How to paint Death Korps of Krieg

I have been planning to get some Veteran Guardsmen basically since the moment they were announced. I was so sure that I was going to get them that I more or less immediately bought a pot of Vallejo French Mirage Blue, which is supposedly a close match to the blue colour of the French greatcoats during the First World War. It has then sat unused since 2021 until I finally got around to picking up a box of Veteran Guardsmen.

Assembly

And once I did have a box I wasted no time in getting them assembled. As with the Sisters Novitiates there was a bewildering array of options. Every Trooper has at least two different loadouts, five of them even have a choice of three! Regardless, I got stuck in and as I’m unconcerned with what plays well in Kill Team I picked my options purely on what looks fun.

That being said, what I definitely needed in my squad was a Sergeant. I know that in the current edition of Warhammer 40,000 you don’t pay for wargear but I’m not sure how it works in Kill Team. On the off chance it is also free I gave my Veteran Sergeant a plasma pistol and power sword.

Next up I chose a Sniper, although the Demolition Veteran was really tempting. In the end the braced kneeling position spoke to me more as a Sniper mid-shot than it did for the Demolition Veteran. Moving on I then chose the Spotter over the Medic purely because there was an opportunity to take a Medic on another model.

For the next two models it was a choice of a basic Trooper or a Specialist and in both cases I chose the latter, giving me a Gunner (Flamer) and the aforementioned Medic. From what I hear Flamers are pretty bad in Kill Team at the moment, but I have a soft spot for them. Next I chose a Comms Specialist over another Gunner, even if it is a plasma gun. I already have a Gunner I suppose. For similar reasons I then chose the Zealot over the Gunner with a grenade launcher and the Bruiser over the Gunner with a meltagun. To make the Zealot a little more zealous I gave him some extra purity seals from my bits box. Lastly I chose the Hardened Veteran over the basic Trooper and the final model in the squad can only be built as a Trooper. I decided not to give the Hardened Veteran their medals simply because it’s a nice bit that I’m sure I can find a use for in another project.

Throughout the assembly process I kept the models separate from the bases and the backpacks separate from the model. The latter was for ease of painting but the former was because I had something special in mind. Years ago I had come into the possession of a few “40K Basing Kits”, these are small tubs of resin bits that you can stick onto the bases of your miniatures. As they’re resin I assume they were produced by Forge World, and the bits themselves range from being small enough to add a bit of flavour to the base to large enough to cover the entirety of a 25mm base. For my bases I used a combination of small and large bits but didn’t go overboard, to fill out the remaining space I used some chopped up lolly-pop sticks for duck board and, of course, some skulls. To blend everything together I used heavy amounts of Vallejo Thick Brown Mud. Ordinarily I use texture paste in smaller amounts to add, well, texture to base but in this case I needed it to add height so that the resin bits and wooden planks didn’t stick out too much. The more uniform the height was across the bases the easier it would be to attach the models to them later. The paste does shrink as it dries so a few areas needed a second layer to build up the height.

Painting

With all the assembly done I moved onto the painting phase. To start with everything was primed with Colour Forge Standard Grey. Any areas that I missed, particularly the nooks and crannies on the bases, I then painted with a thin coat of Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone.

For the painting proper I rummaged through my paints for all my historical colours. Vallejo French Mirage Blue I have already mentioned, but I also pulled out Vallejo Khaki, Russian Uniform and English Uniform. All very drab colours that were perfect for the Death Korps of Krieg. The Mirage Blue was a little more grey than I had envisioned but it worked nicely for the greatcoats. As the gas masks are a reference to the Large, and later Small, Box Respirators used by British forces during the First World War it was only fitting that I painted the gas masks with Vallejo English Uniform. Speaking of the British, the wraps around the legs are a reference to the “puttee” used by British and Commonwealth forces during the war. For my Krieg troopers I painted them with Vallejo Khaki. Lastly for Vallejo Russian Uniform I used this for the trousers and the blankets on the backpacks.

For the remaining details I picked out all the leather, such as the webbing, boots and backpacks with Rhinox Hide. The rich chocolatey brown contrasted nicely with the drab colours I had used for the clothing. I toyed with using metallic paint for the helmet and shoulder pads but in the end I decided on Two Thin Coats Death Reaper, a very dark and almost black grey colour, which I think works a little better. I also toyed with painting the stock and housing of the lasguns with a wood colour to further the ties to First World War soldiers but I like how the black-grey turned out. I did however use Scale75 Thrash Metal for the weapon barrels, pipes and belt buckles.

