NOVA Open Charitable Foundation WIP 4

 I continued working on the charity Knight today. Oils were added to the pneumatics, eye lenses were repainted, and pigments were liberally distributed to tarnished surfaces. This guy is getting close to completion. I wish I had the opportunity to win this army!

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation WIP 3

The gloss is starting to go away, and the finished knight is beginning to emerge. I usually take photos of stuff, not just to share, but also so I can review the painting and clean up spots I might have missed. For instance the sensors need cleaner green transitions, and the leaking oils to the pneumatics needs to be reapplied post matte. I am happy with this guy. Some lucky person will win this model along with eh rest of the army as part of the charity raffle.

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation WIP 2

The NOVA Charitable Foundation knight is in the home stretch. It might be hard to tell due to the gloss coat, but the armor plates are done. Once I dull coat the model the shading will be brought back forward, and the weird interplay between the matte oils and chipping and glossy undercoat (for protection) will have the same finish quality. For those who don't know, you can win this knight along with a beautiful Mechanicus force by entering the NOCF raffle. Once again we are supporting Doctors Without Borders, a wonderful organization providing medical care to people all over the world.

NOVA Open Charitable Foundation Knight

This ungainly fellow is a 30k Knight for the Charitable foundation. Every year I paint something for charity, and this year I was lucky enough to be tasked with painting an all resin Forgeworld knight. Since this guy is part of an army give away, I am sticking to painting style of the team leader. His style involves a lot of transparent paints, which is new to me. So far so good.

Tiger II Display Base Construction

The Warlord Games Bolt Action Tiger II model has awful tracks. This is fine for wargaming, but not really acceptable for a dual use model for display or wargaming. To solve that problem I decided to build a little display base of the model.

The base was a simple wooden box that I picked up at an art craft store. After painting it black, I taped the edges and built the dirt out of a mixture of tan Magic Merlin plaster, dark earth weathering powder, static grass, ground up dry leaves, and a Tiger II track mold that I had made from a Rubicon Models plastic kit. While the plaster was wet, the static grass tufts and leaves were added. As the plaster dried and became moldable, I used the track mold, and the back of a paint brush to press in some details. After the plaster had fully set, I used an overall wash of a dark earth weathering powder. As usual, a little bit of Green Earth pigment was added. I love that stuff!

Despite the base having absolutely no gaming purpose, I think it adds a nice touch to a model that might spend more time on a shelf than in a game. After seeing how well the dirt turned out, I might just have to make an entire table using that technique.

NOVA Open Charity Tiger WIP 3

Mud and weathering powders have been added. The tracks are close to completion, but may change a tad to match the display.

So do you think the winner of the raffle (or auction however the NOVA Charity Auction does it) will use the vehicle in a game? I think this is pretty much one of the most iconic tanks of WW2, but one of the worst options in a game of Bolt Action. However, I really would like something to enjoy this as a gaming piece.

NOVA Open Charity Tiger II WIP 1

This year for the NOVA Open Charity Foundation I am painting up a Warlord Games Tiger II for Bolt Action. This piece will be finished to a display level, though I hope the winning bidder uses it in game. Because it is no longer just a gaming piece, I decided I had to paint a more accurate camouflage pattern as part of the base coat. To get to this point, the first step was to color modulate the two color camouflage first, and then add little O shapes in an obviously hand painted way. I guess the German tanks arrived with camouflage from the factory, but enterprising tankers added to it in the field.

So with the major colors blocked in, the first step will be adding an overall filter to tie the camouflage together. Once the filter is applied and sealed I can move on to other environment effects using oils.

The part I am really looking forward to is mudding the tank up. I always enjoy that.

Sons of Orar Charity Army

Once again, some zombie shots of the Sons of Orar biker squads part of the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation army raffle. (once the whole force is painted Dave Taylor will take army shots and direct people towards ticket sales) The handle bars are drying right now, but once they are ready, I'll be able to mount the marines on their bikes. I'll have to dust up the bikes first, but that is a quick fun 2 minute task prior to gluing the legs on.

