The Painter: Ben “Beezer” Dake
The Game: Trench Crusade
Ducats: 500 plus 11 Glory Points
Collecting Since: May 2025
Instagram: goonhammer_beezer
The Purpose
I came into Third Edition Warhammer 40,000 at the peak of the really weird, creepy, John Blanche art work that filled the pages of the rulebooks. In much the same way, I got drawn into Trench Crusade. The artwork was simultaneously enthralling and horrifying. The vibes of this game hit all of the right notes. And then once I dove deeper into the game and discovered that while there were technically “official” models, as long as the bases were the correct size, let your creativity run wild. At that moment, I was hooked.
I had 3D printed plenty of miniatures and miniature adjacent things, so I felt pretty confident that my GKTwo could handle it. Now it was just a question of which miniatures I wanted to print to build my warband. Do I go with only Factory Fortress “official” models? Entirely different models from a different company? A mixture of both? What warband did I even want to build in the first place?
That last question was where I started. I needed to have a little bit of direction before I went looking at models to print. Almost immediately, I was drawn to New Antioch. The powerful World War I-meets-mechanical aesthetic vibes were cool and right up my alley. Additionally, the Papal States Intervention Force really got my creative juices flowing. What if the papacy reverted back to a Renaissance-era level of political power and influence? Like, Medici-level of power, influence, and corruption. And since this was a skirmish-sized game, I could really personalize my force and generated names for each of my models, too! Now my creative juices were really flowing, and I was excited to see where this project went. The Furia Papale was born!
The Models
I knew from the outset that I wanted to use traditional pontifical colors for this Warband. This meant that since my Trench Cleric is the rank of bishop, he had to have a purple uniform. Other units would be a combination of the red and black traditionally associated with the Inquisition as well as splashes of blue and yellow worn by the Pope’s Swiss Guard. I used Citadel Macragge Blue and Vallejo Air Magic Blue for the blue parts, and ProAcryl Golden Yellow and Bismuth Yellow for the yellow parts. For the reds I used Scale75 Crimson, ProAcryl Bold Pyrolle Red, and then a unifying glaze through the airbrush of Scale75 Inktense Red. To highlight the black and give it some texture, I just stippled GW Kantor Blue on it. The lone purple was achieved by using Pro Acryl Royal Purple and then highlighted with Vallejo Model Color Blue Violet.
With a smaller initial Ducat limit for building out my Warband (in addition to 11 Glory Points), I knew my Warband was going to be much smaller than other starting Warbands. But that was okay, because I was 100% building this for vibes and aesthetics. I mean, nothing was going to be WYSIWYG anyway, so I just wanted cool, if inaccurate, models. By rule, this sub-faction has to have a Trench Cleric. I settled on the Azerai Confessor from Bestiarum Miniatures. Because of course the Pope would send an Archbishop-looking character to lead his war effort. So he sent Archbishop Marco Veneziano. This model not only set the vibe for the Warband, but also the color scheme.
The next model I selected was a Sniper Priest (Prospero Barbetta). The idea of a sniper who gouges out their eyes and aims with divine guidance was so incredibly cool. I equipped him with an actual Sniper Rifle and a Sniper Scope (thank you Glory Points!). I figured long-range fire support was a must. Additionally, I assigned him the army’s Supreme Blessing to ensure that he would still be able to perform actions if he failed a Risky Action. And that beautiful, beautiful scope (seriously, with the limited resources every piece of equipment feels important), he can shoot across the board and not be penalized if he didn’t move that activation. The sniper actually felt like a sniper. I used the official Factory Fortress model because, well, i thought it was super-cool and I originally bought it to be a test model that I could print and re-print several times over.
Having my Elites pretty much filled out, I had to turn my attention to the Troops section of my roster. The first choice I made was to have one of the iconic, machine-gun-toting Mechanized Heavy Infantry models. If you don’t have one, are you really even playing New Antioch? For this model I chose the Red Brigade version offered by Trench Stench. It was a little bit more ornate than the official model, which I felt fit the vibe of a Warband under the command of the Pope. I then proceeded to dump a ton of Ducats into this model. He has it all: machine armor, machine gun, and I upgraded him to be a member of the Pope’s elite Swiss Guard, which made him immune to Fear. Overall, I was really pleased with how this model turned out, essentially being a “centerpiece” model for my warband.
For the remainder of my allotted Ducats, I decided to invest in some Yeomen, the basic foot-slogging troops of New Antioch. For these models I chose the Bane Gunners from Bestiarum Miniatures. The skull masks and overall aesthetic hit all of the right notes for me. Until I can afford some Shock Troopers, I needed these guys to be able to get up close and personal with the enemy and engage them after taking long-range fire from my Sniper Priest and Heavy Infantry. I also decided these would be the two fireteams I’m allowed to have in my Warband. In my head, they would support each other as they closed with the enemy. I equipped two of them with Shotguns (and yes, I will say “this is my boomstick” every time they shoot), trench shields, and swords. The other two I equipped with swords and grenades. Appropriate equipment for close range engagements in my humble opinion. Is it effective? Jury’s still out on that. Is it cool? Yes. Yes, it is. Which in Trench Crusade is what really matters if you ask me.
Having spent all of my Ducats, my Warband was extremely small with only 7 models, which is unsurprising considering the smaller amount of money I had to start with. But that was okay, I still had 9 Glory Points to work with, which meant I could hire some Mercenaries to do work for me. I chose a Scripture Guardian for 7 Glory Points, and a Guard Dog for the remaining 2, because even in an unrepentant Hellscape, everyone could use a doggo. In my search for weird models for my Warband, I landed on the Ixtractia Guardians from Bestiarum Miniatures for my Scripture Guardian. I envisioned the Papacy having access to weird and secret technologies to create automatons to do their bidding, which is what these models looked like to me. Additionally, they had ornate armor with a lot of filigree around it, which looked like a grotesque Renaissance sculpture. For Bruno the Guard Dog, I just found an appropriately scaled model of a Cane Corso, or Italian Mastiff. Mastiffs are huge dogs, and if I was bringing a dog to war, that would be the one I’d want to bring with me. They are complete sweethearts if raised right, but I would not want to be anywhere near the bad side of one of them either. And with these two Mercenaries, my Warband was finally complete. What do you think? What are you building? How are you liking the game? Leave us a comment below!
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