It's been quiet... time for a Charity Army!

I have been buried with going to graduate school full time, and taking a break after painting my Lamenters army, but that is soon coming to an end. A lot has been happening lately with so much new stuff being released, and yes I have opinions. I will share more on that later. For now, I wanted to make a big announcement!

It is time for another charity army project! This year the Nova Open Charitable Foundation is taking the reigns again with running the show, and they are helping to organize the completion of FOUR armies for charity. HERE is a link to the NOCF site where you will find all the info you need.  I personally will be painting a couple squads of Ultramarine veterans. More on that soon. For now, here is the press release:

DONT WAIT!  You can buy your tickets to win the Space Marine army HERE. You know the drill.


The NOVA Open Charitable Foundation (NOCF) will open its 2014 charity army fundraising raffle season
tomorrow, April 1, 2014. 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!

BACKGROUND:
The NOCF was created to assist international miniature painters and artists who produce armies as
fundraising vehicles for charitable causes. Recognizing the immense generosity of the worldwide
tabletop wargamer, the NOCF was formed to bring this “Compassionate Force” together under a single
banner with a broad international outreach. Every raffle ticket purchased in support of these charity
armies will contribute to causes which address the needs of humanitarian emergency relief, children’s
concerns, medical research and the military.

In 2013, the worldwide tabletop wargaming community’s support of the NOCF charity army raffles
raised over $10,000 which was 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!

2014 CHARITY ARMY RAFFLES:
*A Consortium of professional and award-winning artists from within the tabletop wargaming
community has come together in support of the NOCF Macragge Project. Learn more about each HERE.
The proceeds from these two armies will support Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The NOCF expanded the work of the Consortium to two separate armies in 2014, representing Battle of
Macragge, the epic clash between Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth and Ultramarines led by Marneus
Calgar. Both of these armies are full 1850-tuned armies, including numerous extra models for force
flexibility.

● ARMY #1: Battle of Macragge Ultramarine List
o Marneus Calgar and Honor Guard
o Chief Librarian Tigurius
o Chaplain Cassius
o 5 Tyrannic War Veterans
o 1 Drop Pod
 o 30 Tactical Marines with a variety of weapon load outs
o 10 x Scouts: 5 w/ Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks, 5 w/ Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons
o 3 Storm Talons with Skyhammer Missiles
o 3 Thunderfire Cannons
o 1 Knight Titan
o 3 Centurion Devastators with Hurricane Bolters and Heavy Graviton Cannons

Some of the models I will be painting.

● ARMY #2: Battle of Macragge Tyranid List
o Flying Hive Tyrant w/ 2 Twin-Linked Devourers
o 5 Tyranid Warriors w/ Magnetized Weapon Options
o 1 Tyranid Prime w/ Norn Crown, Magnetized Weapon Options
o 60 Termagants
o 2 Mawlocs
o 1 Carnifex w/ Magnetized Weapon Options
o 20 Gargoyles
o 2 Lictors
o 1 Deathleaper
o 1 Venomthrope
o 3 Tyrant Guards (expected magnetized options for either tyrant guard or hive guard)
o 2 Hive Crones
o 8 Genestealers

*Stiff Neck Studio, under the leadership of Capt. Wesley Cogdal, is once again donating an exceptional
army for the NOCF charity raffles. This year, they are expanding our army range to include the first NOCF
Fantasy army, lovingly entitled “Man Eaters of the Great Maw!” The NOCF proudly donated funds from
last year’s Stiff Neck Studio army to The Fisher House Foundation, and we hope the Compassionate
Force will come together in 2014 to double those funds for this charity.

● ARMY #3: Fantasy Ogre Kingdom List

o 1 Ogre Tyrant
o 6 Ogre Bullz
o 5 Ogre Iron Gutz
o 4 Lead Belcher's
o 1 Stone-horn
o 1 Scrap launcher

*Built by a combined force of hobbyists associated with the Penny Arcade forum, the Deathwatch Army
has been donated to the NOCF with the request that it be raffled as a fundraiser for Child’s Play Charity.
Forty pages of forum posts followed this army from musings on a “general 40K” thread to each model
being painted by a different person over the course of a year, culminating in the most recent post which
announced, “The army is in the care of the Nova Open Charitable Foundation. . . .” The handler, who
wishes to remain anonymous, recognized that a lot of people had given of themselves to create this
Deathwatch Army, and it had a lot to give back to the community. A staff member of the NOVA Open
Tabletop Wargaming Convention, Martin Bagley, has agreed to take on the task of repairing and
restoring this army to its original grandeur over the next few weeks.

● ARMY #4: Deathwatch Army List
o Full List Can be Found HERE

2014 Sponsors:
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!

KR Multicase is once again donating customized KR transport cases to safely nestle each of our amazing
charity armies for their travels.

 TheWarStore contributed dozens of models to the two large Macragge armies and the Ogre Kingdom
army this year.

Secret Weapon Miniatures stepped up again in 2014, providing all bases and Masterclass scenic
products for the Macragge armies.

Powered Play Gaming joins the NOCF charity efforts in 2014 to offer products for the lighting of models and, more particularly, for the full-on 4’x6’ Macragge Project Terrain Table being created by Michael
Frazier.

NOVA Open also donated the dozens of models necessary to complete the Macragge and Ogre Kingdom armies.

