painting – Grimmleigh's Lab

Oops, I Did a Trench Crusade

Really, folks, I tried. It wasn’t for me, I said, fooling no one. It’s too gross, I said, not seeing past the butchered bits on some of the minis. It’s just another game, I said…

Then I looked at who had made Trench Crusade, and it’s literally a who’s who of designers that built my favorite game of all time, yes, the glorious brains that made Mordheim had assembled again, like the Avengers but probably more middle-aged and myopic. I thumbed through the rules, and the mechanics of the game system rolled over my eyes and directly into my brain.

This is the first time in nearly a decade that the rules to a game system have stuck with me just from reading the book. I know there’s some fine-tuning I’ll need to do, but the system is ridiculously simple and elegant at the same time.

I was still safe, though. I’m trying to stay away from resin minis because we just don’t know the long term health risks, and my doctors have encouraged me to just maybe not mess with something potentially toxic. Sadly for my wallet, that all changed when I stopped by my FLGS last week.

Glorious, beautiful, and down right dynamic plastic Trench Crusade figs were sitting there, playing a high-stakes game of chicken with my wallet. My wallet lost. I won.

Everything I love about plastic miniatures is front and center with the troops choices. You can put the weapons and heads you want on the bodies you want. Even the elites and command have a number of options, so you can just make what you want.

And as opposed to the modern GW system of “this is your dude, you get EXACTLY this and can’t change the weapons!”, you can put together pretty much whatever you want within certain limits. The Old World and Necromunda seem to be the only games that let you shop for gear, and that’s one of the reasons why I seem to like those two games… I want to shop, dammit!

This is the first time since Wild West Exodus that I bought some boxes of minis, went home, put them together, and just painted everything in a few days. It was amazing. I had the best time, and now I have 90% of a finished warband.

It’s also the first time ever that I’ve painted the entirety of a plastic range of miniatures, but that’s just because these just launched and there aren’t that many out yet.

Archon Studios did an amazing job with these minis, and the command and elite models are as good as anything I’ve picked up from GW.

My leader, the Hauptman I’ve name Karolina Katzenbach, has a tank-splitter sword and machine gun. She looks like she laughs in the face of danger!

The Feldkaplan (Field Chaplan) has wooden wings and a huge breaker sword, and literal Holy Hand Grenades. The fact that this warband is from New Antioch is not lost on me, either.

Sniper Priests blind themselves and let The Almighty aim their guns for them. They look so freaking cool.

Strosstruppen (shock troopers) come with a variety of weapons, my favorite is the guy with the sword and shield. I painted a praying skeleton with halo on the shield, just for fun.

And the yeoman are just basic cannon fodder, but the unit musician has a glockenspiel, so I imagine he’s got to be the first to die. Just thinking about someone clunking away on one of those while you’re trying to fight makes me laugh a bit…

Overall, great models, great game, and only as gross as you want it to be. And best of all, I’ve actually managed to talk a friend into coming up for air from 40k to check out the game, so I’ll make sure to let you all know how it goes!

Workbench

The Workbench: Finished Models for August 23, 2026

Another week down, and another check in with finished models off of my workbench!

Projects that are ON the bench but not yet finished: Heroclix Kingpin and Sin, 6 Black Templars, 1 Black Templar Land Raider, and some pickup-truck for hillbilly marines or something. Not sure, the Black Templars are for a friend, but they’re cool looking knights in my head! Also, Gladiator from Marvel Crisis Protocol.

This week’s finished models!

Elsa Bloodstone, Marvel Crisis Protocol

She has super-strength, loves guns, and considers being British a super-power! It’s Elsa Bloodstone, ass-kicking Monster Hunter and all around fun character to paint. This mini has been sitting in my back-log for years now, and the Midnight Sons faction is one I’ll be holding on to for MCP.

Orange is not a color I play with often, and I think I’m going to have to change that!

Carpathian Gunslinger, Dracula’s America

I love the concept of the game, but the rules are just not my thing. Still, great concept. I’ll be using these models for Silver Bayonet instead, which is great. I have had these guys sitting on a shelf for years, so it’s great getting some paint on him. Plus, I’m really enjoying these hand-sculpted casts, there’s something incredibly charming about painting the old-school stuff.

Austrian Paranormal Investigator, Silver Bayonet

Another rescued straggler from the back-log, I seriously love the no-nonsense look of the guy. Like I said a little earlier, there is something really gratifying about painting up something that isn’t 5,000 skulls bolted to a headpiece. This mini is solid pewter, one piece, and cool as hell.

I have some shacks and blasted buildings that would go really well in a Silver Bayonet game, so as soon as I get his unit painted up, I think I’ll be diving straight into this as my first solo game/battle report.

