he found himself rather bored, having to deal with the other regiments around them in their interactions with his men. Now with the prospect of some action his mood had lightened.

He observed the quick, smooth movements of the assault platoons moving forward, the autocannons, already sighted in began their statacco drumbeat rhythm of firing, chewing great chunks out of the side of the building, itself already a ruin.

The Captain, Sain-Stagier, appeared alongside him accompanied by his command squad.

He gave a satisfied nod and turned to Boerkaunt.

"A smooth assault don't you think Commissar?"

"Yes, I am impressed with the regiment and your company, Captain, I will pass that on in my reports up the chain of command".

Sain-Stagier and the Banner Bearer who had heard the conversation straightened with pride.

"Shall we observe a little closer Commissar, I've no doubt the men will fight harder knowing their Commanders are nearby".

"It is rare to find a senior officer who chooses to advance, lead on Captain, the Emperor protects".

*****

So here is the first finished miniature of 2025.

This Death Korps of Krieg Commissar was a Christmas present I bought from a Chinacast supplier* for Fraser to join his 352nd Regiment.

The drawing the sword pose was certainly the most iconic of the Krieg Commissars, and in general of Commissars I think**, even my favourite of the Black Library Ibram Gaunt's models have been rather lackluster compared.

So I began as usual building up the urban ruined base, as is custom for this army. Lots of torn 4mm cork and plastic rodding/detonator wire to add detailing, before liberally covering with sand in the joins for crushed cement, etc.

I took the time to get a lean on the slab he is standing on correct, the original Forge World model is leaning slightly backwards, with his weight on the rear leg, as if he's going to cast forwards with a cleaving motion.

I wanted him to be stood taller and more imposing, so positioned him to be leaning forward, looming down off of the ruins.

Painting wise, daily standard, although I decided to follow the techniques of Andy at Mediocre Hobbies, in that he uses contrast paints as a base layer, hits the model with an overall wash, and then layers up and highlights, because this gives a much better indication of where the shadows are naturally.

Starting from my preferred grey undercoat I started with black Templar, Blood Angels Red, Iyanden Yellow and Basillcanum Grey contrasts.

The metals were picked out in Leadbelcher and Retributor Armour, and his mask was Vallejo Khaki.

Everything was then hit with an overall Earthshade*** wash and then I chose my layering colours.

The coat was Corvus Black and highlighted with Stormvermin Fur, where as his hat, because I wanted a different texture, was done with Abaddon Black and highlighted with Standard Grey.

His uniform was Standard Grey and highlighted with Vallejo Light Grey, Epaulettes were Averland Sunset, Done Yellow and then a shade with Seraphim Sepia.

The red cuffs and sash are Meohiston Red and Evil Suns Scarlet to really get that highlight.

Metals were just layered up with Leadbelcher and Retributor Armour respectively.

So there we have it, a Commissar for the regiment and another miniature finished off.

I'm hoping to get the time to highlight up Red Platoon for that regiment soon, but I must concentrate on my own 261st regiment and opposing Militia in order to get my games in for the Vraks campaign (more on this soon).

A sneak peak at what's coming:

Lots of Deathriders!

As I'm taking part in the Plastic Crack Podcast OPC this year, he gets me off the mark with 10 points of my 6,000 point goal.

Until next time, have nice day...

*

**The only one I think is better is this guy, which I am fortunate to have in my collection:

Although I would like to get the other two Commissars from this time period as well.

***Cardboard Fortress asked about what was our favourite wash on his Facebook page recently, and I replied Earthshade rather then the more common Nuln Oil. 

I personally prefer the warmer shadows Earthshade gives, especially on living things, vehicles and constructs...well, it depends if it's oily or dusty really.

Yellow Platoon, H Company, 352nd Death Korps of Krieg.

 

"ON MY WHISTLE, ADVANCE!" came the shout down the line. Great coated infantrymen clutched their lasrifles, waiting with anticipation to begin the charge towards the objective.

