Getting Started with Trench Crusade: Building a Custom Warband with Proxies and Resin Models
Trench Crusade is one of those games that rewards people who care about the hobby side. Small model count, distinct factions, and an aesthetic that practically begs you to go off-piste with your warband. If you want a force that looks like yours rather than something assembled from a single manufacturer's range, proxies and resin models are the way to do it.
Here is how I approach building a custom Trench Crusade warband from scratch, assuming you want something that looks coherent on the table and holds up to scrutiny next to painted metal from more established lines.
Step 1: Pick a Faction Theme Before You Pick Any Models
Trench Crusade factions have strong visual identities. The Heretic Legion reads very differently to the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent. Before you order a single miniature, spend an hour with the rulebook and decide what mood you are going for. Grimdark religious horror? Occult soldiers dragged back from the dead? That decision shapes every model choice after it. Write down three to five visual descriptors. Mine for my current warband were: mud-caked, devotional iconography, weight of the war, corrupted faith. Everything I pick has to tick at least two of those boxes.
Step 2: Identify Your Key Characters First
Work out which named units or leaders you need, then proxy from there. Leaders and specialists tend to have the most specific visual requirements, so solve those first. A model like the Gravekeeper Grimdark Trench Warfare 29mm Resin Miniature is a strong example of a character piece that reads clearly on the table. The silhouette, the equipment, the implied narrative: all of it tells you exactly what this figure is supposed to be doing. That kind of visual clarity is what you want from your key characters.
Step 3: Build a Consistent Basing Scheme and Commit Early
Nothing unifies a proxy warband faster than identical bases. Decide on your basing scheme before you paint a single model and apply it to everything. For a Trench Crusade force, I use a mix of fine sand texture paste, small pieces of cork for shattered earth, some dead static grass, and barbed wire made from twisted florist wire. Prime the bases separately if you can, or at least make sure you are getting into all the recesses with your basecoat. A zenithal prime with grey over black helps enormously here before you start picking out individual stones and mud patches.
Step 4: Use Terrain to Anchor the Warband
If you are putting your warband on the table for games, terrain matters as much as the models for selling the visual theme. The NexusBlock Trench Set gives you a solid foundation to build a grimdark trench table around, and painting it to match your warband's basing ties the whole thing together. I use the same Stirland Battlemire texture paint on terrain as I do on bases, then hit it with Agrax Earthshade and drybrush up through Mournfang Brown to Ushabti Bone on the highest points. Consistent treatment between models and terrain makes a cobbled-together warband look intentional.
Step 5: Paint for Cohesion, Not Uniformity
Proxy warbands from mixed sources can look chaotic if you are not careful with your palette. Pick two or three colours that will appear on every model, even in small amounts. For me that is usually a dark cloth colour, a single spot colour for any magical or devotional elements, and a consistent metal recipe. I use Vallejo Air Black as a basecoat for metal, then layer up through Leadbelcher and finish with selective Nuln Oil pooling and edge highlights of Stormhost Silver. Every model in the warband gets that same metal treatment regardless of what else is happening on the miniature.
For something genuinely unusual in a warband, a model like the Coven of the Black Woods Trench Bear demands its own approach, but the basing, spot colour, and metal recipe all still apply. That consistency is what makes it read as part of the same force rather than a random addition.
The Honest Part
Building a proxy warband takes longer than buying a boxed game. You will second-guess model choices, repaint things, and spend longer on basing than you planned. But when it is done and sitting on the table, it is entirely yours. Nobody else has that warband. For a game like Trench Crusade, where the lore and aesthetics are so rich, that extra effort pays off every time you set it up.