Iron Sultanate - House of Wisdom

Adrian Phillips - @tabletoptitans

I decided to go with the House of Wisdom sub-faction for my Iron Sultanate warband. My test model is a custom Jabrean Alchemist. I used the base model of the armoured Stigmatic Nun and mixed her with the alchemist model, which I printed with a softer resin to be able to carve out details and move them over. I also knew I wanted to use actual cloth materials and textures in the warband to get that grimdark feel, and so here we have the first test of that!

Glory: 1

New Antioch - The Free State of Prussia

Brian Layva - @tabletoptitans

I really wanted to use Speedpaints as much as possible, so I wanted to get the most use out of my basecoat to pump as much colour into the model as possible while keeping it on brand for Trench Crusade. I started with a saturated basecoat of purple over everything and then used magenta as a zenithal highlight. After those colours were down and had solid layers, I went in with white to do another zenithal highlight with more of a focus on the highest areas of the model. After that was applied, I just went in with various Speedpaints until I was happy with the overall atmosphere and then started mixing in an off-white into the respective colours to create highlights.

Once I was happy with the initial highlights, I went in with a couple of oils to create some grime and rust effects on the metallic parts. I need to go back and reestablish some of the light placements and brightness that I lost, but I’m overall really happy with the contrasting colours on the model and how it looks. I want to keep exploring non-metallic metal with trench crusade and finding a way to make it fast but believable!

Glory: 1

Trench Pilgrims - Procession of the Sacred Affliction

Dave Taylor - @davetaylorminiatures

I wanted to work on these zealous lepers from the moment I saw fragments of the wonderful art from the Carcass Front boxed set! I knew, however, that we might not get some of the models early so I started by converting – both digitally and physically – an Anchorite Shrine.  

I found a few cool bells and a large millstone, and set to work merging them with the existing official STLs for the Shrine from Factory Fortress. While I'm getting better at mashing things together digitally, I still have yet to dabble in digital sculpting. Thankfully I was able to use some traditional sculpting materials for the final conversion work on the penitent strapped to the Catherine Wheel. Ropes and wrappings take a little bit of practice but can look good with fairly little experience. 

The bulk of the warband should be arriving soon, and once I have those assembled, I'll finalise my colour scheme. Expect dirt, filth, and rust! 

Glory: 0

New Antioch - Free State of Prussia

Ian Huxley

As these are my first Trench Crusade miniatures, I took my time selecting an appropriate colour scheme. I wanted to use our new Historical colours as I thought they were perfect for the Prussians.

I basecoated the boots and legs with Dark Battle Dress, the coat with Webbing Green, the leather with Leather Brown, the gloves with Burnt Turf, Rifle Brown for the rifle (suitably), the various metal gubbins with Gun Metal and Greedy Gold across the model. This was all shaded with a mix of Dark Tone and Military Shade, before being highlighted with the original colour again.

The bases were Desert Yellow highlighted with Burnt Turf. And I used the Wasteland Tuft as a final flourish.

The whole process took (as you would expect) about 2 hours to complete. 

Glory: 1

New Antioch

Jake Krajeski - @buildpaintplay

Lady Magdalena of Rysy, the Ghost of Ljubljana 

Magdalena was a young maid from the southern borders of Poland. A calling drew her to Ljubljana, and while there, the siege of Ljubljana took place. She put down her books and herbs, gathered a rifle from the hands of a fallen defender and took a place in the bell tower of the closest church. During the siege she saved countless people with her timely shots. The locals claimed the tower she was in collapsed, but days later, she emerged from the ash and fog, leading several dozen children and wounded back north to safety. Now she serves the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its allies, going where the need is greatest. It is spoken by those who have served with her that wild flowers grow wherever she has knelt. Dama Magdalena has become something of a folk hero, surrounded by awe and superstition; she can't be killed, she's dead already, and a ghost here to watch over us, she cannot miss, she is ever-vigilant.   

