Warzone Resurrection: Imperial Trenchers (1st Entry, 5th AHPC)

It is quite embarrassing… we are over a month into the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and this is my first entry (apart from the theme rounds). Part of it is to blame on the fact that we were gone over the holidays, but still I am a bit behind on my schedule. So to catch up… here are the minis I painted since our return about two weeks ago.

These are some Imperial Trenchers for Warzone Resurrection. Some of you may remember some of my entries for last year, which included some Bauhaus for Warzone. Now I played Warzone back in the 1990´s and one thing that drew me to the game was the strong historical inspiration on some of the minis, most of all Bauhaus and Imperial. Lots of the units with these two factions took their inspiration from World War One Germans and British respectively. And this always made the two my favorites, so I played them in every Edition so far, First, Second and now Resurrection.

Now before I start, showing the minis in detail, I want to go into some info on why I painted them up this way. As most people will recognize, in this edition, these minis still retain their WWI British looks, so I wanted to follow that with my colour choices. British Uniform Brown for the uniforms, lots of tans for the gas masks and puttees and leather webbing. With their Trenchcoats I went for a darker green than would find on historical Brits, simply to enhance the contrast. Same goes for their shoulder pads (yes those are the Trademark in every edition of Warzone ;-)). At first I had gone for the same green as with the helmets and kneepads, but that simply provided too little contrast. So after a try with brown (same result) I went for ochre and that turned out really fine. Especially once the varnish was on these minis, when the colors really popped! The bases were given a trench theme on some of the minis and a mud theme on the rest to give them a trench warfare feel.
What I really underestimated with these minis was the effort, that went into painting all the little details, like the skull shapes on the gas masks, the national insignia or the wrist computer, but I did not want to skip them, so they had to be painted on.As some with a keen eyes might spot there are small numeral number 42´s on their right shoulder pads. Those are homemade decals. I simply could not resist painting the Black Watch (42nd Highland Infantry) in yet another period (the other two being Napoleonics and Moderns).

But now on to the minis. Up first if Brigadier Sir Paul David Rist. In Warzone, your troops need to be led into the fight by a Warlord and he is one of the possible choices. And I really like him. Above par wounds, the ability to guide in Paras and call artillery, an awesome SMG (it keeps generating new shots as long as you do not miss) and the option to have him accompanied by the coolest bodyguards in the game.

Trencher Brigadier Sir Paul David Rist

Trencher Brigadier Sir Paul David Rist

Trencher Brigadier Sir Paul David Rist

Able to fill the same function as Warlords are two Trencher Officers. Now I personally do not like them, since they are too week and lack in offensive power, but my two Starter Boxes contained one each of them, so they had to be painted. 😉

Trencher Officers

And to round the group of leaders off. SGT. Benjamin Taylor. He is a bit of a trackhead and gives a force enhancements for their vehicles and the option to repair them. Unfortunately he is a not on the expensive side (pints wise, he cost nearly as much as a cheap Warlord), so right now I do not see myself fielding him, but maybe his price tag will come done with the final Imperial book. A small change with his base here. I added some cogwheels and a road wheel from a blown-up tank buried in the mud on his base to signify his abilities with repairing mechanical objects.
Oh and as a funny side note… the guys at Prodos Games nicknamed the mini Lenin… wonder if anyone can figure out why! 😛

Trencher NCO Benjamin Taylor

Trencher NCO Benjamin Taylor

Up next are the rank and file, four five-men squads of Trenchers. Not much to say about these. Only that each squad consists of four riflemen (including the Corporal) and a Heavy Machine Gun. I apologize if they look a bit boring… it is the same five minis four times, but one needs a certain amount of basic troops in the game, and here they are:

Trenchers (yellow squad)

Trenchers (red squad)

Trenchers (blue squad)

Trenchers (white squad)

So this is it. 24 minis in total, all 32mm from Prodos Games Warzone Resurrection range.

Trenchers (group shot)

Trenchers (group shot)

And I am proud to announce, the next entry is almost finished, so I am positive, I will be back next week (and of course with my entry for Sundays theme round) with more! Thanks for looking!