Trench Crusade: Carcass Front - How to Paint Heretic Naval Raiders
The fog rolls over the corpse-clogged beaches like a tarp over the dead left without a decent burial. Through the fog, the sound of soft, but sodden footsteps plod forward deliberately and as sure as the blood-soaked moon itself. Before their presence is even detected, the Naval Raiders sprint forth from the seafront, from the clawing mists and from the cover lining the sands, armed with submachine guns and rifles.
With the release of Carcass Front, the first “starter box” for Trench Crusade from Factory Fortress, the Heretic Naval Raiders are one of the two warbands included. In this article, I’ll go through some basic steps that I took to paint the models up to looking ready to defile and desecrate their way across the beaches, through No Man’s Land and beyond.
The Heretic Naval Raiders are cruel and sadistic fighters that are well-equipped and combat-ready. They launch assaults from the shores to ambush and slaughter those in their way. To get started, we’ll look at the Raiders that comprise the foot-troops of the warband.
Heretic Raiders and Legionairres
Acting as the more basic troops in the warband, the Raiders come with an array of possible loadouts including submachine guns, rifles and more.
The way I approached these guys was with a focus on speed, wanting to ensure I could knock them out as quickly as possible with the plan to put a little more time into the other characters.
In the gallery below, I took the same approach for each Raider.
Spray silver. Any flavour, this will cover all armoured elements.
Base paint the details. For the undersuit/fatigues I went for a vibrant blue, starting with Citadel’s Sotek Green, layering up with a Scalecolour’s Bering Blue. I gave the weapons a coat of Ratling Grime, with some other metallic colours on some of the other points such as chest motifs. Finally, I sponged some Vallejo Game Air Silver on prominent areas to look like chipped/scuffed metal.
The important, magic sauce comes third - this is your best friend and mine, AK Interactive’s Streaking Grime. I lathered this on all over the model quite liberally, leaving it on for a couple of hours befire wiping away. To do this, I used a sponge moistened with some White Spirit and wiped away the Streaking Grime in downward motions. From here, I left the model overnight.
The next morning, I then used some (very, very) thinned down Citadel Skrag Brown to act as rust pooling in the crevices and cracks around the model. This gives a nice pop of colour and depth without comprimising the dirty grunge whilst adding some visual interest.
Overall, without accounting for the models sitting and drying, I knocked out a single model in 45 minutes first as the tester, with the others being done after an hour the following day or so. Getting these guys knocked out was very gratifying and I was happy with the juxtaposition of the colours versus grunge. The Streaking Grime also left them looking quite glossy/wet, which felt very appropriate.
Drowned Chorister
Certainly one of the more unique models in this warband is the Drowned Chorister. Wrapped in chains and bursting from unseen waters to belt out unholy hymns, the Chorister is fragile to damage but can be devastating.
This model is ultimately very simple to paint for me. Again, sprayed silver, I then painted the skin using Citadel Ionrach Flesh with a wash of thinned down Coelia Greenshade to give some definition. I painted the bulkhead door/shield with some mixed Cygor Brown and Garaghak’s Sewer to help it look busted and old.
From here, I just really fancied adding a pop of colour and so painted the valve atop the helmet with Mephiston Red. It gave a very strong sense of “video game boss character” and so this gave me an impression of a “weak spot” for enemy fighters to shoot at.
Finally, to wrap it up, I washed all the remaining metal areas (chains, helmet, etc) with Nuln Oil before dabbing with some more Vallejo Air Silver once dry.
Anointed Heretic Raider
Enforcers for their captains, the Anointed Heretic Raider is some of the muscle in this warband, in hulking armour and acting as more of a battering ram compared to the support that is offered by most of the other models.
I took a lighter tone for this model as I wanted it to stand out, but with something to tie its rank closer to the captain as it is no mere common raider.
I primed the model black and then airbrushed it with a lighter grey zenithal, Citadel’s Fenrisian Grey. This tackled the bulk of the armour, bar the shield on the left arm which I painted Citadel’s Word Bearer Red.
I took the same approach as the Raiders for the undersuit/fatigues, with the headcloth/hood being give a lighter brush of white over the top. Between that with some Citadel’s Steel Legion Drab on the scabbard and Citadel’s Leadbelcher on the machine gun arm, I then followed similar steps to the Raiders with the chipped metal, Streaking Grime and thinned Skrag Brown for rust.
Heretic Captain
The big boss, the head honcho, el capitan - the Heretic Naval Captain leads his crew ashore, ensuring appropriate sermons and sacrifices are pledged beforehend to drive fervour amidst the crew.
I was keen to follow a scheme similar to the images released by Factory Fortress as I felt the red would look superbly striking amidst all the silver and blue.
This model was arguably the easiest to paint and needed very little time (though you could really make it shine if you committed more time and effort than I did!). I primed the model black before airbrushing Citadel Word Bearer Red across the entire model.
From here, I picked out some details with silver and Steel Legion Drab as with the Anointed. I then painted the polearm silver, pickling out the grip with the same blue as the Raiders’ fatigues and using Citadel’s Gor Grunta Fur to pick out some of the metallics as more bronze/brass.
The cape and cloth were all airbrushed with white, knowing that the Streaking Grim would taint these nicely (ignore the bit under his left pauldron, I missed this and need to revisit it).
Honestly, that’s it. This monstrous character looms over his underlings like a storm cloud of blood, shouting them forth with the promise of glory for those who return with loot and a threat of agony for those who do not.
Basing
I went for a simple basing method, something suitably grim for the setting of Trench Crusade. I used Citadels Stirland Mud as the crux of most basing material, coating with Pro Acryl’s Brown Wash before drybrushing very sparingly with Citadel’s Karak Stone. I picked out some details here and there such as girders, chains, etc with silvers and bronze before the wash.
An extra touch I leaned on was cutting up popsicle (or lollipop) sticks into small planks and super-gluing them onto the bases. I coated them with different brown speed paints and then caught them with the Karak Stone before finishing the bases.
Considering the minimal amount of time and effort I put into this warband (painted across 2 sessions, totalling maybe 3 hours excluding drying time) I am thrilled with the distinct visuals that I have achieved. These guys will look imposing and intimidating, be it across the Carcass Front or the gore-drowned trenches.
Thanks for reading and thank you to Factory Fortress for providing us with a sample copy of Carcass Front for the purpose of this content. You can purchase Carcass Front directly from the fine folks at Factory Fortress.
Be sure to check out the video content we’ve created for this release as well, be it the review of the Carcass Front box or the How to Paint video for the other warband in the box, the Procession of the Sacred Affliction.
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