Nova Open Charity Foundation Army

It is that time of year again where painters from around the world come together to paint charity armies for the Nova Open Charity Foundation. This year, as in year's past, we are supporting Doctors Without Borders.  One of the especially cool things is that 95% of each donation goes direction to DWB. 

A lot of folks made this happen. Projects like these could not happen without folks like Atlantis Games, KR Multicast, Element Games, and Secret Weapon Miniatures.  They've donated a significant amount of product in order to make it possible for our scattered group of painters to work. 

In the shots above you can see two Sons of Orar bike squads nearing completion. The final paint chipping and weathering is not completed, but enough of the base colors are done that I wanted to share them. We've been trying to keep the SoO a little darker than usual, in order to help highlight weathering and distinguish them from Blood Angels. You might have noticed that the tires do have some weathering. The goal was to use light colored weathering powders to match the bone colored bases supplied by SWM. Tires should be darker where they contact the ground, with dust/dirt build up near the hubs and in the treads. Recipe follows:

1. Prime Black
2. Paint with Vallejo Dark Rubber
3. Gloss Varnish to protect paint
4. Secret Weapon Miniatures Green Earth weathering powder mixed with Tamiya X-20A paint thinner near the wheel hubs and in all of the tread areas.
5. Secret Weapon Miniatures Yellow Earth weathering powder mixed with Tamiya X-20A paint thinner near the wheel hubs and in all of the tread areas.
6. Q-Tips + X-20A to clean up powder and fad dirt into the hubs
7. Vallejo Black + touch of Vallejo Dark Rubber + Retarder to smudge along the bottom side of the treads to darken them. 
8. Mr. Hobby Super Clear MatteVarnish

(not all of the wheels show the process. I only painted the parts showing, but as expected the wheels rotated a bit while varnishing them)

These guys are basically red Ultramarines who are sent out to in perpetual blocking actions. They are the red shirts of the space marine chapters. 

Sons of Orar Marines Part 1

Step 1: Painting White

Add a dark grey base coat using Mechanics Grey. Vallejo thinner works fine with it. 

 Step 2: Using Tamiya X-20A Thinner instead of Vallejo, shade Uthuan grey over the majority of the shoulder pads. Spray the heads from the top and sides towards the front. Do not use vallejo thinner, it will clump the paint in the air brush.

 The gradient can be seen on the shoulders.

Using Vallejo white and Vallejo thinner, add a spot highlight a the top of the pad, or on whichever part of the pad is closest to the light source.

 Gloss varnish the pads in preparation for decals.

 Add a thin coat of micro set to each pad. Then apply the decals. Make certain that there is a cut between the two bottom sides of the Orar symbol. The top won't settle down easily if this is not done. Once the decals are on, apply micro sol and wait. The decals will look terrible initially. This is a patience game. Apply more micro sol as necessary. Go grab a coffee and come back and be surprised!

Marines were painted predominately with Mephiston red thinned with Vallejo thinner. At this stage you can see the colors achieves by layering Mephiston. A tiny bit of Evil Sunz Scarlet was used to edge a few of the plates. Sons of Orar are dark, not vibrant red. This will be toned down with oils and washes.

Soft armor and exhaust vents were painted with blowgun metal, and then washed with nuln oil.

This Zombie marine suffered the result of Vallejo matte varnish. The blue tint of the varnish really deadened the paint job. Some other varnish should be used. I have no idea what to use at this point, but Vallejo is out for red!

 Two oil pin washes were used, dark yellow for the white areas and dark brown around each armor plate.

Chipping effects on tanks and vehicles are easy to apply with wild rider red and german black brown. I usually apply the highlight color first and then add the chip on top of it.

Wheels and any rubber parts like road wheels should be painted dark rubber rather than black or brown. 

Slightly better photos

Pre-Shading Bikes (this can save some coats of mephiston red)