Veterans of the Carcass Front

The Trench Crusade team is soon on their way to SPIEL Essen and the absolute madness of a gaming weekend the convention will serve up! The holy forces and vile heretics are once again present in numbers, as the Factory Fortress section will include many introductory gaming setups. To add some meat to the grinder, we were tasked with painting a few sets of characters and infantry to serve as demo pieces during the weekend.

These plastic models were assembled from the Carcass Front campaign box and painted in-house in customized paint schemes. We aimed to uphold the nautical atmosphere of the campaign set with battlefield heraldry and basing, simultaenously introducing a personalized palette that was quite fun to produce. The colour theme was based on Army Painter and AK Interactive acrylics with oil washes in the shading and weathering.

We'd also like to send wishes of good luck to everyone travelling to participate in the Golden Demon painting competition organized as a part of SPIEL - we know the Finnish delegation has been hard at work with their entries for months. Our very own Ollie is one of the participants and it will be exciting to see how the countless hobby hours spent pay off on the biggest international stage. Bring it home guys!

Battleground Eleven

Our last few weeks have been about Terrain and Trench Crusade commissions, while preparing for War Head Civil War on the personal front. This terrain set was created according to customer's wishes for a modern-age 40K terrain layouts with a bit of additional flavour and scenic emphasis. We were on the same page in that a bit of the gameplay practicality could be sacrificed on the altar of details and atmosphere, leading to a set of ancient ruins of rugged architecture. 

The customer specifically asked for statues as a part of the detailing, so we 3D-printed a few bronze character monoliths fitting to the 41st Millenium. The based footprint of each piece was measured to fit the official terrain pack scenery types, ranging from rubble to light forest sections and actual ruins with upper floors. 95% of construction is insulation finnfoam, hot glue and sand, with Green Stuff World and NOCH accessories in landscaping. The colours were chosen to fit a specific gaming mat customer already had - an environment we'd already produced a rocky set of terrain for in the past.

The full terrain set with six larger ruins, four smaller ruins, four streaks of rubble and a couple of longer forest strips.

We also printed and painted a few forsaken crates and barrels to serve as additional decoration, and perhaps to mark objectives with in narrative battles.

The tiling on the ground floor was made with textured wallpaper.

Evidence of a battle, with more to come we're sure. Happy gaming!

Trinity Gate - Trench Crusade for the Finnish Museum of Games

The Finnish Museum of Games is renovating and renewing its premises this fall and Trench Crusade, a notable Finnish gaming success story, will be inducted to the museum as an independent display of its own! We were lucky to be approached by Factory Fortress and the museum in order to produce two warbands of quintessential Trench Crusade models to fight over a custom-made display board.

To explore an alternative angle to the expanding Trench Crusade universe, ancient Byzantine ruins were chosen as the subject. The minions of hell had been extending their trench networks a bit too far, and the holy forces had to descend on their adversaries before another sacred circle would be breached. The Trench Pilgrims and Heretic Legion were chosen because of their iconic status within the game's background. 

All miniatures were printed, assembled, painted and based in-house by us, using a wide range of accessories as well as acrylics from Army Painter and AK Interactive (to name a couple).

We scratch-built the terrain and based the models to match this specific environment - similar techniques and materials were used both in the models' stands as well as the terrain they're fighting on. The terrain itself includes a lot of subject-appropriate symbolism in the detailing and design, these elements should be fun for fans to spot! Each model was designed to fit in a specific location in the terrain, introducing conflict and narrative in relation to the scenery and other models around them.

The museum in Tampere is re-opening for public on October 10th with the Trench Crusade display part of the exhibition. 

The mighty Shrine Anchorite is the centerpiece of the display.

The sinister leadership of the Heretic Legion.

Holy warriors in their elevated gun positions.

The tree of life extends over the troops hurrying to cover.

A lone Heretic infiltrator aims a shot at the unsuspecting Pilgrims.

Over the battlefield a fearsome War Wolf Assault Beast faces off with a living bomb.

Determined villains leave their trenches to slow down the Pilgrim onslaught.

The infamous Artillery Witch conjures a new barrage.

The Death Commando hunts down Pilgrim officers.

Hellish overseers conduct the Heretic combat operations from the back.

Announcing War Head Civil War VIII

The hobby summer is pretty much past us and we all know what it means - the Civil War season is truly on! This year we're trying out the 3.0 Horus Heresy for the first time and although there's a bit of a learning curve, it will be super interesting to see what everyone cooks out of the refreshed faction tomes and for the updated rules environment. 

 

War Head Civil War 2026 preparations are now in full swing and we'll assemble for the traditional Horus Heresy patrol skirmishes on the 14th of November! Secret schemes, new armies and fierce deployments await - read more about the format and what to expect below.

+ Civil War VIII Event Primer + 

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