Weekly Workbench — War In 15mm

May 17, 2026

A while ago I scratch built a mobile pigeon loft for carrier pigeons using Vinny's Tinderbox (Disney Store version) as my starting point. Yesterday I received a stationary pigeon loft in the mail and immediately began painting. These two lofts give me both ends of my Trench Crusade communications network.

I recently bought a towed artillery piece to go with my B6 artillery steam tractor. It came with a stone wall defensive position and three piles of spent shell casings. I loved the artillery piece and the shell casings, but the stone wall defensive position didn’t go well with the rest of my entrenchments so I used the wall for the core around which I constructed what I consider a more suitable artillery emplacement. I did that by attaching Evergreen plastic to the original stone wall and covered the enemy-facing side with Vallejo Diorama FX texture. There were a few pieces of the stone wall left so I painted that up as it came with a Milliput surround at the base.

The above artillery piece came with an open shell box and some single shells. I made that into an ammo shrine.

Still obsessed with detail for my no-man’s land, I made more.

Made my first Trench Crusade Heretic gun emplacement. I did it with odds and ends I had been hoarding for the right moment… this looked like the moment. I also worked on some Lemax stone walls that I think will be part of my Heretic defensive line.

May 10, 2026

Several years ago, I purchased an armored, steampunk-style train and tucked it away for the right moment. Years passed and this week I decided I would untuck it and paint it for use with my growing Trench Crusade collection. It’s too long for one photo so I’ve provided three… two that show all the train pieces and one that gives an additional view of the engine. A fourth picture is an ad photo in case anyone is interested and wants to Google.

I’m really enjoying making small terrain pieces for my Trench Crusade no-man’s land, so I made some more this week including some shell holes.

I didn't have any cargo for my Trench Crusade/Steampunk flat cars so I made some using Duplo blocks covered with a piece of paper towel.

I discovered that I had another Atlantis’ Vinny’s Tinderbox of the Disney Store version, so I repurposed it for use with my Trench Crusade mobile force.

Several years ago I found a great consignment deal on a bundle of really nice pieces at Brookhurst Hobbies ($35 for a ruined building, a gris mill, a beautiful sailboat, and a bearskin rug). This week I decided to add the ruined building to my Trench Crusade collection. It already had a very nice paint job compatible with my style, so I dirtied it up to be more compatible with the look of Trench Crusade, adding a McFarland Toy’s ruined roof and two GW buttresses.

The rest of the week was spent working on more detail pieces for my Trench Crusade no-man’s land.

May 3, 2026

I began the week painting another set of building ruins for my Trench Crusade collection. I got these from a company called Toadstool Studio. I’ve provided front and rear views.

I next decided to dive into making the detail pieces for my Trench Crusade no-man’s land. I used metal washer cover with scrapes of Evergreen plastic for the base. I then covered the base with Vallejo Diorama FX texture material… great stuff. When the bases were covered I added dead trees, roots, stumps and crosses from MungosMarvelousMinis (Etsy). I also added a couple of unexploded bombs that were originally Heroclix pieces.

A few years ago a friend gave me a pack of Pegasus Gothic Rubble #1. Until I got hooked on Trench Crusade, I really had no plan for how to use them, but they will make great no-man’s land ruins. They came nicely prepainted, but they were not a color match for the rest of my Trench Crusade structures so I added a little highlighting to dirty them up a little.

A few days ago I saw Mark Fuller’s WWI artillery tractor and that inspired me to do something with the Thomas Train steam tractor I purchased at the swap meet about ten years ago. I scratch built a driver’s seat, added a removable roof I found at Saver’s thrift store (originally part of a small Disney locomotive), added a GrimGuard driver, and gave it a new paint job. It will now serve as a Fowler B6 steam artillery tractor for my Trench Crusade collection.

A couple years ago, I found some beautiful terrain pieces at Brookhurst Hobbies that were being sold on consignment. I had never seen any of them before. They were beautifully done, well painted in a style that is compatible with my own. They included a grist mill, a stone building in ruins, a Romani-style wagon, a very nice sailboat (unpainted) and a bearskin rug. The shocker was that they were being sold as a bundle for $35… a real steal. This week I decided to modify the stone building ruins into something I could include with my Trench Crusade collection. I had a McFarland Toys stone hut that I had gotten at the swap meet several years ago for a couple of dollars and decided to remove its raggedy roof and added to the stone building’s tower/circular section… it fit well. I then dirtied up the paint on the building to make it look more like the other structures I am using with my Trench Crusade collection.

