Official Trench Crusade Backdrop Books by Jon Hodgson - KS NOW LIVE

[Annie]

Handiwork Games signs license with Factory Fortress Inc for official Trench Crusade Backdrop Books!

SIGN UP HERE FOR THE KICKSTARTER

We’re delighted to hare that we have completed contracts with Factory Fortress to make a new range of Backdrop Books for the smash-hit Trench Crusade.



Handiwork Games already produces a range of backdrop books in A4 and A3 sizes for miniature enthusiasts to put behind their miniatures, aimed at levelling-up their mini photography. These were awarded third place in the On TableTop Accessory of the Year 2024, and have seen two successful kickstarters.

And now Backdrop Books are heading into the world of Trench Crusade! With rumours of two initial books, in two sizes, we will be bringing this new range to crowdfunding later in this year.

Jon Hodgson, Handiwork’s Managing Director and one of the artists behind Backdrop Books said:

“As a fan of Mike Franchina’s art for two decades, I’ve been following Trench Crusade with keen interest. It’s been amazing to see it coalesce into his juggernaut of a setting, and I’ve been so delighted to see it reach so many gamers. Such an imaginative and well realised setting, with such great minis, and a culture of modelling and kit-bashing is a perfect fit for what we do!
I’m super excited to see what people create with our Trench Crusade backdrops!”



About Trench Crusade
Trench Crusade is a skirmish-scale tabletop miniatures game that plunges players deep into a horrifying alternate timeline. During the Crusades a heretical band of Templars dared defy the Almighty, unleashing the forces of Hell upon the Earth. Over 800 years later, in the Year of Our Lord 1914, this merciless war between the forces of Heaven and Hell rages on in a cataclysmic struggle that will decide the very fate of humanity’s soul.

Find out more about Trench Crusade at https://www.trenchcrusade.com/



About Handiwork Games
Founded in 2019 by industry veteran Jon Hodgson, Handiwork Games is a game design and publishing company based in Scotland. They produce various game products, including a|state second edition, BEOWULF Age of Heroes, Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland, the award-winning The Forest Dragon card game and a range of unique gaming accessories.

https://handiwork.games/trench-crusade-backdrop-books.html

[majorsmith]

Very cool

[Annie]

LAUNCHES TODAY!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KS

Check out this wicked video from Jon



I've been having a play with some of the sample prints too, here's one of my minis - Ser Mary, converted and painted by Mangling Minis (aptly named!) I'll be posting a lot more soon with more of the backgrounds, and my own grizzly conversions.

[supervike]

sheesh, am I going to have to get into this game just so I can justify buying these?

Lovely.

[Annie]

Yay! You might have to, I don't make the rules....

(You can of course use them with other minis, great for anything weird war or plaguey - especially the second book on that. Lots to reveal but many flesh walls.

They inspired me to make this horrible thing!

She's a Desecrated Saint - nearly made it to Saint but mucked up and now has to be carried around by a horrible thing forever.

Annie's laymans terms guide to trench Crusade coming soon! (it's not! haha)

I kitbashed her from a bunch of Bad Squiddo bits and the main body is from Mammoth Mini's lady ghoul giant.

Trench terrain is by berlintuesday

[Annie]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/handiworkgames/trench-crusade-backdrop-books/posts/4491268

Jon has written an update here (link above) showing how to make a simple plinth which helps so much with photographing the minis against the backdrops - just a little rise.

And he used his converted version of my Turkey Man as an example so I'm obviously well happy with that.



I've been having more of a play with them too, here's a Sniper Priest I made on one of the backdrops, with some Wilhelm feet in front!

[Annie]

Latest update from Jon!

"I wanted to talk a bit today about The Golden Seal, which is a little bit more mysterious than the Visions of War book. We all understand how your average backdrop book works. It has an evocative, painterly backdrop for your model, and it makes them look like they're in some kind of scene. Like this:



The background is the view, right?

The Golden Seal book is something new and a bit different. Now, your models will still look liike they're in a scene. But it's a much weirder scene. There will be walls of diseased flesh, huge sigils of the various Trench Crusade factions, lots of demonic sigils and more.

Something a little like this:



Here's those two designs in action:





I think these will make for some truly unique photos! We'll share more of these, and seeing the extreme lighting is a good reminder that next week we'll take a look at lighting, which is a really big topic, and there's so many ways to approach it.

Here's the behind the scenes of this shoot:"




----

I'm hoping to get a go on those flesh walls and such next week with my 'orrible monsters! Jon goes on to show you how to make a trenchie plinth - even if you're not backing the Kickstarter, or have no interest in Trench Crusade, the tutorials he's putting in the updates are magnificent, highly recommend:

The "How to make a Plinth Part 2" is here, I won't post it all as its super image heavy, but here's the start:


and here's the end! (spoiler)

[Annie]

Jeanne d'Arc has been pacing through the trenches now...

[Annie]

Latest KS update from Jon!

---

Hello! And welcome aboard new backers! Amazing progress!

So Friday's update was a big ole tutorial, so today it's inspirational/explanational material!

After I post this I think I'll add an index if updates to the campaign page, so you can easily find each of these mini articles.

So, here's a nice set of photos, with one of my personal favourite figures, the War Wolf. I love the mix of how recognisable and understandable the form of the miniature is, while also being really weird and unsettling. It's such good stuff, and I would expect no less from Mike Franchina! The form of its head gives us some fun opportunities to get those weird teeth in sharp focus, with the rest of the creature following behind. Love it.

In these shots we see the same figure and scenery, with only the backdrop changing. It's so easy to do, because you just pull that book out of there, find a new scene and put it back in. (and you will quickly adjust to leaving plenty of room to get it out of any complex scenery set up, and if you're clever unlike me you'll learn it the easy way!)







Something i'm always at pains to make clear is that there's not really an intention that the backdrop will be in focus. Of course you can have it in focus and get really nice results. But it also works really well to let it sink into the background, and have all focus on the miniature. Backdrops just ensure you're miniature looks naturalistic and in-world.

For laughs, here's some out-takes which I enjoy, but where the backdrop is almost completely obscured, either by focal depth or smoke. I could make a reasonable-sounding argument to say the backdrop book is still doing it's job in these - there are vague shapes and a sense of depth, but they're not very good at selling the books to you!





I love that last one for the delicate colours, and I don't think it'd be easily achieved without the backdrop. But yeah, not really show-casing the book is it?

I guess something else that's good about showing these is that it demonstrates that I will often shoot a lot of shots of a given set up. With digital photography there's no cost associated with shooting lots of frames, so it's worth experimenting and taking risks. You never know what you'll discover!

Too much smoke, or the right amount? You can decide! The backdrop is still just about visible here,  and I think it's an effective shot, thanks in no small part again to those glorious figure designs. We can easily see who is who in that shot. The big cross is from DiceVerse by the way. It's a handy prop!