Special thanks to the 11th Company who will podcast the drawings internationally during the NOVA Open Tabletop Wargaming Convention, August 31, 2014.

More to come!
Jawaballs

Lamenters from Templecon 2014

As promised! This is VERY pic heavy folks. Sorry for the long load time but it is worth it!

Yes there is still a lot of work to be done. I am very unhappy with the basing, and some of the models are unfinished, such as the sergeant terminator with the unfinished power sword.  But when you look at the army as a whole, and the layers upon layers of yellow it took to accomplish the appearance than you can get an appreciation for this army.

This army won Best Painted and Players Choice (Though I had to give that one up, I could only have one) at Templecon.

This was just the first wave of painting though. I will be completely unveiling this army in October at The Battle for Salvation Best Painted Invitational. (I have no idea what they are really calling it, we will go with that.)  The invitational is a full GT that will run alongside the competitive BFS GT.  However, in order to get into this one, you need to have won a Best Painted at a major tournament!  I was already in for having won Best Painted a couple years ago at BFS, but this just cements the deal.

Why is this awesome! Because it should be about the funnest tournament I have ever played in.  First of all, in theory, I should be up against other dudes like me, who care more about the hobby than the game. And I should be facing other lists that won't table me 4 out of 5 games!  The event should be an eye candy extravaganza and loads of fun.  I can't wait!  

What do I have to do now? I need to remake my display.  There is a lot I am unhappy with on this one, from the layout to the execution. I don't think there is any salvaging this one.  In that process, I will rebase most of the models.  With that said though, I think this display was a huge success. (we are our own worst critics)  I have been promising for years a display with lights, motion and sound and I finally delivered.  I did learn a thing or two here.  I won't get too into it, but there should be fast improvements for the October display.  Until then enjoy! There is video at the bottom.

Here is some video.

Jawaballs

My trip to the big game!

I forgot I had these pics!  I was organizing my images of my Lamenters army when I found all my footage from The Superbowl!  That is right, I was there!  Let me start by saying that The Superbowl has nothing to do with a game of football.  And if you have only ever watched the halftime show on TV, than you have no idea what it is about.

It was such a visceral experience, so engrossing and amazing to watch, that it can only ever be appreciated live.  Not just halftime, the whole time. Hell, I got to my seat about 4 hours early, and in a blink of the eye the game was on. I don't know what I did for four hours!  Whatever the result of the game, I really didn't care, it was a fantastic thing to be there and one of my most memorable days ever.

We got there fairly early and the place was still not packed...

My sister has a friend who is well connected. He gave her the pair of tickets, 5th row!

Our seats.

Just about 25 feet away John Elway was having a chat with Terrel Davis!

Just before one of the touchdowns by the Hawks.

Me and my sister!

Going to a Superbowl was on my bucket list, one of the things I never thought I would do. It is just too expensive to get tickets and fly to the venue. However, this time it was held at Giants Stadium, just a quick train ride for me!  (well not so quick it turned out, but you get the point)

With the travel and lodging taken out of the equation, not to mention the incredible kindness of my sister's friend, I managed to check this one off.  What a great day!  The weather was beautiful and it was a thrill to see all the behind the scenes.  :)

Jawaballs

Templecon 2014

I know I have been dropping the ball on pics lately. I got to Templecon and realized I had no card in my camera. I will post pics of my finished Lamenters this week though.

So Templecon 2014 is in the books. I had yet another fantastic time! This time I attended as a vendor. My friend David Monette joined me and we had a room in The Clockwork Bazaar. This is a whole wing of rooms where people open up their rooms as little shops. Mostly they were selling costumes and such for Steampunk.  We were selling my DVDs and Daves book The Zombie Axiom.  Also I was unloading some stuff I had on my shelves.

My Lamenters got their first real workout this weekend. And they performed in spectacular fashion! I scored zero points in 4 of my 5 games...  But that is ok.  I was more about simply enjoying my games rather than trying to win them. I set small goals for myself, like killing my enemies commander and such and went after them.  Frankly it is liberating to release yourself from the need to be competitive. I enjoyed every game I played, well except for a game against a Tau army where I just put all my guys in a clump in the center for them to be blasted to end the game. Which is how I will treat any ridiculous army in this new 40k world. Just give them the win and move on so we can get a drink instead!

Now, on the other side of the coin, I did very well in soft scores.  First I would like to thank every one who voted for me for Players Choice. I am honored and humbled. We had to select our favorite army in the room, and mine earned the most votes!  But I had to make a decision because the TO did not want to give Players Choice and Best Painted to the same guy, and rightly so! Oh I also won Best Painted.  :)  So I selected Best Painted as my award and passed Players Choice to the next in line.

I was pleasantly pleased to find that I also tied for first in Best Sportsman. There were four guys at the top but it went to my friend Ed Miller.  I have to say, these things are much more rewarding to me than winning the GT.  I like how it makes me feel as a person and player.

So thanks again for all the compliments at Templecon and the votes. It is greatly appreciated to be rewarded for my hard work.

Sadly, my next action won't come until October at Battle for Salvation when I play in their special invitational.

I will set up my display and take some good pictures and video this week and post it asap!

Jawaballs

Here is a shot of the gaming hall.  It was packed!  You can see me off in the background in the blue and gold rugby.