“Silesian Trenchline” the Trench Crusade Gaming Board

Today I’ve tested the Silesian Trenchline 2.0 in battle and boy oh boy! Scenery wise this was the best game I’ve had on this set. I’m so happy with the performance – all decisions leading up to this now justified!

“War, war never changes…” at least according to Fallout franchise. Whereas war might be the same, the battlefield evolves a lot. Be it in real life or, as in this example, at a 4×4 board.

Just recently I have updated the “Silesian Trenchline” scenery set with a bunch of outpost walls and towers, to then split a few board pieces in two and fill the exposed holes with wood. Now, encouraged by the effects, I am once again cutting stuff up and filling the gaps.

This small and simple upgrade allows for a lot more modularity and increased gameplay options with vertical walls. I’m so excited to work on the gaming board over half a year after it was apparently finished 😛

Just a quick post today to share some extras – both finished and being worked on right now.

The Antenna Cross is one of, if not the most iconic piece of the Trench Crusade scenery. I just had to get one of my own. Printed the standard thingy then decided to expand the base and replace the antennas in order for it to better fit the rest of my scenery.

I used this piece to record a step-by-step painting tutorial for my scenery, if anyone’s interested: >YOUTUBE TUTORIAL LINK<

Saint Karen – Patron of Supplies Acquisition. She’ll talk to the manager for you in case you got denied reinforcements 😉

This is a mix of an upscaled helmet and weapon with a statue of saint found online, combined in Meshmixer. Set on an upscaled plinth, with a few parts added afterwards.

Finally a few Objective Markers, kitbashed from downscaled/upscaled parts. A lot of parts…

That’s it for today – just wanted to share some fun stuff.

Howdy folks! I am restored and so is my fighting (hobbying) spirit!

I already let you in on how I made the core trenches and linked you the first article about the creative process behind it. Now allow me to pick up where I left.

In my opinion, alongside the core shapes – the hills (trenches), there is a plethora of additional things a Trench Crusade board should have. Mainly speedbumps, barricades, some buildings and of course the essentials like walkways and firing steps for the trenches. A few centerpieces are also advised. These items impact playability but also provide a much needed wow effect by setting the theme for the entire board.

Whereas walkways and firing steps are rather simple to make from scratch, the rest is an entirely different topic. Fortunately we live in the glorious era of 3d printing. The way I approached this part of the process was to print a lot of different bitz, including crates, ammunition, artillery, sandbags and even entire bunkers. I then combined these elements on small plasticard bases, then added gravel and texture, thus creating little scenes to be scattered around the board.

You can read more about this part of the process in the Silesian Trenchline Special Project part two.

The painting process I will cover in another article in the future. Stay tuned.

If you have any questions regarding the project – feel free to ask in the comments. I’d be happy to respond and am comfortable with sharing my knowledge and experience.

Cheers!

Military salutations my fellow trenchers,

After eight days of intense trench digging I have completed the “Silesian Trenchline”. It took a lot of work, sweat and glued fingers to put this thing together. It wouldn’t be possible if not for inspiration provided by the Trench Crusade’s creative community.

You can see the full gallery at: https://scarhandpainting.com/gallery/trench-crusade-silesian-trenchline/

I will be back here to write more about the creative process behind the project, but only once I fully recuperate. These past few days took their toll. Can’t remember when was the last time the hobby made me push myself so hard.

I hope you like the set.
Cheers!

Hello friends in the hobby. These past few days of ‘digging trenches’ took their toll on me and I feel exhausted. The project progressed exponentially and is already undercoated – the painting process starts within a few minutes from now.

You might wonder what’s all the stuff on top of the trenchline and I’ll get there but just not right now. The inspiration and the need to topple this behemoth of a project ASAP is just too strong.

At this point in time I’ve managed to publish the first in a series of entries about the Silesian Trenchline Special Project on my blog, which you can read here.
The article tells about how and why I do certain things, what the plan and the progress was for the board. If you enjoyed any of the previous entries and have questions – there’s a big chance the article will get you the answers.

Special Project: Silesian Trenchlines part one

PS: I don’t mean to steal the OnTableTop audience. For what it’s worth I go around FB redirecting people who ask where to read about the project here, to OnTableTop, so it goes both ways . You guys know I love you. That’s why I post here. 😉

Taking a short break from making the Trench Crusade gaming board. Taking this opportunity to come here and share the results of the stress test that took place yesterday. Last evening I have transported the entire ‘board’ to a local club to give it a go and see what eventual hidden defects there might be. I had two games myself and let the locals have a go at it as well. We played on a 4×6 board, which is longer than recommended, but we just wanted to have some fun, see how the game works and how the board feels.

Easy to say we had a total blast out of the Trench Crusade and the board passed the test. Thanks to this fun evening, even though I have considered keeping the sandbags separate, I’ve decided to mount them permanently of top of the trenches. On a regular size board the trenches will be much narrower than during the tests and any wooden bridges can easily be mounted on top of the sandbags as well as the regular trench line edge.

I’ll do my best to get back tomorrow with another entry – mainly on how I took the board from this:

…to this:

Stay tuned 😉

Have you ever felt like there’s no world other than the hobby project you’re working on ‘RIGHT NOW?!’
Every now and then the inspiration hits and I just can’t get rid of it. Can’t get a good sleep, prioritize the hobby over exercises and regular work. Just stay in my ‘cave’ completely driven. Years back I’ve learnt that the best way to free myself from the grips of creative frenzy is to finish the job – realize the project and move on ASAP.

All of this to say that I’m currently in the middle of such a situation. The Trench Crusade hit hard. I already have a warband, but there can be no proper wargaming with a gaming board 🙂

Fortunately there’s plenty of inspiration online (something that kept feeding my lust for a Trench Crusade board). I’ve ordered some styro-foam, six hundred stirring sticks, textured wallpaper, got a few STL files and a few days back I started cooking.

As usual I started with basics. Cut out a few core shapes for the ‘hills’ that will be the walls of the trenches – a necessity of sorts when talking the Trench Crusade. I used an exacto-knife, no measuring involved when cutting the curved sides – figured it would look better if a bit random.

Next I cut 6cm wide strips of the wallpaper and old wavy transportation paper. These were then applied to the sides of the hills to provide stone/metal texture.
Nothing special, but this is just the core texture and basic shapes to expand upon…

I know this is nothing to drop anyone’s pants down – but, even though I have pushed the project much, much further down the completion road – let’s leave this post as is for now. The project calls me in once more, but I will be back to present the progress. Do not let cheesy starting results fool you – it will be cool once I’m done.

Witness Me!