It's like waiting for buses.

 

 Y'know, you're there for ages and then two or three turn up at once*.

So GW have decided to expand their plastic DKK line and also launch plastic warp spiders and pheonix lords at around the same time.  And there are plastic striking scorpions I havn't bought yet.  

It does make me think that I should just not ever look at the interwebs at all for anything.

Another couple of hundred quid to sit in the garage for years just at the time I'll be paying for Christmas, probably.  

I'm gonna see if I can't just 'not buy any more'.  These things fall outside of my usual rules of aquisition (ie they are not bits to finish existing projects) so they shouldn't be bought.  

And no-one needs a Valdor with Leman Russ tracks conversion, do they ? Not that I've been thinking about that for twenty years.

 *for context, for those who have genuinely never see this, it happens in London when the traffic patterns are distrupted (by traffic light failures, roadworks, other distruptive vehicles and/or deliveries on bus routes).  The buses cannot pull out for whatever reason until someone lets them out, and sometimes this is the next bus.  So you end up with a little packet of two to four buses all arriving at the same time. 

 

Amarillo Pattern LeMan Russ

As shown a couple of posts ago.

This is the same two tanks with their basecoat on.

With a unified colour on the model, they look more homogenous. 

I'm liking this look, these are turning out as imagined.

 

Tiny Leg Ends DKK sappers

You'll recall me mentioning that Tiny Legends also produced a DKK Engineer kit.  This is half of the kit put on to Anvil bodies.

All of the comments and observations I made about the Grenadier kit hold true here as well. 

This guy is digging with his entrenching tool. There are other possible arms with axes and picks and hands with shovels. 

Having said all of that, there are weapon options and I've of course chosen the revolver action shotgun. 

There's plenty of actual engineer kit as well. 

And these Anvil bodies, "Gorka Suit Bodies" have the knee pads and plenty of belt kit.  It may not come out in the picts, but the PLCE has stabilisation straps as well.  Excellent work, Anvil, beautifully done.

And the match between the kit and the bodies is great.

 Five more to do

Amarillo Pattern LeMan Russ varients

Comptroller Bellormus' standard indents into Departmento Munitorium supply lines have secured some armour which was already earmarked for the DKK.

These are LeMan Russ varients supplied by a Styrgies VII statalite forge.  The Amarillo statalite forge is renowned for the high quality of it's products, however, the forgemaster suffers from ill health so productivity is sometimes not what it could be.

These have Styrgies VII equivalents to Mars Alpha hulls.  These bigger engines and generator units enable the further modifications which allow varient weapon loads without sacrificing mobility. 

The Amarillo pattern turrets have a large bustle which, in the vehicles supplied to Devos IV, either capacitor/battery banks for the Anhilator las cannons or ammunition storage for the Predator cannon.

The varients supplied to Devos IV are Predators with Heavy Bolter sponsons and hull mounted Heavy Bolter. 

And the Anhilators with hull and sponson mounted las cannons.  The unusual, increased capacity allowed by the larger hull and turret.

Another two of each to build !
 

Tiny Leg Ends DKK grenadier conversions

It is a sad fact of existance that things wear out, that stuff that used to be part of the fabric of our lives, Woolworths, stable government, peace in Europe, road bridges in the USA, all eventually disappear, leaving us wondering where we could possibly buy pick'n'mix, 45 singles and ironing boards in the same shop.

On the Brick of Scrutiny today: 

Most of my DKK was bought, over the phone, during a break in a clients rest area in about 2008.  Come about 2020 people on the interwebs were a bit vocal about the non-availability of some of the DKK range (whilst utterly oblivious to the disposition of the Tallarn and Elylisian model lines).   It's not that FW didn't want to to stop making them, but those moulds must of given up the ghost.  So ignoring that FW has been folded back into GW for a minute, the advent of the plastic DKK Kill Team box set reignited interest in the whole DKK catalouge.  

Into this breach steps a guy in Estonia, one man banding a conversion set, to let you change your Kill Team into a Grenadier squad.  "Ha," I hear you say, "Zzzzz, I see where this is going, you don't really need any more minis at all, you're right outta space to keep them in, you never build them all anyway and then you just twine on about the amount...  What ?  already ?!?!"

 

You're quite correct gentle reader.  But yeah, I did.  Bite me. 

