Warhammer Watchtower

These kits have been available for a while now, but as I have been mainly immersed in the historical side of the hobby for the last few years, I didn't bother with them. With my return to Warhammer, I decided it was ok to have a bit of gothic, skull encrusted scenery so I dropped the cash for one of fortified manor kits, which includes the sprues to build all of fantasy buildings GW currently offers plus loads of fences in one box. I love building plastic models, so as soon as I got home, I eagerly dug into the box. Sorting through the pile of sprues, I selected the three that go to the watchtower kit and sat down to have a go...

Assembly is pretty straight forward - I didn't even bother with the instruction booklet. There are all kinds of ways model conversions, especially if you choose parts freely from both kits and are not afraid of talking a hobby saw to them, but I decided to build the watchtower as it was designed for my first go. Games Workshop's kits are a joy to build as they normally fit precisely as they are intended, with minimum need for trimming or gap filling. Many pieces are designed to camouflage the joins as well. The main part of the tower comes in two sub-assemblies and I used the ancient method of employing rubber bands to ensure a tight fit.

Once the stages were dry I glued them together and assembled the stairs.

The corners on these kits are beveled to ease construction and aid in getting a square fit, but it's best to check and I used the grid on my cutting board to make sure (did this with the main pieces too - just didn't think to photograph the process).

There are piles of extras to customize your tower. I chose the tiny shack for the top and the crazy chimney. An extra window or two and a lantern by the front door complete the tower. There are tons of options, but I decided to keep things fairly tame.

Not a lot of historical uses for this kit with all the spikes and skulls - maybe in some pulp style scenarios or Teutonic Transylvanian setting - but it will work perfectly with my Warhammer Empire army! Not sure when I'll get the chance to paint this, but it was fun to build.