Knelt in the dust and rubble, Sergeant Thieres gave a last prayer to the Emperor as he check his laspack for charge before slamming it home in his pistol. He looked around at his men readying themselves and gave a last brief.

"Our entry is the hole blasted in the wall opposite us. We have an open street to cross first, so as fast as possible, no stopping or bunching up".

The scream of overhead artillery was replaced with the booming retort of explosions and then a shrill whistle announced the start of the charge. Each Lieutenant blowing their whistle in turn to get the men moving.

Hurling himself out of cover, Thieres ran forwards, his bellowed cry of terror and rage lending him the strength to charge the enemy strong point.

 A guardsman Infront of him doubled over suddenly and dropped onto the ground lifeless, half a dozen others in the charging group fell, crumpled in the debris. With no time to mourn or check, Thieres urged his men onwards and made for the objective building.

More were cut down before they reached the building, Thieres slammed his back into the wall, his heart pounding with adrenaline.

He released a stick-grenade from his belt, priming it and threw it through the breach where it detonated with teeth loosening force. Smoke and screams coming from within.

Before the enemy could recover, he charged through, snapping shots left and right from the hip, the bright las-shots glowing in the smoke.

Two bloodied rebels stood before him, the Sergeant cut them down with a series of swift shots before his lasgun was wrenched away.

Throwing a haymaker, the rebel backed off giving Theires time to draw his pistol and Chainsword, before diving back into the fight. The rebel swung the butt of his rifle at Theires' head, swaying aside he kicked the man in the groin and slashed his Chainsword down, cleaving from shoulder to waist and killing the man.

More troopers poured through the breach, and Theires knew they had to keep moving, a single grenade amidst their number now could stop their assault in its tracks. He roared with the release of fury and adrenaline, and continued the slaughter...

*****

So finally I made headway on the Krieg force for Fraser again*, the last time was the Company Command Squad, this time it's a bit more substantial.

Yellow Platoon, H Company, 352nd Death Korps of Krieg Regiment:

A 5 man Platoon Command Squad and two 10 man Infantry squads, this is the minimum size platoon, and I have another 20 men to add to this platoon before it's done.

This organisation is the classic style from 5th edition and backwards, but it can be organised for 10th edition, making the force suitable for most editions of 40k that Fraser wants to play with them.

I picked these up again, because the Plastic Crack Podcast run an Open Painting Competition each month, and Novembers was "A Company/Battalion/Command for your game" and the closest I could get was a Platoon.

There is no prize for this OPC in the group, just the satisfaction of getting something done.

So here is the Lieutenant and the Command Squad. All their left shoulder plates and the flag trim are yellow to denote which platoon they belong to:

One of the squads, I themed this platoon around advancing so they got most of the running legs from the boxes I opened up:

The second platoon, the urban based are really showing their contrast here:

An overhead photo of the entire platoon, showing more of the bases off:

And a final group photo of the finished models. Like the Command Squad, I tried to vary a few of the greatcoats in shade, but it hasn't come out very well on the photo:

Originally I intended to do the minimum sized Company of Two Platoons worth of troops, with an Autocannons squad thrown in for extra.

But real-life got in the way and I simply ran out of time to get Red platoon  or the Heavy Weapons finished.

Here is a photo of the two platoons and one Autocannon team in progress, just after the Agrax Earthshade stage:

They'll be finished soon, so i can chalk them off of the "to-do" list.

Now onto the reveals of the new KRIEG stuff which is coming out in January next year. But this point everyone will have seen these photos, so I'm just offering my personal opinions on them.

The Command Squad is a mixed bag for me.

