Not content to let the Cadians have all the fun, the Death Korps of Krieg range got a few more kits to flesh out their range – including the Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad and Heavy Weapons Squad. We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing advanced copies of these kits for review purposes.
Command Squad
Leading from the front is the new Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad. Headed up by a Lord Commissar, it’s got all the bits, bobs, doodads, and widgets you’d expect. It replaces the Forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad, HQ section, and Krieg Commissar models.
Construction
SRM:Â While I wasn’t able to get to building these guys, I did pore over the sprues and instructions. The first thing I noticed is the maddening tendency for GW to go wild with base sizes, a curse carried over from Warcry. While the Cadian Command Squad is 5 guys on 28mm bases – slightly bigger to make it easier to pick them out from their standard squaddie comrades on 25s – this crew is 6 models on 25mm bases, and the Lord Commissar on a 32mm base. I know this is literally a very little thing to complain about, but if tennis is a game of inches, Warhammer is one of millimeters. The kit itself is thoroughly gorgeous, and has a fair number of options. You’ve got a couple sets of arms for the Commissar and a standard spread of special and close combat weapons for the veterans, but there aren’t all too many leftovers in here. There’s a few extra bits and bobs to stick on bases and belts as expected, including a cute little mug and a minefield sign. I was hoping for an extra head with a hat to use on a tank commander, but no dice – what you see is what you get. The heads have the same fitting as any other Krieg kit, but if you did want to swap a different head in, you’d need to make sure the gas mask lined up with the box on their chest. Lastly, if you’re not a fan of their sculpted base details or the little shrine on top of the banner, then bust out the craft knife.
Andrew: I’m an admittedly slow builder, but this kit went together pretty quickly and cleanly. The design of the trenchcoats is really good at hiding gaps without much help, the parts are laid out pretty intuitively on the sprue, and mold lines were hidden and minimal. Unfortunately part of that ease of assembly comes at the price of limited posing options on the Lord Commissar and the alchemist friend. The others at least have flat arm connectors so there’s some room for swapping, but with the way the gas masks connect you’re in for a struggle if you want heads repositioned on repeat command squads. How much that actually matters to you will vary by person, but it’s worth noting.Â
One other note is everyone but the Lord Commissar is on 25mm base while he himself is on a 32. Again, not a gigantic deal, but it’s a weird choice. One final final gripe, the servo skull connects weirdly, suspending off a trailing cable and connecting to the back of the scroll. I am prepared to watch it shatter apart on my first game with them. Thankfully these are all very tiny gripes and overall this was a pleasure to assemble.
Painting
Andrew: If you’ve painted the Death Korps of Krieg infantry before there should be little here to surprise you. The Junior Cadet and Lord Commissar are the only ones with significant departures from Standard Issue Chassis Krieg. The alchemist does however offer our first look at Krieg skin and hair which is neat, so take the opportunity to give your opponent a glimpse at what lurks beyond the mask. In my case I kept the skin pale and tried some blonde hair to stand out from the leather strap across their head, and do something different from my usual black and white hair colors. Unfortunately it didn’t end up sticking out too much from the skin itself and just makes his skull look weird. Ah well. The banner is a treat to paint and has some nice flat spots if you want to stretch your creative legs or keep it basic but still get something nice looking. The Lord Commissar is about what you’d expect, which isn’t a dig. Rather, he looks like a slightly more dripped out Commissar with a gas mask to tie him to his charges. His basing is certainly thematic and represents a nice evolution of the tactical rock into the strategic barbed wire fence rock.Â
Heavy Weapon Squad
While not quite as high-caliber as the Field Ordnance Batteries or Artillery Teams, the Death Korps are backed up by a new plastic Heavy Weapons Squad. This modernization replaces the old Forgeworld resin kits as well.
Construction
SRM:Â This is the kit I was more focused on, as I’ve already painted one entirely too detailed standard bearer this quarter. The sprue is laid out reasonably well, with weapons grouped fairly well together, though the crew are kind of all over the place. Said crew unfortunately don’t have much in the way of options, save for backpacks and the specific guns they’ll be manning, but the fire control operator can have a few different arms. That customization comes through more in the guns themselves. There’s plenty of little stowage and ammo box bits that would be great to dress up your guns, their bases, or even some of your vehicles if you so chose. I believe you could swap between the lascannons and heavy stubbers fairly easily, but there’s only one set of gun shields so you’d have to leave them off.
Instead I built mine with the heavy flamer option, and this is where you really need to pay attention. Each flamer tank backpack, despite looking extremely similar, has a slightly different position with its fuel feed, so keep them with the body they go on when you’re building yours. I thought they were the same and clipped them all, then had to cross reference the position of the pressure gauges on their backs to figure which went where. The whole construction process took me maybe an hour and a half, with some light mold line trimming. As you can see, I built the gunners separately for ease of painting. I’d recommend doing this, as it’ll be hard to paint around the gun carriages.
