The Road goes on...

Hello All,

The NOVA has come and gone and left a mark on all who attended.  I think that overall it was a huge success and everyone who participated (Win or lose) should be proud of what was accomplished. We managed to make the 2012 NOVA bigger and better than all previous events and after 2011 that is saying something. So congratulations to the Staff and participants of NOVA Open 2012- GREAT JOB!

RGH

I was fortunate enough to be one of the appearance judges again this year. I say fortunate because it allows me to get Really good look at folks armies and not look like a war gamer fan boy. In fact sometimes I get to watch people stand nervously while I inspect their army like a real life officer checking a military units uniforms and guns. It can be a little fun and a little intimidating that so many people value my opinion to the point of tension. 

Below are some photos of the 40K appearance finalists

Army-

Best Army

Renaissance man

Single Mini and Conversions

Best Mini

Best Conversion

More pictures on the way soon

Till next time

RGH

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

The Road to NOVA 18 Penultimate session!

Hello all,

Well another powerful build session has come and gone. Once again the team has not only answered the call but went above and beyond and showed why NOVA Staff are at the  top of the food chain! In this last session we continued to construct center pieces and knock out tons of painting for the 40K GT. We are so close to finished that we can taste it. So for those keeping score that would mean that since NOVA 2010 (Yes I meant 2010) NOVA staff have built over 1000 pieces of terrain for 3 different systems.  40K, Infinity, and Warmachine/Hordes.

The Infinity “Shanty town” is really coming together. Team Infinity figured out an assembly line process that is allowing them to build hobo houses at an alarming rate. These buildings are going to give some of the Infinity tables a real “District 9” feel. I can’t wait to see them finished.

Warmachine/hordes got a boost as 30 hill were constructed using the NOVA foam cutters along with 41 fence and barricade pieces. These things are really cool and could be used in just about any 28-30 mm systems. I liked the fences so much that I am including a short tutorial on their construction below. We also managed to finish the WM/H tree bases from last week. A good week for Warmachine!

Building the fence

Materials:

Thin Balsa rod

Wood Coffee stirrers (Craft sticks could also work)

4 inch X 1 inch base* (We used MDF board but cork, plastic card or even foam board could work.)

Glue- Elmers, Tacky, wood (Pick your poison)

Figure 1

*The size if the base is important for games like WM/H and Infinity

Cut three 1” strips for the fence posts from the balsa rod

Using the Coffee stirrers make six roughly 2” strips for wood slats

Figure 2

Lay the three fence posts as seen in figure 3

Figure 3

Glue 2” wood slats to fence posts as seen in figure 4

Figure 4

Let is set for a few minutes then flip the piece

Figure 5

Glue the other three slats in place making sure that it is the reverse of the other side (See figure 6)

Figure 6

Here are two completed sections.

Figure 7

*This is such a simple design that I recommend building several at the same time. At the build session we made 31 of them in one sitting*

Next up is attaching them to the base. At the build session we used a hot glue gun to speed the process but for this tutorial I decided to use Tacky glue as I had more drying time this go round. Simply glue it to the base as seen in figures 8 and 9.

Figure 8

Figure 9

Next time I will go over painting and finishing the piece…

We have one more build session to go:  Sunday July 29^th. See if you can be there!

BTW: Take a look at the NOVA FAQ (Most current version) here

Till Next time

Later

RGH

*Notice the lack of build session pictures? I walked right out the door without my camera. Doh!