Utterly delighted.

From my best effort (above) to this:

http://piratevikingpainting.blogspot.com/2010/11/death-korps-first-look.html
Pirate Viking Painting: Death Korps first look

Hurrah !

Phoney War

One of 50th Tactical Lift Wing's Valks in Southern Acre.

902nd Inf Bde have conducted their shake out exercises – they are now earnestly training for war in southern Acer. The two infantry Battalions, the Kreig 77th and Kado 540th are practicing combined operations with the Armageddon armoured units and Divisional Artillery. The weather at sea will preclude any opening to the campaign for a few months.
The Cadian 144th LRRR and Devos IV 2nd Regt are on their own on the continent of Benq for the time being.
The Lady Inquisitrix has deployed her assets (including her storm troopers in the Navy’s 50th TLW) across Acer in an attempt to secure the continent for the emperor. Inquisition sleeper cells have been activated by Ordo Hereticus codewords. Satellite establishments from the covent on Benq are the focus of much public attention; the whys and wherefores of the Inquisitorial Intervention are the subject of media interest; The media on Devos IV is freer and a lot less ‘on message’ than it is on a lot of Imperial worlds. Local advice from their in system agents prevents the Ordo Hereticus storming the printers and pict-factors; the public outrage at a massacre of their free media would have more harm than their current solution of ‘guidance counsellors’.
All of the attention on the Inquisitorial mission has left the 17th Battle Group HQ and it’s one combat unit, the 902nd Inf Bde, free to exercise in the deep south. This keeps the local media away from the Imperial Guard and the Death Korps of Krieg away from Acer’s major population centres.
The Departmento Construction Corps despatched with the 73rd Army Group has begun the task of converting the Industrial and Commercial areas of Sandvik into a suitable garrison not only for 902 Bde but also for another possible two brigades to follow. The railroad to the coast (to embark to Benq to fight the enemy) and to the Starport (for supplies and reinforcements) already exists. Other parts of the Labour Corps are spending the winter converting a number of the giant plankton harvesters into vessels suitable for transporting the Imperial Guard across the sea.
In their HQ in the market town of Peltor, 17th Battle Group’s planning is focussed on the winter storms around the southern ocean. Properly timed, the wet fleet can embark 50th TLW from calm seas to drop Storm Troopers to seize the sea ports in anticipation for the landing.
In stately Hakisyke, the astropaths for the 73rd Army Group HQ have heard at last from the Departmento Munitorium. They are to receive reinforcements for another Inf Bde. The new units will form the 901st Inf Bde. They should arrive in system in six months, warp travel notwithstanding.

Winter Conditions

It is not really snowing here. In fact, when the sun is out, at midday, it is quite warm. But the clear skies are making for cold nights.

For the first time in about two months, I got into the garage yesterday. I was going to put more IG arms and Pif Iron heads on the greatcoat bodies. But the cold has got to the glue. I'm going to have to box up all the glues and paints and hide them indoors for the winter.

Knickers

OK.

We are told that grenadier units are split up amongst the more common-or-garden Iggies. But that they come from proper formed units etc.

So, I have a desire (and the figures) to field a grenadier platoon. Of Pl HQ and four squads.

So with an army list that already includes two common-or-garden platoons (of HQ and four squads), I could possibly fit in four Vet Squads to represent the four squads of the Grenadier Platoon (there is no codex entry for Grenadier Platoon HQs).

I want doctrines back.

114 Coy, 77 Sturm Bn, 28 Armd Regt DKK

I have bitten the bullt and outsourced the painting of my DKK. Like a government, me. But better able to manage a conspiracy.