The top two models, the Standard and the "Grenadier" are misses personally. They just seem to lack that spark to make me WANT them. Whilst not as Lacklustre as the Sanguinary Guard or Inquisitor Coteaz reveals, I feel that these two and something further down are the weakest:

Sticking with the command squad, the officer is alright, I'm not a fan of the excessive detail going on on his chest plate. The medic however...now we're getting somewhere, he has the perfect look of creepy healer which you'd expect from a medic in a gas mask. I also like how his greatcoat isn't button up at the knees, but hangs straight down:

The Commissar is brilliant, much better then the Cadian Commissar, but the vox operator and servo skull make great models. I always feel like 40k needs more gothic weirdness like servo-skulls and such, something which seems to be lacking more and more with Games Workshops "corporatization":

The Krieg Field Artillery is a must buy**, it has that perfect mix of historical flavour and 40k Gothic Sci-Fi fuckery which is what made classic 40k it's own beast:

And then we get to the Engineers... definitely the weakest offering of the reveals.

I'm not sure what they were thinking mixing the Grenadier's and Engineers together into one model, but it's just odd. The engineers always had the smaller jacket as they majority fought in tunnels or at the "sap" end of the tranches being pushed forward, the smaller jackets giving them greater movement.

And the Goliath, what the fuck were they thinking turning it from a remote controlled tank into a damn Roomba?

Those are just my thoughts on the reveals, the Deathriders I won't cover because things are already in motion with Deathriders and Fraser has 16 of the Forge World models which I've started to build, I have suggest that he just gets the mounted officer to add to them, but we'll see.

So for a while yet, the Krieg will have their time to shine, more so with a project I've signed up for, but more on that in future posts.

Until next time, have nice day...

*I'd make a terrible Commission Painter, given I've had these models for over a year now from him and haven't gotten anywhere sorted with the army...

**Or it would be if I was bothered about actually fielding only GW models.

A day after the reveal, the internet was greeted with at least three different STL files to 3D print of the new stuff...take from that what you will!

Imperial Armour, An Armoured Squadron Tale - Part 3.

 

"Alert, I repeat Alert" the voice warbled down the vox, "we are under attack. Greenskins have overrun the infantry screen, Sentinel screen damage, we need support!".

"Oi, Rowe, get yourself moving, they need us back at the front" Sergeant Argall shouted, "Lieutenant Vayce is in trouble and the Sentinel's as well".

"I'm coming, I'm coming" Rowe replied as he finished his ablutions, buttoning up his uniform.

"Move your arse man, my brother is in trouble up there".

With a clang side doors were slammed shut and the engine coughed into life. Argall checked the ammo load on his autocannon as the SteG-4 armoured car lurched forward into motion, loose scree scattering from its tyres as they found purchase.

"Squadron command, this is Scout One, we're inbound, situation report?" Argall voxed.

"Scout One, we have greenskins pushing up the road, heavy armour, armoured infantry, we require support over".

"We're on our way sir. Skirting back along the track North-northwest at marker 52B, ETA three minutes".

Argall bounced in his turret seat, Rowe in the driver's fighting with the steering as they slid down the track infront of them, trees whipping past on each side. Argall clutched the Aquilla pendant he wore next to his tags, praying to the Emperor that his brothers Sentinel walker was alright, a bump dug the corner of the wings into his palm and drew blood. Darkly he wondered if that was a good or bad omen, he was snatched back from his thoughts as Rowe shouted.

"What's the plan, were coming up on the treeline now".

"Stop at the treeline, we'll recce, then move round to support where needed".

"Aye"

Second later they slid to a halt on the mushy track, the leaf litter causing a loss of traction and warning lights to flash manically on Rowe's dashboard in the driver position. Argall threw open the turret hatch and hauled himself up, magnoculars raised, he was met by a whirlwind of noise as rounds cooked off in an explosion nearby.

The great burning wreck of an Ork tank blazed away to his left, another tank dueled with a Leman Russ hitting it squarely and engulfing the tank in flame and smoke. The twin Vanquisher's were jockeying for position trying to get a firing line, as Ork infantry charged up the slope from the south, grey-black smoke trailing from the crude rockets they were firing wildly. Most importantly, all four sentinels were moving towards their squadron, two leaking heavy greasy black smoke, but they were all there.