The website is pretty good, the kit you get is crisp, complete and competantly thought out and modelled.  There are little guides as to which of your new sets of arms and heads will match which bodies.  Once you get around that, it makes sense enough to use the kit properly.  The armour bits are at the limit of current resin technology.  If you look hard, even some of the filter/power backpacks are for the left handed variants.  You are not going to notice in a game if someone has used the wrong one, it's only noticable if you pick 'em up and look hard.  These kits are great 10/10, would recommend.  

As well as a rough rider to Death Rider kit, he does Engineer kits as well.  Obvs FW's DKK moulds had all given up around the same, except the Line Infantry ones, which, producing more models, had been refreshed some time before, which is why they're still going at the minute.  It says quite clearly on the website that for the engineer kits, you might a result you like better, using the new Cadian box.  So Tiny Leg Ends is paying attention to aesthetics and technical compatability with the kits, which must be harder than concentrating on one of these aspects alone.  Kudos to such a craftsman. 

Valour Korps Bodies with FW resin weapons

 

Valour Korps bodies with GW Plastic DKK arms

 

Amt für genetische Reinheit

Col Nierra is a commander in an organisation unknown outside of the DKK.  The Bureau of Genetic Purity (AGR) is a product of Krieg’s experiments producing humans for the Imperial war machine.  Occasionally there emerges a genetic mutation which results in the individual becoming a ravening beast.  Not in a good way.   Where the curse of the Wulfen does not interfere with the canix helix carrier’s decision making ability (ie which side he is on) the fault in the Kreigers produces an indiscriminate monster (“Strigoi”) which attacks the nearest target. The AGR recruits experienced quartermasters; the quartermasters of DKK armies keep track of the health of all the soldiers he is responsible for; so they experienced in managing clinical healthcare.   This gives AGR officers obvious advantages when it comes to screening any cohort for signs of mutation.  

Most DKK Soldiers do not know who these AGR officers are, but are conscious that these people make their own quartermasters twitchy.  And of course the AGR represents another strand of their ethnic shame; so the there is no likelihood of anyone outside of the DKK finding out who they are.   

They are not in the business of exterminating or decimating units.  They are hunting for individuals in whom this dangerous mutation has manifest.  So they have powers of investigation, seizure of evidence and arrest and/or execution without trial of individuals.  

In game terms, a Colonel of the AGR would use the profile of the Lord Inquisitor.  

Col Nierra in particular is wily old fox with nearly a century of experience on the battlefield and on the hunt for the mutant.  He has learned to pre-empt what it likely to happen and developed ways of getting where he needs to be by the most expedient means.   

He is also largely cybernetic, which makes him extremely tough and hard to kill.  And also slow.   

He has an Initiative of 5, which also covers his immediate retinue.  He also benefits from the Scout, Move Through Cover, Slow and Purposeful and I’ll be Back USRs.  All except I’ll be Back extend to any unit he joins. 

A AGR Officer has a retinue the same as a Platoon Command Squad.  These are generally veterans drawn from the remnants of DKK units.  Col Nierra always refers to his veteran bodyguards as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He has never explained this to everyone. BGP soldiers are viewed as taciturn and serious by other DKK soldiers.

1^st Lt Unkatherin Kershin was formerly a platoon commander in the Necromundia 8^th (“the Spiders”) Col Nierra once found himself witness to her insight and ability to disengage. He recruited her (how ? Who knows) and has managed to retain her services by having her trained as a pilot for Valkyrie class airframes and STAMPs (Small Tactical Airel Mobility Platforms – Col Nierra has managed to secure one of these for his team on Devos IV). She is loyal to Col Nierra and believes Starshy Kapitan Stravar to be a dick head. But like her DKK colleagues, she doesn’t say much.

The last member of his team is a locally recruited Vostroyan Officer, Kynaz Ivan Stavinski Stravar, who was given to the DKK as a liaison offer to distance him from a fellow officer Abdul Abulbul Amir, with whom he did not see eye to eye. He has ‘remodelled’ his uniform to be more flattering on the grounds that he now has an important liaison function. Undoubtedly courageous, he’s not over intellectual and despite appreciating the peril involved in Col Nierra’s work, he has no idea how deep the shit he’s in is. Blissfully unaware he’s trying to figure out how to get Lt Kershin into bed without getting (another) black eye. Or worse. But he is persuasive and does get the team into places and obtains resources they would struggle to get without his diplomatic savioure faire.

 

Kill Team Hiesse Kopfe

Named for the red skull on their respirators.  Done in a Faux WW1 style, because they're a bunch of Fokkers.