The Road To NOVA

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Springfield GW Painting competition - NOVA Open style

Hello All,

I am a little late getting this out, but last week 5/23 The Springfield Games Workshop held a miniature painting competition and I was was asked to judge. This was a fantastic opportunity to promote the NOVA Open appearance system. So following the official primer I gathered my team and armed with white gloves, and Judging forms (we even had flashlights in case we needed a "photo finish") we set out to find us some winners.

In normal GW fashion categories were divided by game system. Hobbit, Age of Sigmar, and 40K. Single models (no units) and the 40K competition also restricted entries to infantry sized only. These were the store's rules not mine.

The competition was fierce with most entries falling into the Tier 2 category. There was some really good stuff.

Some of the 40K entries

All of the entries were kept anonymous to keep things fair and none of the judges had seen any of the entries prior to the event. It took us over 40 minutes to make our selections and when done we were confident that the correct models had been chosen.

Hobbit

In this case places were in order of entry :)

1st, Sharku on Warg

2nd. Gandalf

3rd. Aragorn

Age of Sigmar

1st. High Aelf Wizard

2nd. Drycha

3rd. Khorgorath

Warhammer 40,000

1st. Terminator Chaplin

2nd. Space Wolf Lord

3rd. Captain Sacarius

After the awards were passed out we were allowed to address the participants. It felt great to express how much joy we took in judging the competition and how close the competition really was. Afterwards we spent an hour or so talking to any participants who wanted their work critiqued or answering questions about the NOVA style appearance system. While there we also encouraged all to keep working and consider entering the 2016 Capital Palette at the NOVA Open.

I hope some of them do!

RGH

Saturday, April 16, 2016

April 16th Build session 2016

Hello All,

Today we held the third terrain day for the 2016 season. We had a pretty good turnout and a fine warm day. These two combined into a fantastic amount of progress. We were able to get all of what we finished last time base coated and we made huge progress on the houses that this year are being taken a little farther than last time by having wooden exteriors (made from wooden coffee sticks)

We made a great start on the Age of Sigmar Flotilla. Keel laying no less than 12 Warships. In proper maritime fashion we celebrated at lunch with pizza.

We even managed to get a little airbrushing in at the end.

Thanks everyone!

Director for Creative Projects and Deliverables

NOVA Open, LLC

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As a side note- April 5th was this Blogs 4th Birthday!
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Prep for today's build

Prototypes- I like test beds and prototypes - (unlike a certain company I know of...)
I feel like testing an idea is far more intelligent than just bumbling into a situation with no plan.

So I sat down and built a prototype of each house design we will be using this year.

The thatched roof will be made from an old wash cloth.

The small cottage needed to be re-glued

The first row of boards

The concept window. A square of paper towel was used as a drape

Pins were used to keep the sticks from warping while the glue dried

The corners will get a separate covering

Making the Door

I found it was easier to let the sticks dry then cut them to fit

The Build

New Shelves Added to site (Thanks Blake and Eric!)

Devin Working the hot wire knife (like a boss)

Could those be ships in the distance?

Prototyping ruins for Hobbit

Using the prototypes as a guide slats are added to the Thatched roof cottages

Painting out in the yard

The finished fences we cast last month!

Hills primed

Extra care was taken for the Hobbit houses

An experiment using a dremel tool to speed things up

Keel Laying!

Started painting the water features for Hobbit

Designing the sides of the Raider ships

In all it was a productive day. Thanks to all my friends who came out to help. Without you we would be playing on empty tables!

The remaining dates are:

May 21

June 18

July 16

August- Pretty much the entire month will be busy as heck.

September- NOVA OPEN 2016

See you next time!

RGH

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Build session update

Check this out to see how we are going to make the water features!

http://roguegeneralhunter.blogspot.com/2016/03/simple-pools-32816.html

Of course we went with the MDF rather than CDs. This is going to be fun!

RGH

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Build Session March 19, 2016

Hello All,

The Second official NOVA Open Build session of the 2016 season was held yesterday. What a turnout! Thanks to everyone who showed up I hope you had a great time! This year we are using a different venue for our build sessions. A member of our board of directors has allowed us to use his garage for this season. Thank you Neal!

We managed to get just about everything on the list created (and a few more besides). Even the rain cannot stop us!

Here was the list going in:

Plans for 3/19/2016

· 30 Small Hills for Hobbit sized 6x6 inches

· 8 Houses for Hobbit 6x6 inches and 4 inches high

· 6 med ponds for Hobbit 6 inch diameter

· 10 small ponds for Hobbit 5 inch by 5 inch diameter

· ~~30 Small ruins for Hobbit 6x6 inch base~~ Unable to complete

· 20 Small Ponds for Malifaux 5x5 inch base

· 20 Small Houses for Malifaux 3x5 inch base

Mold Making Demo for ~~Hobbit~~ Infinity/Malifaux project

Mold Casting Demo (wood Crates for AOS)

Open discussion of new fence design (castable)- NEW Design developed!

In the End we ended up making 30 small 2 inch high hills that we will find a home for at the event!

Below is a message from the Director for creative projects and consumables that was at the top of the build plans yesterday.
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Welcome to the first actual build session of the 2016 season. We have a great starting off point this year as the Hobbit team has asked us to create several interesting projects. Everyone who was at last year’s even will remember that the Hobbit events had some of the finest tables in gaming. We have our work cut out for us.

Malifaux has also asked us for a large order of things to assist with their continued growth. This is a game that is near and dear to many members of the NOVA Open staff so let us work hard to impress.

I look forward to working with you this year and if you have any question at the terrain build do not hesitate to ask.

Director for Creative Projects and Deliverables

NOVA Open, LLC

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Here is how the day went down:

The Foam cutters were in force quickly knocking out 30- 2 inch high 4x4 inch hills.

They were quickly sanded and ready for paint but... There was a problem. The hill were too tall. Hobbit SBG needs 1" increments so models can climb them. The 2" hill were no good for that, so after also explaining how small a 4x4 inch footprint, we got to work making 30 more at 6x6 inch hills with 1" height and many to have a second smaller 1" rise on top just to make them different.

The houses were easier as we already have experience with them. 6x6 for Hobbit SBG. Made from Warmachine concepts from 2013 and 3x5 like the ones we did last year.

Hills to tall and too small a footprint. These will be gifted to another system at the NOVA Open

In the back you can see the water features drying after a mix of sand and glue was applied around the edges to make a cup to hold the water effect.

MDF bases- Despite the rain we were able to get all the bases cut and sanded for our current needs.

Fence Prototype

Some of the guys came up with a castable design for a fence that Malifaux needs.

I think it came out well:

New designs

Our Staff Wrangler also came up with nifty build by numbers set of instructions and Robby stepped up to try it out. The idea is that we can decorate it to look like whatever game system we need.