Sighing with relief, he dropped back into the turret, closing the hatch behind him.

"Out of the track, hard left and we'll begin taking on those rocket firing types, keep the speed up so they can't get a bead on us".

Rowe nodded and buried the accelerator, causing the armoured car to shoot forward. He dropped a gear and slammed the brakes as they emerged from the trees, pulling a near U-turn and the autocannon began firing as the car found it's traction again and shot forwards.

"Greenskin bastards!" Argall shouted as he squeezed the firing paddle of his cannon, the rounds shredding the closest foot troops and an unfortunate Ork Buggy which was closing through his arc of fire...

*****

It's been a while since I've done anything Imperial Guard* related and I wanted to just do something different from the Custodes, Japanese and Tyranids I've been painting a lot of this year. I also wanted to test out a 3D print STL I downloaded for a Weird World War Two project which is still on the cards.

So this is a Staghound Armoured Car, the STL was listed as one for Dust1947, which is an alternate history world war 2 setting. As such the turret comes with various sci-fi weapons like a laser cannon and a mortar as well as the regular cannon the historical car was fitted with.

When she came off of the build plate, I was pleasantly surprised at the detail on the model as she looked quite sparse in Chitubox (the software we use), just with a slight misprint to one of the mudguards, but I could say that was general wear and tear**.

The turret printed well, just the weapons had bent on the print bed, and weren't usable.

In a flash of inspiration, I decided to quickly convert this to a a 40k model of a SteG-4*** and rooting through the bits box, grabbed an autocannon, a couple of Lasguns, some stowage and a sentinel searchlight and antenna.

It was then just a case of adding the details to the vehicle, replacing the weapons with the 40k equivalent and then layering on some medical gauze for camo netting, to match my Vanquisher and Leman Russ tanks.

With a first pass of Death Guard Green spray and details being picked out:

You can see the bent front mudguard in this photo, I'll accept that as a misprint any day:

And the engine bay area:

On with the homemade Doombull Brown wash and the Fire Dragon Bright follow up for rust:

Squadron and Army Group markings added next, I also added the Army Group markings to the roof of the turret as there was a large flat area which looked odd:

And now some finished photo's after the dust drybrushing steps, Baneblade Brown and Ushabti Bone for the top layer. 

I also picked out the searchlight after this, to make sure it was nice and bright to shine the light forwards:

Finally, I dusted off the two other tanks and took a Squadron photo:

I'm pretty pleased with how well I could follow my previous posts and get the scheme back, having not touched this paint scheme for just under THREE YEARS!

Now there are no official rules for an Armoured Car in 40k, however thanks to Reddit, I have a full copy of the vehicle design rules for 3rd/4th edition and so i am sure I can use those to make something suitable.

I will come back to the squadron at some point, but need to get a couple of other things cranked out first, namely get the Custodes finished, and I want to get enough Feudal Japanese minis finished to begin playing a Lion Rampant campaign I have planned for when I finish my gaming table.

Until next time, have nice day...

*I still say it, that they will always be the Imperial Guard, NOT the Astra Militarum (Space Army - stupid name).

**A damaged mudguard is nothing in the scheme of armoured/working vehicles. You should see the state of some of the railway flatbed wagons I work with currently!

***For those who don't know, the SteG-4 was an armoured car created by Dan Abnett in the Gaunts Ghosts novel series, I believe they first appear in Honour Guard (book 4). A four wheeled fast moving vehicle armed with an autocannon, this model fitted perfectly with the description.

In the novels they're used by the enemy who have overrun the sabbat worlds which produce them, but I imagine that there are many still in Imperial service despite this.

Return to Voltistrum - Imperial Guard Vs Tyranids.

 

This is a long overdue gaming day.

The first time we planned it my son brought plague into the house and so it was cancelled whilst we recovered from heavy chest infections.

The second time was work related stuff, so Cardboard Fortress couldn't make it.

