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.

Stormbreaker Half-Track, part 1.

In last month's Hobby Spending review, I mentioned that I had taken a punt on a 3D printed Half-Track off of eBay.

The item in question arrived safe and sound and I've been busy working on it, so decided to document it here.

For reference, the Stormbreaker kit is a 3D printed proxy of the Games Workshop Taurox transport for the Imperial guard (Astra Militarum for you new people):

I mentioned that it was safe and sound, because after looking at reviews from other sellers, and a previous experience with a seller on Etsy, it can be something of a shot in the dark as to whether you're going to get your item in a timely fashion or even at all.

Onto the kit, very well produced and packaged, my only gripe here is the amount of plastic used to send it in, nearly every part was individually wrapped with plastic, if you're environmentally conscious this may be a turn off for you:

Getting the rear hull/transport piece out of the bag, it's very nicely printed, and rather refreshingly cured and dry!

I've had prints before which have leaked as I've taken them out of the box and I've had to then take time rinsing everything off and leaving it to finish curing for a few days in a sunny window:

Hollowed out to save resin and weight, you can see the drainage holes, a thorough check of these ensured non of the leakage issues I'd mentioned above.

I was very impressed:

You can just make out the bobbling texture on the underside of the hull, this is where the support raft will have been and torn away after printing.

It leaves this sort of texture, but being well planned and on the underside of the hull is a blessing as I don't have to clear it up:

The full kit laid out on the cutting mat.

A reasonable number of parts and shouldn't take too long to put together:

A few details comparisons now, obviously the company cannot use the Games Workshop Aquilla symbol, so here is their "winged skull":

Likewise the Comms Array next to a GW Sentinel version:

And Autocannon, again from a GW Sentinel:

Getting into the assembly, the axles and motion units all have a T shaped connection so that you cannot assemble them upside down, hard to do, but I know someone who probably could:

And then there was this piece which took me a little while to figure out what it was for and why it wasn't just moulded straight onto the vehicle:

After looking at the photo of the kit on eBay, I realised that the other versions of this tank come with a Missile Launcher which gets attached here, and this is just a blanking plate to cover the slot:

The main parts assembled, the turret and motion units are complete, I'm leaving the Bullbar loose for painting, but wait...:

Drainage holes, in an awkward place!

I'm not sure if there was meant to be something to fit there or not as I didn't have anymore pieces in the box, but we can't leave a pair of holes in the main hull.

Out with the plasticard then, a 20thou section cut and glued into the space, bent into shape by pressing the front hull against it:

Now most of the kit was in fantastic condition, no warpage or misprints that I could see, then I got to the rear exhausts:

The kit is meant to have two rear exhaust stacks, one on either side of the vehicle, however in the photo above, one was slightly misprinted and wouldn't fit in the mounting hole, and would have been at the wrong angle hanging off the tank entirely.

I just added the correct on, as below, and will cover the mounting place for the misprinted one with some stowage.

The magnet in the photo above, I added myself, it doesn't come with the kit.

I was trying to be clever and thought I'd magnetise the Hotshot Lasgun Arrays to the side, as their mounting lugs were misprinted and wouldn't fit into the tank, also I could swap then off it needed, etc.

Whilst it worked, I'm not entirely happy with how I mounted the magnets, so I may ditch the weapons and just add stowage around the rear moving forward:

Finally, as a friend said that the above photo looked almost epic scale (6-8mm), I took a scale shot with my Vanquisher and a couple of Catachan Guardsmen to give a sense of the scale: 

I'm impressed with the tank itself and the service from the seller, as said something it can be a bit of a gamble buying 3D printed as sellers often don't cure or drain things properly and I've seen too many horror stories for it to be a coincidence...

There was no residue or resin leakage at all with this kit straight out of the box and it went together in about an hour, whilst cooking dinner as well.

There are a few things, such as the misprints on the exhaust and Lasgun Arrays, and the drainage holes which I had to cover, I'm not sure if i was missing parts there. 

The details on the track unit are a little soft if I'm getting REALLY picky, but I can live with that as it's a gaming piece.