The rhetoric of war

The following was broadcast from the Quinelle Palace in Xyphonica the morning after 17th Army Group successfully executed Operation Tranquility (seizing the Acer Starport) and before the 902nd Bde made planet fall.
“A dark fleet has settled into orbit around our world. We are under the black cloud of imminent war. Until this clear and present threat is removed, the sun will not shine on Devos IV. The Planetary Defense Force has been mobilized. The Frataris Millitia are to report for duty to their muster stations.
All citizens of Devos IV must clearly understand that whatever the issue may be, it could be resolved without off world interference. Your elected leaders exercised their legal prerogative and this has irked the uncaring imperium. The Imperium came to our rescue when were invaded by Waagh Burkatt centuries ago; A changed and uncaring Imperium now returns as invader and occupier in its own right.
Civil Defense measures will be taken, populations will be evacuated from potential target areas. No-one who does not want to will be made to fight – but all should realize that led by the Inquisition, the armies of the imperium are a merciless totalitarian killing machine with nothing in common with normal human beings. There is no guarantee of safety, no succor from their misplaced wrath.
We must defend Devos IV against invaders from outer space. Although our cities may be razed and our farms destroyed, in our hearts the people of Devos IV will always be free; We will face the coming conflict with clear consciences and resolute determination to keep what is ours free from interference of outsiders.”

The Dark Mechanicus of Devos IV

Over two thousand miles from Xyphonica, under the ruins of San Cantor there are ‘The Forges’. After the atomic purging of the San Cantor Hive over seven hundred years ago, this is where the Adeptus Mechanicus brethren came looking for salvage and secrets. Whatever they found kept them here, amongst the millions of tonnes of reclaimable scrap.
The years passed and those who remained, in order to continue their work, became more machine than man. Eventually machines were repairing and replacing machines. The Omnissiah would be pleased. Their contact with the outside world, when she was appointed, was a high ranking official from the planetary government. She stayed in ‘The Forges’ as well. Eventually the position became a hereditary position for the daughter of the previous incumbent. Contact with the local government was eventually lost, but ‘the speaker’ remained, and over the years, the holders of the title have developed psychic powers.
On the speakers authority, Skitarri took what they needed from passing trade caravans. Seven hundred years later, the inheritors of the Adeptus Mechanicus mission to Devos IV are almost a folk memory for most of the population. All of their leaders are long gone, preserved as data slugs, venerated by their successors, but never committed to a processor. Oh no. It would not do to awaken the old ones. The speakers have been telling them that for hundreds of years.
What remains today is a society of servitors, ruled by a mad woman, making things in the dark. On the edge of many things. On the edge of the ash wastes, the edge of the known world. On the edge of reality, the edge of the ‘other’ as the speaker calls it.
Under the ruins of the Hive it is hot and dark. There is constant noise and fume. Everywhere the walls drip with leachates from the ruins and condensation from the remaining population. Slaves are kept in chains. They keep some of the processes running. And provide valuable genetic material to keep the mission going. The darkness is lit by bright burning fires, the forges, ducts and channels of molten metal. The lords are the Sorcerer-Engineers, Arcanists, some possessed, some mad. Some feed off of the slaves. They used to be aided by minions, all identical, grown in vats in the image of one supreme soldier of millennia past. These minions are still the overseers of the processes, tormentors of the slaves. But the knowledge of their making and remaking is lost now. Many are lobotomised, slaved to a single task, identical to other servitors throughout the Imperium. But they are wearing out.
The Elder Speaker is a tall strong woman who's ferocity is only matched by her deep mystery. Through sadistic rituals and dangerous story telling traditions she and her acolytes balance the twisted nature of ‘the mission’ and can manipulate the "other" through somewhat unique quasi religious techniques.

Veils worn by the devotees represent a past shrouded in guilt and secrets. The White Speaker cult is forbidding, rituals of blood and delirious narration keep most of Sorcerer Engineers clear. The number of White Speakers remains constant, as one dies another is initiated; too few and they would disappear and too many might create a blood frenzy that the Elder Speaker fears she could not control.

White speakers power is rooted in the names and tales of things. The Elder Speaker shares stories with young listeners bound in chains. The secrets and lore she chants drive them into violent twisted seizures as they try to absorb the words of power. Speakers learn in layers and riddles to protect their mind from dismantling under the weight of what they know.
And all of this happens in secret.