2026 Arena Challenge: The Front Lines

Adam Abramowicz – @tacticalpainter

New Antioch – Free State of Prussia

This check-in came with a bit of a reality check. The lesson this challenge has taught me: while we often say, there are No Rules—Just Paint, the same isn’t always true for wargaming! I completely misread the Glory Points requirements, so I’ve accidentally dug myself into a bit of a hole. Time to make up those points somewhere else and keep pushing forward.

Despite the setbacks, I was able to make solid progress on a couple of the models, that I’ll call Trench-Ready, and seeing them finally start to come together has me even more excited for the finish line. The finale is just over the horizon. I have a game in pencil with local hobby hero, hobby Vices which is also motivating!

Challenges like this are rarely perfect. That’s part of the fun. Another opportunity to learn, improve, and end up with an army I’m proud to put on the table. Onward!

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 3

Dave Taylor – @davetaylorminiatures

Trench Pilgrims – Procession of the Sacred Affliction

After finishing my Anchorite Shrine (see last installment), I dove straight into painting up my leprous pilgrims and their leadership. I received these as already assembled 3D prints, so I didn’t have a lot of choice of weaponry. Truth be told, however, I’m pretty sure I would have made the same decisions! I kept the scheme fairly simple, with desaturated greens, bones, and a somewhat sickly yellow for their trademark headwraps. What’s next? A couple of big guys, I think!

New Glory: 3 (Dave also played two games with his Procession)   Total Glory: 4

Ian Huxley

New Antioch – Free State of Prussia

Being an army painter, once you have the recipe you can start to paint relatively quickly. This uses the same colours as previous models and was painted in an evening (watching the FIFA World Cup!). They will be ready by the time England win the World Cup (wishful thinking).

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Joey Jobes – @joseph.jobes

New Antioch

For this batch, I needed to start filling out the rank-and-file of the New Antioch army. Unlike the other factions in Trench, we don’t really get access to crazy centerpiece models, instead relying on the common man to hold the line. 

Welcome the Yeoman.

These brave soldiers face down the forces of Hell with nothing but determination and a few grenades at their side. To capture this “everyday soldier” vibe I relied heavily on the paints in the Historical: WWII British set, covering them in layers of Battle Dress, Camo Green, and relying on blends of Webbing Green and Commando Green to build up my cloaks.

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Rasmus Carstensen

New Antioch – The Red Brigade

I like the idea of having a character that sat somewhere between medic, priest, and battlefield surgeon, and the Trench Cleric fits that role perfectly. In my own background lore, I call her “The Path-Surgeon”. 

For this model, I used the same muted palette as the rest of the warband. I also attempted a brown-orange linen for her apron, but personally, I think it is fighting the rest of the palette. I’ll probably circle back and change it if I have time.

Every model in my warband is basecoated at this point and semi-highlighted (with the exception of my Mercenary, who I may not get enough Glory Points for). I’m currently painting the Mechanized Heavy Infantry, which are the models I’ve been looking most forward to painting.

New Glory: 0   Total Glory: 1

Sam Lenz – @samsonosmas

New Antioch – Free State of Prussia

As the wheels and the chains come from above and below, the Prussian force grows strong. Holding the line of every advance are the faithful Yeoman.  I have a pair so far, a musician to keep my Stosstruppen moving and a rifleman to take aim at birds. I can say that for every miss he inevitably hits. At least he has a strap for his rifle, I’m proud of that modification made from a length of tape. That faith of the warband is further bolstered by the Sniper Priest. He prays a little differently with a machine gun in his hands.

I’ve also built up some bases for a couple Mercenaries and some of the iconic Machine Armor I hope to hire as the campaign expands. The Mendelist Ammo Monk is particularly interesting to me as his pairing with any of the other shooters adds some fun options.

Alright, back to the front!

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Adam Loper – @tabletopminions

Heretic Legion – Naval Raiders

Painting this “shroud” instead of the helmets that the previous troops were wearing was going to be a new challenge – but an easy airbrush zenithal, some Speedpaint, and a bit of drybrushing made it very easy.

New Glory: 1   Total Glory: 3

Amy Ratcliffe – @amypaintslilguys

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent – Sloth

For my Hunter of the Left-Hand Path and Yoke Fiend I wanted to lean into shades of red for maximum bloody demon-ness. This is not my usual colour palette, and it was fun to play. I used John Blanche Masterclass Iceborn for the skin, Blanched Berry for clothing and accessories, Turnbull Turquoise for chains and fur, and Bloodmoon Red for anything I wanted to look raw and gross. Liberal application of Grimdark Shadow was an excellent way to finish the minis and make the details pop. Next: finishing my warband and finally figuring out a basing scheme.

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 4

Courtney DeVries – @figuratively_speakingminis

Cult of the Black Grail

Stretched skin, pustules and decaying gore for the bodies of my soldiers. They will prevail!

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Evil Dave Taylor – @davetaylorminiatures

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent – Envy

Holding strong to the idea that these Envy demons are extremely covetous of power, I decided to branch away from some of the official minis for my Yoke Fiends (from Bestiarum) and Wretched (from Tale Keepers). These are lovely minis that I could also digitally kitbash to add the heads of various Faithful elites to the Wretched, and their signature weapons to their corresponding Yoke Fiend. I’m very happy with how they turned out, and knowing I can start putting Blood Markers on the table from the first turn.

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Felipe Crieghton – @theatomikdoctor

Heretic Legion – Naval Raiders

Salt. Rust. Bronze. Decay… Speedpaint? Ochre Clay.

I wanted to go a bit darker this time around and spend more time focusing on weathering the armor. I am not sure what made me experiment with The Army Painter’s Speedpaint: Ochre Clay, but holy cow, I am so glad I did. Pairing it with TAP’s Grim Rust, Fresh Rust, Lava Orange, and touches of metallics came together better than I could have imagined. I also enjoyed using a watered-down Turnbull Turquoise to create shadows. That subtle blue tinge really reinforced the naval raider vibe.

This time around I felt much more comfortable with the scheme, which gave me the confidence to experiment with color and loosen up my application. These models were never meant to look clean or pristine, so I gave myself permission to get a little reckless and a lot more creative.

Seeing these alongside my previous submissions and realizing I now have an almost complete warband is a freaking amazing feeling. I cannot wait to finish the last few models, get them onto the battlefield, and into the trenches.

Now… back to the sea. There’s always another coast waiting to be plundered!

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Jeremy Clark

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent

For this model, I was looking at inspiration from other painters. I just absolutely love the bright red. Something I’m still learning in miniature painting is leading the eye where you want it to look. So, I have relatively neutral colors for the body, legs, head, and bright red and fire colours where I want the focus to be.

Something else that’s funny about this guy is that he didn’t print properly in my resin printer and emerged missing one of his arms. I kind of like that, though, and I think it makes him unique!

New Glory: 1   Total Glory: 5

Joachim McLaughlin – @mr_mclaughlin

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent

The boots are moving up and down again, and even though I find little joy painting in this heat, there is no discharge from the war. So, all I can muster this time is a work in progress picture.

The warband of Qui ira sudant marches ever onward, and this time they are joined by a mighty Hell Knight. Once a devout and blessed Sniper Priest, who was said to have grazed Sabnock the Great Marquis of War, with one of his bullets. But arrogance is the partner of success, and during a foolhardy venture into no man’s land, he was captured by Sudor.

Here in a perverse imitation of Christ’s powers, his sight was healed, by being granted an eye. An eye which had witnessed the depths of Hell and God’s destruction of Argos, Sights too heavy to bear, for any mortal, and as just a fraction of the Truth was revealed to the priest, his mind fragmented, crumbled and in the ruins of his mind, only wrath remained.

So far, I have used mostly colors from vol. 1 and 2 of John Blanche Masterclass sets and some of my favourite browns, Camo Brown, Rifle Brown and Mud Spatter from The Army Painter historic range.

New Glory: 0   Total Glory: 3

Lasse Sell – @fantasticmapsstore

Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent – Sloth

The highest and lowest of the Warband this time. My Sorcerer and his two poor blood bags. I stuck to my skin, gore and armor recipes described earlier and for my Sorcerer I blended some Moonbeam Yellow up through Blood Thorn and into Matt Black for the flames and I attempted some NMM gold on his crescent by blending between Sunburst Ochre, Carnelian Skin, Ice Yellow, and Moonbeam Yellow with a Touch of Orange Tone Wash. I kept his floaty head triangle completely black both because I thought it looked cool, but also because I had no idea how else to paint it…

Since my Wretched are just weak humans and not awesome demons, I painted their armor with Tainted Gold and Verdigris effect instead of the cool red armor my demons have!

New Glory: 2   Total Glory: 5

Lyle Lowery – @lyle.lowery

Heretic Legion – Naval Raiders

After establishing my colour palette and recipes in the last two articles, I started batch painting different colours, particularly the khaki diving suits and the corroded brass. That meant I made a lot of progress, but I don’t have a newly finished model to show! Oops! Well, progress is progress, and hopefully by the end, it’ll pay off with a beautiful warband. Right now, it’s kind of in the “trust the process” stage, though, as the warband doesn’t look very impressive yet. Trust the process!

I also started working on my display base. I sourced a little picture frame to use as the base, and I designed and 3D printed some simple rings that I’ll use to make the clean recesses that the models will slot into. After all, isn’t that the best part of a display base?

New Glory: 0    Total Glory: 1

Stéphane Nguyen Van Gioi – @scramasaxe91

Heretic Legion

“A7V German tanks were not an uncommon sight on the battlefield. At this point in the war, we thought we knew how to fight them efficiently. Only when we got close enough did it reveal its true colours. The thing gobbled up three of my best tank-hunters before they realized what they truly were up against.” – unknown soldier

I chose a printed 1/42-scale A7V Sturmpanzerwagen as the basis for this exercise : converting and painting a possessed tank. It took me some time to get used to its “bricky” aestheticism. Here comes the funny part: I magnetized the side cannons (MG08 machine guns), so I could swap them for a daemonic infestation during the game.

I also magnetized the whole left panel of the hull, so the tank itself is its own storage box for the alternate parts.

New Glory: 1 Total Glory: 2

Tyler Mengel – @mengel_miniatures

Heretic Legion – Naval Raiders

Ah hoy ye mateys, my Heretic Naval Raiders are starting to arrive in full force, ready to shiver some Faithful timbers and what not. After working on two troopers last time, I decided to branch out a bit more. The Anointed was a fun experiment of taking the colour scheme I already have established and applying it to a larger surface. Luckily, I think it still holds up pretty well! After painting all that black, I wanted to give myself a little treat—enter the Chorister. Besides getting to create a recipe for some pale, lifeless skin (involving Speedpaint Crusader Skin, Warpaints Historical Fair Skin, and Warpaints Fanatic Worn Stone), I also got to paint one of the stars of the warband, his pet shark! I rounded out the trio with one more trooper, this one a Legionnaire. I can pretty much knock out these troopers in a fairly short time now, which is good because it’ll give me more time to focus on some of the more elaborate minis in the warband. Maybe I’ll even have time to fit in an appropriately sea-soaked mercenary.

New Glory: 2    Total Glory: 4