Painting the Elven Watchtower

August 29, 2026

Painting the Elven Watchtower

I recently wrote an article about the history of High Elf buildings in the GW Studio and how Doctor Spork's Elven Watchtower served as the catalyst for that retrospective. Since then, I've finished painting the tower, and here I'll describe how I went about it.

A High Elf watchtower overlooks the forests of Yvresse.

When deciding on a colour scheme for my tower, I took inspiration from the 7th edition High Elf buildings, with their slightly off-white walls, dark blue roofs and sepia-shaded recesses. I felt this version would complement my High Elf army well, as it is mainly made up of miniatures from the 6th, 7th and 8th editions.

I started by priming the tower. As the model has a lot of large, flat surfaces, I decided to apply spray filler to help smooth out some of the more visible layer lines. I followed this up with a coat of white primer, which provided a good base for the rest of the paint job.

The Roof

I decided to tackle the roof first. I would recommend painting this part separately to avoid getting blue paint on the white walls of the rest of the tower. The roofs of the 7th edition buildings have a moodier blue hue than those of earlier iterations, so I chose to basecoat my version with Night Lords Blue to achieve a suitably dark tone.

To pick out the individual roof tiles, I used a light drybrush of Hoeth Blue. I made sure to wipe away most of the paint from my brush so that it wouldn't streak.

To finish off the roof, I applied a final highlight of Fenrisian Grey. I tried to apply this with an even lighter drybrush since I didn't want to cover the previous layer of Hoeth Blue. Unfortunately, the photograph didn't capture this stage very well, but trust me, it did make a difference!

The Tower

The tower itself was basecoated with Zandri Dust to provide a good foundation for the main colour as well as shading in the recesses.

I picked Wraithbone as the main colour for the walls, as this provided a good off-white shade. A damp makeup sponge was used to stipple paint onto the walls, making sure to avoid the recesses. I applied Wraithbone in two layers to achieve good coverage.

Once the main colour was applied, I moved on to the details. The door was painted with Rhinox Hide for a deep brown basecoat. After that, all the gold details were painted with Retributor Armour, while the silver on the door hinges and handle was painted with Vallejo Sterling Silver. The windows were given a coat of Abaddon Black followed by Corvus Black towards the centre. I didn't have a specific effect in mind, but I felt the addition of Corvus Black helped soften the stark black of the windows slightly.

With the basecoating done, it was time to apply some washes. Reikland Fleshshade Gloss was used on the gold parts and Nuln Oil Gloss on the silver details. The door was painted with Agrax Earthshade to provide shading in the recesses.

Once the washes had dried, the gold was highlighted with Liberator Gold. The door was given a layer of Doombull Brown on the raised areas, leaving the shading in the recesses. The gemstones were painted with Spiritstone Red to give them a nice shiny look. With all the colours in place, the final step involved applying thinned down Seraphim Sepia in the recesses on the Wraithbone areas.

Basing

To make the base a bit more interesting I decided to add some flagstones in front of the door. Small details like this are relatively easy to model, but they can help make a terrain piece feel more believable and grounded in its setting, in this case the High Elf homeland of Ulthuan. I cut rounded shapes in different sizes from 1 mm plasticard and glued them down in a pattern I thought looked natural. After the glue had dried I painted the stones in the same way as the walls of the tower.

I painted the base brown (taking care to avoid getting paint on the flagstones), and once this had dried I applied PVA glue and my ground cover mix (sand and tile grout). The mix was soaked in alcohol (to allow the glue to permeate) and then a PVA and water mix. Once this had dried I applied more PVA glue and sprinkled on a layer of fine turf from Woodland Scenics. I used a medium green as the base layer, with darker and lighter shades sprinkled on to provide variation. The turf was glued down using the same method as for the ground cover mix above. Once dry this becomes rock hard and does not shed at all.

The Finished Watchtower

With the basing done my tower was finished at last! Doctor Spork has done a great job on the design of this piece, and it was a real joy to paint! I'm really happy with how the paint job turned out, and I'm quite pleased with the addition of the flagstones. This small detail makes the piece feel more lived-in than it would have done if I had simply put grass right up to the door.

I have a few more High Elf buildings from Doctor Spork on the painting desk, so watch this space for updates on those!