Quiet Thursday.

Not a lot to add today. We're all a bit out of sorts and have decided to take a day off.

Here is some food for thought...cavalry mounts. Inso has been sharing a few thoughts with me:

If the Grymn were living on a desert/arid planet what sort of beasts would they ride as cavalry units? Would they even ride beasts or would they opt for bikes? Grymn are short (being space dwarves and all) so how about short legged camels? Big insects? The Tyranids that Inso has painted are enemies for the Grymn; maybe the Grymn could capture and ride Tyranid variants? What about lizards or even dinosaurs? God forbid...badgers???

If bikes, then what sort? Anti-grav bikes? Jet bikes? Dirt bikes? What about a bike styled like Akira's?

The cavalry would have to fit in with the Imperial Guard Codex, so Rough-Riders or Sentinels would be the obvious choices for them to fit into.

So many questions...

See you tomorrow.

Lines...

Today there are no pix from Inso because he is learning lines for his role in the pantomime (oh no he isn't...oh yes he is...). It is quite funny to see him struggling with trying to sing a song whilst holding the words and trying to do the dance steps...in his living room! Oh if only he'd let me take some pix of that!

So tonight I'll continue with his Grymn army and start off with a few pix of the first mechanised infantry platoon:

Command:



First Squad:



Second Squad:



As I have already mentioned, each of the squads in his army will have an A.P.C. to travel in. In order to field a playable army there needs to be at least one HQ unit and two Troop units. You have seen the HQ and a couple of attendant squads and above is the first of the troop choices. Inso is in the process of painting a second infantry platoon at the moment (along with other things...) and has finished the first squad but has the second squad and command to go.

If you hadn't noticed, so far there have been seven squads pictured and that doesn't include the next platoon...that's an awful lot of A.P.C.s. Here is a list of what Inso has Planned:

Command HQ Squad + A.P.C.
Sniper Squad + A.P.C.
Flamer Squad + A.P.C.
Missile launcher Squad + A.P.C.
Storm trooper Squad + A.P.C. (these are an Elite Choice)
Infantry platoon + 3 A.P.C.s.
Infantry Platoon + 3 A.P.C.s.
Engineer Squad + Samson Engineer Tank (A.P.C.). (will probably be another Storm trooper squad)
Medic Squad + A.P.C. (will probably be an additional squad for one of the platoons).
Gladius Tank x3 (each is a heavy support choice)
Glaive Flame Tank x3 (each is a fast attack choice)

That makes a total of twelve A.P.C.s, one Engineer Tank, three Gladius Tanks and three Glaive Flame Tanks...not a small amount of work. Fortunately, the majority of the troops are painted so it isn't an insurmountable goal for Inso to complete.

Well, that's it again for tonight. No doubt there will be something tomorrow.

Engineer Thinking:
An optimist sees the glass as half full.
A pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
An engineer sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be.

More Grymn army stuff.

As expected, there wasn't a lot forthcoming from the painting table of Inso today so I thought I'd continue with some more information on his Grymn mechanised infantry.

So far we know the doctrines and that the Grymn use the 'counts as' rule for a lot of their weapons. I thought that I'd say what a few of the weapons are and give you an idea of what he has planned for vehicles.

First of all, the basic Grymn (light infantry) are armed with SMGs. Imperial Guard are armed with lasguns but fortunately they have exactly the same stats as an autogun which suits the SMG quite well. When it comes to other weapons there is the Grymn pulsegun which Inso uses as a hellgun (that way he can use heavy infantry as Stormtroopers without having to convert the minis too much), the Grymn railgun, which he uses as a missile launcher (due to its shape and the fact it is shoulder fired) and there are the assault pistols which he uses as laspistols. Inso has converted weapons to act as meltaguns and has also bent the rules a bit so that he can use the Grymn minigun as an assault cannon (not normally an option with Imperial Guard). As luck would have it, the Grymn use flamers and have snipers which don't need to be 'counts as' at all. Apart from that, there are a few other weapons that the Grymn use that Inso doesn't use in the list as he feels that he has enough with what he already has.

