Sunday Evening Already?

What with the UK going into British Summer Time this weekend, Sunday evening has come around a little quicker than usual. That means that before long the evenings will be getting lighter for longer and there may be more time for all those hobby activities that keep us all sane.

So...what's on the agenda? Well, first up, Inso and I would like to welcome our new follower Igo. It's great to have you aboard!

Next, I would be telling you all about what is on Inso's painting table...but I can't. I am sworn to secrecy because Inso is sworn to secrecy. He is currently painting a pair of pre-production master castings from an up and coming miniatures range. All I can say is that they are sci-fi and they are extremely interesting. I'm sorry I can't say any more but as soon as the pictures are allowed to be released, they will be.

What else? Well, the small Hasslefree package has arrived and work has begun on Inso's next little project.

Have you ever seen Star Trek? Serenity? Farscape? Starwars? Space; Above and Beyond? Well they all have something in common. They all have a small selection of 'speciality' crewmen/women who plod around the galaxy having adventures. With that in mind, Inso has embarked on a little journey into space exploration of the sci-fi pirate kind.

The first part is selecting and converting the 'speciality' crew members and the next bit will be converting a few 'boarding party' troops. Well here is the start of the project:

Click the Pic!

On the back row, we have the captain, his warrior friend and his 2nd in command. They are a converted 'Pirate Kjaran' a WIP 'Hasslefresian the troll slayer' and a converted 'Sola'.

On the front row we have A Mystic sensai with her two prodigies. They are a 'Mystic Knight Kieran', 'Angela the Dwarf' and 'Mystic Knight Jen'.

All of the miniatures are from Hasslefree Miniatures and when they are complete, they will be the characters for the crew. Inso has a small collection of standard Grymn with shotguns that will all be converted to be the boarding party.

...there has also been talk of a ship, for their travels...

It has been a sad weekend for Inso. Yesterday was the Salute war-games convention in London and he was unable to go. He has been like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting for information and pictures to surface. He was particularly gutted to miss meeting all the guys and girls from the Forum of Doom and the release of Twilight, a new miniatures game with a whole host of unique miniatures...

...hopefully, he'll calm down when all the information and pictures from the event surface on line.

Well that's another Sunday update for you. Hopefully there will be plenty more to come.

Catch you later.

Tuesday Invasion!

We have a bit of a surprise today...Inso has finished the Alien Invasion party (apart from varnish):

Click the pic!

He has basically said that these are 'table-top quality' and have been painted with speed in mind.

These were painted in 10 stages:

Basecoat (on bare metal) Deneb Stone (GW Foundation Paint).
Wash the flesh with GW Gryphone Sepia Wash.
Paint the weapons Astronomicon Grey (GW Foundation Paint).
Wash the weapons with GW Devlan Mud Wash.
Paint the eyes Chaos Black (GW Paint).
Wash over they eyes/sockets with GW Devlan Mud Wash.
Paint the base with Dark Flesh (GW Paint).
Dry-brush the base with Tanned Flesh (GW Paint).
Paint the base rim with Dark Flesh (GW Paint).
Highlight the nose, lips and eyebrows with a tiny bit of Deneb Stone...and that is it...done.

Obviously, Inso still needs to varnish them but as far as he is concerned they are as good as they will get.

Well...what's next? Who Knows?

There's only one way to find out...stay tuned ;).

Catch you later!

Sunday and yet another change of direction...

Inso never fails to surprise me. Just when you think that he is on course to actually finish something (the Urban Assault Platoon), he goes and sends over a picture like this:

Click the pic

If you don't know what they are, they are 'Alien Invaders' from Griffin Miniatures. Inso picked these up at Salute last year and they have been quietly sat in the cupboard since then. He took them out to paint because he said that they were 'quick painters'...meaning that he wasn't going to go to town on them and he will be using simple techniques to get them painted quickly and to a reasonable standard.

Unfortunately, the command figure had a miscast and his arm was missing. Inso had to do something about that so he has sculpted on a 'probe' arm...I dread to think what he has in mind with that character!

In other news, Inso has recently ordered a tank and a few bits and pieces from Old Crow. The bits and pieces will mean that he can finish converting all of the Vulkan battlesuits that he has in his collection (currently 13). The tank was just an impulse buy to see what it looks like (it is a Gladius) and it will eventually join all the Glaives that he has (currently 5).

He has also ordered a few bits and pieces from Hasslefree miniatures. This will enable him to add the chin turret guns to his other two Pilum Dropships and also to put together a small 'mercenary unit' for YET ANOTHER of his projects!

Other items that have arrived recently from E-bay (in addition to the Tiger APC) are 3 more Vulkans (that are included in the tally of 13) and a small squad of Spugs (from Spriggan Miniatures).

There is also a lot going on in the greater miniatures fraternity at the moment. Things that Inso is keen on are:

the Twilight range that will be available from Hasslefree Miniatures. For more information visit here:

http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?board=56.0

The Defiance range that will be available from Spartan Games. For more information, visit here:

http://forum.spartangames.co.uk/smf/index.php?board=131.0

And the new Games Workshop Ratling Snipers. For more information visit here:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1490603&prodId=prod2010019&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

There are also a few kits from Games Workshop that may be of interest; these being the Valkyrie and the Stormsword kits.

Well...a lot of stuff today; not all of it pix and progress but with all the stuff going on in the Inso household at the moment, I don't think that there will be a huge amount forth coming.

Catch you later!

Grrr! It's a Tiger!

