Another day, another Veteran Guardsman completed, inasmuch as any model is ever finished. We're finished with Expendable Guardsmen, too - going forward we're looking at guardsmen that I'd rather survive the first half of the game and will take pains to preserve if the mission allows. Notes on the model as ever are under the cut, but before we get to that:
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Corvus Black is a very attractive shade - you can see it on the ridged under-barrel, and I want to use it more.
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Are there better ways to take photos of these models? Are they too zoomed-in? I invite comment.
The first of the Gunner Veterans, this soldier is equipped with a grenade launcher replacing their lasgun entirely. In traditional Warhammer 40K, maybe one soldier in five would be afforded a heavy weapon like this. At the time of writing, a Death Korps infantry squad allows for three soldiers in a group of ten to wield the heavier guns, but this varies from one edition to another.
Notably the Gunner Veteran has no especial abilities or defenses - they're just as fragile as their more expendable colleagues, and they aren't even especially good shots; they're hitting on a coinflip just like the troopers. The only thing that matters about the gunner is the gun. The launcher can be loaded with two types of grenades: first the traditional fragmentation grenade, handy for punishing groups of lightly-armored opponents; secondly the "krak" grenade, which includes a shaped-charge payload for defeating heavier armor. This second armament represents the first weapon that, with enough luck, can put a Space Marine in the ground in a single shot.
The value of the Gunner Veteran being tied directly to the weapon brings to mind the Death Korps' unique take on the office of Quartermaster. Krieg, starting near the beginning of their omnicidal civil war, has long since decided the recovery of materiel should be prioritized above recovering personnel unless they were extremely talented or extremely senior. Troops too heavily wounded to make it back to a medical tent under their own power would be executed, and the Quartermasters' responsibility would be to swiftly strip the dead of their gear for reuse.
The grenade launcher will probably outlive this gunner, just as it has the last several soldiers to carry it into Krieg's everlasting war.