The 2017 NOCF Raffles!

Another year and another host of wonderful armies and collections and individual models up for grabs! We have had a lot of wonderful people donate their time and talents in order to raise money for the various causes supported by the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation. This is my seventh year involved in some sort of charitable painting effort, and I couldn't be prouder of all those who have joined me along the way. Excellent models from lovely people. 

Over the course of the next two months I'm going to be featuring these armies and calling out these folks. I hope you'll show them, and the charitable causes they have represented, by buying lots of tickets in these raffles. Each of these banners links through to the page to buy tickets : )

• Tickets will be available from the website (novaopenfoundation.org)
• Tickets can vary in price (between $2 and $5), but there is a minimum $10 purchase
• Tickets can be purchased from ANYWHERE in the world
• The winners DO NOT need to be present at the NOVA Open when we draw their names
• The NOCF will ship ANYWHERE in the world

WW2 - A few more American tanks... and a little surprise from Gerry!

As is becoming increasingly typical, it has been a really busy month. Not even enough time to put up a few blog posts! Well, hopefully I'll be able to clear a backlog of work that I can show you over this next week *crosses fingers*

One of my recent commissions was to paint up a few more tanks for a return client. I painted a whole bunch of American tanks for Josh about this time last year (check them out HERE), and then later in the year I added a few Pershings and Patton himself (check them out HERE).

This one was another quickie painting up three Shermans (with four turrets) shown above and below.

 There was also another Pershing to add to the tanks I painted last September.

And finally, for the Americans at least, is the M34 Heavy Tank, which apparently sported a 120mm main gun. Brutal.

The German surprise was this Panzer VII Maus, and almost-experimental Heavy Tank that the Germans built in the early months of 1945. It was incredibly heavy and its mobility suffered because of it. Apparently a couple of them were used in the defense of Berlin. (UPDATE: See Jakub's note in the comments below regarding the Maus). Rather than going with an "expected" German armor color scheme, Josh asked me to match the camouflage in a photo of a WW1 German tank model he sent me, and to give it the crosses you see on the model (hand-painted on).

And finally, I painted up this Imperial German officer (WW1 uniform).

Hope you liked this quick commission.

Cheers
Dave

Another Flames Of War commission

Just a quick one this time - five tanks, one utility vehicle, and an infantry stand, but boy… what an infantry stand.

Here we have General Patton and his faithful dog Willie, both on foot or riding around in his modified M20.

And here are the five M26 Pershings, a nice change from the various Sherman-based AFVs in the American WW2 arsenal. Two of these of are metal tanks from Skytrex, the other three are plastic tanks from Battlefront. While the plastic tanks are more crisp, the Skytrex tanks have that nice heft to them.

Cheers

Dave

So, I hear you are after some tanks...

As has been the story for the first half of the year, I've been incredibly busy with work during May. It shows no sign of slowing over the summer either. Sounds like a good problem to have : ) The only thing is that it does impact the rhythm of there blog, and for that I apologize.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you all the American Tank Company for Flames of War that I painted in April for a client. I learned quite a few things last year when working on this Armored Recon Force that I was able to apply to these tanks.

Above are the command tanks (Abrams is on the left). Below are the tank platoons, with a mix of different Sherman variants and Chaffees.

Here's the artillery support in the form of a battery of Priests.

The anti-tank support.

And a couple of objectives.

Finally, a tank I had never seen before - the T28 Super Heavy. This massive tank was initially designed as a breakthrough tank that could smash the Siegfried Line in Europe. After a conference in March 1944, five of the tanks were ordered. They were not ready by VE-Day and American commanders considered they might be handy in the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland. Only two prototypes were ever made, and one of them burned up during testing. The only surviving prototype is in now apparently at Fort Benning, Georgia.

My client likes to play around with various "what if?" situations, so wanted one of these cool models (from Heer46) to round out his collection.

I hope you like them : )

Cheers
Dave

Thanks for waiting, I hope you like your tanks : )

A little while back I posted about some Shermans I had converted for my friend (and blog-follower) Jake. Here's that post.

Well, with Jake visiting AdeptiCon next week to run a couple of seminars on digital sculpting, I thought I could save some money on shipping to Australia and please Jake at the same time. To that end I've been working to get this squadron of Pacific Theater tanks ready for the trip to Chicago.

I tried hard to match the conversions and paint job to those images sent by Jake, and I fully realize that they might not be 100% accurate, but I hope they're not too far off. As you can see, the tanks are beat to hell, with quite a lot of chipped paint and rusty areas. The salt air can really do a number on ferrous metals.

I named the lead tank Fireball, after a WW2 wargame called Fireball Forward.

And this tank was named Ducky. Jake is a University of Oregon alum, so I thought he'd get a kick out of that connection ; )

I hope you like them!

Cheers
Dave

WW2 - A US Armored recon force.

Here are the models from a recent commission, painted up for a client in Viginia. He sent me the models, a mix of Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company models. It was the first time I'd used the PSC kits, and they are certainly crisp, with a versatile range of parts.

Above: A mix of PSC early- and mid-production Stuarts.

Above: Five PSC late-production Stuarts (with nifty hedge-cutter attachments).

Above: A unit of Battlefront Priests, with their command staff and observers. The Sherman OP is from PSC.

Above: Four M36 Tank Destroyers from Battlefront.

Above: Battlefront Jeeps - four with .50cal AA, and three with 60mm mortars.

Above: Battlefront M8 Greyhound armored cars and M28 Utility vehicles.

It was quite interesting to put the PSC kits together. While things like the Stuarts turrets had nine individual parts (the bodies were at least another nine), and that meant a LOT of mold line trimming, they were a great fit and looked great once assembled.

I hope you like them.

Back to the 40K/30K soon ; )

Cheers
Dave

WW2 - I mentioned working on a few 15mm jobs.

I mentioned last post that I've been working on a few FOW projects recently. One of them is for a long-time follower of the blog, Jake. Back in April I asked Jake to help me out by 3-D sculpting a few parts for a Knight for me (hopefully I'll have parts in hand from by the end of the month). Payment for the sculpting work/time is going to be this squadron of USMC Shermans from the Pacific Theater. Jake sent me a bunch of reference photos that showed the additional wooden armor that crews would build for the sides of their tanks, and most of the photos show an amazing abundance of extra track sections, also used as improvised armor, draped over the tanks.

Anyway, here are some closer shots of the lead tank, with sheet metal skirting added to the lumber armor. This is based on the photo (apparently taken in Okinawa, 1945) at the bottom of this post.

Here's the color scheme that Jake would like to see on the tanks. 

Now it's on to the painting : )

Cheers
Dave