Near the end of the week I found the Lemax Mt. Gloom Observatory at Savers thrift store. I got it for $6. It looked like a good structure to use with my Trench Crusade heretics. I took it home and immediately began taking it apart to give it a less comic look.

April 26, 2026

I thought I was done expanding my Trench Crusade mobile force, but a week ago I found the Audrey Ramirez Oiler from the Happy Meal Atlantis the Lost Empire range of toys at the swap meet for a dollar, so I decided I would build one more armored vehicle.

I did two more dugout entrances for my Trench Crusade collection. I included some entrenching tool (shovels and picks). These will probably be the last.

I got a few more divers for my Nautilus crew and painted them up.

Mid-week I got the courage to paint one of my large gun emplacements for my Trench Crusade collection. I’m happy with the outcome.

I’ve had some Bandai bridging for more than two decades and decided this week it was time to turn them into trench bridging for my Trench Crusade collection… a little modification and some Milliput sandbags.

Next I turned my attention to a second large gun emplacement. The two I have painted this week are huge pieces and will sit on large trench bases… thankfully those bases are complete.

With the large gun emplacements done, I brought out the second of my smaller stationary gun emplacements for painting. With that done I have all my stationary gun emplacements finished… four in total.

I closed the week painting two ruins for my Trench Crusade collection. These ruins were obtained from the two companies that offer the gun emplacements I have been painting for Trench Crusade…AntediluvianPrints (Etsy) and toadstoolstudio (eBay).

April 19, 2026

This weekend I found a couple of broken toys at the swap meet… a broken spaceship hull and what looked like the top to another vehicle or spaceship. I paid one dollar (fifty cents each) for the two of them. When I got them home, I decided I wanted to see if I could join them into one complete spaceship. Figuring out how to join the hull and cabin top into one unit was the hard part, but all I needed was some scrap Evergreen plastic I had on my workbench and the union was complete. It’s an odd-looking craft, but once I had it repainted, I liked the end result.

I purchased a Dept. 56 religious shrine at Savers thrift store a couple months ago, did some modification, and gave it a new paint job. I thought it would be a good addition to my Trench Crusade collection, but I wasn’t sure how I would incorporate it into the layout. This week I decided to give it a trench emplacement base. The unique part of this trench build is that I added stairs so the shrine could be easily accessed… probably not a good idea for defense but added to its value as a place of worship.

Back to working on my Trench Crusade trenches, I finished what will probably be the last of my trench sections, a destroyed bunker on one of the interior trench emplacements. I order the destroyed bunker because I thought my layout needed more destruction. I was surprised by its large size which required a much larger base than I thought it would. I now have completed eleven frontline trench sections and 13 interior trench emplacement sections. I think that should be it though I will be making a few more removeable shrines and bunker entrances.

April 12, 2026

I began the week by building a trench base for my McFarlane Toys’ Spawn cross (purchased about 10 years ago at the swap meet for $3). To that I added a removeable True Hero Military sandbag defense I purchased recently at the swap meet for a dollar.

I used a Duplo piece covered by Evergreen plastic to create a moveable medic station entrance for my Trench Crusade collection.

Midweek I noticed that I had the water tank from an Atlantis the Lost Empire Water Tanker that was left over from using most of that vehicle as an armored vehicle for my Trench Crusade collection. I decided to use the left-over water tank as a reserve water tank for my trench system.

Late in the week I built the trench emplacement for one of my large artillery pieces. As with the others, this was done using Dupo pieces as the inner core of the emplacement which was then covered with Evergreen plastic.

In putting together my trench emplacements, I think details are an important element in enriching the look of the layout. Since I want to keep my options open as to how the layout will be arranged, removeable features like shrines and bunker entrances offer flexibility of detail that I need. Earlier I made removeable HQ and hospital/medical entrances that I think work well, so I turned my attention to bunker entrances for the troops.

April 5, 2026

The week opened with a find at the swap meet… three plastic bullets for one dollar. This was just what I needed to build more ammo shrines for Trench Crusade.

That swap meet also yielded up a base for a monster or superhero that had been separated from its figure. The base was in the form of a crater that was perfect for use with my Trench Crusade trench system. Using Evergreen v-groove plastic I built trench-siding around it so that it matched the height of my other trench pieces. Once finished I had a nice ruin for my trenches that only cost me a dollar.

I spent the rest of the week building more trench emplacements using Duplo blocks to provide the inner core and Evergreen plastic for the outer detail. In addition, I also painted the large Trench Crusade cross that was the piece of terrain that initially drew my attention to the Trench Crusade concept.