Death Korps of Krieg - Next Big Project

I think I've solidified it that I'm going to go Death Korps of Krieg as my next big project.  I've had the models since they first came out and I absolutely love the sculpts.  I think I'll go a pretty traditional greys on the uniforms with khaki color pants. 

For basing, I'm thinking of doing some sort of burnt out city.  Demolished urban setting.  I think it would be pretty sweet to make cool themed terrain for them to walk over. 

The biggest challenge I have is how to do weathered and battle damaged tanks.  I've never worked with weathering powders and my tanks always look pristine.  It's intimidating.  I could use any recommendations on books, or tutorials that are out there. I want to spend the extra time to make the product really pop.

My first list is going to be modeled after the Krieg Assault Brigade.  It'll get me the chance to paint up a bunch of infantry and some small artillery pieces like mortars and thud guns.  Also a mix of a few tanks.  I'll tackle a cavalry and heavy artillery list in the 2nd wave. 

Any thoughts or help on weathering & battle damage would be great!

Astra Militarum List Idea

Here's the guard list I came up with.  Not sure how great it will be, but I think it could be fun.  I'll list out it, then tell how it will work.  It's 1831 points right now, got 19 points to mess around with and add/subtract.

So debated on using one of these, but here is my paint scheme

HQ (545): Pask in Punisher with multi-melta sponsons and lascannon, accompanied by 2 Vanquishers with lascannons.  All have dozer blades

This unit can issue an order to split fire Pask from the vanquishers.  Vanquishers tank hunt early game while you move up, and are relatively cheap.  Pask is an absolute beast.  His gun gets rending, he hits on bs4, and all his weapons re-roll armor pens.  In addition his warlord trait is preferred enemy so him and his squad re-rolls one's (hit and wound).  Plus this squad is a great target for prescience.  

HQ (96): Company commander with 4 sniper rifles, camo cloaks, and master of ordinance 

He gives his own unit "ignore cover" as an order.  They're on the top of the bastion, so they have a 2+ cover save.  In addition they man the icarus lascannon so it is ignoring cover in addition to the 4 sniper rifles.  The master of the ordinance ends up ignoring cover as well, basically giving you a 20 point earth shaker cannon (basilisk) that ignores cover... but it does scatter a little extra

HQ (75) Primaris Psycher, mastery level 2

Attaches to the blob.  Rolling on divination to try and get 4+ inv save.  If not that, just settle with prescience.  Cast that on the tank squad to start, then on unit itself for combat

HQ (25) Priest

ridiculous.  Gives blob fearless, and the battle hymns are technically tested on the high leadership of the squad.  One of the hymns allow for rerolling failed armor saves, another is rerolling to wound.  Tasty. 

HQ (104) Allied Xenos Inquisitor with mastery level 1, hammer hand, 3 servo skulls, rad grenades, psychotrope grenades, liber heretics book

This is what makes the blob sick.  The book allows for a pre-game scout move. servo skulls help keep scouts and infiltrators away as well as help your blasts scatter less.  He casts hammer-hand so the blob is effective str 4, and the enemy is one less toughness.  the liber book in future turns also allows for counter attack.  Good times.  I know it's one of the typical death star add ons, but It's too nasty not to try.

HQ (100) Coteaz
Yeah he makes the blob even better, plus I'll be expecting you keeps things from deepstriking too close.  I also like 2 more chances on divination for the 4+ inv.

Troop (313) aka the "blob".  Platoon command with 4 sniper rifles sits back and issues run run run to start the blob

Blob consists of 50 guardsmen, 5 sgts with meltabombs..  

If it gets the 4+ inv save, it is absolutely ridiculous, especially in combat where the battle hymns can grat rerolls.  Power axes are effective str 5 with hammer hand.  Enemy is one less toughness due to rad grenades.  Nobody should ever assault this unit.  It gets a pre-game scout move due to the xenos inquisitor book

Troop (158) aka "I need some scoring bodies" Platoon.  Platoon command with 4 sniper rifles.  2 squads of 10 with either autocannons or melta-guns.  All depends on if I ultimately want to stay back or have some flexibility moving forward.

Heavy (65) Wyvern

To take out stuff that hides.  Plus I'm going to use my griffons and proxy them as these

Heavy (70) Hydra

Yeah it's only one... but it's such a low priority target and I can keep it way back.  Or reserve it if I'm really worried about stuff alpha striking it.  

Heavy (175) Deathstrike with camo netting

I really want to try one of these, I figure it will add a huge intimidation element and force my opponent to react.  I'll keep it behind the bastion so it gets a 2+ save from any incoming shots.  Unfortunately there is a ton of stuff that ignores cover, but I'll make my opponent work for it!