Glory: 1

Trench Pilgrims

Jason Thompkins

This band of pilgrims, unlike most, does not share in the fervent faith other warbands do. Having seen no evidence of the Metachrist themselves, calling them "believers" would be a stretch, but call them heretics at your own peril. The band is driven ever onward by War Prophet Theomelda, whose devotion is unshakeable, bordering on true madness. Theomelda is shadowed constantly by a lumbering hulk of flesh whose only words spoken are tiny childlike giggles. Having seen city after city fall to the heretical forces, these pilgrims find it hard to see the face of any caring deity in these barren lands. They know only that to not follow the rule of Theomelda and throw yourself headlong into battle often leads to a much worse fate, that of being strapped to the wheel of the anchorite shrine that follows behind.

Glory: 2

New Antioch

Joey Jobes - @joseph.jobes

There’s one thing I cannot resist in a game, and that’s… weird religious zealots. I don’t know why. But if I can be a cleric, a nun with a gun, a cult leader, or a man convinced he’s the messiah—I’m in! That’s why I’m proud to rep my boys, New Antioch, and defend the Home of All Our Hopes. 

For my test model, I painted up the Lieutenant from this warband, figuring it has most of the different elements I’ll find on the other models – the coat, the uniform, the armour, and some wood and weaponry. I used mostly paints from the Warpaints Historical: WWII British set here, along with a few from John Blanche Masterclass: Vol. 4 and was very happy with the results on the coat from mixing 1:1 Commando Green with Webbing Green, and then layering up towards almost a pure Webbing Green. The Rust effect added some nice weathered touches to the mini, and hopefully, you see the nod to the historical British WWII uniforms in the battle dress! 

Glory: 1

New Antioch

Jonathan Beveridge

I'm very new to Trench Crusade, and I will be 100% transparent in that I picked this faction because it had a big robot guy with a machine gun. Who doesn’t love that?  For painting, I went right to the John Blanche Masterclass sets and jumped into Volume 1 and 2, using that as my colour palette. I kept it very simple—basecoated in greens and greys, coated in Grimdark Shadow, and then highlights from there using the flexible triads.   

Glory: 2

Iron Sultanate

Phil Hall - @glacialgeek

This is my Sultanate Sapper! I really liked the new Sniper Priest plastic kit and, even though I wasn't playing New Antioch, I wanted to use it. When I saw this head option, it said "Iron Sultanate" to me, so I did a bit of snipping and swapped out the hand options for some other choices from the Prussian kits to get my dude-bro up to speed! I also knew I wanted to go with a colour scheme that wasn't as brown and drab green as a lot of Trench Crusade warbands. He's a model on the tabletop, not an actual person on a real battlefield!

Glory: 1

New Antioch - The Red Brigade

Rasmus Carstensen

I had two ideas for painting my warband; I wanted to go for a “Darkest Dungeon” inspired approach, aiming for a high contrast with a muted palette and I wanted to use the John Blanche Vol. 1 & 2 primarily. I wanted to make blood the dominant element, similar to the video game. For this, I ended up using Dry Blood and True Blood effect paints.

I originally intended to go the more traditional route, with blood-red cloaks and helmets. However, I got an idea: this warband is made up of New Antioch soldiers who landed on the Broken Isle and survived the initial onslaught. Those who were left standing could no longer call themselves soldiers of New Antioch, and with no way home, there was no way to join the Red Brigade. They simply have to keep going, having already traversed the Path that takes everything from them. 

Glory: 1

New Antioch - Free State of Prussia

Sam Lenz - @samsonosmas

To begin, I wanted to get to grips with the Prussians by painting the faction's key feature, the Stormtrooper. Utilising the colours found in the Warpaints Historical: World War II Soviet Union set, plus a few extras, and a sponge got things going quickly. I'll change this recipe slightly once the full warband is painted, but this gives me a good idea of what I can create with the supplies at hand. With my basic scheme created, I'm also asking myself how to vary the troop types and maintain that cohesive look. Time will bring more paint and more reinforcements, now to march forth and conquer the mud!

Glory: 1

New Antioch - Red Brigade

Tim Engleman

As soon as I saw the Red Brigade models by Westfalia Miniatures, the choice was made. I love the armour design, and the Trench Dogs might give some of my opponents pause (ba-dum-tss) when eyeing them through a sight. 

To maintain an overall cold feel to the model, I began the reds with The Darkness, Basilisk Red, and Beret Maroon. Fiery Vermilion added some warmth to the final highlights before I started painting the chips. 