Inso seems to have had a bit of a run of mixed luck lately. Family stuff has given him a bit of bad luck but hobby stuff seems to have bucked the trend. Look what turned up from E-Bay today:





It is a Tiger APC and it will eventually join the other three on the field of battle...however, the other three are still in bits, in boxes so that is a future project.

How much did Inso pay for this? £15-00! He's very happy at that price; especially because he was out bid on two other ones at £35-00 a piece!

What a turn up for the books, eh?!

Catch you later!

It's St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, it is St. Patrick's day. A day of celebration, cheer and Guinness. Inso took a day off work today because his wife is still poorly and his children were off school.

Apart from a few chores, he has done a small amount of work on the Pilum Drop-ships. Now, two of them have rocket pods and the third set are made ready to go on the last Pilum (once the wing tips are cut off to accept them).

On a completely different note, Inso has had a bit of surprising news. A while ago, he sculpted the miniature pictured below for a competition (the Hasslefree Miniatures 'Sculpt a Pirate' competition):

Click the Pic!

Unfortunately, he didn't win so the sculpt was put away never to be seen again...or so he thought.

Yesterday, someone on Frothers Unite UK asked the question..."where are these lost sculpts from the competition?" and Inso's pirate was on the list. As a result and after a few PMs, Inso has sold the sculpt (money up-front!) to a prospective miniatures caster and has been offered the chance of some commission work, with all of his sculpts being under his name on the up-coming site.

There is no further information at the moment apart from the fact that the little pirate is on his way to Australia!

As you can imagine, Inso is rather pleased with the situation. Things are very 'fluid' at the moment but it is certainly a good start on a new venture.

Whew! What a day!

Catch you later!

I know...it's not Sunday but...

Yes, I know I didn't post a Sunday update but there wasn't anything to show as Inso never sent anything over.

Luckily, He seems to have conquered his inability to sort out the 'Pilum' drop-ship (or converted Tau Devilfish) with a rather simple solution:




All he has done is chop off the wing tips and the burst-cannon. He then chopped and sanded the smart missile clusters and covered them with a bit of plasticard. The replacement for the burst-cannon is a Grymn mini-gun that will count as an assault-cannon.

Obviously, there is a bit of filling to do and a few little bits to add as details...but this has been praying on Inso's mind for ages and he is relatively pleased to get SOMETHING done on the Pilum.

Life is still 'challenging' at home so as he said to me "it will be little and often...with not many pix".

Hopefully things will improve very soon.

Catch you later.

Monday Pix.

Well I guess Inso has had a bit of free time because he sent these two images over. First up is a before and after of the new GW War of the Ring Movement Trays:

Then is a pic of some Grymn in one of the finished trays:

As you may have noticed, the Grymn aren't completely finished but it gives you an idea of how they will look when the platoon is finished and nicely placed in these movement trays...or display bases.

Make sure you click the pix to get a better view.

Catch you later!

So soon?

I'd love to be able to tell you that I have dozens of new pix to show and a heap of new information...but I can't.

Sorry.

Inso hasn't sent anything through because he is being mother and father to his brood while his wife is poorly...and that will be for a good few weeks yet.

That said, he still has his work and bingo obligations so as you can see, life is being very hectic for him at the moment.

As I said last week, Inso had to go into the gas chamber, fire off a few rounds and revise his first aid skills. All went well and he shouldn't have to do it again for another year...he's very pleased as he really hates the CS gas (in his words, it is like trying to breathe underwater whilst having onions smeared in your eyes). He got teased about being a bit of a sniper...20 rounds in a 52mm grouping at 100m whilst firing from the prone position...not bad.

Well, what has he had time to do on the hobby front? He's finished the fire-team he started last week and has pulled the next one out of the cupboard to start on. He's also glued sand on the bases of all the finished ones ready for painting. Finally, he went over to GW and bought a bunch of War of the Ring movement trays and is using them as display bases for his Urban Platoons. He has glued a bit of sand on a couple and will be painting them up along with the other bases.

Has he taken any pix? No.

Has he got any further with sorting out a photo-tent and lights? No.

Is he going to pull his finger out and get something sorted soon? You bet he will!

Just not tonight...he has to go and call the Bingo!

Catch you later!

Sunday...'Nuther Sunday...

It's Sunday again and I'm sorry to say that there have been no pix forth-coming from the Inso household.

Inso has been very busy at work, has had higher than normal stress levels and when he has been getting home, he hasn't had the enthusiasm for his hobby. Hopefully, things will sort themselves out this coming week as his 'BIG TASK' at work will have ended and he can get back to a bit of normality.

Monday he is getting a dose of 'crowd control' gas as part of his annual, military training so he will be like a cat on hot bricks tonight (as it really is nasty stuff). Looking on the bright side, he also gets to fire off a few rounds at the range...so it's not all bad.

To add to the 'excuses', Inso's wife has been poorly so he has been playing mum this weekend and has been looking after the children, cooking and sorting out all the other bits and pieces.

Has Inso actually achieved anything hobby-wise this week? Well, he was up late last night and has been watching Starship Troopers 3. Apparently...it is TERRIBLE! The ideas behind the Marauders are quite cool though (even though the special effects were awful)...so there may be a few Marauder based conversions turning up in the future.

Painting wise, Inso has finished painting little squares on a further Grymn Urban fire-team and they are looking nice...but he hasn't taken any pix to show off. Apart from that...not a lot really.

Hopefully, next time I post I'll be able to show off a pic or two...but I guess we'll just have to see.

Catch you later!