Fortification (105) Bastion with Icarus Lascannon

Command squad goes up top to man the gun, benefitting with camo cloaks giving a 2+ cover save as well as the orders allowing the lascannon to ignore cover.  Inside I'll probably throw one of the additional platoon sniper squads so it can eject out the back and score an objective.  This also is needed to provide line of sight blocking to the death strike.  

Thoughts

Not sure if I have enough scoring units, but there are multiple elements that need to be dealt with.  Knights would have a field day with me though, ripping through my leman ruses as well as my blob.  All depends on the range game - I'll need practice on them.  

I'm also not sure if I have enough anti-air.  The thing I do have going for me is I can really pound ground forces.  And ultimately I'm not sure I'm really worried about air.  I guess I could bring in an officer of the fleet if I need to to mess a little with reserve rolls.  Or I could tweak the points a bit and swap one of the wyverns out for an extra hydra.  

There are some scary elements that should worry my opponent.  Obvioiusly the pask squad is one.  It will work in conjunction with my blob squad which is an absolute beast in combat.  Good thing is they are about the same speed.  Plus the blob can space out to help with any drop pods that want to melta my tanks.  The death strike should mess with everyone at least and ultimately provide another choice for them to make.  Ultimately I'm not sold on the death strike.  I prefer something to start doing damage early so I might switch it out for the manticore.  

Should be a fun list regardless, onto painting!

Rockets!!! Manticore finished

...and the guard painting goes on.  One week left, the deadline is looming!  I just wrapped up my Manticore.  This was an old kit I built for my previous guard and a little bit of shoddy work done on assembly.  I think it still came out ok.  Here's the finished product.

What do you think of the cheating I did on the side silver areas?  Basically just the silver color with a wash, no highlighting.  I think since it is not a focal point I can cheat there.

Now it's on to the 36 guardsmen.  Here they are all sad and un-primed.  Got a batch of 7 to start with to see how the finished product looks before I repeat it 30 more times.

Tick tock tick tock... time's almost out!

Guard Tank Paint Scheme

I finished my first tank for my imperial guard portion of the Knights Angelus.  I'm going to use this as a template for all the rest of my vehicles.  I really want to tie my main imperial force together so this is it!  Only downside is this scheme takes me about 10 times longer to paint then my old desert scheme.  I think it's worth it though.

 

Here's a shot of how it pairs up with it's marine buddies.

Big question, I want to start up on my vendetta and rest of the air-force.  Should the vendetta be in the same color scheme as the guard or it's own air-force color scheme?  Not sure if I would consider it more of a support helicopter or more in the role as a plane? 

So much guard to paint in less then two weeks.  36 guardsmen is first on the docket, but am painting the manticore at the same time. 

Guardsman Test Model for Knights Angelus

My master plan is coming to fruition, a combined imperial force that has the same paint scheme. I finished up my test model for my guardsmen.  I figure I'll be doing 200+ of these so I better like how they turn out.  The model has the same scheme as my marines for my Knights Angelus. 

I did a bit of fat fingering on the freehand on the shoulder pads.  I really need to go with a finer brush so I can get the detail.  All of the guardsmen will have the dark angels symbol on one pad and the inquisition symbol on the other.

Here's a photo of the guardsmen next to the starter box marine and my robed "elite" troop.

Pretty happy with how it came out overall. Now it's time to lock in the chimera chassis color scheme as well as get cracking on the drop pods for Adepticon!

Allies: Paint to Theme

I have now gotten 5 games of 6th edition in and I'm having a pretty good time.  The flyer wing of my necrons is taking me a little to get used to it, but it has been enjoyable.  I've found that allies really compliment a force and make it stronger.  For instance, for my necrons I've allied in orks with two squads of slugga boyz and a big mek. It's the stable troop choice (and bodies) I needed

I did figure since I'm such a hobby addict I'd design a force from the ground up that took advantage of all the new facets of 6th edition and paint it as one. 

- Allies: Marines & Guard
- Flyers: Going to start with a Stormtalon
- Fortifications: I'll start with an Aegis Defense Line, although I really like the idea of doing a bastion)

The necron paint scheme has been well received and I think it would be cool to bring that across Imperial Guard, Space Marines (any flavor) and Chaos Space Marines.

Here's my attempt of taking the same theme from the necron color scheme and pulling it over.  The heads are from Pig Iron.  I loved the visor, it gives it a creepy inducted guard look. 

My new theme will be the "Cult of the Machine".  My back-story is a forge world that has a cult worship of the woken necrons.  I'll be using chaos marines as the core of my marine force but keeping away from too many chaos stars or chaos icons.  Instead I'll use as many skulls as possible.

This week I'll try to work on a test model for the marines. 

Necrons are going very well though, I'm still going to use them for NOVA.  I think I've settled in on a list that works for me.  Now it's just time to keep play testing it.