Moving on from weapons, there are the vehicles. The Imperial Guard uses Chimera A.P.C.s, Leman russ tanks and Hellhound flamethrower tanks (based on the Chimera A.P.C.). They also use Sentinel scout walkers and Baneblade 'super-heavy' tanks. Inso has chosen not to use Games Workshop models and has opted to use Old Crow Production vehicles. He has done this because the size matches the Grymn very well and they are very nice tanks as well! The ones he will be using are the Glaive A.P.C. (to sub for a Chimera), the Gladius medium battle tank (to sub for a Leman Russ) and the Samson engineer vehicle (which will sub for a Chimera for his engineer unit). He has thought about using some wheeled scout units and even an artillary tank but those aren't featuring just yet. Inso has also got plans to convert a few Glaives into Hellhounds as well.

In Inso's galleries there is a pic of the tanks he'll be using (and an example of one of the wheeled scout vehicles):


and this pic gives you an idea of the scale:

I'll talk a bit more about the army tomorrow as I think I've covered quite enough tonight. Catch you then!

Mindless Monday...

...Only because another Drusch Zombie pic has appeared! Out of the blue, Inso sent this (rather poor ;) ) montage of his latest Drusch miniature, a Stryker:



It is a mild surprise because I didn't know that he had got as far as he has with it. Well, you learn something everyday! This one is number four in the Drusch Slaver band so there are only five more to go. Lets hope the next one arrives soon.

To change the subject; let's talk about Grymn.

I said yesterday that I was going to give you a little more info on the Grymn army that Inso is working on. Well, here it is.

The army is a mechanised infantry detachment that will be completely carried in Armoured Personnel Carriers (A.P.C.s) and supported by a small amount of tanks and engineer vehicles.
The Army is using Codex Imperial Guard (from Games Workshop) and is using the doctrine system in the back of the book. Currently the doctrines are:
1 - Mechanised.
2 - Special Equipment: Carapace Armour.
3 - Special Weapon Squads.
4 - Stormtroopers.
That leaves one more to play with, should Inso need to.

As the Grymn are armed slightly differently to the list, they are using the 'counts as' rule quite a lot but it doesn't mean that they don't fit the list...they fit it reasonably well.

Currently, Inso has bought five A.P.C.s but has not assembled them yet. They are, however, bought from Old Crow Productions and are called Glaives. There are a number of different locomotion methods but Inso has gone for tracked vehicles as he thought that they suited the Grymn better that way.

He also mentioned that while he was serving in Iraq, the sight of armoured columns entering and leaving the base was truly inspiring, hence his choice to mechanise his Grymn.

Well, that's enough for tonight.

There will be more tomorrow!

Sunday Tyranid invasion!

I guess Inso was busy yesterday after all! I got these pix of some Tyranid Gaunts sent through today and they are all finished.

Gaunt1:
Gaunt2:
Gaunt3:

Gaunt4:


The Gaunts are in different colours to see which one suits a desert look the best. Inso has posted a few polls on various forums to see what the concensus is...so we should see which one wins out with the general public. The polls should be finished next Sunday so we'll find out then.

So it seems that this weekend wasn't as unproductive as we first thought. I doubt very much if there will be much to show tomorrow but I guess we'll find out then, won't we?!

Saturday; a day of varnishing.

Inso got in touch today and has said that he is feeling a bit less tired but has not painted anything too fidly so as not to mess it up. As a result he has packed his desert Grymn into a storage case to make room for his other Grymn and has spent the day catching up with his varnishing jobs.

He hasn't just done varnishing today; he has managed to put some paint on a few Tyranids (available from Games Workshop). Unfortunately, they are not in a condition for photographs but when there are pix available, Inso assures me that he will send them over.

So...why Tyranids? As you may have read already, Inso bought a Battleforce box of Tyranids last weekend. He has an idea that they will be an indiginous alien species that has evolved on a desert planet (rather than following Games Workshop's story of them being genetically created). As a result he has assembled four spare Tyranids and is trying out a few different paintschemes. So far, he has basecoated the four of them and is in the process of applying a wash over each basecoat. Tyranids are a range of miniatures that are perfect to use washes on as they have lots of ridges and bumps.

Once the box of Tyranids are all painted (a future project), they will act as enemies for Inso's Grymn (it will be a bit like Starship Trooper...but with additional tanks!). Speaking of Grymn (did you like the link there?), I thought I'd show off another squad from Inso's Grymn army. This time, it is the turn of an elite unit of Stormtroopers. These are Heavy Infantry that have been converted so that they all have berets. There are also a couple of weapon changes and a radio operator that has had his equipment added. Anyway...here's the pic:



Tomorrow I'll give you a bit of a rundown on the idea behind the Grymn army that Inso is building and the rules that he is using from the GW Imperial Guard Codex.

