Review: Anvil Industry Trench Fighters Regiments Infantry

Tomorrow marks the release of the new Astra Militarum Codex, including lots of inspiration fur custom regiments. So today we have a look at the brand new Trench Fighter range from Anvil Industry, multi-part resin human infantry models that work very well on their own, or as conversion bits for popular grimdark 28mm tabletop games. We’ll check out some of the possible combinations, and how well they mix with Games Workshop’s Cadian Astra Militarum range.

Anvil Industry is a british company that manufactures high quality resin wargaming miniatures and conversion parts for 28mm sci-fi wargaming. They have their own tabletop game Afterlife, as well as loads of Space Marine compatible conversion bits in their Exo-Lords range, and a modular Sci-Fi infantry range called “Regiments Infantry”.

The newest addition to this range are the just recently released Trench Fighters. Probably Anvil Industry’s most ambitious project ever, with 11 head styles, 4 torso styles, 2 leg styles in various poses, and several weapon options. And this doesn’t even take into account the cross-compatibility with their existing Regiments Infantry range.

Anvil Industry kindly provided us loads of product samples for this review. The hand-casted models arrived safely wrapped in transparent ziplock bags. The resin is of very high quality, matte, not as glossy as Forge World resin, and takes primer and paint very well. Excess flash and mold lines were very minimal, and we could find only the tiniest bubbles.

Let’s take a closer look at what we’ve got.

Heads

We received quite a few head sprues, but still there are many more options in Anvil Industry’s Trench Fighter and Regiments range. We have Stahlhelms with gas masks and skull masks in the first row. British Brodie helmets with gas masks, and the officer sprue in the second row. Ushanka heads with gas masks, and a Cadian and Space Marine helmet for comparison in the third row.

Most sprues come with seven heads, and all heads are subtly different with varying amounts of battle damage, bionic eyes, and skull insignia. Often there are helmetless options, too. I noticed the heads feature a longer “neck” than Cadian helmets, so you need to trim those down when you want to put them on Cadian Guardsmen.

Each head sprue is £3.00.

Torsos

Below you can see greatcoat torsos, with winter padding, open and closed variants. Each sprue contains 6 torsos (which is a bit strange, as the legs come in sprues of five). Lots of fantastic details, realistic folds and creases. I also really like how you can mix open and closed coats for more variety. The proportions are very much in line with Cadian torsos, though the Cadian torso has a higher neck. This means you might need a bit of green stuff filler, if you would like to combine Cadian heads with Trench Fighter torsos.

The Trench Fighter range has also offers “irregular” greatcoat torsos that would work well for traitor infantry or hive gangers, not shown here.

Each torso sprue is £3.50.

Legs

Trench Fighter legs come on tabs that fit slotted bases, which is welcome, as it will save you the need of pinning the models to their bases. There is a peg on the hip that fits Trench Fighter torsos, which can be cut off easily for Cadian torsos.

Again, the level of detail is phenomenal. I especially like the realistic boots (with shoelaces!). The first picture shows the static and advancing greatcoat legs. The second picture features advancing and static shortcoat legs. The legs may appear slightly smaller than Cadian legs, but will fit Cadian torsos perfectly, as I will demonstrate later.

There are also matching leg sprues with sitting and kneeling poses for heavy weapon teams, not shown here.

Each leg sprue is £5.00.

Arms and Weapons

There is a wealth of weapon and arm choices in the Trench Figher range. In the first picture we have fatigue arms with phase carbines (which coincidentally are perfect stand-ins for lasguns). We’ve got a sprue for aiming poses (trench carbine one), and a sprue with mixed arm poses (trench carbine two). Check out all the little bits like knifes and spare magazines for extra modelling options.

Each trench carbine sprue is £5.00.

Next we have shotguns arms (with extra ammo belts and slugs!), M79 inspired grenade launchers (with two poses: aiming and reloading), an extra sprue for trench equipment, and the command and combat pistols sprue. The shotguns and grenade launcher might be a tad smaller in comparison to GW’ usual heroic scale, but I especially like the two-handed pistol grip option on the command sprue.

The shotgun sprue is £5.00, the grenade launcher sprue is is £3.50, the trench melee sprue is £3.00, the command sprue is £3.50.

If you are into historic references, there are also British WW2 Brem Guns and the German MG-42s. These guns aren’t attached to the arms, and thus require a bit of modelling skill, as they are a bit fiddly to assemble.

Howitzer Field Gun

Now onto the big guns. Here we have the Field Gun platform, with wheels in two styles, and a Howitzer style gun, which could stand in as an autocannon.

The Howitzer comes with several optional pieces such as shells and an ammunition crate. The Field Gun platform is also available separately and can be combined with various other heavy weapon options of the Regiments Infantry range (there are other heavy weapon mounts and gun shield designs available).

Here is an assembled Howitzer Field gun (pictures courtesy of Anvil Industry). The gunners combine shortcoat legs with non-Trench-Fighter Regiments Infantry parts.

Assembled Trench Fighters

And now the fun part… assembly and conversion time! I included a Space Marine and Cadian Guardsman for size reference. Please note that the provided Trench Fighters’ bases are marginally lower than official GW 25mm bases.

Above you can see some of the endless combinations. The first Fighter on the left could be an updated Valhallan soldier, while the second one could be Krieg inspired, and the third one Steel Legion. The Trench Fighter range allows for a wealth of weapon options and dynamic poses: static, running, kneeling, advancing.

The models go together easily and don’t require pinning, thanks to the peg system. There are some gaps here and there, but please note that most of the models shown in the pictures were assembled with adhesive putty, which adds some space between parts. When using super-glue, the gaps won’t be as pronounced as in the pictures, though you might need some green stuff filling here and there for perfectly smooth transitions.

A couple more combinations. You can make those models as historic or grimdark as you please. You can see the backs of the models are finely detailed as well, and the torsos are sculpted in a way that makes it plausible to attach backpacks or other equipment as vox units (also available from Anvil Industry).

Anvil Industry has special bundle offers available, for example custom 10 men squads, starting at £27.00, or 25 men platoons starting at £65.00.

Trench Fighters with Cadian bits

Now let’s see how the Trench Fighter range combines with Cadian bits. As you can see, the proportions are very close to Cadian Guardsmen and suit Warhammer 40k’s heroic scale very well. Cadians are slightly “chunkier” sculpts overall, but most parts mix really well. Anvil Industry also offer several optional shoulder guards, which might help to add some bulk to their arms and upper bodies. My favourite combination is probably the second one from the left (Stahlhelm with death mask, Cadian torso and arms, Shortcoat legs).

Conclusion

Anvil Industry‘s Regiments Infantry and Trench Fighter ranges are amongst the best, if not the best, third party Astra Militarum compatible models and bits. The quality of both design and casting is top-notch. Playing around with these bits really got my creative juices flowing, and when I’m going to start an Astra Militarum collection I’ll definately add my own flavour with Regiments Infantry bits. Compared to other third party resin bits sellers, prices are competative, and there are also savings available for bundles or buying multiple items. World wide shipping is available, so there is no excuse for not checking out this range.

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