Choosing greens and blues to complement bright reds can be tricky. We can’t have Christmas colours in the trenches in June, nor do I want a cease and desist from DC Comics. Luckily, the British 8th Army Paint Set had what I was looking for: Greatcoat Green. I'm a sucker for a great ochre, and I am already thinking of excuses to use it in my regular rotation. The cloak was then finished with a couple of dark colours from the Deep Green-Blues Triad PLUS+. 

Oh, that’s not a broken bayonet. Clearly, this Yeoman looted it off a Trench Ghost. A ghost bayonet is completely plausible. 

Glory: 1

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent - Sloth

Amy Ratcliffe - @amypaintslilguys

I started with my Wretched for my test model, simply because it was the smallest. In thinking about my warband, I imagined demons who would be sucking the life from the world and those they fight. I considered greys and desaturated tones for the skin, but ultimately landed on various sickly greens. I started with Speedpaint Ochre Clay over my grey-primed mini and then chose Warpaints Fanatic colours from John Blanche Masterclass Volume 4: Rootpath, Thicket Grove, and Umberroot. I built them up in thin layers for mottled, diseased skin and added bright Blood Thorn for scars—I decided anything that looked like a strap holding armour on was actually sinewy muscle. 

I learned a lot by playing around. I look forward to experimenting more with my warband and bringing in brighter hues as the demons absorb the colours from the world around them.

Glory: 1

Cult of the Black Grail

Courtney DeVries - @figuratively_speakingminis

For this Elite Knight of the Unholy, I wanted to present grime and filth but in an artful way. I chose desaturated earthly colours to bring its peaks and angles to light. Surrounded by a base of gore and sinew, this model was very fun to paint.

Glory: 1

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent - Envy

Evil Dave Taylor - @davetaylorminiatures

Over the last year I've put together three other Court warbands, each visually themed to a particular aspect of the Sins. I decided, for this one, that I would dive into the covetous nature of Envy and present the warband as being covetous of power and ways I could steal that power. 

The first mini for the warband is my Praetor, who has stolen a suit of Heavy Machine Armour from the forces of New Antioch. Some chopping up of the suit allowed me to mesh them with the Praetor body without too much trouble, all done digitally.

For the paint job, I kept it fairly simple and based around the dark iron surface of the armour. The Praetor's skin is basecoated using The Darkness and highlighted by mixing in Hearthborn and Ivory White. The grotesque fleshy parts were basecoated with Blanched Berry and highlighted by mixing in more Hearthborn. 

Glory: 1

Heretic Legion - Naval Raiders

Felipe Crieghton - @theatomikdoctor

As I eagerly await the vile Heretic Naval Raiders of Baron Brutalis finally making landfall upon my humble shores (aka, delivered to my porch), I decided to recruit one of the faithful lads of the Free State of Prussia as my test model instead. I was very excited to dive into Army Painter’s Historical: WWII German set, especially the rich greens and earthy browns that felt perfect for the grim atmosphere of Trench Crusade. 

One of my favourite parts of this model was experimenting with weathering on the metallics using Military Shade, Brown Tone, and Black Tone. I also started mixing Plate Mail Metal with Weapon Bronze from the Warpaints Fanatic range to create that strange yellow silver bronze effect seen across parts of the armour and equipment.

This test model has me extremely excited to push further into the warband and experiment with even more colour palettes and weathering ideas in the future.

Glory: 1 

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent

Jeremy Clark

Whenever I choose a new faction for a tabletop miniatures game, I always tend to lean toward large, scary monsters over anything else. The rule of cool has never let me down! For Trench Crusade, I almost immediately knew Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent was right for me.

Painting these up has been a fun challenge for me. My style is usually to prime white and paint models in bright vivid colors, but I knew for this faction that wouldn’t quite fit the vibe I'm looking for. So going with a darker, moodier style has been difficult but very rewarding.

The skin tones and armor are what I’ve decided to keep dark, mostly greys and dark blues with a hint of pinks and reds. I’m keeping brighter colors, like the horns and eyes on these Yoke Fiends, in places where I want your eye to be drawn. With this method I can control what the viewer focuses on to create a more powerful color scheme.

Glory: 2

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent

Joachim McLaughlin - @mr_mclaughlin

I started with the leader of the of my warband. The mighty Sudor, a very distant relative to Marchosias, a mighty Marquis in hell, and he leads the warband called Qui ira sudant, by those who have faced it in combat and lived to tell the tale. 