Have a nice evening and I'll see you tomorrow!

...and then there was...

...nothing. No word, no pix and no witty diatribe. I'm left to my own devices today because Inso has not been in touch. Hopefully, he's getting some kip somewhere so he can paint some stuff for us to see.

Well, not to be discouraged, I'll post another couple of pix for his Grymn Imperial Guard army. These two pix tie in nicely with the command squad as they are two special weapons squads that form part of the command platoon. First up is the sniper squad:


Next up is a flamer squad, complete with helmets (so that their hair doesn't catch fire in the backdraught):




All of these Grymn are available from Hasslefree as seen above, with the exception of the guy with the open visor (he's a conversion of Jinso with a helmet added).

Well that's it for today. Who knows what may turn up over the weekend...hopefully something!

See you tomorrow!

Grymn Thursday...

Inso has been very quiet today and has just about managed to assemble and base 4 termagants without messing it up. A lack of sleep has prevented him from doing any painting so I thought that we'd have a look at his Grymn army.

We'll start the ball rolling with the commander. He is based on Kjaran the steam-punk pirate from Hasslefree. He's had a leg swap and a weapon swap with a little armour added to his chest with some Green Stuff:



Next up is his personal bodyguard. She is based on another steam-punk pirate called Sola. She had armour and kneepads added with Green Stuff:



Finally, we have the whole command squad which includes a medic, radio operator and grenade launcher:



If you are familiar with Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K, then you will have heard of the Imperial Guard; this army is based on their codex. The squad above is a command HQ unit and is the lead unit of the army. In future posts, there will be more information about the army and what units are contained within it.

If you haven't heard of Imperial Guard...think U.S. army in space and you can't go far wrong.

Inso apologises about the lack of zombies but hopes to have some more progress soon.

A change of scenery.

Inso has managed to send me pix for two days in a row! Not only that but, due to comments on another forum, he has changed the background to enhance the look of the pix a bit. I think that they have less of a sickening glow to them and as a result, are a bit of an improvement. To kick off the show, we have the latest Drone to join the ranks:


The armour and helmet are a bit darker than the last Drone and there is a change to the symbol on the helmet but apart from that, he is pretty much the same as the last one (Drones do have to be very similar, after all!). Next up is a small group shot of what is painted so far. This is really just to try the new background for a group shot...aparently:


After three nearly sleepless nights, Inso is dead on his feet at the moment so don't expect too much from him tomorrow. But there is plenty of stuff to show off, even if he hasn't finished his latest Drusch. After all, you've only seen one Grymn so far...

Suzie Tuesday.

Suzie has arrived! Inso finished painting her today and has sent this pic over:


The colours are in a similar scheme to the WWII German Youth Army. It will go with the Drones in an abstract sort of way. On a similar note, the second Drone is on Inso's painting table and is also nearing completion...the funny thing is, it will look almost the same as the first one (as good Drones all look alike...don't they?) except for the helmet badge.

You never know, the second Drone may be finished for tomorrow but if not, there are plenty of other pix to show off. See you tomorrow.

I don't like Mondays...

Monday! That means work for us all and Inso is no exception. He had the added bonus of not getting any sleep on Sunday night so by this evening, he was extremely tired (Inso is short for insomniac...not sleeping is something Inso does a lot).

That said, he has still managed to get a bit of painting done but hasn't taken pictures...which is a shame but tomorrow there should be a second finished Drusch to show off. This time it will be the leader, Suzie the witch. She is, apparently, nearly finished, with only her jacket, hair and base rim to be painted.

It is a shame that the Tyranids have interupted the painting but now they have been assembled, they have been put away so they shouldn't interfere any more.

So, what pic should I put up tonight? How about something from Heresy Miniatures? I think this lurker should do the trick:


Inso decided to paint this in contrasting colours because most people seemed to go for a demonic look to them.

Well that's it for today, tomorrow there will be a pic of Suzie for you to see.

...And now for something completely different...