When compared to a plastic kit, I don't think ANY 3D printer will be replacing them for quality, the main draw I find is cost:

Games Workshop Taurox - £35*

Stormbreaker Half-Track - £15*

I purchased this on a special offer from the seller for £11.40, which was less then the cost of a pub lunch*!

I'll provide a link to Ruins of Ashelnia the seller, and would highly recommend them given the service i have seen so far, it took about a week, maybe ten days in total from placing the order to being delivered to my door, which again, is very reasonable and impressive turnaround time as i imagine that these are printed to order, not kept lying around on shelves waiting.

Also, after being in contact with the guys who run the store, they informed me that the original al STL design comes from Surrogate Miniatures, who make many proxy models for various games.

I am tempted to go back and order a couple of other bits, looking at their Chaos Warlord kit in particular! I wonder if they have any Tyranid offerings?

I'll do a follow up post once I've detailed the tank to match my Vanquisher and gotten it painted, as it's going to join the armoured squadron.

Until next time, have nice day...

*At the time of writing.

Useful kit...

 

April fools...

Until next time, have nice day...

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - The Aftermath.

 

At the start of the year I said that I was unofficially taking part in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, which runs from January to March each year (technically the 19th, but I'm only just able to post this).

There are only limited places and I just missed out on signing up to the group, so I decided to keep a track of my score and see how I could do.

I set a target of 300 points, as that was recommended for a first time participant, and I am very pleased to report that I flew past that mark and finished with a total score of 475 and having finished 71 miniatures in total!

Here is everything which I got painted during the first three months of the year and during the period of the AHPC.

The Tyranids got a big chunk of mainly 3D printed reinforcements, with some eBay rescue Termagants and Warriors to bulk out the numbers.

Remember, these were pushed through for a game at Element Games which never materialised due to illness and life getting in the way... we're still trying to match our schedules up, the curse of being adults (debatable).

The Feudal Japanese Project got kicked off in grand style with 21 Sohei and 11 Cavalry already finished.

I've got a fair few other units on the go already for the project, so this will be expanded upon very soon as I finish stuff off.

I enjoyed the challenge and it has definitely helped keep motivation high, as well as projects which I am really keen to work on at the moment.

I'm happy with the total amount of miniatures finished, as I'm almost halfway towards my total finished the the ENTIRE year for last year, 158 in total for 2023.

So far 2024 is looking set to be a great year for hobby output from myself, so I'll try to keep enthusiasm and momentum up throughout the rest of the year to come.

Projects in waiting include:

• More Feudal Japanese Miniatures.
• More Tyranids.
• Restart my Catachan and Imperial Guard force.
• Weird World War 2 Allied and Axis platoons.
• A Lizardmen army for The Old World and Age of Sigmar.

So plenty to look forward to as the year rolls on, and i am hoping you'll stick around and keep reading as projects get finished.

Until next time, have nice day...

March Motivational.

 

Until next time, have nice day...

Hobby Spending - March 2024.

 

March, it came and went, and with it another round of hobby purchases, squirreled away for future projects...

We start with some Secrets of the Third Reich miniatures I found going for cheap on eBay.

Most hobby stocks don't stock this, so you generally have to go to West Wind Productions and pay full bar for the models.

So when these appeared on eBay with a "make an offer" option, I was straight in!

After a bit of back and forth with the seller, I bagged these five Power Armoured Germans for £7.50:

And this Mechanised Grenadier squad for £6:

I currently have a WWW2 SDkfZ 251 half track printing with various weapon options, from the humble MG42 to a Plasma cannon...

Next, whilst visiting Bridlington on a weekend away, I always try to call into Mighty Lancer Games, and generally take a look at their second hand stuff from the website.

I grabbed this huge unit of Skaven Clanrats for £22, as I already have a good start on a Skaven forces, a huge great chunk of Clanrats would aid the army grow:

This past week, off of eBay, I also grabbed this unit of Saurus Cavalry for £6, they're missing their bases, but that's an easy fix.

