Sometimes in life there comes a point where you have to face the fact that you’re just not going to be good at everything.
It’s a difficult lesson, especially if it’s something you really want to be good at.
As a kid I really wanted to learn how to put models together. Model cars, model airplanes, whatever I could manage to pop out of a plastic sprue and snap together. It was a lot of fun, or at least that’s how it was sold to me. The reality was I lacked both the fine motor control and patient temperament to get through just about any kit without devolving into my best sputtering Donald Duck impersonation.
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The breaking point- literally- came the Christmas of 1984. Ten-year-old me was overjoyed to find a G.I. Joe COBRA Rattler under the tree from “Santa,” but those kinds of vehicles always came “some assembly required.” In the midst of trying to assemble my shiny new plane, I broke one of the wheels clean off at the base while trying to snap it into its housing.
I was devastated. You can only play the “battle damage” card so long in your head until all you can see is your own shortcomings every time you look at it. “Lefty” ran endless sorties for COBRA, but never managed once to safely land. It was the end of my modeling ambitions.
Flash forward to a couple years ago, when reading Warhammer’s Black Library became my coping mechanism during my wife’s cancer battle. Our recent move to Louisville put me in close proximity to a Warhammer store where I’d buy my books, and eventually I succumbed to the old curiosity. Was I masochistic enough to try my hand and modeling again?
As it turns out, the microfocus of building plastic heroes and villains was just the oasis I needed. While I neither paint nor play the tabletop, building minis- especially to decorate my Black Library Museum displays- has become a wonderfully engaging side-path of my hobby.
And this week, I built my first Trench Crusade figure, the Heretic Naval Raiders Captain.
Damn is this guy cool.
One of the reasons I’m really looking forward to the potential release of Trench Crusade novels is because pairing books and miniatures in displays is my hobby love language. For now, though, the Captain will oversee my writing desk as he awaits the assembly of his crew.
If only we knew who to thank for this amazing design…
Making Moves
Last week I looked at some of the recent business decisions Factory Fortress has been making, and what they may portent for the long-term objectives of the game. I was happy to see another this week, this time a personnel upgrade as Israel Gonzalez joined the team as Head of Miniatures.
In addition to being a Gold award-winner at the World Modeling Expo, Gonzalez spent thirteen years with Games Workshop. One of the last projects he worked on was the design of Thulia Ghuld, Archamagos Terminus of Mars, released this past April as part of the Warhammer 40,000’s Eye of Terror campaign:
Gonzalez’s talent for the wickedly intricate has also been on full display in other sculpts including Kill Team’s Vespid Stingwings (originally debuting in 2024’s Hivestorm box) and these incredible Ophydian Destroyers:
Though the official announcement doesn’t make it clear, Gonzalez is not entirely a new hire. He’s already done some Trench Crusade work for the Carcass Front release, including co-design on that incredible Heretic Naval Raider Captain.
But as Head of Miniatures, he’ll have a much broader remit in oversight of model design as well as new range development. Congrats on the role, Israel, and we’re looking forward to great things ahead!
ICYMI
Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!
Trench Crusade Official
The latest official lore drop is a feature on The Vivarium, a place of profane horrors- as they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions! It’s written by Graham McNeill and illustrated by Eryk Szczygiel!
Attending Spiel Essen next month? Here’s where you can find Trench Crusade! And for those painters under the age of sixteen, there will also be a Young Guns category at the Crimson Chalice competition!
Last week I talked about the publicity benefits that The Army Painter could expect to enjoy due to its partnership with Trench Crusade, and you can see that in action in the official news release about the Young Guns category.
Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire will be bringing reports from Decisive Battles from games all over the world. This week’s included conflicts from Vietnam to South Africa- and make sure to check out that battlefield in Vietnam’s report. The half-summoned Herald of Leviathan is incredible stuff.
Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch saw an even exchange of territory between the Faithful and the Fallen. The risk with global events sometimes can be that they snowball into a rout by one side over the other, but this has remained a very close-run affair.
Dave Taylor interviewed Zack Nollinger for the Creating Slices of Trench Crusade series. Zack isn’t just the Global Community Events Manager for the game, but himself has built some extraordinary submarine-themed battlegrounds that have to be seen to be believed.
A new feature, Mentioned in Dispatches will run every week throughout the duration of Operation Leviathan. Curated by Peter Hairston, MiD will bring you some of the most striking Trench Crusade miniatures, terrain, and tables that have been shared across social media. Here’s this week’s!
Don’t forget, the game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan will run until 19 October, and will leave its mark on the world forever. Make sure to get your results in!
Wargame Content Sites
Another week, another Tabletop Battles feature on Tabletop Battles! They’ve been running a series focusing on specific warbands one at a time, and this week they looked at The Sins of the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent.
Community Content
The Last Scribe dropped a vid this week called The Propaganda of Trench Crusade Explained. “This is a look at the lies of the Trench Crusade. The deliberate ones, the sincere ones, and the ones arranged so carefully that nobody could ever check them. Because once you stop asking what the sources say and start asking who is saying it, this world changes shape.”
Grimdark Fantasy offered up a lore explainer of the Carcass Front’s full timeline. “If you picked up the Carcass Front box and went straight for the sprues, you skipped past the best part.”
In the past two weeks we’ve had a closer look at Wat Priest Charon and Blessed Batholomeo. scannerbarkly is here to dive into a full compare-and-contrast for the pair.
The Sleepy Hollow’s series title for their videos is a riot, “Trench Crusade Lore to Sleep To.” This week’s offering involved The Path of the Beast and the Orders of Crusaders Knights.
Coming Attractions
Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.
This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.
Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)
That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time. As for me, I’ve not some Raiders to put together…