Dawn of the Nova

It is 10pm on Tuesday night. In just over a day and a half, Myself, Fritz, Smurf and his nephew will be packing ourselves into the Smurf-Mobile for our trek to the Earthquake rattled DC area.  Not since Bolscon have I so anticipated a 40k event.

Maybe that is because this is the kickoff to the fall 40k GT circuit.  Maybe it is because I will be seeing so many guys I have come to call friends.  Maybe it is because over the last 6 weeks I have logged no less than 240 hours painting my army and am eager to have it finally on display.  Much to the chagrin of my occupational therapist. A few weeks ago she asked me if I could just not paint for a while... Hah.  :)

Here is my finished Sanguinor.

Well almost, I still have to add flocking to his base.

Why so much time? I guess Fritz put it best the other day.  Fame is fleeting. Memories are fickle.  If you don't represent yourself hard and often, then you fade away!  The last couple years I have been concentrating on my list building and playing. Sure I have won a lot of games, but my painting has taken a slight hit.  It is good enough to still compete for honors, or at least be noticed, but recently my armies have been flat. Good. But not good enough.  I decided to change that for this Nova.  

Updated Mephiston! New base, new highlights, new sword, fixed damage.

First, I decided on a list full of models I love.  I decided to make list strength a secondary factor to beautiful models.  

Then I painted up 32 new infantry to a very high degree.  20 assault marines, 10 scouts, 2 priests with JP, and the Sanguinor.  Then I touched up the few existing models I was going to play. My 5 termies, chaplain, meph and another priest.  

Part of the process, for EVERY model in my army, was to do a new base.  I hand built, painted and flocked each base in the army. Jawa resin bases are nice, but they are a convenient short cut.  For this army I wanted every base to tell a story, and I wanted every base to appear as if it was the actual terrain of my display board.  I explored the use of materials I have never tried before, like static grass and long field grass.  I also broke into color schemes that are new to me.  For my painting, I tried a risky new style. I don't know how it will do with the judges, but it definitely leaves an impression.

I built a new display board, and am right now prepping a new soundtrack for my embedded epic music!

All this for The Nova.  Mike Brandt has planned a truly epic event.  The man deserves credit.  I have never planned an event of my own, but I have spoken pretty closely with Ed Miller and Ultrabob from Battle For Salvation, Tony Spino of Mechanicon, Aaron from The Conflict GT, and Mike Clark from Showcase Comics and Games and The Valentines Day Massacre. After quite a few beers shared with the crew, I feel that I have at least a decent understanding of what they do.  It is nothing less than monumental. My hats off to Mike Brandt. Let me be the first (at least on my blog) to thank you Mike for doing this.  

I also want to throw out a shout to Battlefoam. I don't think Romeo got enough praise for what he provided for the Heroes of Armageddon project. He truly does give when it comes to these events and Battlefoam will be in full force at The Nova. While I love my current bag, it just wont do for all of these new and unique models. As a show of thanks for what he did for our charity project, I will be stopping in to see him and putting in an order for a new custom bag for this army!  Win or Lose this army will be staying together and as is.  Battlefoam will be it's transport.

Ok time to get to work again.  I have to add squad markings, and finish the bases, and the army is done.  Then I need to finish the display and have a scotch.  

Oh that reminds me! Tomorrow I have to make a stop at the package store for a bottle of 12 year old single malt.  It will not be the Nova without Whiskey! 

Oh I forgot to mention I will be playing Man Boy Genius, Rob Baer for the whiskey challenge!  I was supposed to get my hands on Brent, but work said no way for him.  So Rob is the next chump...er champ in line.  I owe him a couple punches in the face for the beatings he has given me in the past, but we have not matched up since the old days of the PDF, and I was still playing a Whirlwind.  Oh yes... it will be a different game MBG.  Muahaha.

Jawaballs  

2nd squad is finished! Close Combat Scouts. And Terminator upgrades!

Pant.. pant.. pant....

I have a huge crink in my back, my arm is numb and my left eye fell out long ago. But Things are coming along!  My display board is taking shape, and I finished the second scout squad. Now I am working on bringing my existing terminators into line with my current paint style.

