Battle for the Craftworld - Sons of Orar - The Command models arrive!

For a couple of months now, we've been showing you the composite photo of the Sons Of Orar army with two of the models silhouetted - the Chapter Master on Bike and the Librarian. Well, now that the Chapter Master has been featured in the digital pages of Figure Painter Magazine and the Librarian has appeared on the Dave Taylor Miniatures blog, we can show you these cool models.

Our thanks go to Sean Fulton for the wonderful centerpiece for the army, the Chapter Master on Bike. Sean put a lot of hours into the planning, conversion, and painting of this model and you can read all about his process in FPM. Much like his contribution to last year's army (the Venomthrope for the Tyranids), Sean has excelled himself. It is such a lovely model to behold, you can feel the strength of conviction of the fearless leader as he rides his bike directly over an Eldar weapons platform.

The Librarian was painted by me this month, kind of as a cool thing to drop in towards the end of the campaign.

We have a few more photos of these models that we'll leak out around the Internet. Keep an eye open for them, and don't forget to buy your raffle tickets today, HERE. Just click on the Armies tab and head to your favorite army (or buy tickets for them all).

Cheers
Dave

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1:53 PM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines

Battle for the Craftworld - Sons Of Orar - Drop Pod Assault!

As we near the deadline for ticket sales (well, that's still 20 days off, so start buying now!), we are coming close to the end of these features on this year's excellent 40K armies.

This feature is actually on the drop pods that I painted up for the Sons of Orar army.

When we were deciding on the theme and lists it seemed only right that our three solid Tactical squads should arrive as swiftly as their bike brethren, hence the three drop pods that stand ready to smash through the outer defenses of any enemy force and bring hot bolter death directly to the heart of the battle.

There is a lot that goes into building and painting three drop pods, and I put together a step-by-step on how I did it for this project. If you'd like to check that out, you can do so HERE.

And our thanks to our sponsors who contributed to this project. 
Please support them, so that they can continue to support us!

• Atlantis Games & Comics • Element Games • Secret Weapon Miniatures • KR Multicase

Cheers

Dave Taylor

NOCF VP

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12:50 PM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines

Battle for the Craftworld - Alaitoc Eldar - The command structure!

Well folks, things are starting to heat up for the 2015 Charity Army Raffles. With just over three weeks until we draw the winners' names, ticket sales continue to tick over quite well, particularly for this excellent Eldar army.

As everyone knows, no Eldar army is worth its salt without a Farseer at its helm. Often supported by a Seer Council of Warlocks, the Farseer guides his people through the various futures available to them, navigating the millions of possibilities ahead.

These beautiful models were painted by Jeff Jenkins, who did a fantastic job working the saturated yellow and blue of the Alaitoc Craftworld scheme with a desaturated bone. Very cool indeed.

Jeff also painted up this Spiritseer for the army, adding an extra psychic element to the army.

And the Eldar HQ pantheon wouldn't be complete without including an Autarch. Will Thornton, in addition to painting up this excellent Sons Of Orar Tactical Squad, painted up this Autarch for us. Equipped with a fusion gun, chain blade, warp jump generator, and thousands of years of martial experience, this guy promises to be a pain in the butt for any opponent!

Thanks to Jeff and Will for their continued support of this wonderful project!

And our thanks to our sponsors who contributed to this project. 
Please support them, so that they can continue to support us!

• Atlantis Games & Comics • Element Games • Secret Weapon Miniatures • KR Multicase

Cheers

Dave Taylor

NOCF VP

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4:00 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Alaitoc, Eldar

Battle For The Craftworld - Sons Of Orar - All the Bikes!

It is back to the Sons Of Orar for todays update. When we were writing up the army list for the Sons Of Orar, we wanted to reflect a swift-moving assault force. Something that could get in your face early on. To this end, we decided on giving the Chapter Master leading the army a Bike. This not only ensures his combat-oriented self gets stuck in early, but it allows Bikes to be taken as Troop choices.

The Sons Of Orar team lead, John Stiening, got stuck into painting up these two units of Bikers.

Five Bikers in first unit.

And six in the second unit.

These were some of the first units painted for the Sons Of Orar, and John put together a painting guide for the rest of his team to follow. We think they look pretty sweet : )

Lots of detail, particularly on the sergeants!

You have just over FOUR weeks to buy your raffle tickets (HERE) and have a chance to win this excellent army. Money raised goes to Doctors Without Borders, and the winner will be drawn on September 6 at the NOVA Open event. Remember, we will ship the armies in KR Multicase cases to ANYWHERE in the world : )

Thanks to John for his continued support of this wonderful project!

And our thanks to our sponsors who contributed to this project. 
Please support them, so that they can continue to support us!