Yesterday Inso went into the big city to spend his vouchers. After buying the most evil of cardigans, he popped into Truro Games Workshop and bought a Tyranid Battle Force (£50-00 worth of plastic aliens). While he was there he met Steve Buddle, the owner/sculptor of Spyglass miniatures, had a bit of a natter and was shown Steve's latest green, an awesome chaos daemonette. As a result of the visit to GW, Inso has been rather distracted and instead of painting zombies, he has been jabbering on about how cool the chaos daemonette was and assembling Tyranids instead.

What does this mean? No photos. In Inso's own words 'there's no point taking pix of assembled plastic Tyranids, is there?'.

I suppose he's right...so in true 'stiff upper lip' fashion, I have rooted through his on-line album and come up with a rather special picture. This may not look like much but it is one of only two such miniatures in existance. It is a pre-production, master resin casting of a Grymn with flamer called Stefan. It was a gift from Kev and Sally White at Hasslefree Miniatures and was named after Inso (who's first name is Steve). How cool is that?! Anyway, here's the pic and I hope you like it:



As usual, if you click the pic, you get a larger view.

As time goes by, you will learn more of Inso's unhealthy obsession with regards to Grymn miniatures, as I'm sure there will be many pix of them to appear on this blog in the future.

The Drusch are starting to arrive.

I got a surprise this morning...


...the first finished Druschian Drone. Looking at the pic, I guess that Inso has decided to go for a slightly Nazi appearance for his Drusch. He tells me that the motif on the helmet is not the symbol for the group but more of a name picture. The leader of the group is, after all, a school girl (even if she does happen to be a corrupt witch) so she paints the pictures on the helmets so that she knows the difference between them.

There may be a few more completed by the end of the weekend as Inso says that these are really good to paint. He has forgone his usual batch painting approach and has decided to paint these individually. Hopefully we'll see the fruits of his labours soon.

Inso's droning on...

I got a pic sent over from Inso today and it is one of the Drones. It is very much a WIP shot but it shows the dead look to the skin and an idea of what direction the colours are going:



He has mentioned that they may end up with a bit of a WWII Nazi look to them but he isn't sure as he may lean towards a Red Army look instead...decisions; decisions...

As the picture is a WIP I will mention that only the skin is completely finished. The pic is a little bleached by the flash but the next ones won't be (Or I'll be forced to take the pix myself next time!).

Inso has a day off work tomorrow so there may be a bit more progress than usual. You never know.

A week or so ago, Inso bought a few lift fans from Evil Mushroom Games. As of yet they are sitting on his table doing nothing, but the Drusch have given him an idea. What he is planning is to make the little Drusch group a Slaver Team. This means that they need to get about quickly and be able to store the slaves they catch and transport them to where ever they need to go. What that means is the lift fans will be put to good use as part of a Slaver Craft. It is only in the ideas phase at the moment but Inso has been known to create a vehicle or two...so watch this space.

If at any point you need to cheer yourself up, log onto You Tube and search for 'whistling puppy'. I defy anyone to watch the clip and not feel infinitely more cheerful!

Tatty Bye.

These are working hands...

Today would have been a good day to show you pictures but for once it isn't Inso's fault there are none, it's his camera. The battery gave up the ghost during the photoshoot and is now on charge but rest assured, tomorrow will see some updated pix. He has mentioned that the four drones are going to be the first to be finished as he has already painted the flesh and has started to block in the base colours. He wouldn't say any more about the schemes because 'you'll see the pix tomorrow'. Let's hope so.

I will say that Inso was in a good mood today. In his own words, he has 'working hands' today. This is what he calls it when he picks up the spanners and does some mechanical work, rather than being chained to a desk doing paperwork. He says that it makes you feel like you've done a good days work rather than feeling like you are having your brains rolled flat by the establishment.

Did you know that MOTHER IN LAW is an anagram of HITLER WOMAN? Also ELEVEN PLUS TWO is an anagram of TWELVE PLUS ONE? It's funny how things work, isn't it?

Well, hopefully we'll get some pix up tomorrow so we'll see you then.

Thirty Seven.

There is very little progress on the Drusch, apart from undercoat and base-painted bases. If Inso gets his arse in gear and takes a pic or two, we may get to actually see what he's done. He's like that you know. Sometimes he's a whirling Dervish with miniatures being painted by the bucket load and the next...nothing.