Hawkeye and Enchantress, Marvel Heroclix repaints

You can tell how simple these sculpts are, especially after seeing the Elsa Bloodstone mini above. These presented different challenges, and you can tell the newer Hawkeye mini has a lot more going on with the sculpt. But there is something really unexpectedly amazing going on with the Enchantress mini; she’s a very good early sculpt for Heroclix, and just radiating personality.

The Enchantress mini is proving to me EXACTLY what I was hoping to find when taking on this Heroclix repainting project– these minis are much better than they initially look, and with a little love and a little more work, there’s a world of cool toys that can be had for a very small amount of money.

There is no denying that the Elsa miniature is a better sculpt, and she was an absolute joy to paint for completely different reasons than Enchantress. But I find myself really proud of the Enchantress miniature, she was a challenge, and she rewarded my work and patience.

This was an absolute joy. What an amazing hobby we have!

skirmish games

Fantasy Skirmish: Witch Hunter Warrior Priest

I’ve been working on building out a Witch Hunter warband for fantasy skirmish games, and with the Captain done, it was time to move on to the Warrior Priest.

The Warrior Priest I fielded in Mordheim 25 years ago was a big bruiser with a two-handed warhammer. Going through the Hexbane’s Hunters warband from Warhammer Underworlds, I realized the big hunter with the mega axe could be converted without too much fuss.

I took a two handed hammer off of a Chaos Raider, then worked out the haft so that it fit the arms of the hunter. It was a pretty simple conversion and really brings back the way my old Warrior Priest, at least in spirit!

I kept to the same tones as the Captain, then put on an oil wash for this guy. After that was settled, I went back in for some highlights, then drew an “S” on his forehead. You know, for Squidward.

Here’s the Witch Hunter group so far!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Beta Ray Bill

When I was in my early teens, Walt Simonson was working on the Thor comics for Marvel. He went really hard into the whole Cosmic Fantasy aspect of the character, and somehow managed to stay incredibly close to the design aesthetic established by Jack Kirby. As a comics smitten kid with a penchant for doodling, I was smitten.

Somewhere along the line, Thor did something dumb, and Odin, being Odin, decided that Meow-meow needed to go to someone else, someone more worthy. So, the hammer made its way to Beta Ray Bill, a Korbonite warrior who was, as it turned out, pretty worthy. Look at this cover… it’s still metal as hell four decades later!

Atomic Mass Games released Beta Ray Bill for their Marvel Crisis Protocol game a couple of years back, and the box has been sitting neglected by me since then. I did paint up Ulik recently, and Bill was my reward for being a good boy and posting consistently through January and February.

Gaze upon the freaking MAJESTY of this sculpt! When you have something this amazing to work with, the miniature pretty much paints itself.

I still sometimes forget that this miniature line is part of a game and not a series of DIY collectible figurines. I guess it’s all in your mindset, right? Nightcrawler from the X-Men is up next!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Web Warriors, Part One

Looks like we’re having a double dip week for Marvel Crisis Protocol, as I have a huge backlog of these minis and we’ll probably see a lot more as the month progresses!

Ghost Spider is a great character, I really enjoy reading the comics and she’s one of the highlights of the Spiderverse movies that Sony put out.

MCP’s take on the character came pretty early on, which is great. The pose is still pretty good, but I would love to see a fresh take on the character now that the team at Atomic Mass Games has really hit their stride on the sculpts.

Ben Reilly, star of the much-aligned Clone Saga from the ’90s, is another great mini from the MCP crew, I especially enjoy the Reilly Drive signpost on the base!

More to come soon, thanks for stopping by!

Warhammer 40,000

The Salt Mines: 40k Space Wolves

Anyone who has followed this blog for a longer period of time knows that I’ve been struggling with Warhammer 40,000 for a while. I’ve been playing off and on since 1989, and I honestly can’t stand the business model. If that game needs to be updated every three years after being in print for close to four decades? You’re doing a shit job.

*He’s mean! He’s beardy! He’s not a dwarf! But he should have a hammer anyway!*

Sadly, most of my friends have a bad case of 40k Fever. It’s pretty much all they want to play, so I can either NOT play games with them and happily plug away on my other projects, or I can put together something that I do like in the lore and grumble about it a lot.

Yeah, I’m a bundle of fun. People line up around the block to play games with me.

Space Wolves have always had a special place in my heart. They don’t care about the Codex Astartes, they look like they can pilot a longboat, and beards are cool. Plus, they have wolves. Wolves are cool.

I’m going to put together a total of 2,000 points for this army, for a game I really don’t like, just because the people I play with are a lot of fun and I don’t want to NOT play games with them!

Still not sure how to keep engaged enough to learn the janky ass rules without lighting it all on fire, though. Sure, One Page Rules has a good alternative, but good luck getting anyone with 40k Fever to break from the GeeDubs greed train. Grumble grumble.