Terminator before update

Terminator after. Not much of a difference. I added dark lines in the recesses and an extreme highlight.  The reinforced contrast should bring them in line with the rest of the models in this army.  Once the basing has been finished they should pop.

Scout Squad Bruno

I am digging the green touch of grass.

Very different base because this model will actually be standing on a cobblestone road on the display.

All of the models are based appropriately to their location on the display. Bruno here is standing at the base of a collapsed castle wall. The brick on the ground is mossy and overgrown. Some poor serf was unable to get out of the way. And yes, Bruno has converted himself a Combi Melta!

I have been trying to tell a story with every base I do. In this one, yet another 

long dead human is digging his way from the afterlife.

Peekaboo! I am hoping people looking at my army will have fun looking for little surprises. 

Time to finish the termies!  

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Jawaballs

Jawaballs Nova Army 2011. 1st squad is finished!

The first squad of my 2011 Nova Open army has rolled off the line tonight. Done, based and ready to fight!

I give you Scout Squad Ellis. Attached to the Blood Angels 2nd Company under Lord Mephiston. Ellis is the sniper without the cloak behind the broken cross tombstone looking down range.  These guys have been ordered by Lord Mephiston to take up position in an ancient cemetery and hold for orders.  Their instructions are to engage enemy scouts from range. But Bior, the scout with the Missile Launcher, may have bigger issues on his hands...

For this squad I used a combination of Long field grass, scorched static grass

and olive green moss as complimentary green to the reds. I will use this theme throughout the army.

This scout found great cover behind a tombstone.

Ellis relays communications to the rest of the army inbound.

Awaiting orders.

Scanning the horizon.

Ants in his pants?

Thats no moon!

Something moved out yonder...

Ok folks. I'm getting a bit loopy. These five guys might not be all that effective in game, but I think they will add a great element of cool to my display.  :)

Oh, I just got notification that I will be playing the one and only Rob Baer of Spikey Bits fame for the Whiskey Challenge!  I have played him several times in various tournaments, and I don't think I have ever beaten him. Knowing Rob, he will be packing a nasty Crowe Gk list. I hope so!  I would love to test my list against one of the best.

Time to get your lickins Baer!  See you Thursday.

Jawaballs

NMM Sanguinor and Jawaballs Nova Army WIP video!

Hey folks!

So I have been working like mad trying to finish my army for The Nova Open.  My intentions? I want to compete for Best Painted and/or Renaissance Man.  Haha, lofty goals huh?  Well, last year I was .01 points away from winning Ren Man with an army that I admit was not my best.  This year I decided to bring nothing less than the best I can do, on every model.  To a degree. There are many different interpretations of what is "best".  Some people think nothing but flawless blending with no highlights at all is best. Some think that purely realistic with massive wear and tear is.  I have decided that this time, my best will be a very stylized and almost "cartoony" army.  I am working Non metallic metals, and all of my models have many layers of shading, blending and layering, but they are finished with a bold, stylized line edge.

Joe Johnson proved that you can win Best Painted with a very untraditional style of painting.  His "Salmon Pink" creamsicle marines have won the award many times out here on the east coast.  It was his inspiration, along with techniques I have developed recently as my painting style evolved that brought me to my current army look.  Rather than trying to copy what has come before, I wanted to create something new and different, but no less beautiful.  That is evidenced in my scouts and assault marines.

With that I give you my Sanguinor model. I decided to include him in my list very recently, and wanted to give the model my first real try at NMM gold.

Here he is mostly finished! I just have to do the peripheral details that will take just a few minutes. 

And if you want to see the rest of the army check out my video:

I will post an update of this soon!

Let me know what you think.

Jawaballs

Busy Day! PIC HEAVY

Fist of all I wanted to share links from the GW website:
I won Best Banner at Gamesday and they got it posted up!

But they misspelled my name... :(

But I didn't stop there!  I made their website again as part of the Heroes of Armageddon club table!

Fritz managed to sneak in there as well!

