Road To NOVA 15

Raging towards our goal!

The Rage does not have time for a puny airbrush!

Hello All,

This blog entry details the build session from Saturday, June 16, 2012.

We put a huge emphasis on getting people to show up to this one, as we wanted to make a big push towards completing the required terrain for the 2012 Nova 40k GT. I’m pleased and proud to report that we had a record number for folks show up to help out.

It was a lot of fun, especially meeting the new faces. Some Nova volunteers brought friends who were not previously connected with the event. This was a welcome surprise and is much encouraged for the future. *hint, hint*

I started off the day by running a mold making class for several of the volunteers.  We made three large, one-piece molds that will be used for a special table at the Nova. (I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so that’s all I’ll say.) I also discussed the types of rubber that can be used to make a mold and I had everyone take a turn at mixing and pouring so they could get a feel for the viscosity of the mold compound.

It may look like yogurt, but feels like stirring sand. This could though someone off if they aren’t ready for it and I wouldn’t want anyone to be taken off guard when they go to do it alone. More classes make take place at future build sessions depending on interest.

A major advance in mass scenery building took place last Saturday. We’ve been discussing it for weeks, but we finally broke out the house painter to spray on the black primer and the grey base coat. It’s like an airbrush on steroids! By hand, it takes about 10 minutes to lay down a coat. With an airbrush, it can take half that (depending on the brush), but you have to stop frequently to deal with clogs. With the house painter, it took less than a minute to complete a single coat on one piece, so a fraction of the time.

We totally should have thought of this sooner!

I have several pictures of people using the paint sprayer. Those of you who have seen the Nova Video may recognize The Rage in the picture at the top. Next, we have Mike who’s marveling over this time-saving innovation.

"Perfect!"

Just a taste of what got done.

In case you were wondering we also had a large selection of airbrushes and (loud) compressors going for the 2nd and 3rd highlights as well as a station for drybrush highlights as needed.

A hill getting that "Special " touch

Working hard or hardly working? ;p

The last highlight makes all the difference.

 Even while all that was going on we managed to get several more of our "Center pieces" built.  Take a look at the example below.

This is going to look so Cool!

I would like to end this with a shot that will give you a sense of the accomplishments the NOVA build team have made since we started down this road so long ago...

This is just the tip of the iceburg

So to everyone who was there Thanks!  "You have our Gratitude"

Oh yea, and Lastly a Huge thank you to my wife Adrienne, who wrote/edited much of this post because she types SO much faster than me and I told her she couldn’t have my attention until I finished this. Thanks honey!

Till next time

RGH