The Army Painter’s Arena Challenge tracks Trench Crusade warbands growing fast

The first stage, laid out when the challenge launched on May 14, had already established the tone: a record-breaking 24 participants were building on the Broken Isle, a Mediterranean island of trenches, bunkers, fortress cities, and a buried amphitheatre. Trench Crusade is a skirmish-scale game with small, elite warbands, and its rules are free to download.

By the June 9 First Models installment, the participants had started locking in schemes after using test minis to refine their color recipes. Adam Abramowicz had settled on the Free State of Prussia warband he called the Blackwing Khanate, while Adrian Phillips was developing his Iron Sultanate House of Wisdom force. Some painters were already posting work-in-progress shots, while others had fallen behind.

The July 9 Warbands Grow installment covered staying consistent across multiple sessions, keeping the palette locked, and avoiding the slow drift that can happen when a project sits between batches. One hobbyist talked about over-planning and falling for a theme, conversions, and backstory before the army was finished. Another tied a new warband concept to an older Imperial Guard project, folding both into a larger narrative. A third was still deep in kitbashing, turning scaled parts, accessory packs, cutting, and blending into a bizarre alchemical centaur.