Introducing the 2016 NOVA Open Charitable Foundation Raffles!

For the last few years I've been involved in painting for and/or organizing the creation of excellent 40K armies top be raffled off by the NOCF. At the end of 2014 I even joined the board of the NOCF!

Well, things have been quiet on this blog for the last couple of weeks as I've been focused on photographing loads of miniatures that have been painted specifically for the 2016 offerings.

The premier army for 2016 comes from the brushes of our Artists' Consortium - a collection of fantastic hobbyists who have donated their time and talent to create these wonderful armies. It is the Ork army pictured above. The team (Team ORK) was led this year by Joe Johnson, who decided on the "air force" theme.

There are two other 40K armies on offer, as well as a Flames of War Soviet Tank Company, a 30K Death Guard detachment (perfect for expanding your Battle At Calth box set), and an X-Wing squadron, but more on these at a later date.

Raffle tickets are now on sale, and can be purchased HERE. And 95% of all money raised from the raffles goes directly to the various charities we support - Doctors Without Borders, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and The Fisher House Foundation.

Important things to note are:

• You can buy tickets from anywhere in the world!
• We will ship to ANYWHERE in the world with a valid mailing address!
• You DO NOT have to be present at the NOVA Open to win!
• A minimum spend of $10 is required.

Please spread the word, and this link (http://novaopenfoundation.org/?tcp_product_category=raffle) and help us raise more money than in any previous year!

Cheers
Dave

Orks? I didn't know you had Orks!

Well, yes, I do currently have some Orks.

Over six years ago now, in late 2007/early 2008, I painted up 1,000 points of Orks for the 40K Team Tournament at AdeptiCon 2008 (Team Kung Fu Grip FTW!). I painted up Goffs, John Shaffer painted Deathskulls, Chopper painted Bad Moonz, and we drafted a fourth player from Chicago late in the game (my apologies, but his name escapes me right now).

Anyway, these Goffs saw battle in four hard fought games. Unfortunately I was very ill at this particular AdeptiCon ("writhing on my bed in agony" ill), so I wasn't able to play all the games in the Team Tourney (despite trying my best to). Instead, I needed to pull in a ringer for game three. In stepped a friend of mine, Phil Kelly - author of the Ork Codex at the time, who pushed these very models across the table : )

Nobz mob in 'eavy armor - four power klaws and a painboy.

A Tankbusta mob - the bomb squigs were quite fun.

20-boy Shoota mob - Nob in 'eavy armor and two big shootas.

20-boy Slugga mob - Nob in 'davy armor and two big shootas.

And my kitbashed/scratchbuilt Battlewagon - at the time the very cool GW battlewagon had not been released, so this had to stand in. Converted from a Chimera, with loads of plasticard and trukk parts, it also rocked a truncated Earthshaker as the big gun on the rear.

And yes, if you take out the big gun there's plenty of room for 20 boyz!

Why am I showing you all this? Well I've been cleaning out my basement and decided that these boyz have to go. With the new Ork Codex just showing up, it seemed like a good time to move them on to someone who'll use them, rather than letting them languish in a case.

So, is anyone interested? Send me an email at tanithtaylor at gmail dot com with your most reasonable offer. I'll give it until July 11 before I put them up on eBay.

WAAAGH!

Bruno Grelier

It's never a good time when we lose one of our own.

The miniature painting community lost Bruno Grelier (pictured above) just over a week ago. I never had the pleasure of meeting Bruno (in person or online), but I can certainly say I've admired many of his works over the last decade or so. In addition, a number of my "blogosphere friends" were good friends with Bruno, and are feeling the loss particularly keenly.

I send my condolences to all that knew and loved Bruno and his work.

Bruno was one of the masters who kept the spirit of the Orks (particularly Feral Orks) alive during the "dark days", when Ork players were desperate for a new codex and a new one was years away.

For images of Bruno's work, check out these links:

http://demonwinner.free.fr/peintre.php?id_peintre=16&lang=fr

http://www.frenchwaaagh.org/mode_demploi/bruno_grelier.htm

http://zeliste40k.fr/index.php?q=gals&idx=162

Cheers
Dave