We finally managed to arrange the gaming day the past Tuesday (14th May) and so we drove to the wrong side of the Pennines to Element Games in Stockport and prepared to roll the bones.

*****

Captain Caldwalle of the Vanquisher 'Indomitable' was back on the line defending against the Tyranid invasion or Voltistrum.

Alongside the Exterminator 'Righteousness', one of the few survivors of the previous battle, the Imperials had retreated and thrown together an ad-hoc force to buy time to defence the planetary space port for the evacuation.

Infantrymen lined up under the barked orders of their officers and armoured vehicles revved their engines, blue smoke erupting from their exhausts.

The Ordo Tacticus had determined that this was the most likely route that the swarm would take, so the force dug in around a long ruined, part buried settlement and ranged in their guns.

Soon the call went down the line from the scouts that the dust on the horizon was the approaching swarm, with new warrior beasts deployed and driving the aliens forward. In response orders were shouted down the line, encouraging litanies were chanted by units. 

Voices tailed off as the sky turned dark above them, and tentacled Spore Mines began to rain from above.

*****

As is customary, we first had ourselves a game of 40k 5th edition*, and again his Guard army** pitted itself against my Tyranid swarm.

The armies met in the ruins of a long lost city which was slowly being swallowed by the desert.

After the previous debacle, Captain Caldwalle was back in action facing the dreaded xenos, determined to halt the force here.

A platoon of infantry regulars joined his under-strength armoured company, along with a Hydra flak tank and another unit of Ogryns to find out how much they can bite off and get themselves into trouble.

The Hive Mind adapted its will and spawned some larger gun beasts as well A directing a huge swarm of sixty Termagants!

With the dice rolled for first turn/size the initiative, the Tyranids swarmed forward en masse, eager to rend the biomass infront of them.

Spore mines dropped from orbit and exploded on the center of the infantry line, and then the Biovores opened by and threw more spore mines at the thin Guard line.

At the rear of the table, the Imperial Guard Hydra Flak battery was obliterated with one shot by the Shrike with Venom Cannon, firing at full range, the command squad showered with debris and shrapnel but suffered no casualties.

With effective fire from the heavy weapons teams holed up in the ruins wiping out the Warriors squad, severing the link to the hive mind and forcing the mass of Termagants onto their instinctive behaviour.

They became priority targets, and the Lictors and Deathleaper emerged from the shadows.

The Leman Russ Exterminator chewed away at the Termagants, killing half of one squad entirely and the Hellhound burnt a swather the the other. Above the Lictors wiped out the Lascannon squad to a man, before being counterattacked by the Ogryn squad, who whilst wounding the beasts, died to a man.

With bodies rapidly falling to enemy fire and the looming threat of the Hive Tyrant the Guard had a last ditch effort of firing, but it was for naught, as nearly all their infantry was wiped out, the Hydra and Hellhound destroyed or immobile, and the only effective units left on the table were the Exterminator and Vanquisher Leman Russes.

*****

Whilst enjoyable and a good time rolling bones, this isn't my favourite game of 40k which I've had in truth.

From the moment we rolled for the first turn and then I "seized the initiative" by rolling a 6, my dice seemed to be "hot".

I don't think my Biovores missed a single shot due to scatter, and the Spore Mines deep sticking and not scattering was another lucky roll i think.

The Guard may have been too strung out in the line to concentrate fire, a bit like my last game with the World Eaters , but I genuinely think Cardboard was unlucky and I was really lucky with my rolling.

The Hydra could have made a real impact with it's quad Autocannon, but it got blown up on the first turn, likewise the Hellhound managed a good turn of immolating Termagants, but was then picked off in turn, and I do think a normal Leman Russ would have been a better choice than the Vanquisher.

I left my Hive Tyrant too far out on the flank to actually have anything to do which was a waste, a bit of overkill in that he charged and mulched a single officer/sergeant who was all that remained of his squad, and I still need more Synapse creatures in the army overall.

So we had a good day out with friends at Element, and I've got another battle report coming to post.