The club table won Best Theme!

I have more Gamesday videos coming soon.

Now for the real purpose of posting today.  A step by step of my new model:

The Sanguinor:

I am following the Sanguinor guide from Whtie Dwarf, April 2010

The first layer of paint is a 50/50 mix of Calthan Brown and Snakebite

Then Snakebite with a pinch of Bleached Bone.

Then a 2/1 Snakebite and Bleached Bone

Then a 50/50 Snakebite and Bleached

All the way to a 1/2 Snakebite Bleached

Then a wash in the recesses with Dark Flesh

Then some Dark flesh mixed with black

Then pure bleached bone highlights followed by extreme highlights with White

Then a wash with watered down Sunburst yellow to make it more goldy

After the yellow wash I hit it with a watered down Leviathan Purple in the recesses

and did the details like wings and such my standard Codex, Fortress and White

Finally I retouched the highlights on the armor with bleached bone mixed with Glaze Medium

and then the final white highlights again. 

At this point I glued the backpack to the stand and base coated the scrolling Bestial Brown.  I cannot work further on the model for fear of damaging the paint.  I will get pics of him finished up as soon as possible!

Assault marines next... :)

Jawaballs

The dog days of summer?

I'm back from vacation!  But I barely managed to get any thing done while I was away...

So here I am, the Dog Days of Summer! Crunch time.

We leave for Nova in 13 days.  That is the time I have left to finish my army.  But four of those days are weekend days, and three more of them Jack will be home because Daycare is closed.  That leaves me with 6 quality days to work including today.

I did manage to get home at a decent time yesterday and pumped out this priest...

Of course he needs a lot more work but the bulk of it is done.  

Of the 16 assault marines I still have to paint, work is mostly done of four of them.  I think I can bust them out though in 5 days.  That is my mission for next week.  Today? The Sanguinor.  I primed him last night and he is waiting my NMM attempt!  I will take pics of the stages for you here.

Oh and some where in there I have to build my display board and base all my models... Gulp!  

In Nova news, I believe there are about a dozen spots left in the big tournament.  It is not too late to get one! I would love to see some of you and have a beer.  Oh and I think I have an opponent for The Whiskey Challenge!  More on that next time.

Jawaballs

Funny new blog! My crazy wife.

Hey guys, some of you may remember the blog my wife was writing during her pregnancy. Well that now defunct blog has been replaced with a new one! She is a great writer and when I told her that guys at Gamesday missed her blog, she decided to start anew. So, she is writing about every day things that just need to be laughed at. Work, Family, food, you name it.  You can find her blog HERE.  Please check her out, subscribe to her blog, and have a laugh.  Thanks for supporting her!

Oh and as of 3:30 EST today I have nearly completed 4 of my 16 assault marines.  I also ordered a new Sanguinor model which is already enroute, and ordered up materials to make my new display board and bases.  I have about 10 days of work time after vacation and before Nova.  I plan on making every minute count. And yes, I am doing The Sanguinor NMM.  I will definitely take pics of that!  More to come.

Jawaballs

Working Furiously! Sanguinary Priest just about done.

Here is one of my new JP Priests for my new army.

Remember this picture is 10x as big as the model.

Non Metallic Metal Gold!  My first try. Good enough for now!  For this model I used Lemartes, a command squad apothecary arm and a sang guard power weapon arm.  I had to cut a thumb off a bolter marine and use it with this arm so he could actually hold the cup. I got the cup from maxmini.eu.  

Because there was so much going on with this model that was not red, I did not spray him with Dragon Red. I used Mechrite/blood on the red parts. I will get more pics when he is done!

Now I have a batch of five assault marines that are next. I am leaving on Vacation this Saturday so won't be painting, but will be taking my marines with me so I can assemble and shave them when I find time.  When I return I have to paint:

16 assault marines

1 more priest with JP. I am using a skulled chaplain model.

The Sanguinor

fix mephiston's head

fix up the land raider

and if I find time, five new assault termies.  

Oh and a display board and bases for all.

Gulp..   The emperor protects.

Jawaballs