Imperial Guard patrol the entrenchments that guard the Sea of Dust from ork invaders.

TheGM: Not long ago, I painted up both a Wall of Martyrs’ Imperial Defense Line and an Imperial Defense Emplacement—an excruciating bit of work that I’m happy to see done.

It’s been almost two years since I received a Christmas present of bonanza proportions: a $250 gift card to Games Workshop. I immediately drove to the nearest GW and picked up every box of fortifications I wanted.

(I knew if I didn’t do it immediately, I’d never bring myself to divert money away from tanks and troops. Buy it all; buy it now—that was my determination.)

Ironically, most of that collection has been sitting on a shelf, waiting for me to grow tired of painting troops (wishful thinking). But I finally decided I would force myself to shift to some trench work. So I pulled out two boxes and got to work.

More than 700 kilometers of entrenchments stretch across the red sands of the Sea of Dust.

It was hard. One of the best features of GW terrain is the detail. One of the worst features of this terrain is the detail—it’s so wonderful that I couldn’t help but pick out every detail with a brush.

So no quick drybrush, a few highlights, and slap it on the table. Oh, no! I had to paint every shovel, crate, skeleton, and construction bolt on the nearly four feet of trenches I decided to paint. (I’ve still got eight feet to go!)

I chose The Fang, a gray-blue color, as the basic color of the trenches, with Leadbelcher and Gehenna’s Gold as secondary colors.

There are a million little details on these two fortification sets, which (now that they’re done) are lovely to see. If you paint these sets, though, have a good movie or audio book to keep you company. If you’re going to give those details the attention they deserve, it’ll take you long hours to finish them.

Despite the agony, I can’t wait to get to the next box, perhaps a Firestorm Redoubt, as it has less detail around its base. I’d like to add to my collection of fortifications, but I’d like something that paints up a bit faster.

In any case, I’ll probably refocus on these fortifications once I’ve built some handmade tank traps, razorwire lengths, and minefields. The Gaffer and I have talked about a World War I-style battle, with the orks storming the Imperial lines. Maybe that should be a goal for this winter’s end-of-the-year Armageddon fight.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our wargaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.