Storm Eagle Weathering & first NOVA Open Charity Raffle This Saturday

I finally sat down and started weathering my storm eagle. With all the effort put into the shading, there was not a little bit of trepidation when it came to spraying black soot all over it. I am much happier with the model now. I think the glass canopy came out really well, with the weathering powders along the edges. I think the next step is to dust the bottom section with a tan color to simulate dirt acquired by landing. I am not sure if airbrush or weathering powders are the way to go.

The photos are a little bright. I am still struggling with the photo booth, though having a load of fun while doing so.

*UPDATE



WEEKLY PRIZE ANNOUNCED ON SUNDAY:
Remember to check the Foundation website ( www.novaopenfoundation.org ) every Sunday between now and August 17, 2014 to see which of our amazing sponsors is offering a gift certificate for the weekly Saturday drawings!

I checked me email right after I posted this and saw a message from Laurie, who is running the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation army painting and raffles this year. I use Secret Weapon weathering powders on all of my models, and plan to use them on the Imperial Knight I am painting for the Ultramarine army supporting Doctors Without Borders. If you want a chance to win an awesome army, and great gift certificates there is no time like now to buy some tickets!

CHARITY ARMY RAFFLES OPEN APRIL 1, 2014!
Press Release: April 11, 2014
The NOVA Open Charitable Foundation (NOCF) is currently selling tickets for the 2014 charity army raffle season. Visit www.novaopenfoundation.org and join the “Compassionate Force” by taking chances on winning one or more of the amazing armies being offered this year and supporting deserving charities in the process!


NOCF WEEKLY DRAWINGS:

NOCF weekly drawings begin tomorrow (April 12, 2014). This week’s prize is a $25 online gift certificate to Secret Weapon Miniatures. Anyone who has purchased tickets in the raffle before midnight tonight is eligible to win as the winner will be drawn from the pool of raffle ticket holders.
Winner will be announced at www.novaopenfoundation.org tomorrow.

The NOCF is a non-profit organization operated by a Board of Directors in accordance to charitable organization by- laws. Donations are tax deductible; purchase of raffle tickets is not. If you have any questions, comments or ideas, please send them to: novacharities@gmail.com . 

Imperial Knight Warlord Stepping on EC Dreadnought

The final Knight in my Knight force is complete (minus glass, smoke, and oil effects) Ok, so the knight is not compete. However it is far enough along that I am going to stick it on the shelf with the other knights for a bit, and get my workspace cleaned up for my next project.

The NOVA Open Charity Foundation is having a bunch of us paint up some armies to be raffled off for various charities. My team, lead by Dave Taylor, is painting up an Ultramarines force that includes a Knight Titan.  Guess who gets to paint the knight titan? Additionally I plan to put up a series of quick little tutorials on how I paint my ultramarines, since I've got some Ultramarines of my own to paint, and it seems like a good time.

Imperial Knight Legs Re-Posed to Crush Emperor's Children Contemptor

After some good advice over on the 30k forums, I decided to go with this pose. The dying Emperor's Children dreadnought tells more of a story than a knight posing with one leg on top of a rhino. The bonus is that since I had already built the dread as scenery for my storm eagle, not much additional work needs to be done.  In terms of structural support, the dread and the leg connect, so this should be pretty strong.

Reposing Imperial Knight Legs

After endless amounts of cutting and bending, I have a set of Imperial Knight legs in a unique pose. My intent was to use a current edition rhino instead of a 20+ year old model, but I could not get the range of movement I needed out of the knight. With all of their cad work, I had expected the knight to be re-posable with minimal effort. I was wrong!

I may try to embed a current edition rhino into the display base a bit to get the extra height I need. Alternately, I could fix up this old rhino, adding enough detail that it looks good again. Any suggestions?

NOVA Charitable Foundation And My Second Imperial Knight

My second imperial knight is nearing completion. I have loads of little touch up work, as well as smoke stains, additional chipping/grime,  and leaking oil to add, but I felt it was time to break out the light box and practice some photography.

