Series update #1 - NOVA Open & The Capital Palette

It’s been a busy month in the hobby!  I helped staff the NOVA Open over Labor Day Weekend, and two weeks after that, I participated in the annual NCMSS show.  In mid-October, the local Monday Night Malifaux crew will be representin’ at the Battle for Salvation convention up near New York City.

In the midst of all of that, my gaming docket continues to be redirected on a weekly basis, and, with it, my painting queue, which keeps getting jerked around.  Good problems to have!

Given all this activity, I have a backlog of updates to make to the blog.  I was going to post all of these topics, and then I realized that would be really picture-heavy, so I'll pace out these updates over several days.

First up......

NOVA Open and the Capital Palette

I wrote an article for Figure Painter Magazine which reviews the Capital Palette art competition.  I wanted to wait for the article to come out before I posted to my blog. 

I felt like the Capital Palette showed great improvement over last year, with better cabinets, better lighting, and better processing.  The only downside with the facility is that it requires a lot of work, time, and heavy-lifting to set up and tear down.  But I take consolation in that NOVA Open can now boast one of the best miniature-figure display facilities in the hobby!

The newly expanded cabinets

With regard to quantity and quality of entries this year, I think we held steady compared to last year.  Some of our heavy-hitter artists from last year were absent this year, due to moving out of the area, schedule conflicts, or depleted inventory!  But we saw a lot of new faces, too, and the strength of talent was more evenly distributed, which kept the average bar about the same.

One of the highlights this year for me was hosting a display for studio Infinity miniatures, painted by Ángel Giráldez and hand-carried from Spain by Infinity creator, Gutier Lusquiños Rodríguez.  Whenever I see Infinity models announced on Tabletop Gaming News or Beasts of War, I marvel over them.  So it was a real treat to see these figures in person and to be able to study Ángel’s technique.

Between the Infinity studio models and Martin Jones’ models below, I am inspired to paint one or two of my own Infinity miniatures!

by Martin Jones

Of course, there’s a lot more to the NOVA Open than the Capital Palette.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of spare time to take photos of armies, skirmish squads, and terrain.  I was glad to at least have the chance to see a lot of the armies in my capacity as an Army Appearance Judge, but that opportunity is still not ideal, since judging armies is always under a lot of time pressure, logistical pressure, and participant pressure!

Capital Palette judges and staff:  (l. to r.)  Justin McCoy, Dave Taylor, Caleb Wissenback, Bob Likins, and Mike Schaefer

by Frank Behrens

by Steve Carey

Next:  The National Capital Model Soldier Society (NCMSS) Annual Show