[Archive] Desert Empire Guard Tower by Steepled Hat Studios

Admiral:

Steepled Hat Studios has released a new product, namely a prepainted Desert Empire Guard Tower for 28mm duty:

[align=center][/align]

Zanko:

Awesome tower! :cheers

Sadly the seller is located in Canada … think the postage is much too high! :mad

Must ask them … :~

                        :hashut

Abecedar:

Nice but the Assyrian? Lammasu closest to us has 5 legs

Admiral:

Also available on Etsy. Doesn’t ship to Sweden (or any of Europe?) but this may be an oversight on the Etsy site.

I’ve set up an account for the creator on CDO. He encountered some unusual errors, out of the ordinary ones we’ve had lately.

As to 5 legs, this is correct! Lost Kingdom Miniatures also went with this, based upon real historical art. The intention of the Assyrian sculptor was to give two fuller 2D impressions, with 2 front legs visible from the fore, and all 4 legs from the side:

[align=center][/align]

Uther the unhinged:

@Admiral orrrrr there were mutant Lamasu back then. The hidden hand of Chaos!

TheHoodedMan:

The tower looks really great.

@Zanko: Shipping is listed with 20 Canadians, that is probably realistic.

Admiral:

@Admiral orrrrr there were mutant Lamasu back then. The hidden hand of Chaos!

Uther the unhinged
The race is on! Which Chaos Dwarf collector will be the first to convert a five-legged Lammasu? :idea

The_Penguin:

I have just written to the seller on Ebay. Hopefully he ships to Russia. If so, at least two of those lovely towers will be bought! :cheers

An lost kingdom arch is simply marvelous! Also ordered one. Now I need to decide what to make of it. Either part of the city wall or just decorative victory arch for the city itself. :~

Wiegraf:

Hello everyone!

My name is Wiegraf, the owner of Steepled Hat Studios and designer of this tower.

First of all, thank you Admiral for assisting me on these forums. For some reason I could not register and now I am able to do so, and post here, thanks to him.  Again, thank you for sharing my latest project, the Desert Empire Guard Tower.

To answer your questions here that I see:

1) Yes, I am Canadian based, and if any of you live and have ordered in Canada you will know that our shipping costs are absolutely ludicrous. Still, I could not let this stop me from designing and putting this tower out in the community.  So, although shipping costs to Europe equate to roughly 20-25 Canadian dollars and will be shipped without tracking and have no choice but to go through the gruelling snail, surface mail system,  I still do want to sell to all of you all over the world.

Currently my Etsy shop account is not set to ship to Europe but I am about to go and Remedy that after posting here!

2)  Yes, the Lamassu have 5 legs.  When I was first designing this project I ended up putting only 4… but upon further investigation, I noticed that there are actually five in total!  Quite clever for the ancients to think of looking at their statues at multiple angles.  Feet always on the ground this way!

3) Yes, shipping within Canada, with tracking is roughly 20 dollars.  To the usa with tracking is 25.  Everywhere else is snail mail, without tracking and will probably take 4-8 weeks to arrive… and is pricey in my opinion, but it is the lowest I can do while working in Canada.  

4) Yes, I hope to ship to Russia , Europe, UK, and many other countries.  I still need to figure out shipping to New Zealand, Australia, and the rest of Asia if any interest there shows (though I find most clientele are typically European or American! What am I doing in Canada? haha)

If you guys have any other questions, issues with orders, or need assistance, just message me here as a response or PM me. You can also email me at steepledhatstudios@gmail.com  

I will be looking to enhance these products further, and keep on building my ideas! Thank you so much for sharing your interests , being awesome customers, and great people!

Regards

Wiegraf , currently Slave to this forum!

Fuggit Khan:

Damn that’s nice!

And I had never before noticed that the original had five legs.

Abecedar and Admiral, cheers to both of you for your good eyes to detail.

:hat off

Admiral:

Sadly the seller is located in Canada ... think the postage is much too high!

Zanko
Not for such a big scenery piece, in my estimate. Ordered one recently. :)

The_Penguin, using these Steepled Hat towers and the Lost Kingdoms arch in a city wall is a great idea!

Admiral:

Designer’s notes copied from T9A:

Hello everyone.

I would like to introduce to each of you the company’s first official release: Steepled Hat Studio’s Desert Empire Guard Tower
This Desert Guard tower was created with 25 / 28 mm wargaming in mind. Using elements based off of both real world historical findings and fantasy, Steepled Hat Studios has created this prepainted resin tower for gamers who just want to get right into the thick of things! Just open up the box and this scenery piece is ready to see action!



Perhaps you need a place for your mummies to chill out? Are the Assyrians on a rampage and some Lamassu are at home protecting the realm? Maybe you’re raiding the tombs of some forsaken desert land and need a place to store your loot? Are the Macedonians coming and you need your Persians on look out? Want to watch the Seleucid Elephant Parade from within the tower?

Designer’s Notes:  When I first built this tower’s blueprints I was studying the ruins of Persian cities Pasagarde and Persepolis and really wanted to build something with the Gate of All Nations (another structure built with Lamassu involved).  However, I did not find or recall any battles that took place near or within the direct vicinity of the gates, so I decided to get a little creative with it.
The Middle east is littered with ancient citadels and watch towers, and it did not take me long to find a tower style that I liked and appreciated.  Lamassu are a sort of “Guard” or protective deity in Babylonian based religion and by putting them within the walls of a guard tower, I just thought it made sense!

