Thursday, July 26, 2018

Finished painting Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower...

To be sure, I finished the models from Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower, I've only played the first few missions of the game so far. I bought the game on the third of July in 2016 (so it only took two years ;)). I played The Silver Tower back in 2016 and had a lot of fun with it and I did actually finish most of the models around then, except for one familiar and five Tzaangor...man I hate the Tzaangor. First though, a colorful group shot.

My Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower miniatures all sport a coat two thin coats of paint.

I fondly remember buying (and failing to paint the miniatures in) Advanced Heroquest. I spend a glorious summer assaulting my friends with Skaven ambushes and assorted horrors. Good times. I also have a (Dutch language) box of Heroquest standing ready to be painted. I should hurry up and finish so I can set it up when my son's old enough to play. I was out of the hobby when Warhammer Quest came out, but it looks nice enough. When Silver Tower swung around I got excited. A fresh new Heroquest variant? Count me in!

I love freehanding scribbles in books.
I was not disappointed. The rules are very slick and fun. It sported one the first bits of tangible background for the Age of Sigmar universe (aside from the Realm Gate Wars) and it had a lot of gorgeous miniatures. The only thing I thought was a let-down at first was the lack of a GM. GW replaced this bit with a storybook and missions. After checking it out my instinct turned out te be completely wrong. Exchanging the GM with a booklet actually makes the game even more entertaining as everyone gets to join together in an attempt to 'beat the board'.

The Silver Tower saw a return of Blue Horrors and even added Brimstone Horrors to the mix (A destroyed blue horror spawns into two Brimstone Horrors).
I liked to experience so much that when Warhammer Quest: Shadows over Hammerhal was released I actually waited to buy it, disappointed over a return to the old GM-style. By now it is in my collection waiting to be painted.

I'm still quite happy about the robes of the Gaunt Summoner (in the back). It was my first attempt at airbrushing and highlighting a two-tone robe.
After the first missions The Silver Tower ended shelved until now. I was a bit pre-occupied with moving, had a short first edition Warhammer Fantasy campaign (Doomstones reinterpreted) going and wanted to finish painting all the models before playing the entire game. This is where the villains come in: Tzaangor.

Forming the center of this picture are my six Tzaangor who almost managed to completely demotivate me from painting the Silver Tower set.
With the release of new armies in Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop has returned to the very old school (original Realm of Chaos) habit of adding themed Beastmen and Chaos Thugs to the armies. The Silver Tower, being a mind bending magical construct made by Gaunt Summoners (the most powerful wizards worshiping Tzeentch), is filled with Kairic Acolytes (Tzeentch Thugs) and Tzaangor. The Tzaangor are Beastmen that have been mutated by the chaos god Tzeentch.They lean towards birds beaks, feathers and elaborate horns.

In the front are the four familiars that circle this Gaunt Summoner (there's a second set around the Gaunt Summoner in the back. The fifth creature on a 25nm base is a tame Gryph Hound that accompanies the white and orange clad hero priest in the center.
For the record: the Tzaangor models look awesome (in my very humble opinion). It is just that they have so much excessively fine detail that applying even a thinned down stroke of paint with a brush quickly looks as if you've gone for a dip and shake. I just couldn't paint these models to my satisfaction. As I'm about to go on holiday and plan to bring the box along to have a full playthrough with my wife I really wanted all models to be finished. In the end it took a painting afternoon one of our gaming clubs members organized last week. I packed (almost) only the Tzaangor to paint, forcing myself to put finalizing coats of paint on them. Returning home I hated my work so much I almost stripped them for a do-over. In the end I didn't and decided to just detail them and call them finished.

I dub you lot finished. I will no longer worry about gold trim for a while now...
Here's a lone shot of the group standing on my painting desk. The two weapon wielder in the back was painted over a year and a half ago (and luckily not in focus). Taking two years to finish models does give you a good chance to spot progress. All in all I'm very happy the only six Tzaangor I own have been painted. Now here's to hoping I don't cave and buy a box of them just to see if a second painting experience shows me I've grown to like them now.....oh oh....

2 comments:

  1. Painting the entirety of a boxed set is certainly something to celebrate, particularly one as varied as Silver Tower. So great work!

    And there are several sorts of Tzaangors now... so get cracking.

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    1. uh oh! Luckily I've already blown this month's budget on another project.

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