Fowler: Like Andrew mentioned in his command squad review, I am also a slow builder. This kit was not a quick build for me, but I really enjoyed the process. One gotcha – when you are gluing on the arms, use a glue-free gun between their hands to get the spacing right. There is a nub in the shoulder that gets the rotation generally right, but it has a bit of play. As I am doing traitor guard, I scraped off the myriad aquilas and most of the Imperial iconography. It’s a relatively straightforward process for these dudes. I decided to add come Chaos symbols with brass etch – as I knew I would be a bit too tight on the deadline to do transfers AND grime.
Repeating for the folks in the back – please, please paint these in sub-assemblies as Campbell mentions above. You will only find ruin if you try to paint them whole.
Painting
SRM:Â Painting in subassemblies was a doubly smart move with the flamers and their winding fuel lines. Getting under the legs of these models is hard enough even on the temporary bases I’d stuck them on, let alone angling a brush around the wheels and legs of the gun carriage. These models fortunately aren’t too heavy on ornamentation – sure, some backpacks have rolls of duct tape and the like, but for the most part this is just a dude in a greatcoat at a big honkin’ gun. If you leave the gun shield off, said gun is even easier to paint, but it’s too good an opportunity for weathering and squad designation, as you can see on mine. They’re a deceptive amount of work, and by the time I was done, it felt like I’d painted a vehicle on par with a Sentinel.
Fowler:Â My traitor guard scheme is pretty simple. Start with a zenithal prime. The fatigues are Basilicanum Grey contrast, with a drybrush and spot highlights of Dawnstone. Red stuff is just a pass of Blood Angels Red. Black Templar is used for darker armor. Sarges get white helmets. Metals get sponge weathering and some chunky silver line highlights. Spray or brush on Streaking Grime, let it hang out for a few minutes, and wipe it off with makeup sponges. Finish it off with an Ultra Matte varnish. That’s it. Super easy and super fast. The end result is pretty desaturated, but it’s a cool effect.
My Krieg scheme adds white masks (wash with Soulblight Grey and highlight with Grey Seer), and coordinating helmets for squads. In this case, solid red (with Blood Angels Red). The guns were painted with two very thin coats of 1:1 Black Templar to Contrast Medium.
I pre-texture my models before priming. These guys have a polluted wasteland vibe, so I use a ballast mix my friend Kyle gave me. Thanks Kyle! The paint scheme is: Zandri Dust, Aggaros Dunes contrast, quick Zandri drybrush. Spots of yellow, purple, brown, and red ink (or contrasts / washes) in splotches to make some industrial waste-type markings. Don’t be afraid to mush them together to get some chromatic effects. Then drybrush Zandri and Ushabti Bone. It sounds like a lot of steps, but there is very little brush time, and I love the effect.
Final Thoughts
SRM: These kits, like most of the Krieg range, are going up against some bonafide classics from Forgeworld. As gorgeous as they both are, I do think they suffer in a few ways. For one, the former Krieg Heavy Weapons had some diorama-style posing that really told a story, where the poses on these are just variations of “guy sitting at a gun”. I understand that’s a personal preference though, and not everyone shares my proclivities. While I think the new plastic Krieg Command Squad compares more favorably to its resin predecessor, I do miss the old commander with a greatcoat. They’re both great kits in their own right, with the added benefit of being plastic instead of resin, but it’s hard not to compare them to those that came before. What you lose is definitely made up for in ease of assembly, cleanup, and conversion, while being more affordable as well.
Andrew: The Command Squad are a very pretty kit that builds easily and paints nicely, but I can’t help but feel a little weird about it. The lack of a true Death Korps officer to replace the old Forge World Marshall and Command Squad is strange, and the Lord Commissar strikes me more as a standalone character than a leader of a command squad. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from taking those old Krieg Marshals or converting some new ones to proxy in his place, it’s just strange that wasn’t the default. Though I am not a designer, just a guy who likes pushing his army men around so what do I know. Quibbles about the lore aside, this is a great kit and any Death Korps enthusiast will be happy to see them standing side by side with their troopers in the trenches (or behind ruin walls on circles, who can really say).
Fowler:Â I don’t have an emotional connection to the older Krieg kits, and I really like the “new” aesthetic. My only gripe with the kit is pretty minor. If there are this many pieces and the shoulders already have nubs to position them at generally the correct angle, it would be nice if the arms slotted into exactly the right orientation. This problem has come up with a few kits I have run into recently. It’s not at all a showstopper, but if there is a shoulder nub I just want them to commit to it! Otherwise, it is a fantastic kit that I am psyched to add to my growing traitor guard army. There’s a good amount of detail without going overboard, which is exactly what I want out of an infantry kit.
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