The team at Factory Fortress Inc, makers of Trench Crusade, have announced a new fundraising campaign to support Karl Kopinski, a prolific fantasy artist best known for his work on Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the early 2000s, and who is still recovering from a stroke he had in 2025. Hosted on 3D model marketplace MyMinifactory, 24 model creators including “top wargaming brands” will contribute “high quality STL packs” to a bundle of digital miniatures that will be available on November 5.
Kopinski suffers from the blood disease myeloma, and has been receiving treatment since 2019. In March 2025 he suffered a stroke as a side-effect of regular treatment, which left his left side numb and paralyzed, and he is still recovering to this day.
Wargamers and fans of Kopinski’s artwork rallied around him with a Gofundme campaign to pay for living expenses for him and his family while he was unable to work. This raised $73,000 dollars in just four days, and at the time of writing, the total is now $142,000.
Kopinski was a full-time artist in the Warhammer design studio from from 1998 to 2005, where he was a major contributor to the tone of Warhammer 40k third and fourth edition, and Warhammer Fantasy Battle sixth edition. His work on Codex covers is timeless – Abaddon grasping Cadia in the Talon of Horus is particularly iconic.
As a freelancer, Kopinski has worked on many properties, including plenty of MTG sets for Magic: the Gathering. He even made the art for the Timmy, Power Gamer card, which you may have seen as a player avatar on MTG Arena.
Writing in the Trench Crusade Facebook group, the game’s lead designer Tuomas Pirinen says “Karl is my friend as well as my housemate during my GW days, so I am so glad we can help him and his family”. Factory Fortress’ main role in this campaign has been organizing other creators, but there will be a brand new digital miniature for the game included in the reward bundle.
If you want to back the campaign when it opens, you can follow it now on MyMiniFactory.
Myeloma, often called ‘Multiple Myeloma’, is a form of blood cancer originating in the bone marrow, which causes the body to produce abnormal plasma cells. Ordinary plasma cells fight infection by producing antibodies, but cancerous cells produce useless ‘paraproteins’ instead. The cells and paraproteins build up in the blood, crowding out functional cells. According to the American Cancer society, the disease affects about one in 108 men and one in 133 women.
If you’re a fan of Kopinski’s work, come and share your favorite pieces in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
