Wednesday...already!?

Time flies when you are working strange shifts...so I haven't really managed to get much done except for to tidy these up:

Click the Pic!

For those of you who may have noticed the odd one out, he is a robot from Black Cat Bases and may be a little familiar to those who like classic sci-fi...obviously the Black Hole wasn't a one way trip after all.

Now that the robots are all finished I am ticking away with the latest army addition; dog handlers. Of course, they aren't dogs but something different (you'll see when I have the conversions finished) and they are taking a small amount of time to get based as I have to fit three miniatures on each one...

On top of that, I have some rather nice little 'Gator' type, all terrain vehicles that have found their way to the table. There are four of them and each one has a trailer. They will need to have riders converting for them but I reckon I've got the donor bodies in my bits boxes so I think it should be fairly straight forward.

Right...I'm off to work so...

See you through the looking glass!

So much to say Sunday (part2)

On with the second part of today's update.

To start the ball rolling, I have completed the Commander for my Grymn tunnel fighter's army:

Click the Pic!

The commander was one of those times where I just sat and finished the sculpting and then painted it in an evening. It's funny how some things just inspire you to finish them and others make you fell despair whenever you get near them. Speaking of things that demand to be finished, have a look at these:

Click the Pic!

I picked these little fellows up at Salute yesterday. They will be split up so that one can join each of the tunnel fighter squads as communications robots. I will be mounting them on bases and rather than them hovering, they will be scampering along with the troops at ground level.

So...the Salute haul or 'what I brought home from Salute'.

Well, I bought the little robots above and some nice little buggies from Ground Zero Games:

http://www.gtns.co.uk/store1/commerce.cgi

I received a gift of some aliens and sniper rifles from Hasslefree Miniatures. I also bought some aliens from Twilight; All available here:

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/

I bought some sci-fi troopers and a gang member with a missile launcher from Heresy Miniatures:

http://www.heresyminiatures.com/

I bought a small robot (that looked like one of the floating robots from the film 'the Black hole') from Black Cat Bases:

http://blackcatbases.com/

...and a couple of apes riding motorbikes from Fighting 15s:

http://www.fighting15sshop.co.uk/

not to mention a chain-gun artillery piece from Maxmini:

http://www.maxmini.eu/forum/index.php

I also bought a platoon of Warwalkers from Critical Mass Games:

http://www.criticalmassgames.com/

Finally (I think) I had a visit from Geronimo over at Fenris Games and he brought me my pre order of Deep Ones. The shop can be found here but the Deep Ones aren't in there yet:

http://www.fenrisgames.com/

I think that about covers everything. I know I haven't put up pix of everything but that would spoil the surprises over the next few weeks and months now wouldn't it?

If I've forgotten anything, I'll let you know soon!

So...once I've based the communications robots, what am I going to do next? I haven't decided yet but it may well have 12 wheels...who knows?

See you through the round window!

So much to say Sunday (Part1)

So...today is the day after Salute, the biggest independent Wargames show of the year.

My day started at 06:15hrs in the morning and I eventually got home (with the a very welcome Kebab) at 22:05hrs at night.

Getting to the show was interesting. Yes, it could have been easier (getting on the wrong train twice, didn't help!) because the rail network closed a few of the stations I needed due to maintenance...but overall the getting there wasn't bad apart from me being an hour later than I planned.

Getting into the venue was easy because I bought my ticket prior to the event. I just joined the quick queue and was in to Salute in a few minutes.

Once in, I went straight to the Hasslefree Miniatures stand and put on my rather fetching shirt (it had a Hasslefree slogan on the back and INSO on the front with a bar-code to go with it!). That was me for the day!

I had plenty of opportunity to have a wander around the show but didn't bother because I was enjoying my time chatting to lots of Forum and blog readers who came to say "Hi!", talking to the staff on the stand, gossiping with the punters and even selling a few miniatures in amongst everything! I did go for a wander and consulted my carefully constructed map to go where I needed without being too distracted.

This first post is less about the things I bought and all about the people who I met on the day...so without further ado here are just some of the friendly people who came to say hello or who were cornered and couldn't escape!

On the Hasslefree stand were Neil, Matt, Sarah, Sally and Kev. Everyone had a blast, the stand was busy all day and there seemed to be very little of the stress that has been involved in previous years. I would like to thank all of them for being so welcoming and friendly on the day...there was a real 'family' environment going on and it made this year the best Salute I have been to.