As the unit was so low in price it was worth it, I was also bidding on a unit of Saurus Warriors from the same seller, but someone sniped me by 19p at the final seconds:

And lastly, I have decided to restart my Catachan force, having just about finished all the Tyranids.

I want to play a game at home with the Catachan's Vs the Tyranids and am going to make a concerted effort to get the Cityscape finished...the one I started over three years ago now...

Anyway, as part of the Catachan force I have a small armoured squadron and wanted a way for a unit of Veterans to get around alongside the armour. Not being able to find a decently priced Chimera, and not liking the official GW Taurox kit, I plumbed for this 3D printed offering, which the seller sent me a very nice off for. At £11.40, if it isn't great I can always use it for battlefield debris and not worry about loosing money, I've paid more for a pub lunch on a day out then i have for this model!

Onto the numbers for the month:

Secrets of the Third Reich Power Armoured Germans - £7.50.

Secrets of the Third Reich Mech German Infantry - £6.

Skaven Clanrats - £22.

Rattlecan of White Primer - £2.50.

8 Saurus Cavalry - £6.

3D Printed Half-Track - £11.40.

Total for March: £51.40.

Budget for March: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £59.60.

A bit more of a brisk month with purchases, but a lot will get used for future or soon projects at that.

Whilst I'm on the high of painting stuff, I'm cracking on with the Samurai project, but also the Catachan's are proving fun to paint, especially as I am a.much better painter than when I originally started them, so they'll get some time in the sun soon.

Until next time, have nice day...

The Feudal Japanese Project - part 5. Samurai Cavalry.

 

A growing thunder sounded from the woodlands and the lined up Ashigaru looked nervously around. The dark woods to the flank bordered the road they were marching down but we're said to be haunted by Kami or worse Oni, the lazily spiralling mist concealed much visibility which only made their nerves worse.

Some grumbles started amongst the men, and their leaders were forces to turn back to threaten them to stay the line.

With a great cry, the Samurai cavalry burst from the treeline, the colourful tack of the horses flowing with their ground eating gallop.

Atop the horses sat fully armoured warriors, lacquered plates of armour beating against each other with the can't of their mounts, the brightly coloured silk cords straining with the pressure.

With a crash, the thunderous charge hit the Ashigaru and men fell in droves. Bowled over by the horses and cut down by the wickedly sharp Katana which were expertly wielded to cause maximum damage.

Blood arched through the air and screams rang out. The drum beat of the cavalry added to the din as they pushed further into the flank of the enemy. The archers stood no chance and soon men were fleeing for their lives, even as other Ashigaru attempted to form up and provide resistance to this attack.

The leader of the archers stood his ground with his Katana drawn as the cavalry commander spotted him through the press of men and turned his mount to charge. With a brief nod of acknowledgement, they engaged in combat, swords arcing through the air and sparking off one another, the horse turned attempting to kick out.

As the Samurai avoided the horse he dropped his guard and with a flash, a katana ripped though his neck and severed his head with a welter of blood. The cavalry commander signalled his drummer who changed his beating and sounded the retreat, horsemen wheeled and galloped off back into the mists, leaving blood, the dead and dying in their wake, as a fresh unit of Ashigaru with spears moved up the road.

*****

Work continues on the Feudal Japanese Project, and I am very happy to say that I now have an entire* cavalry unit finished for the first section of the project.

The full unit, in all it's glory:

Firstly, this has to be the most colourful I've ever painted. Historically, Samurai didn't have a uniform armour colour, they just brought whatever they owned, heirloom, fashionable, etc. The Sashimono, or back banners, were the identifying marks to tell friend from foe on the battlefield. Both these statements certainly make the army eye catching.

Secondly, just like with the Sohei, there are very few paints on these which are not Contrast paints. I love the way the paints settle around the different panels and ridges of the armour.

Contrast paints also allow me to not have to paint all the silk cording which kept the armour plates in position, I'm just working patterns onto the armour facings instead.

As these are to be somewhat speed painted, it's a cheat I feel is worth it.

