Crab Miniatures UK: Doomed Battalions Grimdark WW1 Miniatures

Not every 3D-printed miniature range needs a hundred SKUs to make an impression. Crab Miniatures UK has built their reputation on two tightly focused warband sets, and both are among the most atmospheric grimdark miniatures we carry. The Doomed Battalions range, comprising the Wraith Pilgrims and Candles of Heresy sets, is built around WW1 horror, dark fantasy and trench-warfare dread. We stock both at TabletopXtra, printed to order in premium resin and shipped from the UK.

Who Are Crab Miniatures?

Crab Miniatures are a specialist studio working at the darker end of the miniature-design spectrum. Rather than producing broad, genre-spanning catalogues, they have focused their output on grimdark WW1 horror with a consistency that shows in the sculpts. The Doomed Battalions is their signature range, and both sets share a coherent look: condemned warbands, spectral remnants and wereghoul packs that haunt the broken ground between forward trenches.

Both the Wraith Pilgrims and Candles of Heresy sets launched through crowdfunding before landing at TabletopXtra. The successful funded runs reflect genuine appetite for this style of grimdark WW1 miniature, and the final sculpts hold up: at 28/32mm scale, they sit alongside the rest of our premium resin range without any visual inconsistency.

If you want to follow their ongoing work and browse the wider design library, the Crab Miniatures MyMiniFactory profile is the place to start.

The Doomed Battalions: Grimdark WW1 Miniatures for the Blasted Ground

The Doomed Battalions is not a cheerful name, and the sculpts don't soften that impression. Two distinct warbands make up the range: Wraith Pilgrims, a spectral infantry force of ghostly troopers and heroes, and Candles of Heresy, a wereghoul warband heavy on bestial energy and driven thralls.

Both sets are sold as a complete Full Set bundle or in smaller squad sub-sets. The sub-set structure means you can build the unit you need, at the price point that suits your project, without committing to an entire warband at once. Individual sub-sets begin at £8.99, and both Full Sets sit at £49.99.

Browse the full Crab Miniatures range at TabletopXtra to see both sets before ordering.

Wraith Pilgrims: Spectral Troopers, Heroes and the Full Warband Set

The Wraith Pilgrims are the flagship set in the Doomed Battalions range, with seventeen models across four sub-sets:

• Wraith Pilgrims (5) at £16.99: the rank-and-file, spectral infantry in steady forward-moving poses
• Wraith Heroes (5) at £22.99: leaders and champions with characterful sculpts that lift the whole unit
• Wraith Slaves (2) at £8.99: bound spectral servants with a different silhouette alongside the main force
• Core Set (11) at £39.99: the warband essentials in one order
• Full Set (17) at £49.99: the complete warband

The Wraith Heroes are the standout models of the set. The texture work on the shroud fabric, armour plating and face details is some of the most careful sculpting we've seen in the grimdark WW1 space. A dark undercoat with a zenithal grey highlight and a wash or two gets them to a strong table standard; the detail is there if you want to push further.

Browse the Wraith Pilgrims at TabletopXtra, or see the original Wraith Pilgrims campaign page on MyMiniFactory for the full concept art and design notes.

Candles of Heresy: Wereghouls, Wardens and Flying Thralls

The second Doomed Battalions set takes the range in a more bestial direction. Where the Wraith Pilgrims are cold and spectral, Candles of Heresy is flesh and hunger. The fourteen-model warband is built around wereghoul shapechangers and the thralls that follow them into the trench lines:

• Slaves (4) at £14.99: forward-lurching thralls with desperate, driven poses
• Flying Slaves (2) at £8.99: aerial horrors for flanking and harassment
• Wardens (2) at £8.99: the muscular enforcers of the warband
• Wereghouls (2) at £8.99: the centrepiece models, monstrous half-human shapechangers caught mid-transformation
• Full Set (14) at £49.99: the complete warband in one order

The Flying Slaves add a vertical dimension the Wraith Pilgrims don't have, and the contrast between the massed thralls and the imposing Wereghouls gives Candles of Heresy a stronger visual hierarchy than most warband sets at this price. Both Crab Miniatures sets work well together as a combined force if you want to run a larger army with genuine variety in model types.

Browse the Candles of Heresy set at TabletopXtra.

Painting the Doomed Battalions: Approach and Colour

Both sets respond well to a desaturated palette. For the Wraith Pilgrims, cold greys, bone whites and muted blue-purples work with the spectral theme, and the sculpt detail keeps the palette readable at a distance even when kept deliberately muted. The Candles of Heresy set opens into sicker territory: greens and jaundiced yellows for the wereghoul flesh, browns and blacks for the thrall robes, with the Flying Slaves offering a chance to introduce a little unsettling contrast.

Wash-based techniques suit these models well. A single basecoat and a strong wash across the whole model can produce a table-ready squad in under an hour, and the fine surface texture in the resin print holds up to heavier weathering if you want to go further. Our prints come clean off the plate and ready for priming; a grey zenithal coat is the standard starting point, and the textured surfaces catch spray primer cleanly.

Are Crab Miniatures Compatible with Trench Crusade?

Yes, with a clear understanding of what compatible means in this context. Crab Miniatures' Doomed Battalions are not official, licensed Trench Crusade products. They are print-on-demand resin figures that match the aesthetic and scale of Trench Crusade's grimdark WW1 horror setting. Trench Crusade is miniature-agnostic by design, so any figure at the right scale works at the table.

For faction placement, the Wraith Pilgrims suit ghostly and undead-adjacent lists. The Candles of Heresy warband fits heretic and corrupted-legion style factions. Neither set maps directly to a named Trench Crusade faction, but that is standard for third-party ranges; the game's model-agnostic approach is precisely what makes sets like the Doomed Battalions viable without an official licence.

If you're building a full Trench Crusade table, we'd also point you to the Diceverse grimdark trench terrain we carry, and our Doomed Battalions new release post for a deeper look at both sets when they first arrived in our catalogue.

Beyond Trench Crusade, the Doomed Battalions slot into any dark-fantasy or horror skirmish game at 28/32mm. Frostgrave warbands, Mordheim-style play and homebrew WW1 horror rulesets all work, and the models hold their own in any of them.

All Crab Miniatures orders at TabletopXtra are printed in the UK and dispatched in GBP; no import duties from overseas. Sub-sets start at £8.99, making it practical to expand an existing warband one squad at a time. The Crab Miniatures collection page has both sets in one place with full variant and pricing options.