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 - 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 - 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 - Sons Of Orar - Fast Attack

Even though this is the first year that Joe Johnson has painted models for this project, it certainly isn't his first crack at painting. Joe has been winning Best Army awards at tournaments for over a decade now, and his award-winning armies would be instantly recognizable to many. For the Sons Of Orar Assault Marines, Joe eschewed his signature bright palette and painted these sombre red Space Marines. His style still shines through and creates a great hand-to-hand unit for the attacking Adeptus Astartes force.

Thanks to Joe 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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5:06 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines

Battle for the Craftworld - Spotlight on our Sponsors

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!

This year, our miniatures for the Battle for the Craftworld were provided two generous donors. First up where the team from Atlantis Games & Comics. Atlanitis have two great store locations in south eastern Virginia (USA) - one in Norfolk, and the other in Portsmouth - serving the fine folk of the area, many of whom serve in or provide services for the US Navy (Go Navy!).

This year the Atlantis crew provided ALL the miniatures for our Sons Of Orar Space Marines, and some of the harder to track down miniatures for our Alaitoc Eldar army.

A new sponsor who joins us this year is the team from Element Games in Stockport, UK. It is great to see a business from (not quite) the other side of the world acknowledge the good work our Artist Consortium are doing and put their own support behind us. The Element Games team provided us with the bulk of the Alaitoc Eldar army miniatures.

Element Games have a fantastic store in the North West Gaming Center, and also distribute many different ranges of miniatures (including Warmachine and Hordes, X-Wing and Relic Knights, Malifaux and Infinity. Element Games are also closely associated with the Steamforged Games crew, who make the very cool Guild Ball!

If you are in the UK, we highly recommend you check out their facility in Stockport (near Manchester), and also check out their excellent online offering.

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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9:03 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Alaitoc, Eldar, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines, Sponsors

Battle for the Craftworld - Sons Of Orar - Troops Two

Following on from the Eldar Troops choices in our last post, here are the other two Troops choices for the Sons Of Orar Space Marines.

The first squad we have here has a slightly darker cast to their red armor, and some lovely chipping/weathering effects, all from the hands of Texas-resident Will Thornton. These marines are a great example of some moody and carefully considered paint jobs. The sergeant is equipped with a combi-bolter/grav-gun and a power sword, ready to cleave his Eldar foe with ease.

While the special weapons trooper is equipped with a grav-gun, obviously the weapon of choice for our Space Marines this summer : )

The third and final Tactical squad for the army comes from A.J. Taflan (from Montana). His red is a little brighter than Will's, and his weathering/chipping is just as impressive.

The sergeant is armed (thanks to magnets) with a combi-weapon or bolt pistol and either a power sword or power first.

And the pointing special weapons trooper has the options for a meltagun, flamer, grav-gun, or plasma gun.

I think you'll agree that, combined with Neil's first Tactical squad, these make for a solid core for the Sons Of Orar.

Thanks to Will and AJ 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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7:14 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines

NOCF 2015 Charity Army Raffles are now LIVE!

You can now purchase tickets for the first two armies in the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation's 2015 Charity Army Raffles.

You can buy tickets to win the Alaitoc Eldar Army displayed above AND/OR or the Sons Of Orar Space Marine Army pictured below. All you have to do is click on this link HERE, and start buying!

This will be the third year that the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation (NOCF) has organized such a cool way to give back to the world at large and this follows on, of course, from all the cool stuff done for the Stormwardens project and the Heroes of Armageddon project of years past.

Just like those projects, the direct beneficiary of these two army raffles is Doctors Without Borders, a great organization bringing medical relief to those who need it most, wherever in the world that may be. NOCF ensures that 95c from every $1 spent will go to DWB. The other 5% is used for promotional material and shipping the armies ANYWHERE in the world.

Important points:
• You can buy tickets from anywhere in the world (we'll ship the winners their prizes in a set of sturdy KR Multicase cases).
• We will draw the winners on Sunday, September 6, 2015.
• You do not have to be present at the NOVA Open event to win.

So please, dig deep and buy your chance to win these great armies painted by almost two dozen wonderful artists, themselves from all over the world.

We would like to thank not only our excellent artists who created these armies, but also the wonderful sponsors who made it all possible:

• Atlantis Games & Comics - this great gaming store in Virginia, USA, provided ALL of the Space Marine models and some of the Eldar models.
• Element Games - this great distributor in the UK provided most of the Eldar models.
• Secret Weapon Miniatures - provided all the cool resin bases the armies are standing on, as well as other material support.
• KR Multicase - Are providing the soft foam and sturdy cases that the armies will live in once they are shipped to the winners!

Thanks for your time. Please buy some raffle tickets, and PLEASE share this news/info with ALL your gaming friends. Let's make this HUGE!

Cheers
Dave Taylor
NOCF VP.

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10:03 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Alaitoc, Sons Of Orar

Battle for the Craftworld - Tickets go on sale Wednesday, July 1 (and Sons Of Orar Troops One)

Just two more days before the raffle tickets go on sale for the 2015 Armies! That's right, on Wednesday, July 1, tickets will be available for the multitude of armies we have this year.

YOU CAN FIND THE TICKETS ONSALE HERE FROM WEDNESDAY, JULY 1!

In addition to the Alaitoc Eldar and Sons Of Orar armies, you'll also be able to buy tickets for a chance to win a wonderful Flanes Of War Polish army, and an absolutely massive collection of Malifaux models (all painted by Stiff Neck Studios).

It'll be an exciting day, and I ask you all to share the information throughout your various networks/forums/social media groups/etc.!

And now, on to just one of the Tactical squads from the Sons Of Orar army, painted by Neil Szabo. We usually give our artists a bit of freedom to approach their tasks the way they see fit. This year, Neil took his task to the next level by magnetizing the gap out of this squad. Loads of options for both the sergeant and the special weapons trooper mean that the winner (could it be you?) will be able to switch up their lists depending on opponent without much effort at all.

You can see the whole squad at the top of the post, but here are the various combi-weapon options for the sergeant:

Here are the various combat weapon options:

And Neil has even painted an unhelmeted head for the sergeant, should your troops prefer to roll that way : )

Here is the special weapon trooper, with his various options:

Thanks to Neil 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

We'll see you all over at the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation website on Wednesday to pick up a few dozen tickets in the coolest charity raffle around!

Cheers

Dave Taylor

NOCF VP

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7:39 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines