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

Battle for the Craftworld - Alaitoc Eldar - Troops

At the heart of every Craftworld there are the Eldar militia, the Guardians who, in times of war, don their armor and take up their shrunken catapults to defend their homes and the future of their race.

At the core of our Alaitoc Eldar army is this Guardian squad, painted for us by the man who lead the Eldar team - Brian Ballard. Intrigued for the Alaitoc blue and camo patterns, Brian dived in and created this excellent example of the Eldar defenders.

The heavy weapons platform actually has all the gun options painted, and these will ship to the winner (but they just weren't photographed).

In addition to the Guardians, the Alaitoc Eldar army has two squads of Dire Avengers. The first was painted by Kelvin Goh, a first-year volunteer all the way from Australia. Kelvin was initially slated to do both Dire Avenger squads, but halfway through was afflicted by sight issues and he had to take a few months off from painting. He sent both squads back to us...

...and I picked up the second squad. My painting style is a little different to Kelvin's, but I think the two squads fit nicely alongside each other.

And there you have the Troops choices for the Alaitoc army. They stand proud and tall, ready to defend Alaitoc in the "Battle for the Craftworld"!

Thanks to Kelvin and Brian 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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8:27 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Alaitoc, Eldar

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

Battle for the Craftworld - Alaitoc Eldar - Heavy Support One

The centerpiece model of the Alaitoc Eldar army is arguably the Wraith Knight. Not only has artist Marc Raley done a spectacular job of painting this model, but it also towers over everything else on the list. The base you see him standing on is the 120 x 95 mm oval (aka the Flying Base), so you should get a reasonable idea of its size. BIG!

You can see more of Marc's work at his blog, HERE.

Even though our team leads prescribe color recipes and schemes and so on, we like to give our artists the opportunity to express themselves in some of the smaller details. There was an interesting discussion early in the piece about the "camouflage" that the Alaitoc Eldar would use. In the end, Marc opted for the great mottling you can see on the legs below.

The man who lead the Alaitoc Eldar team, Brian Ballard, also painted up the skimmers for the army. Here we have his Eldar Falcon Grav Tank. Brian did some spectacular work on his tonal modulation on his flat panels, and a fun look on the gold canopies!

As you can see, Brian's Falcon features a camouflage scheme reminiscent of and urban camo, which is very eye-catching and matches the three Wave Serpents Brian also painted for the army!

Thanks to Marc and Brian 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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5:00 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Alaitoc, Eldar

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

This is the first of our unit features for the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation (NOCF) 2015 Sons Of Orar Adeptus Astartes army. We decided to start with some of the heavy hitters in the army to give you an idea of the punch it'll be able to pack.

The first unit you can see here is the Vindicator, painted by Chris "Jawaballs" Dubuque. Chris has been involved since the beginning, painting a unit for the Storm Wardens army back in 2010. This time he has gone to town on this lovely (and punchy) tank for the Sons of Orar. A bit of an expert at painting red (thanks to his obsession with Blood Angels), Chris has done a beautiful job with his tonal modulation on the flat panels of this powerful tank.

You can see more of his excellent work at his blog, HERE.

The second unit we want to show off today is a squad of Centurions, equipped with grav cannons and grav amps. These were painted by Dan Withers of Valhalla Games in New Zealand (yes, they traveled all the way from Middle Earth!).

Our unit of three Centurions in last year's Ultramarine army were quite popular, so Dan dialed up the effort for this year to FIVE of these hardcore, dangerous support troopers. Used effectively, they'll be great as an anvil against which the pesky Eldar can be smashed!

Dan has done some great things with the posing of this unit, but the model above stands out as my favorite. The amount of menace squeezed into this miniature is just wonderful!

Thanks to Chris and Dan 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

Read More →

5:00 AM

2015 Charity Raffles, Sons Of Orar, Space Marines