Trench Crusade Heretics

Recently decided to print and paint a few Trench Crusade minis to give the game a go and settled on the bog standard Heretics and probably Papal States though that is not a firm decision. Also have some trenches and ruins to print on my fdm printer.

I was attracted to the heretics by the evil German Freikorps vibe and decided to stick pretty close to this.

Step one was as usual priming in a solid black. I use to use Vallejo primer but found that the 200ml bottles would start clogging the airbrush after about 3 months so switched to AK primer but am even less enamoured with this as it dries super matt, almost chalkily matt. This is not a bad thing but I am not a fan.

Field Grey by Vallejo (VMC) was the base colour as can be seen below. Airbrushed on vagely from above but with a few side on passes.

A bit of sand colour was added to provide a lighter field grey for upper highlights which appear super bright in the foto but are less so in actuality.

German camo dark green (VMC) was painted on the trousers and helmets and highlighted Russian green (VMC). Once again it is a bit washed out in the foto but is distinctly different as can be seen in later pics.

Now the fun part, the helmets, painted in what I have found out is called Buntfarbenanstrich 1918 and is familiar to anyone with a passing interest in WW1. If you are such a person I would draw your attention to the pair of blog posts here concerning the service of my Great Uncle who served alongside JRR Tolkien here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/single-post/pro-patria-mori-william-henry-johnson-part-2

The first colour painted on in roughly angular blotches was VMC Desert Yellow which was lightened with VMC Dark Sand. These were hand painted on in WW1 and as such I have not attempted to keep a fixed pattern. Just remember 2 or maybe 3 other colours need to be added and you dont want to cover too much area.

Next I added in VMC Flat Brown and then again lightened it a bit. You can see I was not too worried about being neat and keeping to boundaries. Green was also then added in. I used a lightish olive green but I dont think it matters to be honest.

In the real world this would be it but I found myself with a few patches left where it became impossible to add a patch without the new patch touching an old patch of the same colour due to my lack of planning. Improvising I added a fourth colour, light blue, which actually looks really nice. Then using my best big boy sable brush i painted thin black lines between the colours. I attempted to make it look a bit geometrical at this stage and went over any errors.

The gas masks were then painted using VMC Grey Green for the rubber parts and silver over black on the metallics.

THis is also a nice pic for showing the difference between the jacket and trousers which was unclear above.

The armour was painted in a dark steel colour and then highlighted up with VMA Aluminium added to the mix and on its own. A wash of AK Rust Brown was run over very thinly as I didnt want them to look too badly equipped.

Rifles, boots and canteen cover was then painted in a mix of AK Afro Brown and black. Afro Black is a great general colour as a dark warm brown.

All were then highlighted in VMC Flat Brown and VMC Orange Brown. This again is probably a bit bright for real rifles but with the bulk of the mini in grey green it looks nice!

Metallic bits were again over jazzed up with a mix of VMC gunmetal and then VMC Aluminium as below

Black webbing and ammo pouches etc were obviously painted black and then highlighted with AK Basalt Grey and edge highlighted with Sky Grey, as were the hands which i wanted in tatty gloves rather than flesh.

Puttees were painted Khaki and washed with a speedpaint whose name I have forgotten but doesnt matter as any brownish colour will do just to get in the shadows.

The mess kit was painted in Khaki at this point and the rest of the kit as yet unpainted also painted in a dark green, possibly VMC Luftwaffe Green with black but again the exact colour is irrelevant.

All the kit was then highlighted in a much lighter version of the original colour which is a completely unrealistic style done just to make it readable at a distance

Here we have a guy with kit all finished, wooden handles are my standard wood method of VMC Flat Earth and then Vallejo Panzer color Old Wood. The bedding roll I could not resist painting in a much modified WW2 Zeltbahn style.

The edges of the puttees were also restored to their original colour.

Bases by Station Forge were painted in Flat Earth, Burnt Umber and Old waood before getting a wash of speedy paint Dark wood and drybrushed. You could do much better on the bases if you wanted but I did not want.

One of the minis was destined to be the squad leader. This chap with SMG and cloak. The original model I noticed part way into painting had his head glued in badly and when I tried to removed it I screwed up the mini. This chap was printed up to replace him. First up I decided he was asking for a camo cloak rather than a camo helmet so sprayed on VMC Extra Dark German Green and then lightened up the folds as a base colour.

I was tempted to use a real German camo from WW2 but decided that would be a bit anachronistic for such a big piece of the mini. Instead I just made one up!

VMC Flat Brown was sprayed on in random soft edged patterns and then lightened up with VMC Orange Brown as shown in the next two pictures.

The Same was then done with German Camo Green and this was purposely to fit the helmet colours of the other guys.

The third colour was VMC Desert Yellow and Dark Sand so essentially a soft edged version of the helmets but without the blue. I was tempted to go blue but resisted. I then glazed some dark browny black into the creases and where necessary painted by brush small highlights of each colour on the upper edges of the creased material.as can be seen in the second foto. The flap was left in the original colour for contrast.

Annoyingly I noticed the printing flaws at this point but having already painted and thrown away this guy once I decided as it is for me I can live with it!

To make him stand out a bit more I painted a stylised rank marking on his arm and a Freikorps style skull on his helmet front. The question "Are we the baddies?" has an obvious answer!

Next up is the Artillery Witch and the Chorister which I will hopefully remember to photograph and put together for another blog.