Until next time, have nice day...

*The reasons for playing 5th edition have been mentioned before in the other battle reports, so I'm not going to repeat them here!

**With a friendly reminder of the Basilisk shortcomings from last time we played. 

Why they made the minimum range 36" on the Earthshaker gun I'll never know.

Death Korps of Krieg - Company Command Squad.

 

"Hive Heleradon stands or falls by our actions gentlemen" Captain Sain-Stagier said to the assembled officers and unit leaders of his command. 

They had gathered to discuss the coming assault on the next objective, a ruined Municipal Building which would become the next HQ post as they pushed further into the counter attack.

"Red platoon will form on the right flank and move forwards through this Commercia here" he indicated on the map laid out on ammunition crates, drawing and arrow with a wax pencil as he did so.

"If you need support, I'll have the Armour drawn up and ready, however, keep in mind they may be needed elsewhere if the heretics attack with their own armour".

"Understood Captain" lieutenant Abelin replied with a nod, the red shoulder pad marking him out as the leader of that platoon, the one flash of colour on his outward uniform of dull blue-grey.

"Good, now Blue platoon, Calvet that's your lot. You're going to Anchor the left flank, that's this Hab unit here" Sain-Stagier stabbed his pencil at a series of buildings on the map.

"Take the Hab quickly and work your way upwards, the overlooking windows will be perfect vantage points for your sharpshooters".

"Yes Captain" Calvet said, his own should plate a deep blue to stand against his greatcoat, each man had a blue-grey coat, but some were more grey then others depending on how long they'd been deployed for. Calvet's was more washed out and grey then blue these days, in contrast tomthe Captain's own which was much newer.

"Once that is done, Vallotton and myself will storm the building with Yellow platoon, under supporting fire from the Autocannon squads positioned here and here" Sain-Stagier said, again marking positions and movements on the map as he briefed the men.

"Silvestre, I haven't forgotten about your riders, you're squadrons are to ride to these positions, your orders are to prevent any counter-attacks forming against us and to ride down any fleeing enemies from our assault"

The Death Rider commander nodded in silence, the braiding of his uniform a contrast to the utilitarian greatcoats of the infantry.

Sain-Stagier studied his gathered men, his grey eyes meeting every man present. Not one looked away from his scrutiny, 'good, fighting men' he thought and grabbed his cup off the edge of the map.

"Gentlemen, If you'll raise your cups, a toast to victory." Each man raised his enamel mug with what little recaff they had left in it.

"In the Emperor's name" Sain-Stagier intoned.

"In the Emperor's name" the officers replied.

*****

Over a year ago, nearly two years in fact, my friend Fraser bought himself a huge Death Korps of Krieg army, and Voluntold me I was painting it.

I started off and then things sort of tailed off for a while and I'd come back to it and then leave it a bit and come back to it, etc etc.

Well this year, keeping momentum up, and using it as a pallet cleanser before diving back into the Feudal Japanese Project, I decided to make a concerted effort to get units for this army finished.

I started with the Company Command Squad, as I'd converted a few of them from eBay spares and repairs, and had the Commander built and primed for over a year before going back in and deciding to get painting!

Fraser requested "World War One French" uniforms, so several bottles of Vallejo Model colour, French Mirage Blue were purchased as well as a couple of khaki colours, everything else was Citadel paints (as those are what I am most used to working with).

For the Officers and Command Squad I decided to go with the Blood Red trousers of historical French Officers and then the blue-grey greatcoats.

Here they are, paired up with the Company Commander*:

The plastic veteran guardsman unit is a lovely kit and includes a LOT of lovely little extra details, such as mess tins and cups, bed rolls, wire cutters and shovels to add to the models.

I particularly like the Kill Team upgrade frame with the selection of medals that you can pin to one of your soldiers to denote a veteran.

One thing I know Fraser likes to do with his forces is to double-up/maximise his special weapons where possible.