At this point most of the basecoats were done but there were a few individual details that I needed to pick out. The medical bag I painted with a couple thin coats of Ulthuan Grey. Any parchment and skull details I painted with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The wax on the purity seals I painted with Vallejo Scarlet Red, ordinarily I would use Mephiston Red or Screamer Pink but they would stand out too much against the rest of the colours. For similar reasons I painted the cover of the book the Zealot is holding, presumably some religious text, with Two Thin Coats Royal Cloak. For the final details I painted the rosary beads and the basket on the Sergeant’s power sword with Scale75 Dwarven Gold.

Bases

Normally the bases are the last thing I paint as typically I use texture paints and pastes to do much of the work for me. But in this instance I had primed over the texture paste so now needed painting. I started by pretty much basecoating the whole base with Two Thin Coats Scorched Earth and while the paint was still wet I quickly painted the wood planks with Steel Legion Drab. For the remaining details I painted any stones and bricks with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. The water canteen I painted with Vulkan Green and any skulls with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. One of the bases has a Sisters of Battle helmet that I painted in the scheme of my Order of the Divine Storm, the main colour of which is Vallejo Night Blue and the visor I painted with Ulthuan Grey. Lastly I picked out any pipes with Scale75 Thrash Metal and any bullet casings and the cross charm with Scale75 Dwarven Gold.

Washes and Decals

With the basecoats done I could move onto washes and fine details. First things first though I attached the models to the bases. To ensure a good connection between the bases and the models I drilled a 1mm hole in the sole of the foot and inserted a small length of brass rod, secured with a small amount of superglue. I then used this rod as a pilot for where I needed to drill the hole in the base. The models were then super glued in place.

For the washes the bases, boots and puttees were given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone. Whilst everything else was given a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone. The latter turned out a bit too glossy, which I had experienced before with Army Painter washes although not with Dark Tone. Regardless I pushed on, I’d deal with it once I had the decals sorted.

As I would be using mild solvents I first gave the shoulder pads a coat of gloss varnish to protect them. For specific decals I choose 309th as the regiment number to go on the right shoulder pad and the winged skull for the left shoulder pad. I cut the decals out of the transfer sheet and soaked them in a bit of water. While they were soaking I dabbed some MicroSet onto the shoulder pads, this mild solvent will help the decal to conform to the shape of the shoulder pad. I then slid the decal off the backing sheet and onto the model, using a damp brush to nudge it into position. I then used a paper towel to wick away any excess water. To really help the decal conform to the shoulder pad I then gently brushed on some MicoSol, which is a little stronger than MicroSet. I gave it a minute or so to work its magic then used a damp paper towel to gently press the decal into the model. With that done I sealed them in place with some Army Painter Gloss Varnish.

To sort out the glossy issue, I gave each model a thin coat of AK Interactive Ultra Matt Varnish. Predictably this muted the absolute snot out of all the colours but was oddly fitted for the trench dwelling Guardsmen. Admittedly, I could have used Vallejo Matt Varnish but it’s a pain to get through the airbrush and honestly, I really like how the ultra matt finish turned out.

Layers and Highlights

Whilst the washes had done a great job of bringing out the texture on the models, they had also darkened them down a little more than I would have liked. Therefore, the first step was to brighten up the greatcoats by painting a thin layer of Vallejo French Mirage Blue on the raised areas.

The parchment areas and the medical bag are quite flat areas, so when the wash was applied it ended with this coffee stain type finish which doesn't look very good. To fix this I layered the parchment and medical bag with Army Painter Skeleton Bone and Ulthuan Grey respectively.

As the models are quite drab, by design, I didn’t do too much in the way of highlights. All I did was to give the greatcoats an edge highlight with Vallejo Wolf Grey. For the leather details, namely the gas mask boxes and rucksacks, I mixed Thin Coats Scorched Earth with some Griffon Claw then highlighted the edges.

To finish things off I picked out the buttons on the greatcoats with Vallejo Hammered Copper and the coils on the plasma pistol with a couple thin coats of Army Painter Matt White. The coils were then given a coat of Talassar Blue contrast paint. I then used some AK Interactive Puddles gel to add some dirty pools of water to the bases. Last but not least I painted the rims of the bases with Steel Legion Drab.

Thoughts and prizes

I’m really quite tempted to pick up another box of these, partly to fill out the build options that I missed and partly because I really like how they turned out. Doing the bases was both messy and a lot of fun, and I made sure to leave enough of the resin bits for another box. Not sure I’ll have enough for when the Death Korps of Krieg get their big release for the Astra Militarum at the end of the year however.

Kill Team - Veteran Guardsmen