Towers of Babble-on

With my Historicon games fast approaching, I figured it was time to start wrapping up the few terrain items I need to complete before July. First are these two towers, which will act as (fortified) camps for my Assyrian army in their battle against my expanded Egyptians with "To the Strongest!" on Thursday morning.

Regular readers might recall that last year I bought a pair of "castle" wooden bird feeders at Michael's (a US Craft Store chain). They reminded me of the "Ziggurat" style towers often depicted in the ancient Middle East.  I got as far as spray painting them a deep orange-brown color, to suggest baked clay. It seems the surface of these were often white washed or painted, so I resolved to do the same. 

I first painted the surface of the "blocks" Delta CC "Bisque", a creamy off white color. However, that just looked *too* white, so I changed gears and painted them with Craftsmart Khaki instead. See, there IS a use for Khaki paint in my collection, LOL!

I painted the crenellations with Delta CC "Maple Sugar Tan", and the base with CC "Palomino Tan". Finally, I touched up the orange brown base color with CC "Terra Cotta" as needed.

I then drilled two wholes the size of the pegs on my new Palm trees on either side of the entrance way, so that I could change the flanking palms for slightly different looks. Here it is with the 4" palms.

Some Assyrian archers atop the towers for scale...

Here are the "Twin Towers" with yet another different kind of palms at the gateways. 

Finally, the towers with my pair of Assyrian Winged Bulls (Lamassu or Shedu).

These "birdhouses, made out of pine wood, are still available at Michaels for about $5 each... and if you sign up for their e-coupons on line, you can often get a substantial further discount from that. It's hard to beat prices like that! I might pick up a few more...