The Forge World Command Squad for the Krieger's comes with a Meltagunner and a Plasmagunner. It was therefore quite easy to simply swap out the meltagun with a spare plasmagun from the plastic kit.

I built the Vox-Operator in a kneeling pose and used one of the robotic arms**, obviously this veteran has seen some action!

You can also see the Blood Red trousers I used most clearly on the Vox-Operator, I decided that everyone in this squad was at least Sergeant rank, maybe higher depending.

Here, with the rear of the models, you can see their packs and bedrolls, and the details I added, like the wire cutters and the extra roll on the left hand Plasmagunner.

The Vox-Operator has his Lasrifle secured to his Vox so he always has a weapon:

Up next are the Company Standard Bearer and the Company Commander himself.

The urban bases, whilst matching the Tyranid army, are also a blessing in that they let me disguise the fact that the Standard Bearer has no feet!

He is a Forge World resin model, and out of the spares and repairs bag I bought, he had no feet...some cork torn to represent blasted concrete and I had the perfect illusion and an extra model for pence.

The Company Commander was built from Forge World resin again, but with his weapons replaced by a plastic Bolt Pistol and Power Sword:

I took extra time over the standard itself, as it really is the focal point of the squad. I was originally going to try to work something like a military green onto it, but after watching a few of Mediocre Hobbies videos on YouTube, I decided to take his Blue and Red and work that onto the banner instead. I'm really, really happy with his it turned out with the various highlights and the half checkered shield, I think the skulls are a bit much personally, but we're in 40k land, there HAS to be skulls everywhere:

And the work done on the rear of these two leaders, the banner highlighted up and you can see the detailing with the extra pouch and shovel added to their backpacks:

Next week have a Master of Ordnance.

This guy is basically the Imperial Guards version of a Forward Artillery Officer, he calls in the bombardments and provides fire support for the company.

What I love about this is that you don't have to actually model the artillery guns (although they're very cool, why wouldn't you?) because as long as he stays still, you can call a bombardment in anywhere in his Line of Sight***.

I went with a very standing tall pose, and gave him some extra rubble under his feet to make him that little bit taller, the binoculars are a great touch to add, and whilst he has his own vox pack on his back, ties to the regimental artillery group no doubt, I also added a small signal booster pack at his feet, make from the detonator of the demolitions veteran, just with the terminals painted as is they were flashing lights:

Details of the box, I replaced the original plastic Ariel with a pair made from Detonator wire I pilfered from the scrap bin at work:

The book arm is again, a favourite piece from the Kill Team sprue, I imagine this time that it isn't the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, rather a Time on Target chart to co-ordinate artillery fire over long range:

Finally here is a group photo of the Commander, Master of Ordnance and the Company Command Squad:

Not shown very well in the photos, but I have tried to vary the blues and greys subtly on the different models, so not everyone has the same.colour greatcoat, some campaigning and weathering has already taken place.

I will be happy to get going on this project in the long term (not that it hasn't been long term already), as there are some choice kits coming up which I want to paint, but I'm going to work up a playable force for 5th edition, so that we can at least play a couple of games as I work on the rest of it.

I'm not going to list everything which he bought here, I'll just update as and when I build/finish something new for the army.

Until next time, have nice day...

*In my preferred 3rd/5th edition of the rules, these would just be bought as one unit of the Commander and Command Squad.

I'm the current 10th edition, which Fraser will probably be playing them using, you buy the Company Commander as one choice and the Command Squad as a separate selection, a bit daft if you ask me, but I don't like the current rules.

The Master of Ordnance was always a separate add-on to the unit, similar to how Commissars have always worked.

**Additionally, I am giving all Vox-Operators the flare gun from the Kill Team sprue as a way of denoting their duties.

Often a coloured flare would be used for a signal, the colour depending on the order. It would be kind of hard to send and receive orders to a squad spread out on trench fighting, so the Vox's responsibility includes firing the correct flare for the order.

***This is how he worked in 5th edition, I don't know how he works in 10th.