NOVA: Crunch time

Less then two weeks until NOVA.  The flooding of my basement and the remodeling work/time has really thrown me for a loop.  I just haven't had the time to get things ready.  But never fear, I'll make it happen.  Next week I am making a day trip to Ottawa, and potentially a day trip to Baltimore, so I'll really need to finish by the end of this weekend.  Our local tournament group is putting together a NOVA prep tournament on Saturday so I'll get some practice games.  Here's what I need to finish.

- Finish painting Predator & Vindicator
- Finish painting 5 scouts
- Fix the broken techmarine
- Fix the broken terminator - potentially a new banner or shield
- Final touches on the display board
- Creative army list

Here's where I stand on my two vehicles. I'm almost done with the freehand sun emblems.  I would have liked to have done a more dramatic mural on the siege shield of the vindicator, but I still think this sun looks cool.  I still need to do the treads, green "gem" viewing portals, blacks, and silvers.

One thing I've noticed is that since it's been two years since I've painted this army I made the mistake of going a little too bright / high on my highlights.  Most people won't notice, but it's really bugging me.  I should have spent more time with a previous vehicle to make sure they matched.  My final highlight of space wolves grey must have been watered down with a little ultramarines blue.  Note to self... take better notes!

About a year ago, I had an accident where my tech marine and terminator fell off the table.  The banner broke off the terminator (was metal) and the techmarine shattered into individual pieces.  I'm debating on either rebuilding a sun icon or banner out of plasticard for the terminator or just doing a cool shield.  Any thoughts?  The techmarine should hopefully just need a little TLC with super glue and touch up.

I poured some more water effects into the little river on the display board.  I still need to add some static grass and touch it up.  I'm debating on whether or not to add snow.  Snow is on my miniature bases but it's a pain to do in large areas correctly.  Do you think it would detract from the overall effect if there wasn't snow on the display board, but snow on the individual models?  I'm still using the same color scheme for dirt/stone and will use the same static grass.

Finally my scouts need the most work, I haven't really gotten that far with them.  It'll take a ton of time to get them game ready by the weekend!

With that said, I'm really looking forward to NOVA.  I hope to meet a bunch of you there.  For those of you that can't make it, I'll be blogging every night in the hotel room.