Vehicle Detailing

When I started putting together my Death Korps army, I began with the armor. Since I picked up the Apocalypse sets back when they were released, I had 3 Leman Russ and 3 Basilisk kits already on hand. I also picked up a few Forge World goodies, including the Bombard, Salamander, Vanquisher Turret and Exterminator Turret. Not being a fan of the standard Leman turret, I decided to upgrade it with extra detail.

The first thing I did was extend the Battle Cannon. The standard Battle Cannon is too short for my tastes. I prefer the Ryza pattern that the Death Korps uses. Simple enough conversion: Cut out the mid section of the barrel and replace with styrene tube of similar diameter. No fuss, no muss, and you get an extra 3/4 inch or so of length. I could have removed the muzzle at the end of the barrel and made the gun look even more like the Ryza variant, but I was doing it on the fly and didn't think about that option till well after the fact. Oops.

The next thing on my to-do list was to trash the regular plastic hatches. I do not like the high profile at all. When GW released the Steel Legion kits (so I believe), they included metal replacement hatches that were much more flush with the top of the turret...so much so that the cupola was almost entirely gone. Since the Forge World turrets used this style, I was able to replicate it in styrene. Using a compass to measure, I was able to cut various thicknesses of styrene sheet for the cupola and hatch. The bolts were cut from lengths of octagonal styrene rod. The handles were also cut from lengths of round styrene rod. The periscopes were cut from thicker styrene sheet, then beveled to match the Forge World turrets. It was a LOT of tedious work, but worth the effort.

After the hatches, I went at the glacis plate. The standard glacis on the Leman Russ looks kind of doofy. Again, with Krieg as my baseline, I went with the Mars-Alpha pattern look. I knew that modifying the rear/engine deck was out of the question, but felt that back-filling the forward hull and glacis plate would be simple enough. I was able to cut sheet styrene to fit behind the mounting point for the forward sponson, and then add some strip styrene above the new plate to make it look more solid. In the case below, I used a modified Space Marine lascannon to replace the Imperial Guard lascannon. The lascannon was extended a bit, then glued into place. Around the base I built up a blast bag using green stuff. Octagonal bolts were added afterwards. On another Russ I used a Heavy Bolter instead of the Lascannon.

Finally, I added a bit of extra armor on the relatively naked turret side. Again, sheet styrene cut to shape, surrounded by octagonal bolts came to the rescue. For that extra level of detail, I added a slightly thinned down Aquila. As before, the idea was to up-detail the tanks to be a better match to the Forge World turrets.

Death Korps of Krieg: Shadowsword

When you absolutely, positively gosts to kill every mother-lovin tank on the board...accept no substitutes.

This is the Shadowsword variant titan killer. I messed around with the main hull a bit and managed to make it and the primary weapon removable. I can replace the turbo-laser with the vulcan mega-bolter, and also move up the main hull to expose the troop compartment behind. Pretty easy due to the excellent fit of the kit.

Death Korps of Krieg: Basilisk

Death Korps of Krieg: Bombard

I picked up the Bombard before the new IG release provided rules for the Colossus. The mortar is identical, but the Bombard uses the Leman Russ chassis while the Colossus seems to use the Chimera. Forge World provided all the parts necessary for the Bombard- plastic treads and skirts from the Leman Russ, and resin replacements for the hull, mortar, and manipulator arm.

As you can see in the photos, I wound up with a "pebbly" finish on this model. In retrospect I should have re-primed the whole thing, but I was painting a whole armored company "assembly line" style and didn't have the inclination. Overall it came out fine. The manipulator arm was tricky to pose, so I eventually just used thin brass rod to act as both structural support and flexible joints. Since I put the time in to the arm, I went ahead and left the breach unattached so it could be posed either open or closed.

Death Korps of Krieg: Salamander

Another Forge World model. The fighting compartment is the resin conversion component. The remainder of the vehicle is the standard Chimera. I magnetized the auto-cannon in case I want to throw in a heavy mortar instead and make it a Griffon.

Death Korps of Krieg: Thunderer

This is the Forge World kit...I'm assuming it was a much older model since the casting was primitive to say the least. One giant hunk of warped resin that I wound up having to cook in a pot of boling water for about 5 minutes before it softened enough to be straightened out a bit. Nice looking vehicle, all things considered.

Death Korps of Krieg: Punisher

I scratchbuilt this Punisher turret before GW released the plastic verion. It's a bundle of brass tubes wrapped in thinned styrene tube. The mantlet is sheet styrene and is based on the mantlet of the Macharius Vulcan.

The glacis plate has been heavily modified on this Leman Russ chassis, the same as the other two I've built. I don't like the forward hull-mounted weapon, the way it bulks up the profile of the tank. The Mars-Alpha pattern is much more to my preference, and though I didn't change the engine deck of the tanks, I did change the glacis plate. Sheet and strip styrene came to the rescue. The lascannon is Astartes issue, which is halfway between standard IG and DK0K. The canvas at the base of the lascannon is lightly textured Green Stuff.

Also, because I'm such a masochist, I decided that the hatches on the Forge World IG vehicles looked much better than the plastic versions and went ahead and scratchbuilt those as well. For every vehicle that was not Forge World. Every. Vehicle.

Death Korps of Krieg: Chimera

More armor from the Death Korps of Krieg.

Death Korps of Krieg: Vanquisher

And now for something completely different...

The Vanquisher. I foolishly decided to start up a Death Korps army prior to the new Imperial Guard codex publication. On the positive side, I did make the vast majority of purchases from Forge World when the Pound was at a historically low rate vs. the U.S. Dollar. Anyway, I had several Leman Russ chassis available for use, having purchased several in their Apocalypse release boxes.

This is the only one I built with permanently attached sponsons. I have 2 others which only have empty sockets and are therefore not yet ready for prime-time. All the armor in my Krieg list was primed black, then rust followed by salt weathering, Tamiya German Grey, Tamiya Dark Grey...then the usual highlights. I used MIG Pigments on the treads.

My DKoK army armor uses alternating stripes to indicate unit type. The red and white markings indicate main battle tanks in my army. I also use tan and white for transports. Green and white for artillery. The turret is Forge World and is not permanently affixed to the chassis. I'll be posting more variants in the next few days.