The original four horsemen which I finished about a week ago:

These were an experiment/attempt to see how the first figures would look when fully completed, and whether I liked the more historical look with the various colours, or if i wanted to default back to the "video game" look with units in a uniform colour schemes.

I do love the varied look to the unit, and decided to stick with the armour plates being majority Grey or Black contrast, as they, along with browns were the majority colour.

I did try something a little different with the chap on the right having yellow lacquered armour. I'm a little dubious about it, but he fits in with the unit, one amongst many won't make much difference:

The command element, featuring the "Chūi" (Lieutenant) in the center, he has a sort of cloth wrap over a shoulder and covering his armour, so I decided to do that up in yellow***, over his grey and blue armour, and then gave him some red shinto prayer beads.

There is a closer look at the drummer in the inset bottom photo:

Kyoushuneko do a special command section, which includes a different head crest to the rest, in this case I decided to make them gold to stand out as the unit leaders.

I couldn't get the unit standard bearer to print properly, so I eventually gave up**.

The ragged battle line looks I was going for raises it's head again :

I am really loving the look of these units all ranged out in battle lines, the visual impact of the armies will be amazing (hopefully).

Another look at the unit, you can see how things line up on the big bases in this photo:

Rather then pack them on, I spread the command section out a little more on their base, I have enough cavalrymen to do a second unit of twelve men, so three bases of four models.

As mentioned before, the Sashimono were the main way of identifying units on the medieval battlefield in Japan. This side on photo of the unit leader gives an indication of how this unit is identified. Every unit in this particular clans army will have the three red symbols on their Sashimono, but the underlying pattern (a horizontal black band in this case) can be varied, my foot Samurai are getting a blue section on their banners:

This adds another ten *models to the painting total for the year.

For the AHPC, these are 28mm mounted models and provide ten points per model, so a cool.One Hundred points added with just this unit.

And we'll add a photo of the painting queue on the tray, a Foot Samurai unit, Ashigaru Archer unit, Sohei Command and Oni bases, and then some varied character miniatures at the moment:

Now a note on Japanese horse breeds:

Whilst researching horse colourings for Japan, I came across a note that a lot of the native breeds are either extinct or in severe danger of becoming extinct. This is due to the Japanese military's policy around 1890-1945 of gelding all stallions and breeding with larger foreign stock to give them larger horses for their cavalry or logistics corps.

Most native Japanese horses would be classed in modern terms as ponies, as they don't measure up to the minimum height to be classed as a horse. Misaki horses stand only 132cm tall to the withers, the tallest point between the animals shoulders.

The above photo are some Misaki Horses grazing away, this breed are classed as critically maintained as there are roughly 100 of them living protected in the wild at the southern tip of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

A more populous breed is the Dosanko, or Hokkaido pony:

There are roughly 2000 of these small horses which live along the northern Pacific cost of the far northern island of Hokkaido. They are still classed as endangered and conservation efforts are in place by several Japanese universities to manage their population.

I hope you've enjoyed this post and the start of the Wargaming army, I'm really looking forward to seeing the larger blocks of units on the table.

The aim is to start gaming with the forces after the kids school holidays over the summer, when we can properly get back to gaming after the break, that also gives me PLENTY of time (famous last words) to get stuff completed, hopefully.

Until next time, have nice day...

*I say entire, but right before I was about to varnish the miniatures, one of them fell from the tray and shattered into various pieces (legs, tail, ears, rider, riders arms, Sashimono) and was hastily replaced with the rider who has a Horo Cloak instead of Sashimono.

I do have a spare horseman, so he'll be getting painted up quickly, but I was on the "finished unit" enthusiasm so posted these.

**Fortunately his body will become the base of the next cavalryman to the worked up to join the Squadron.

In place of the banner, I'm going to add a spare katana and have the Gunso (sergeant) dual wielding like a badass!

***There are multiple period artwork pieces of Samurai wearing tiger skin fur cloaks and such, obviously acquired through trade with China.

I am not about to go back in and add tiger stripes to the cloth, so the yellow will suffice.