There was a theory going around for a while that Games Workshop announced the Death Korps of Krieg purely because of the success of Trench Crusade. That theory vastly misunderstands the timelines the company works on.
Krieg will have been in various stages of design and production for years now. If Games Workshop was able to work fast enough to bring a full army from inception to production in about six months, we might have official Exodites already.
But that’s not to say there isn’t cross-compatibility between the two game systems.
Trench Crusade takes liberal inspiration from Warhammer in its designs. Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent takes liberally from Warriors of Chaos. The Black Grail has that decaying Nurgle vibe. And both New Antioch and Heretic Legion have aspects of Krieg.
This is why my favourite faction is the Sultanate of the Iron Wall, which feels wholly unique to the Trench Crusade setting.
Converting New Antioch Yeoman Out Of Warhammer 40K Death Korps Of Krieg
The most obvious port of call for the trenchcoat-befitted Krieg Engineers is the New Antioch Yeoman. The regular rank and file of the faction, these soldiers combine those iconic coats with medieval-style helmets and archaic rifles. Thankfully, I’ve got just the bits.
I built all my Skitarii Vanguard as Nurglefied horrors, so I have a lot of spare bits left over. The helmets from the Vanguard, with a fair amount of trimming, work as the medieval-style helms. I may even sculpt a new chin for them. For the weapons, I opted for the Skitarii Rangers’ Galvanic Rifles. They look archaic enough that they fit within Trench Crusade’s dark fantasy setting. I did try to remove the round magazine on one to replace it with a more historically accurate option, but it was a lot of effort, didn’t look very good, and this is a world where humanity has gazed upon the gates of Hell itself, accuracy can go to… you get the picture.
The rest of the build is straight from the Krieg Engineers included in the new Army Set. There’s an annoying neck joint that you have to scrape away and fill, but other than that, it’s a breeze. You’ll notice I kept the Kriegsman’s shotgunnish weapon to use as, you guessed it, a shotgun, on one model, and also gave him a shield from the Cities of Sigmar range to tap into that medievalism.
Converting Heretic Legion Out Of Warhammer 40K Death Korps Of Krieg
The Heretic Legion takes less from the Krieg range, but those iconic gas masks need to be utilised somewhere. Heretic Legionaire designs sit somewhere between a feudal knight and a futuristic Guardsman, but I opted for what I had to hand, those lovely Cities of Sigmar miniatures from 2023.
In an ideal world, I’d have sourced some bandaged legs to take these a little further away from the Age of Sigmar base miniature, but overall I feel like I’ve done enough to make them distinct. I added the little pennants with plasticard strips and I’ll freehand on some designs rather than messing about with finicky Green Stuff picts. Again, that neck joint on the Krieg models was a pain, but I managed to blend the two with Green Stuff and it’ll be covered over in the painting.
These rifles need work. Heretic Legionnaries carry a classic WW1 rifle, and I just can’t get my hands on the right one. Lasguns are too sci-fi. Historical miniatures are the wrong scale and therefore look like toys in these heroic hands. I’ll work out the right weapon in time, but for now this will have to do.
I’m thinking of changing the barrel of the lasguns and adding a WW1-style magazine?
I’m well on my way to my first two Trench Crusade warbands. The Death Korps of Krieg are a very versatile kit, and perfect for kitbashing. There are a couple of annoying details that most modern Games Workshop kits have in order to prioritise dynamic posing over convertibility, but with a sharp hobby knife and can-do attitude, any miniature can join the fight for or against the forces of Hell.
Games Workshop provided the miniatures featured in this article.
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