Meanwhile at the NOVA Factory....

Hello All,

Just a quick update. This past Sunday we were busy with last minute NOVA details. The main focus was on Swag Bags. We spent hours filling hundreds of these things! I am not at liberty to disclose what went in them but I can say it blows the doors off of last year’s offerings. I look forward to hearing people’s thoughts on our swag bags during and after the event.

A job that I got assigned was to update and prep the official NOVA Open desktop computer.  This thing has seen some years but it is still a solid system for our needs.It will be available for list mods that may be needed as it has a current copy of Army Builder installed.

Lastly we had to get everything and I mean everything stuffed into the storage locker. MVB also mentioned this on his own blog, but I thought I would just touch on some fun facts:

• The Swag Bags and VIP bags took 2 trips to move them all.

• We filled up 2 SUVs and 3 cars

• We had to transport almost all of the bags into the locker by hand as no carts were available.

• MVB let us know that (if he wanted to) he could have done it all by himself… :p

Well that Might have been an exaggeration.  

It looks like we are almost ready for what will be the greatest NOVA to date!

See you there

RGH

Fence Building part 2

Hello all,

This the part two of the fence tutorial I started here

When we last left our work in progress we had something that looked like this

This was OK but I feel that it could benefit from some color to make the wood look more colorful.
At the build session we dipped the wood in coffee to stain it. In the past I have used black tea for a similar effect. It gives a light but visible effect. this time around I wanted to do something more visible so I decided to go with an old favorite:

Chestnut Ink "Old School"

The effect is more bold with an ink or wash so water it down a bit. :)
Here is how it came out:

It will really stand out now...

The piece is pretty much finished but like most terrain a little flock can go a long way to add realism to a terrain piece. I decided to go with clump foliage from my own collection mixed in to get a three color effect.
At the build session we actually had around 7 colors and mixed them freely.

Simply glue it on.
Note: it looks more natural to have the clumps around the base of the posts as this represents places that require special equipment (weed eaters) to keep trimmed and so get missed frequently when mowing the lawn...

Well I hope you found that helpful. Please let me know if this is a feature that you think would be goo addition to the blog.

Till next time...

RGH

The Road to NOVA 19 crossing the finish line!

Hello All,

Well, we did it! 16 build sessions in 7 months.  It has been an incredible journey.  Everyone who participated should be proud of all their hard work. The terrain for 2012 is simply amazing. As the picture(s) below show.

 

 

Check this out

BAM!!!

 

 

2011 Terrain for comparison

We started the day as usual but almost immediately changed into a mad dash to complete the remaining 24 pieces of terrain so that the build portion could be completed.  As you can see the entire staff jumped in and helped out!  (Btw we had 19 people show up to work on terrain and other NOVA activates.  WOW!)

Shirts vs.

Skins!

Start to finish in one day!

How does this fan work?

After 24 pieces got knocked out in less than 2 hours we got the painting underway. This was set up in the standard three paint station configuration we have developed through trial and error.

Base coat using the house sprayer

Airbrush for highlights and color splashes

Dry brush and Flocking for extreme highlights

Since Warmachine and Infinity were also represented allowances were made to accommodate their needs. For instance the roofs of the Infinity terrain were painted red with highlighting added to make them look rusted and weathered.

This is the red we used

Shanty Red roofed inn

We even built some water terrain for Warmachine and finished their hills.

Swamp

Once a stage was complete members of that team moved up the line to assist folks with the next stage. Doing this ended with the whole team finishing up flocking till suddenly there

were none left!

We finished the last piece by 4:30 PM!


After everything was done and the LAST piece completed- (Check it here) The pool was opened and the grill fired up for a feast worthy of such hard work.

The cool down!

Congratulations to all of the NOVA staff for “kicking the stuffing” out of this terrain!

My next post will be about some of the pre-event work and what it takes to put on a top notch convention.

Till next time

RGH