Did you know...?

Did you know that the NOCF isn't just raffling off 40K and Flames Of War armies (and SEVEN Malifaux crews!), but we also have three smaller raffles for three lovely pieces of miniature art.

Each of these pieces (pictured below) have a limited number of tickets (only 200 per model), selling for $5 per ticket. That makes for an incredible chance of winning - 1 in 200 for each ticket you buy. That means that if you buy a ticket you have a better chance of winning that you do of being struck by lightning, or eaten by a shark (even if you are swimming in South Carolina waters).

As with the armies and crews, we'll ship these models to the winners, regardless of where they are in the world! The proceeds from these tickets go to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. My mum is a three-times breast cancer survivor, so I have a personal connection to these cause.

The first mini we have is Maverick from Corvus Belli's Infinity range. This model is direct from the Corvus Belli studio, so I have to assume it was painted by the famous Angel Giraldez! Get your tickets right HERE.

The second piece is this incredibly evocative piece, Forever Young, a lovely study of the vampyr by one of this year's special guests to the NOVA Open - Roman Lappat (of Massive Voodoo fame). You can buy tickets for Forever Young HERE.

And the third piece was also provided by Roman Lappat: Zeta the Barbarian Babe. While this photo looks pretty big, she's a tiny 25mm mini with such incredible detail! You can purchase tickets to win Zeta HERE.

Just one week left until the winners' names are drawn. Don't miss out!

Cheers
Dave

Starting to clear the decks...

Next month is going to be a month of planning and announcements. In preparation for this planning and these announcements I have started to clear older projects off my desk (by finishing them, finally).

The first of these is a unit of Vorax battle automata. I bought these back when Forgeworld released Book 4 of the Horus Heresy series (Book 5 has been out for a few months now). The last time these models appeared on my blog was way back in March. It is quite nice to have them finished and off the docket, as it were.

Cheers
Dave

Vroom! Vroom! - A farm truck and a Rolls Royce.

Obviously I'm really enjoying working on these cars : )

Last Sunday, my daughter gave me this Chevy truck from her visit to Hershey's Chocolate World the day before. She thought I might like it for my growing collection of Mad Max-style cars. As it had a farm truck look, I figured it'd become a truck straight from the Bullet Farm.

Plate armor, mini-guns, and crates of freshly-picked bullets ; )

I've decided that my Bullet Farm cars don't need to fit with the limited palette I'm using for the Citadel or Gas Town (shiny silver, rust buckets, or flat black). This meant I could go for that pale blue/turquoise scheme that is so associated with rusted '50s trucks. Vallejo Model Color Blue Green, mixed with the Vallejo White Surface Primer, was the basis for this and then I shaded it with thinned washes of straight VMC Blue Green, then Army Painter Soft Tone, and a little VGC Charred Brown.

I think it turned out pretty sweet : )

At the same time I worked on my flea market find to create this "War Rig escort car", built from a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

This one was pretty straightforward; a bit of Dremel cutting, some bending and gluing of plastic rod, and a switch to some bulkier tires.

The paint job was done the same way as my Nux car, perhaps a little rougher, but I think it matches the escort pretty well.

There are a few more cars on deck, we'll see what I get done this week : )

Cheers
Dave

Battle for the Craftworld - Painting up the Librarian

Well, it has been a little while since I plugged the NOCF 2015 Charity Army Raffles here on my blog, but today I get to do it and give you a couple of step-by-steps along the way : )

If you want to buy tickets to win the Librarian pictured above (and the rest of the excellent Sons Of Orar Army), please head to the NOCF site HERE!

Or visit after you've taken a quick scroll through here to see the various steps I took to paint up this very cool model.

BLUE

Step One: Prime the model in black.

Step Two: Paint the blue armor with VMC Dark Prussian Blue.

Step Three: Highlight the armor with a 60/40 mix of VMC Dark Prussian Blue and VGC Ultramarine Blue

Step Four: Highlight the armor with a 20/80 mix of VMC Dark Prussian Blue and VGC Ultramarine Blue.

Step Five: Highlight the top edges with a 70/30 mix of VGC Ultramarine Blue and VMC White.

WHITE

Step One: Basecoat the white areas with VMC Pale Grey.

Step Two: highlight the areas with a 60/40 mix of VMC Pale Grey and VMC White.

Step Three: highlight the areas with a 30/70 mix of VMC Pale Grey and VMC White.

Step Four: Highlight the areas with VMC White.

FLESH

Step One: Basecoat the flesh with VGC Tan.

Step Two: Highlight the flesh with a 70/30 mix of VGC Tan and VGC Dwarf Skin.

Step Three: Highlight the flesh with a 30/70 mix of VGC Tan and VGC Dwarf Skin.

Step Four: Highlight the flesh with VGC Dwarf Skin.

Step Five: Highlight the flesh with a 70/30 mix of VGC Dwarf Skin and VMC Pale Sand.

RED

Step One: Basecoat the red areas with VMC Hull Red.

Step Two: Highlight the red areas with a 60/40 mix of VMC Hull Red and AP Dragon Red.

Step Three: Highlight the red areas with a 20/80 mix of VMC Hull Red and AP Dragon Red.

At this point I went through and started my "corrections" by painting everything that wasn't going to be blue, white, flesh, or red with black. From there I painted the silvers and golds as well as the variety of little bits and bobs around the place.

So, as I posted earlier, click HERE to get to the page to buy the raffle tickets for the Space Marines. You do not need to be present to win, and we will ship ANYWHERE in the world!

If you'd like to check out the 40K Armies in more detail, please visit the NOCF blog that I've been updating regularly over the last two months, HERE.

More to come on this as we close in on the whole NOVA Open event thingy!

Cheers
Dave

Vroom! Vroom! - Painting the Nux car (mini-tutorial)

This week, as well as finishing off four other cars, I also painted up the Nux car. I was pretty excited to paint it, and was quite surprised how little time it took, even stopping between layers to take the photos.

A few people have asked how I've been painting the "shiny and chrome" cars, so here's a quick look.

VMC = Vallejo Model Color
VGC = Vallejo Game Color
VMA = Vallejo Model Air
AP = Army Painter

Step One: Heavy drybrush of VGC Tinny Tin.

Step Two: An overbrush of AP Gun Metal

Step Three: A thin wash of AP Strong Tone over the whole model. Another wash of AP Strong Tone on the areas that will not be shiny. Some specific shading on the flat panels with thinned VGC Charred Brown.

Step Four: Highlight the shiny areas with a thin layer of VMA Aluminum, and then highlight again with VMA Aluminum.

Step Five: Paint everything that won't be metal with black and then paint/highlight each individual area.

Step Six: Glue on your pre-painted thundersticks.

I hope that helps with painting your very shiny cars (or whatever).

Cheers
Dave