The Shambling Dead – Trench Ghosts
by Pete Cagnacci
“Bring me closer to the enemy, I wish to hit them with my stick!”
This is what I imagine rasps out of my commander as he sits confidently atop his Panzer Palanquin. Sure, he’s leisurely holding an anti-material rifle which is certainly a more effective weapon, but it’s ludicrous and over the top, so I love it.
What I also love is the undead. Skeletons, zombies, vampires, ghouls – if it’s dark and spooky I’m in. This meant a Trench Ghosts warband has been on my (insanely huge) list of things to do for a while. My intention for this warband however was to skirt around doing the ghost/spirit aesthetic (trench ghosts, duh) and instead have a more boney theme… I mean skeletal.
As with most of my projects, my intention and the final product ended up being two different things. My initial vision had me converting a lot of different skeleton sculpts to represent a mixed undead look. I was hoping to display a selection of fallen soldiers from across the centuries – a mix of Medieval, Napoleonic and WWI themed uniforms, armour and weapons. This was sabotaged by coming across a ton of amazing pre-made sculpts that I was itching to print and work on instead. Also, I didn’t have a specific colour scheme in mind when working through this warband, except that it would naturally have a lot of rust and muted colours to sell the “rotting in the earth” look. I experimented with some basing mud on the shoulder of some minis with tufts of grass to help represent them being freshly risen from the ground. I think this adds a nice mix of texture to them.
Onto the warband! I came across the Heretic Troopers when Ieuan from @PaintingFromTheLoam shared his excellent renditions of the sculpts from Tauros Creative. I instantly bought the files and set about printing them. They’re a fantastic, multipart kit allowing for lots of options for weapons that I complimented with a head swap or two from my bits box. I really had no particular idea for a colour scheme, but mixing German Field Grey with various blue-greys I had on my shelf led to a varied yet coherent scheme.
I had become stuck trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my Anointed Heavy Infantry, not being sure what look would suit me as they needed to stand out from my regular troopers whilst still fitting the theme. Fortunately, I remembered that Westfalia had done an entire Trench Ghost themed set and I decided these would be perfect. Anything covered in armour is a treat to work on, especially with all the amazing oils and grimes available. Dirty Down Rust is a must have for anything Trench Crusade! I experimented with oil paints and inks over metallic paints that I had already mixed with dark browns. The more dirty and corroded looking the better. I swapped the heads out for a mix of Tauros Creative heads and a GW skull (and behold, Skeletor was born!) My faithful cat Milton kindly donated to the war effort with some of his fur for wisps of smoke from the flamethrower.
My Barbed Wire Banshee and Death Commando were spawned from the depths of Bestiarum Games. I was hoping to achieve a more complex barbed wired cyclone effect engulfing the Banshee but this proved a lot more fiddly than it had seemed in my head. I abandoned it for a simpler look. The Death Commando sculpt I chose was scaled down greatly from its initial size to suit my tastes. I like to think of it being an unassuming pile of bones and weapons cast aside in the mud of the trenches, which then assembles and reanimates much to the horror of the Faithful troopers that have grown too complacent nearby.
Finally there’s the crowning jewel of this little warband of undead misfits – The Panzer Palanquin from Westfalia. It’s just so much fun. I’ve painted a lot of German WWII tanks over the years so was no stranger to this armour. I did hold off from adding some fun WWII camo schemes as I thought this might get a bit too busy, but couldn’t resist the 666 numbering (Hail Satan! etc. etc.) and a devil decal I had found in a Maschinen Krieger kit. It’s such a fun centrepiece of the warband. I love dark themes but also don’t take things too seriously so I think this mini represents that aspect of me quite appropriately.
Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to actually test their brittle mettle on the battlefield as yet. Trying to organise games with friends on top of the necessities of life can be tough. My favourite faction to play is Heretic Legion so I imagine their playstyle will suit me. I only have a little lizard brain operating in my skull so I prefer some of the more simpler rules-based warbands. I’ve been working on a Great Hunger warband as the sculpts from Creature Caster are just insane, but their playstyle hasn’t worked well for simple old me. I forget too many rules and perks that you’ve got to keep track of.
I loved creating this Trench Ghost warband but my undead itch is far from scratched. I’ll be creating an undead themed Heretic Warband. A downside of Trench Ghosts for me is the lack of unit variety, so selecting the generic Heretic Legion warband unit options opens up a lot more creativity. I would like to still create my initial undead warband idea but who knows what will distract me on the second attempt? I’ve also been musing about some generic undead warband rules that can be applied to other factions, so you can spookify the units of your choosing. Undead Trench Pilgrims, New Antioch, Iron Sultanate and so on – we’ll see what distractions will steer me onto other projects. That’s the beauty of skirmish games for me, however, I get to enjoy so much variety in building and painting different warbands. Trench Crusade has been an amazing outlet to flex some creativity, and mimic the amazing art of Mike Franchina!
You can see more of my Trench Crusade minis on Instagram HERE.
Pete Cagnacci
An Australian-based, tiny lizard brain piloting a skeleton meat mechsuit in a chaotic whirlpool of hobbies. Pete first got hooked on painting in the late ’90s when a set of monopose Space Marines received approximately 2,000 different layers of paint.
The thousands of layers of paint still happen today, but thankfully they’re divided across many grimdark, sci-fi, fantasy and historical miniatures. When he’s not painting, he’s reading in the sun with his fluffy cat Milton.