• Atlantis Games & Comics • Element Games • Secret Weapon Miniatures • KR Multicase

Cheers

Dave Taylor

NOCF VP

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5:13 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines

Battle for the Craftworld - Alaitoc Eldar - Wave Serpents!

It can be pretty tough to deal with an Eldar army that runs straight at you, but that difficulty is increased exponentially when you can pile the "slower" infantry units into the tough-to-crack Wave Serpents. This Alaitoc Eldar army features not one, but THREE of this awesome xenos transport!

These three tanks, with the ability to really put a crimp in your opponent's plans for domination, were painted by Brian Ballard - the same Brian who lead the creative team responsible for the Alaitoc Eldar army. Brian also painted the Eldar Guardians HERE, and the Falcon Grav Tank HERE.

Here are 3/4 and overhead views of all three of this Wave Serpents that are part of the Eldar army YOU could win if you purchase some raffle tickets from the NOCF website. Follow the LINK here to do so, and also check out the recently added Flames Of War Polish army (painted by Steve McCuen), and the excellent Malifaux crews (painted by Wes Cogdal of Stiff Neck Studios). [UPDATE: links to the Malifaux crews coming very soon!]

Thanks to Brian for his continued support of this wonderful project!

And our thanks to our sponsors who contributed to this project. 
Please support them, so that they can continue to support us!

• Atlantis Games & Comics • Element Games • Secret Weapon Miniatures • KR Multicase

Cheers

Dave Taylor

NOCF VP

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2:01 PM

2015 Charity Raffles, Alaitoc, Eldar

NOCF at GenCon

Over the past couple of months we've been inundating the blog with posts about the two 40K armies that we are raffling off this year. Soon we'll have a few more featuring the Flames Of War army we are now selling tickets for (painted by Steve McCuen) and the Malifaux crews we will have up on the site very soon (painted by Wes Cogdal of Stiff Neck Studios).

Anyway, if you have any questions about any of these armies, or the mission of the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation, I (Dave Taylor) will be at GenCon this weekend - I'm the one on the right in the photo below. Feel free to hit me up and ask your questions. I'll be more than happy to answer them!

Cheers
Dave Taylor
NOCF VP

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5:00 AM

2015 Charity Raffles

Battle for the Craftworld - Sons Of Orar - Heavy Support One

Each year that I've been involved in creating an army (or two) and then auctioning it off for charity, there have been a few others right there alongside me. One of those perennial troopers in Justin 'misterjustin' McCoy from Secret Weapon Miniatures. The first year Justin supplied us with resin bases, and each year since then he has supplied us with bases AND contributed a unit to the cause. This year he has upped the ante by making it two units - these two Predator tanks - ready to lay down some impressive firepower.

The first Predator (shown below) is set up with fixed weaponry, in the Destructor configuration: a turret-mounted autocannon and two sponson-mounted heavy bolters.

The second Predator (shown below), has been set up with magnets for swapping out your weaponry, giving it the opportunity for a bit more punch against an opponent's heavy armor.

This first trio of photos are of the Destructor set-up.

These next three photos are the same tank, but now in the Annihilator configuration: turret-mounted twin-linked lascannons and two sponson-mounted lascannons.

And of course, if you want to run a cheap Predator you don't need to add sponson weapons at all. Justin has provided the side doors too : )

Thanks to Justin for his support of this wonderful project!

And our thanks to our sponsors who contributed to this project. 
Please support them, so that they can continue to support us!

• Atlantis Games & Comics • Element Games • Secret Weapon Miniatures • KR Multicase

Cheers

Dave Taylor

NOCF VP

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1:34 PM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines

Battle for the Craftworld - Spotlight on our Sponsors (part 2)

We are lucky to have some fantastic sponsors here at the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation. Each year they provide things like the models that make up the armies, the bases these models stand on, and even the cases the models are shipped to the winners in! 

Secret Weapon Miniatures have been with us from the start, even with the "raffling off an army for charity" idea going all the way back to The Storm Wardens project of 2010! This year misterjustin and his crew supplied us with all the bases for both armies. To represent the Sons Of Orar attacking the Alaitoc Eldar Craftworld, we chose to use the Alien Temple range, with it's sweeping curves and pointy edges!

Our last (and by no means least) major sponsor is KR Multicase. The team at KR have also sponsored us for the last couple of years, and it is thanks to them that we can confidently claim to send the winners their armies anywhere in the world. Our armies have made it safely all the way to Tasmania, Australia - half a world away! This year KR are busy cutting custom foam for both the Space Marines and Eldar, as well as a few more surprises coming your way : )

Don't forget to buy your tickets HERE today and share this information about our excellent sponsors with your friends.

Cheers
Dave Taylor
NOCF VP

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1:40 PM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sponsors