The Lonely Tower

It's time to refurbish this old piece of terrain for a Warhammer scenario.

 

 

One of the Pitched Battle Scenarios in the Old World rulebook is The Lonely Tower, Command and Control. Set-up for the scenario requires you to place a tower (technically it could be any special feature) in the center of the battlefield. It's a scenario that we've come to dread at our local shop, mainly because we seem to roll this result ALL THE TIME, and there are not many suitable options in the store's scenery collection for representing a medieval fantasy tower.

 

I've decided to dust off (quite literally) this old relic and touch it up so I can bring it with me to the shop and have a proper tower for the game. This is the old plastic Warhammer Fortress tower, decorated with spikes, chains, and gargoyles from the classic Chaos Space Marine vehicle accessory sprue. There are also a few zombie corpses hanging from the ramparts, and the windows are metal arrow slits from the castle accessories.

 

The large gate is a resin portcullis, made by Scotia Grendel Miniatures; the icons that were originally sculpted into the stone archway have been filled in with modeling putty.

 

 

This tower appeared in the 2003 Warhammer General's Compendium and in the 2004-2005 GW Catalogue and Hobby Reference, but as my scenery collection has progressed, I haven't had much use for older pieces like this, and it has been collecting dust on top of my display cabinet for more than a decade.

 

 

All the tower really needs is a rust wash on all the metal, and a bit of weathering to bring it up to date with my current scenery aesthetic. I also need to find a replacement for one of the spikes.

 

 

It only took about an hour or so to add the touch-ups. The main treatment was a rust wash of Vallejo Grunge Brown, orange, and Liquitex Burnt Umber Transparent Ink (aka brown ink), applied liberally over all the metal components. I then used a stiff drybrush to stipple some brighter orange in places, and painted some streaks with a fine brush.

 

 

The gate, which had always been kept as a separate component, was hot glued in place.

 

 

On the walls, I applied rust streaks running down from the top, and a patchy wash of Army Painter Venom Wyrm (an olive drab green) around the bottom to simulate mossy growth on the stone.

 

 

The skulls and bones on the corpses were a bit bright and flat, so I applied a wash of Skeleton Horde Contrast paint to add a bit of shading. I also mixed up some red paint and brown ink to wash brigher blood on the fleshy bits.

 

 

The final step was to drybrush some Army Painter Gun Metal on the edges of the spikes, chains, and gate portcullis. I think it makes a big difference, and adds a bit of "freshness" to the piece. The tower's simple square shape should make it fairly easy to transport to the shop.

 

 

One detail that is often overlooked are the rules for occupying the tower itself, because they are not on in the scenario, but rather under the rules for Special Features, on page 275 of the core rulebook. The tower can only be occupied by a unit of infantry with Unit Strength 10 or less, or a character whose troop type is infantry. In preparation for the scenario, I'm starting to take a 10-man unit of ghouls with me to every game. (I can't tell you how many games I've played where I needed to occupy the tower with my necromancer or a banshee, because I didn't have any infantry units of only ten models!)

 

 

Until my new feral ghouls on 25mm bases are finished, I've knocked out two small trays so my old ghouls can be ranked up in Open Order formation. I think in the Vampire Counts army, ghouls are the best choice for taking the tower because they are Toughness 4, with two poisoned attacks each. Something else about the tower– Only five models from each side can fight when attacking and defending the tower. So those extra attacks from the ghouls will really come in handy. We'll see how it goes!

 

 

'Til next time!