My warband’s colour scheme is based on the original and awesome concept art by Mike Franchina, and one of the things I really enjoyed trying to replicate from the concept art is how wet and glistening the skin of the praetor looks. I like the idea of these logic-defying, monstrous beings running around and fighting the creations of God, all the while constantly being slightly sweaty. It is a tough job fighting the forces of the faithful, but someone’s gotta do it! 

Glory: 1

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent - Sloth

Lasse Sell - @fantasticmapsstore

Since the colour scheme for the artwork of The Court is absolutely awesome, I couldn't choose any other colours - it was just a matter of finding which paints would allow me to replicate it. 

For the skin, I start with a warm base of Carnelian Skin and then layer up through Jasper Skin and into a colder highlight of Iceborn. Then I'll selectively wash and glaze with Magenta Tone and Bloodmoon Red to get that inflamed look as well as glaze with Barren Dune for some variation in the final tone, before using True Blood and some Gloss Varnish for the finishing gore. 

For the armour, I begin with a basecoat of Blood Thorn before a heavy drybrush of Heavy Metal. I then use a glaze of Bloodmoon Red in the recesses to darken and dirty the armour as well as smoothening the transition between the red and the metal, before a final light drybrush of Cobalt Metal. 

Glory: 1

Heretic Legion - Naval Raiders

Lyle Lowery - @lyle.lowery

I chose to do the Naval Raiders for my Heretic Legion Warband, using the models from the upcoming Carcass Front box set. I wanted them to show extreme wear from the depths, with the verdigris corrosion of their brass diving gear becoming one of the primary colours of the scheme. This was achieved with Warpaints Fanatic Death Metal, a wash of the Verdigris Effects paint, and a drybrush of True Brass.

The steel parts also show extreme rust, and I painted the fabrics in a nice, desaturated tan. Between the blue tones of the verdigris, the yellow tones of the fabric, and the red tones of the rusted steel, I achieved a muted palette of primary colours.

Glory: 1

Heretic Legion

Stéphane Nguyen Van Gioi - @scramasaxe91

Let me introduce you to the Cohort of the Veiled Leviathan! Their members await the return of their monstrous Patron ... one of them may even unknowingly carry the "Leviathan seed." Many of them (especially this Harbinger) display drills on their armour and/or bases as a leitmotif. This test model provided an opportunity to experiment with the Grimdark Shadow I recently received and how it complements Pure Red.

Glory: 1

Heretic Legion

Thomas Coltau - @coltaupainting

I wanted my test mini to capture the gritty feel I'm aiming for with my Heretic Legion. My goal was to make it dark and dirty while still creating strong contrast, which is why I chose the brighter cloth elements.

I started with a Matt Black primer and took advantage of the excellent coverage of the Fanatic paints to build up the colours quickly. For the uniform, I used The Darkness mixed with Afterglow, layering up to a dirty blue-grey tone. The metallic areas were painted with Heavy Metal before both the armour and metals received a wash of Grimdark Shadow.

For the cloth, I started with Burnt Turf, highlighted up through Ivory White, and then shaded it with Voodoo Shade to create a worn, weathered look. To finish the model, I added several Effect paints, including rust and blood, to reinforce the grimy, battle-worn aesthetic.

Glory: 1

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent - Wrath

Tyler Mengel - @mengel_miniatures

I decided to lean into the demonic and monstrous side of Trench Crusade for the Arena and went with the Court due to the conversion idea I had for my Preator (more on him in the future). The other big draw was model count. At the moment, my list is only four models!

Next, looking at the rules for the Court, I needed to pick a deadly sin. After reviewing my choices, I decided that the strategy of “run forward and hit the enemy with big sticks” seemed the most tactically sound, so Wrath it was! This also allowed me to play around with blood effects to really ratchet up the “wrathness” of it all. As you can see, I really leant into it, with dripping blood from the weapon, a feature on every model I’ll paint. I also decided to add fire elements to all the bases. Blood and fire seemed pretty agro to me, so perfect for these lads. I decided to keep the classic dark metal look, which I was happy to paint. I like to give myself a painting technique to focus on with each project, and on these guys, it’s doing very shiny, very dark, very menacing armour.

Glory: 1