NOVA 2019 Blood, Sweat and Tears

 Well... it's done. This year;s project took me to the breaking point haha.. This was build, painted and lighted in a little over 2 weeks. Which is pretty fast but whole crap did I put in some long days to get it wrapped up. Even now a few hours before I leave I'm making some bezels to clean up the connection between it and the original sections.

 Never again, If I'm that short of time I'm just going to have to let it ride. The toll it takes is too large .. I need to make sure I start working on it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay sooner. I enlisted my friend Scott again this year but sadly he was roped into the massive effort and put in three long days working on the programming and wiring. Big thanks to him.. I wouldn't have gotten it done without help.

 But all that being said I think it came out looking awesome. All of the lights are in and programmed.

 So... if you are at Nova stop on by and say hey! .. I'll be in the 30K Heresy area most of the weekend .. Shouldn't be hard to find me.. just look for all the lights haha

 I'll write more when I have time and can think straight..  nothing like going into a long gaming weekend already destroyed. Yay! Me smart! Here are some videos.. I hope they show up as videos.. again, too tired to really look at it .. ok ... off to print out my army lists!

NOVA is almost here..

 Which means I'm pretty much losing my mind. This addition to my displayboard is making me nuts haha.. Because of health issues I was way behind this year so I'm even farther against the wall. I'm actually under the wall 8) But it is coming along.

The second floor will be the Hall of Honor to remember the fallen with two walls of names and four statues.

 Here's some pictures of the bottom level.. it will have mechanics down there .. in the pic I'm testing the bulkhead and door lights.

 Hopefully tonight I'll finish up installing the final 32 LEDs, this weekend I need to wrap up all the wiring and get the UNOs driving it. So many lights... so much wire.  When all's said and done I think there are over 100 LEDs in this section.

It's coming along .. just have to keep pushing on. Argh..  well..  less then a week and still a ton to go but at least the end is in sight.

Chop chop bang

 The 20 Assault Marines are finished up, I was rocking and rolling and pretty happy with how these guys turned out. It's crazy how much work has to go into the Jetpacks, it's like they are a separate model in and of itself haha

 I really wanted them to have a lot of implied motions and I think they look pretty solid.

 The first squad has the red accented bases..

 A little look at the Sarg's Jetpack .. This squad has a Talon..  It's a nice weapon but it really just is because it looks cool haha

 The second squad has the yellow accents and he's rocking a power sword just to mix it up..

 I played around with the sword to make it look a little different and I think it came out pretty cool.

 The guys are a little more beat up and haagpaag .. looking like they are taking gear from where ever they find it. Their poses are also more motiony ..

Over all I think they came out pretty cool. I may hit them up with another panel line shadow but I don't think it's really necessary but would add a little more depth. I think they should be able to function as 10 man or combined for a 20..  I probably should have made an extra guy to replace the second sarge but ahhh.. forgot haha

Now I'm working on new addition to the displayboard, I've been cutting it and it's almost complete cut atm .. though wholly crap I went a bit nuts for the time I have available. It's huge and it will have around 200 more LEDs ..  argh ..  who needs sleep right?

A quick pic of it partly together..

Still need to cut a few more pieces and then the painting will begin .. then a butt ton of wiring ... argh..

Sock Fail

 Hey all.. been another long stretch since the last update but I have been working here and there when I've been able. Nova is now three weeks away and I'm really under the gun, down to the wire, add whatever time crunch line you'd like ... I GOT NO TIME. This is the first time I've really thought about not pushing through ... but I'm putting in as much table time as I can from now to Nova to see if I can get what I need done done..

 The 20 assault marines are getting close to be being done. I put in some time to make them look very fluid and have a unique pose. I'm pretty happy with them.. I meant to take some pics of all of the bits I was using as it looked crazy. It was so many pieces.

 10 of the marines I used Dark Fury bodies and shoulders and the other 10 are mostly a mix of many pieces. I really wanted them to look piece meal and like the were scrounging whatever they could find.

 I needed a way to hold my models as I don't want to attach them to the bases yet until the bases are done. I pinned all the models and make a box to hold them. This made it easier to hold them and spray them.

 I wanted to chip and scratch the swords to show battle wear and tear. Yes.. that is a sock haha .. I needed something to protect the model so I should spray chipping and then spray black/gray. Don't worry it was clean.. and was old .. and then got thrown away...

 You might be able to see the wear on the swords but the models have a layer of gloss clear drying on them. Acyrlic blending is done and most of the other details are done. I have to paint the power claws and power sword but other then that it will be the weathering.

It wouldn't be Nova prep if there wasn't a ton of masking I needed to complete.

This is part of the stuff for the new additions to the display .. hopefully I have the time to get it completed ... 8(

Also masked the bases..

Hit the terrain with steel and then rusted some areas then cleared them. All prep for the chipping.

Added color sections to the bases so I could keep track of the different squads.. 10 red and 10 yellow.

And some of the chipping .. I added black to and red to some of the bits and started to chip. I'll of course add weathering and I'm thinking of add icons .. we'll see 8)

Time is running out... hopefully I can get this all done ..