Silver Tower Skaven

My wife and I actually got to play a demo of Silver Tower at our Local Friendly Game Store about a month ago. We both really enjoyed playing. I really liked the basic mechanic for the heroes of rolling a dicepool at the beginning of your turn. You use these to perform different actions. The more powerful actions like a big attack require you to spend a better die result. I was playing the dark elf and he could make his basic attack by spending any die (1 or better) but his big stabby attack needed a 4+ and for his crazy teleport move of doom you needed a die with a 6. You lose dice from your pool if you're hurt meaning you can do less actions but there is also a Fate pool that everybody can take dice out of to use as well. I thought it was a really nice system that was unique to me but very clever and fun.

After playing I started working on the next two figures from the set: the Skaven assassin. They actually represent only one guy and his magical duplicate that he projects in the game. So I painted them exactly the same.

I didn't get to play with my figures but I included the Dark Elf to commemorate the game.

I'll admit I kind of ran out of steam about 80% done and he just kinda languished on the paint table pitifully staring at me with unpainted eyes for weeks.  This weekend I jumped in and finished him off. I kinda rushed the final details but he's done and at this point I'm counting it as a win.

I'm going to put Silver Tower aside for a while as a it looks like I might be playing some games of Team Yankee this summer. I'm going to paint up a force of British to join the NATO forces and hopefully get a chance to bring my airbrush out of storage. I also wanna get back to playing around with some terrain again so that will probably be next.

Yellow Fish and Bluebirds

I was shocked to see that I haven't updated the blog in a quarter of a year. Unfortunately this is partly to do with not having done much hobby work during this time but I have got a couple of things done.

Most of my hobby time in November and December was dedicated to completing a Christmas present for my parents. They have a couple of pairs of Eastern Blue birds that nest at their house and always give me a report of what they are up to every time I call.

They were sculpted with polymer clay and I used a bit of branch to make the base. I like the way the wings came out but I need to work on some more techniques for making the tails.

To get back onto the painting wagon I also finished off one of the familiars for Silver Tower. This is the same one my wife painted a while ago and I really like the way she painted hers. I wanted the pair to compliment each other and I saw someone had painted one up as a goldfish which I thought worked pretty well. To fit him in with the rest of the Tzeentchian forces I used the same scheme I used for the magical fire.

More Cultists

I still think that there is something about worshipping chaos that causes abnormal muscle growth. Even Tzeentch cultists that you would think spend most of their time reading spellbooks and cackling maniacally are built like professional athletes. Followers of Khorne are probably just slabs of muscle on top of other muscles! I guess only Papa Nurgle has no interest in the Chaos gym scene.

I finished up the second group of cultists. I did a simple shield swap with a Tzanagor's shield for the one but tried to differentiate them by basically inverting the colors from the last group. I copied the skin tone from the Dark Elf hero I did previously and went with white for the fancy loincloth/skirts/shorts things they're wearing.

With these done I'd say we're  about 3 quarters done with the set. I'm saving some of my favorites for the end but next up will be another familiar and then the Skaven assassin.

Pug: Silver Tower Familiar

Quick update as I painted up another of the familiars from the set. I really like how he harkens back to the old metal familiar from many a year ago but updated to match Age of Sigmar. I decided to play up the motley in Tzeentch horror colors and of course gave him the classic yellow moon head.

His personal stylists working on his outfit.

Grot Scuttlings

With a box set as big as Silver Tower not every miniature can be a winner.  The grots happen to be the unfortunate recipients of that title.

I would have liked them  more if they had taken the spider mutations a bit further and avoided that rather awkward pose. 

I didn't spend  too much time on them keeping the colors muted and the painting pretty basic.

The grots are supposed to be goblins that have mutated to be part spider and now infest the Silver Tower like vermin. Chaos goblins are one of those classic Oldhammer concepts that could have been really cool but these figures just don't really live up to the potential.

My wife also finished the second pink horror. He's on the right.

Everything we have done so far. It's not looking good for the heroes right now.

Either way with these done we've passed the halfway mark on the set with 27 of the 51 complete.

Silver Tower Familiar

Finally able to post up another completed figure for Silver Tower. He might not be big in stature but like all of the familiars he's full of character.

Both of our familiars painted so far. 

With a few friends to see that he's just a little guy. 

This one is Tweak who believes himself to be a Lord of Change and is constantly giving out advice and I imagine commentary on everyone else's failures. Since he's suppose to be a chatterbox I painted him in the same colors as our green cheek conure Yoshi, who similarly never seems to shut up.

Hoping to get back on track with painting the rest of the set but right now we're at 17 of 51 complete. The Tenebrael Shard is next on the painting table for me.

Brimstone Horrors

With the holiday weekend rolling by the Brimstone Horrors were added to the painted column. The basic paint scheme had already been worked out with the flames from the Blue Horrors earlier and I just tried to keep the overall humanoid shape visible through the flames.

Since they're made from living flame I decided to try to out some source lighting on the bases. After reading a couple of tutorials I dived in. I'll be honest I'm not entirely happy with the outcome but for a first try I guess it could have been worse. 

With 4 more models done for Silver Tower that brings us up to 16 of 51 models complete. The halfway point is coming into view!

The Brimstone Horror is a new addition to Tzeentch's daemon line up. Two combine to make a Blue Horror just as two Blue Horrors make a Pink. Of course in the game it usually happens the other way and you'll get a pair of Brimstones after destroying a Blue Horror. 

The Horrors, the Horrors ...

Next up in the painting queue for Silver Tower are a collection of Tzeentch horrors. I grabbed the 4 Blue Horrors to work on. One of the things to get used to with the box set is that it contains 2 big sprues of all of the bad guys so you end up with 2 of each figure. When I painted the cultists I only did half of what comes in the set, as painting 4 models at a time is kinda my limit.

Double the Horror!

 Normally my OCD would kick in and I'd convert the second set so I wouldn't have duplicate sculpts but I'd like to get the set painted and be able to play a game sometime in my lifetime so I needed to find a quicker way with the Horrors.  Since about 95% of each figure is their skin and I'm kinda limited by making them blue I settled on trying to paint one set dark blue in the center fading out lighter on the limbs and the other the opposite.

I wanted the fire to look unantural so I kinda skewed normal fire colors over into the more vibrant shades. I'll paint up the Brimstone Horrors the same way.

My wife has also been painting some of the figures and has finished off one of the Pink Horrors and the fishman familiar, Slop. I really like the way she did the familiar I'm hoping I can do as good a job on mine!

The Pink Horror comes in 2 pieces with the inside of the mouth attached to the body and the face on the other. Cleverly, she painted the mouth before gluing it together something that I wouldn't of thought of.

Hopefully Doomseeker Garin Grumblebeard will make it back to tavern to complain over another tankard of ale after accidentally wandering into the local daemon union meeting.

We have 12 of the 51 figures done so far. The Brimstone Horrors are currently on the paint table for me and the last of the Pink Horrors for her. Finishing off these daemons will put us well over a quarter of the way done. Maybe we'll even get a game in before the leaves fall!

Silver Tower Denizens Rebased

Quick post as I've painted up some bases and rebased my previous Silver Tower figures. I think the new bases work pretty well with the room tiles. I have two different tiles in the pictures.

I've also finished off some horrors and my wife has a couple of figures almost done as well. Just need to seal them and I should be able to show some pictures off.