Like the first knight, this guy is attached to the Sons of Horus expeditionary fleet seconded to a the Legio Astorman. I was hoping the ad-mec army list was going to treat knights like their 40k counterparts. I don't think I would buy a maniple of these guys to fill my lord of war spot, since there are so many other interesting options.

So the title of this post mentions the NOVA Charitable Foundation.  Last year the NOCF raised over $10,000 dollars donated to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, The Fisher House Foundation and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The three charity armies from 2013 were shipped from Washington, D.C. to winners in Washington State, Missouri and as far away as Tasmania, Australia!

As you may have guessed, I will be painting an Imperial Knight to go along with the Ultramarines army.

It is an honor to once again be included in the army build. Dave Taylor is leading our intrepid team which again includes Justin McCoy (SWM), Chris Dubuque(Jawaballs), Marc Raley(whose blog I've been stalking), Alex Landing, Brian Ballard,  and Dan Withers. If you've followed my blog for a while, you might have noticed my largish Ultramarimes army. That army was inspired by Dave Taylor's army once on display in the Maryland Battle Bunker!

Knight Errant WIP 2: Family Photos

Despite the Knight Errant not being complete, I decided to pull out his colleague and get a group shot. I distressed the shield with white spirits by accident, so a bit more battle damage than expected! I'll break out the photo booth and take some better photos when the knight is completed.

So as you can see, I decided against chevron's and instead went with black and white stripes on the middle of the carapace. This leaves me in a lot of options for the last knight in the formation. One thing is certain though, the last knight needs to have his legs reposed. I chickened out on reposing the legs with this one, but I just won't look good if they are all striking the same pose. Plus, I really need a way to work in some Emperor's Children purple on the base.

Knight Errant WIP 1

I got a little ahead of myself last week and went ahead and made this knights base first. I couldn't resist making a base that had a ruined building and propaganda posters on it that I had start painting from the ground up. If you could see my browser cache you'd see that I found a neat little tutorial on making to scale crushed beer cans. expect to see litter on these bases in coming days.

Back to the knight!

The very first layers of paint are now down on the support structure. This knight is being kitted up as a knight errant. Even so, I had to paint the battle cannon. I love painting heat damage and wanted to see what it looked like when I extended it further down the barrel.  The fun part of the paint job is just starting. I think this knight will have either chevrons on the middle carapace, or the mid section painted white. The benefit there is that all of the battle damage stands out so nicely, and the grime streaks look better. Shall I flip a coin?


2000 Pts - Codex: Imperial Knights Roster With Ultramarine Allies List

: Knight Paladin (1#, 375 pts)
   1 Knight Paladin, 375 pts

: Knight Paladin (1#, 375 pts)
   1 Knight Paladin, 375 pts

: Knight Errant (1#, 370 pts)
   1 Knight Errant, 370 pts

Troops: Scout Squad (5#, 89 pts)
   4 Scout Squad (Troops) [SM], 56 pts = 4 * 13 (base cost 11 + Camo Cloaks 2) + Sniper Rifle x4 4
      1 Sergeant [SM], 33 pts = (base cost 11 + Plasma Pistol x1 15) + Camo Cloaks 2 + Melta Bomb 5

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 255 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad (Troops) [SM], 146 pts = 9 * 14 (base cost 14) + Meltagun 10 + Multi-melta 10
      1 Sergeant [SM], 34 pts = (base cost 14 + Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1 15)
      1 Razorback [SM], 75 pts = (base cost 55) + Lascannon and TL Plasmagun 20

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 231 pts)
   1 Stormraven Gunship (Heavy) [SM], 231 pts = (base cost 200 + Searchlight 1) + Hurricane Bolters (each side) 30

HQ: Chief Librarian Tigurius (1#, 165 pts)
   1 Chief Librarian Tigurius (HQ) [SM], 165 pts

Fast Attack: Stormtalon Gunship (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Stormtalon Gunship (Fast) [SM], 140 pts = (base cost 110 + Twin-Linked Lascannon 30)

The Next Knight Titan Base

My knight errant is underway, so I paused to put together a base. I am thrilled with how it came out, except for the slight measuring mistake I made when placing the rubble. I guess I have to repose the legs now! :)