Once the tower was released and I first began selling the piece, a fellow on one forum I like to post my army progress and projects on took a look at it and said something like “I sure hoped you shared this piece with the Chaos Dwarf Community”.   Oh Man! I honestly hadn’t even thought of Chaos Dwarves and their Lamassu.  I was then reminded of the Infernal Dwarves and The Ninth Age , where dwarves that would very much appreciate such a tower still existed…

It seems then my initial goal was realised - to create something that could be used in historical wargames but also be placed and make sense in the Fantasy realm!  With this first product I approached The Ninth Age forum admin group and have decided to create products that can be perfectly compatible in T9A also while satisfying my own historical tastes.

If anyone wants to see more or read more about the Desert Empires Guard Tower, you can check out their sales pages here:

Ebay
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/142823142055
Etsy
etsy.com/ca/shop/SteepledHatStudios

You can check out our Facebook Page as well, which showcases product releases as well as our own personal hobby works.
https://www.facebook.com/steepledhatstudios

If you have any questions please feel free to send me a message or leave them here as a reply. You can also email me at steepledhatstudios@gmail.com

Thank you everyone! Stay awesome!


Wiegraf

Abecedar:

@ The Penquin and Admiral. So looking forward to seeing them when they are done.

Just wish I could afford some but sadly not anytime soon.

The_Penguin:

@ The Penquin and Admiral.  So looking forward to seeing them when they are done.
Just wish I could afford some but sadly not anytime soon.

Abecedar
Yes, I've bought two of these. So hopefully they'll arrive soon! I am hot entirely sure how to paint them and what style to use, though..... :~

I think I shall go for a "realistic" tan colour. Should I paint the statues tan as well, or paint them in many colours like the ancients did? Should I make them bronze? So many variants! :o

Dînadan:

You could always paint the statues halfway inbetween; have them in a state of disrepair with the paint half worn off.

Ultimately I think how you paint them will depend on how you want to use them in games; if they�?Tre towers that are in use then the statues should probably be painted with minimal wear and tear, whereas if they�?Tre abandoned then the statues will look better with either bare stone or heavily worn away paint.

Admiral:

If they’re manned and maintained towers for the city wall, then some colour on your statues will look good, especially if you keep a rather grounded and earthy colour scheme as found on your army, with not too many garish colours. You could always mix in gold paint/gold leaf for some choice ornaments, maybe starting to wear off as Dînadan proposed. Of course, naked stone looks well, too.

[align=center][/align]

The_Penguin:

I guess you are right, guys. I shall go full colour then. :cheers

Another question then. If I am to paint dwarf terrain (and I usually paint terrain for my armies) should I use blue colour for decoration, as on most pictures? Or  red (to match my army) will be better? Why did Assyrians/Babylonians use vlue as a major colour? Or is it modern view on their colour palette based on Ishtar Gate?





Quite a lot of questions! :hat off

Wiegraf:

I like the painting discussion you’re all having!

Seeing that these towers are prepainted with simple sandstone and wood grain colors on the doors, it shouldn’t be hard to paint over them. I do think that many of these ancient pieces were painted with brilliant colors at some point, but it is hard to know exactly what they used. It is great for fantasy based though, because you could either make them really evil looking for the chaos dwarves or try to do the Mesopotamia colors as described above! Or whatever color matches your themes!

Which leads me to another question: All of these towers for sale are prepainted but I have in my hands here the original white poly-resin prototype. We decided to go with simple prepainted colors because we wanted the Desert - ready out of the box feel - Do you think in the future it would be worth it to have the unpainted version available?

The_Penguin:

I like the painting discussion you're all having!

Seeing that these towers are prepainted with simple sandstone and wood grain colors on the doors, it shouldn't be hard to paint over them.  I do think that many of these ancient pieces were painted with brilliant colors at some point, but it is hard to know exactly what they used. It is great for fantasy based though, because you could either make them really evil looking for the chaos dwarves or try to do the Mesopotamia colors as described above! Or whatever color matches your themes!

Which leads me to another question: All of these towers  for sale are prepainted but I have in my hands here the original white poly-resin prototype. We decided to go with simple prepainted colors because we wanted the Desert - ready out of the box feel - Do you think in the future it would be worth it to have the unpainted version available?

Wiegraf
I shall definitely go for Mesopotamia. The question is (for me, at least) is either I should go historical or fantasy with it and its colours. :D

If you haven't yet shipped the two towers ordered to be delivered to Russia, I shall be most grateful if they were not pre-painted. Not that i do not like how it is done, just no need for me, personally. If you have, that is still fine, of course. :cheers

Wiegraf:

If you haven't yet shipped the two towers ordered to be delivered to Russia, I shall be most grateful if they were not pre-painted. Not that i do not like how it is done, just no need for me, personally. If you have, that is still fine, of course. :cheers
Unfortunately all the towers are prepainted and I have already shipped them. The only unpainted version I have is the prototype - and that protoype had some very visible errors on it, as pointed out here in my little Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKzT3YTUnWQ&t=11s