Games Workshop’s product design team often comes up with hobby accessories that make you wonder what they’ve been smoking. The Servo-skull palette combines a reusable silicone palette with a quirky grimdark design. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at this odd creation. I really wanted to love it, but…
Citadel Servo skull palette – the good, the bad, the ugly
Games Workshop’s new dry palette, shaped like a servo skull, is made of white non-sticky silicone. It measures approximately 15×20 cm and has 24 wells.
As soon as I saw the first pictures of this palette, I knew I had to have it. The design is a bit silly but also cool, and I just love good-looking accessories on my desk that also serve a practical purpose. I bought the palette shortly after its release and have been putting it to the test ever since.
First, the good: dried paint can be removed from the silicone very easily. However, the silicone is really thin, as you can see it seems to be translucent against the lid of my Redgrass Everlasting Wet Palette.
That wouldn’t be so bad on its own, but unfortunately, the thing is a quite the dust dust magnet. While the silicone is non-sticky for paint, dust particles are magically attracted to it. And since I mainly use the servo skull palette for applying or thinning runny paints like Contrast pains and washes, it’s really annoying. The dust particles end up in the paint and then on the model. Garfy gave me the tip to wash the silicone with dish soap to remove any mould release agents, but unfortunately, that didn’t help very much. In the end, I switched back to my old plastic dry palette. This one also gets dusty, but the dust can be removed from the smooth surface with a swipe of a finger more easily.
Value
The RRP of the Servo-skull palette is £9 / $15 / €12. Obviously, the material value is about the same as a bubble fidget toy from a pound or dollar shop (and even those sometimes use higher-quality silicone). But you’re always paying for the design, and kudos to Games Workshop for their quirky approach.
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I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.
5.5 Score
Pros
- Quirky design
- Quite affordable by Games Workshop standards
- Dried paint is easy to peel off
Cons
- Cheap, thin silicone
- Dust magnet
Final Verdict
When I saw the servo skull palette, I was immediately sold on the idea of sprucing up my workspace with it. I really wanted to love it and would have even overlooked the thin material. Unfortunately, the surface attracts so much dust that it make me miss my plain old hard-plastic palette.
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I personally love this thing, A) because it’s so cool looking and raises a smile when I look at it and B) it actually makes me want to get painting. I have a nice Redgrass wet palette which is brilliant and well worth the money, but the set-up every time I want to paint, and the worry that if I leave it wet it will go mouldy, meant that whenever I would be in the mood for a quick painting session I would decide against it. This little palette has allowed me to paint for 20-30 minutes here and there, worry-free. The dust is a bit annoying, but I’ve found that if I store it upside down it’s usually as clean as when I put it away, and then when I’m painting I can rub a ball of Blu-Tack over it to pick up any surface dust that accumulates during my painting time.