I’ll have some Terminators up soon, and probably a Rhino or two. And some Bloodclaws and a Dreadnaught. That’s still not 2,000 points, but that’s what I own already, so it’ll have to do for now, hahaha!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Medusa

I started reading comics for real when I was about 10 years old, so indulge me as I take you on a trip in the Way Back Machine to my public library in 1980. I would spend hours there every week, since we didn’t have a television, and I would often find the big compendium books of comics and lose myself on a couch for a few hours. One of those books was a big Silver Surfer collection, and there were some cross-overs with The Inhumans, who seem kinda silly to me now, but 10-year-old me loved them. Especially the Jack Kirby stuff.

Why Kirby? By today’s standards, he looks to be a bit of a hack. But if you really look at his work, especially in the ’60s, he was a master of speed and efficiency. Kirby famously had no idea how many circles Thor had on his chest, he just drew what worked for the panel. He also drew over 100 issues of various Marvel titles in 1964… which is insane.

Plus, the dude drew this, and as we all know, everyone wins when a Nazi gets punched…

Kirby’s other big strength was an understanding of what works with four colors. We can learn a ton from the dude as miniature painters! Hulk doesn’t wear purple pants because they were the rage in 1963. He wears them because purple complements green on the color wheel, and we want our subjects to pop. Half the time I pull a blank on a color scheme for a miniature, I’ll just look at old four color comics and find something that works… and it always works.

*Decades after her debut, artists are paying tribute to Kirby by keeping what works, working. Art by the incomparable Terry and Rachel Dodson.*

For the Marvel Crisis Protocol Medusa miniature, I wanted to make sure to honor the original color scheme. Luckily, most everyone since Kirby has stuck to the purple costume. It looks great with the red hair, and really draws the eye straight to the miniature!

I have to give huge props to Atomic Mass Games for this Medusa sculpt. My wife hardly ever comments on the minis on my workbench, but the second she saw Medusa, she was suddenly paying a lot of attention. In thirty years together, she’s patiently endured my hobby, but actual interest in a figure has been rare!

Looking back at the Dodson art, though, I’m debating going back in and doing the mask, gloves and boots in black. Regardless, this is a fantastic take on a classic character from Atomic Mass Games!

Workbench

Paint What You Got Challenge

While perusing through some posts from Argent Badger’s inspiring blog I stumbled across Dave’s excellent Wargamesculptor’s blog, and his annual “Paint What You Got Challenge“. It runs from the end of December through the end of February each year, and it’s exactly what it says on the tin; a challenge to paint what you have started or just sitting in your collection.

*Rasputina crew for Malifaux, painted in 2021*

I’m not going to even try to hide my enthusiasm. I have WAY too much stuff, and every time I look at the news I somehow end up feeling bad and buying MORE stuff. So, I probably need to cut back on the news and hide my debit card while I’m at it.

I’ve decided to take Dave’s idea and just run with it. So, from this post forward, I’m painting what I’ve got. I won’t be buying anything new, and barring gifts or something out of my control like that, everything you see posted from here on out will be stuff that’s just been sitting and waiting for some love.

Big thanks to Dave for the inspiration, and to Argent Badger and Kuribo for the great blogs!

Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures, Workbench

MCP Proxy: Rogue

Here’s another proxy job for my 40mm miniature collection, it’s funny how much energy I spend trying to find that “goldilocks” scale! Rogue in classic MCP suffers from Jim Lee design syndrome, and again… I’m not knocking Jim Lee’s design, I would just like to acknowledge that she’s had other, really cool costumes!

Luckily, I had extra bases from other MCP figs, so I swiped an engine piece from a Necromunda model for her to perch on, and she looks pretty cool!

This is probably my favorite Rogue costume ever, so kudos to the folks who put in the work on it!

I am currently working out some fantasy prints in this scale, as I’m realizing that there are some benefits to working large like this. I love the challenge of painting 15mm scale minis, and you can’t beat the storage options, but 40mm has it’s charms as well! I’ll explore them more in depth in an upcoming post!

Miniatures, Moonstone

Moonstone: Boulder the Troll

Here’s my first Moonstone miniature for 2025, and he’s one of my favorites! (They’re all my favorite, who am I kidding?) Boulder the Troll borrows a lot from Ludo the rockfriend from Labyrinth, but Ludo’s cool as hell, so I’m not faulting Goblin King Games for paying homage to such a great character!

In game, Boulder can summon rocks, which sounds pretty familiar. He also has a cool trick that lets him sing to Moonstones and bring them higher up out of the ground, effectively reducing the amount of time characters have to spend digging them up!

I went with a couple of oil washes on this figure, with a little Payne’s Grey on the cool colors, and a burnt umber wash on the skin tones. This toned down the greens pretty well, and really helps the figure stand out on my display shelf!

Boulder can be played with a goblin crew, I’ll have to post a shot of some of them together with their big friend!