I suppose he has an excuse today because it's his birthday, hence the title (you'll never guess how old he is).

Everything is fairly chilled in Inso's house today. He has dropped the 'early detachment' bombshell and it has been recieved with barely a ripple from his family...it could have gone a lot worse, that's for sure. Inso tells me that he has relaxed a bit now after worrying himself silly about telling his family.

With only three and a half months to go before going abroad, plans are being made to finish painting certain miniatures before departure.

As well as the Drusch, Inso has been working on an army of Grymn (Space Dwarves from Hasslefree Miniatures) and hopes to finish the latest platoon before departure. If he still has time, after finishing the Drusch as well, he also plans to finish a platoon of Neu Swabian League troops from Ground Zero Games.

Of course...this has to fit in with life but all being well, things should start ramping up on the painting front pretty soon.

The start of the Druschian revolution.

Inso sent this to me and says sorry for the lack of paint, poor photography and composition:



The pic shows 2xJotuns, 2xStrykers a Zombie Suzie and 4xDrusch Drones. There are a few minor modifications and the miniatures are all available from Hasslefree Miniatures. Click the pic to get a slightly bigger view.

Bad Monday...

Inso was very angry today. He was due to go on a detachment to Iraq in July but it has been brought forward to May. If he hadn't been nosing around on the computer at work, he wouldn't have known because no one thought to tell him. He has to tell his family now...and that will be hard to do as he only got back from Iraq in December. Life in the military has its down days.

On a lighter note, his glued hand is still holding together!

Tonight work starts on the painting of the little Drusch/Zombie group. Inso is looking to undercoat the minis and paint the bases but in his current frame of mind, he may just get drunk! Inso also assures me that there will be photos of the little group soon so watch this space.

Sunday night is Panto night...

This evening Inso went to rehearsals for the pantomime. This year it is the Pied Piper of Hamlett and he is playing both the Jester and an aged band leader.

Rehearsals were OK but the dancing was a bit too complicated for Inso whose feet kept getting confused...fortunately there is plenty of rehearsal time left.

Zombies...they're out to get you!

Inso had a bit of a down day yesterday. There he was, sitting there trimming the mould lines off a Drusch Stryker (science fiction zombie from Hasslefree Miniatures) when the scalpel slipped from his hand.

It wouldn't have been too bad but for the fact that the immediate action he took, was to grab for the knife (he tells me that it was a reaction that anyone would have made...). Being a scalpel and being very sharp, the blade found its way into the palm of Inso's hand. Yes there was pain...yes there was blood...but with a little blob of superglue it was glued shut in an instant.

Amazing stuff, superglue (cyanoacrylate to those of you with an interest in chemistry).

The whole point of this entry isn't the injury. It isn't even the highly risky business of using superglue to seal a wound. The whole point is that the Zombies are out to get him!

Since time began for Inso, he has never understood the whole 'Zombie' thing. When you are dead, you are dead. In order to live you have all these bits and pieces inside you to make you work (a bit like the pixies that live in your TV...according to Inso). When they stop working, so do you. Zombies not only have their bits and pieces not working but a lot of the time they are missing all together!

So, Inso has never bought any Zombie miniatures and has let the world know that it isn't his thing. This changed when during a trade, he recieved a handfull of Drusch miniatures. After adding a couple of extras, he started tackling the cleaning and basing of the minis. That is when he not only cut the tip of a finger but stuck the scalpel in his hand. He hasn't injured himself whilst working on his hobby for years...until now.

The Zombies Know...

A brief idea of what goes on in Inso's World.

Well here we are at the beginning of a long winded and often distracted look into Inso's World. Inso is an excentric sort of chap who doesn't get too much sleep and as a result has been known to think about things others don't and do things others wouldn't.

Mostly this blog will cover a not so secret passion; collecting, sculpting and painting wargames miniatures. It may eventually dabble in the arts of playing the wargames but, as yet, Inso doesn't wargame. There will be many times when short stories, poetry and snapshots of life's great tapestry will appear...so you never know what you are going to get!

Being a family man, father, serving military man, motor-cyclist, painter, model-maker and even an actor (in the glorious realms of pantomime!), Inso can be relied upon to at least provide something different in each post...even if it isn't necessarily done in the most amazing fashion.

So welcome to Inso's World. Buckle up as it may be a bit of a bumpy ride!