First Steps into The Silver Tower

After owning it for a couple months, I finally started assembling and putting some paint on my copy of Warhammer Quest Silver Tower. Painting this set is going to be… interesting… seeing as each particular set of minions and heroes has its own unique color scheme. I won't be able to rely on my old tricks for creating a single color scheme and sticking to a particular formula to get an army painted. I'm a little worried that not being able to approach this project in my usual manner could slow me down. On the upside, I shouldn't get bored having to paint the same models over and over. The first group of the Gaunt Summoners' minions I decided to tackle were the Kairic Acolytes.

Skraaaaw! Hawk-men, DIVE! NO! Wait. No wings. Damn.

These are just really cool models. I really like the Egyptian theme and I think they aren't so crazy mutated that you could use them in a variety of games. I could see them in a John Carter of Mars - style game as Martians if I were so inclined. They painted up pretty easily - I managed to crank them out in two days or so. A half-day at work before the Labor Day weekend helped a lot. I've also managed to get a lot done on the little Heat Miser-type fire imps as well. WQ Silver Tower is packed with a lot of small models with big character, so grinding through them should help me feel like I'm maintaining momentum on the whole set.

"He's Mister Green Christmas! He's Mr. Sun! He's Mister Heat Blister! He's Mister 101!"

Before I started on this project, I swung by my local Games Workshop and spent a little extra money to pick up two items that I'd been wanting to try out:

I decided to get all three - no point in only trying out one.

The new gem paints are essentially glazes with a gloss finish added in. Layered over a base of silver or gold, they produce a nice almost pearlescent effect quickly. I'm not sure that they will replace my usual old-school method of painting gems, but for this project they'll do just fine. If I was painting a Heresy-era 40k army such as the Alpha Legion, these paints would be top on my list to get.

More than enough bases for the entire Silver Tower set. And then some.

I also picked up a pair of Shattered Dominion base sets - the 25 and 32mm set and the 40 and 65mm sets. Painted up in vibrant colors, I think these will look really nice on the Silver Tower board. I saw some lunatic's review of these bases where he felt that the detail wasn't as pronounced as it is on the box photos, but I think its just fine. The box photos are pro-painted and yeah, they emphasized the edges like pro-painters generally do.

At the end of the day, both products are just time savers. I could make nicer bases and I can paint jewels that look better, but it would take 2-3 times the effort. And yes, it would be nicer but it would mean that I don't get to play a fully painted board game for close to six months. I think its a good idea to make products that relieve some of the burden on the average hobbyist. And give some of us old hands a shortcut if we want to take it.

Cheers!