I have made playground equipment from dowels for decoration of my cake board. They will not be touching the cake. I am debating on the easiest way to cover them. Should it be fondant or can I somehow paint on RI?

I think fondant will be easier than painting RI...just my opinion though...

or depending on what your structure looks like you could dip them in differant colors of the wilton melts (chocolate)? or airbrush them ??

Can you paint the dowels directly? I've painted them with Wilton brown to look like a pirate ship mast. How about pewter luster dust? Would that stick? Good luck with it.