Next door on the Heresy stand were Andy, Pockets and Reaperman. All were very friendly and I am absolutely amazed that I managed to escape the stand without buying everything on display! I wouldn't call it 'hard sell', more like completely enthusiastic faith in what they were selling. I saw Andy's dragon and to be honest...IT IS AWESOME! I think that when the dragon gets released, Heresy miniatures will be setting a benchmark for all future dragons.

Over at Twilight, I met Brandlin (his blog is linked to in my blog list) and the guys and girls on the stand. There were some lovely miniatures there and in addition, Brandlin was showing off some wonderful kit based buildings. I saw Mike over at the Twilight gaming table but didn't get to say hello because he was busy with all the gamers (and I don't like to interrupt when people are in the flow of things).

At the Critical Mass games stand, I met the guys and got to marvel at the great metal and resin kits that were available. I had a chat and even managed to get a bit of a nibble with regards to possibly producing some of the walker kits in 28mm scale...I hope they decide it is a worthwhile venture! I am dead set that Critical Mass is where I want my Dwarfs to go when they are finished...they will be in amongst some of the finest 15mm sci-fi miniatures money can buy.

Other stands that were extremely helpful were the Fighting 15s stand, where the nice gentleman behind the counter managed to find a few very specific items for me and didn't get fed up with me asking lots of questions. Maxi-Mini were great too. The guy on the stand, rifled through boxes to assemble a blister with the last possible gun carriage for me and I couldn't have asked for better service.

I visited other stands and bought what I wanted and generally all of the traders and people I met were not only very friendly but enthusiastic and willing to chat.

Whilst I was on the Hasslefree stand, many people came over and said that they read this blog! I had no idea that so many people would remember the blog and come and say how much they liked it! What surprised me the most was that some of them were not from the UK. I count myself as privileged.

I had a delivery from Fenris Games who found out that I was at Salute and kept my parcel of Deep Ones to one side just so they could deliver them to me by hand rather than posting them this coming week! He was even polite enough to accept my "why didn't you release these earlier?" quip and also to give me further info on some of the future plans for the range...some were VERY interesting to those of us who appreciate Sci-Fi!

...SO!...as you can probably tell, I had a great day. The most important thing to me was the feeling of community and the fact that everyone said hello and had a good time.

Roll on next year!

The next part of this post (a bit later) will be more geared to what I bought and the usual updates in my hobby progress. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me on the day so there won't be pix of the event however, my new camera battery charger turned up yesterday so I will be able to take a few pix of what I've managed to finish...and maybe a few pix of purchases.

See you through the kaleidoscope.

Ouch!...and a brighter note.

Today is a big ouch for me. First of all, I seem to have woken up with a trapped nerve in my neck which is not only quite painful but also limits the amount of movement I have in my neck...making it awkward for painting.

Next, I try to charge my camera battery...and the charger is not working. I pop into town to find a new one but there aren't any...so there will be no more pix until a charger turns up from E-Bay (should be a couple of days).

So, overall a great start to the day...

...however, there is a positive note to today.

On the one hand, I was walking past a charity shop and noticed an interesting model kit in the window and popped in to see how much it was and whether it was worth buying. It was certainly worth buying and I came out with a 1/32nd scale Star Wars, Trade Federation Tank for the princely sum of £3-00! It was one of those kits that I had wanted to buy but was always too much money to warrant the expenditure (especially since I didn't have any plans for it). Now that I have one, I'll see what I can come up with but it is looking like it will end up as a troop carrier or dropship of some kind.

On the other hand...IT IS SALUTE TOMORROW!!!

I have my ticket, I have my train ticket, I have my 'stands to visit' list and will be working out what I want to look at and buy a bit later today.

Here is a link to what I'm talking about (if you aren't familiar with what Salute is):

http://www.salute.co.uk/mainframe.htm

I will be hanging around the Hasslefree Miniatures stand for most of the day so feel free to come and say hello...I'll be the skinny bloke with spectacles, grey hair and looking exceptionally tired...probably with my head tilted to one side if my neck doesn't decide to sort itself out by tomorrow.

What sort of stuff am I looking for tomorrow?

Green Stuff
15mm vehicles and walkers for use with Grymn
25mm vehicles
Hasslefree Stuff (I've pre-ordered some minis)
Heresy stuff
Conversion bits and pieces
Unusual stuff that draws my attention

I'll also be looking around at the gaming tables for ideas...looking at the painting competition entries...watching some of the demos...meeting people from the forums...generally enjoying what I missed last year by not being there.

Obviously, I'll be telling you all about the day in Sunday's update so I hope to see you here then!

See you through the excited glaze!

Busy Wednesday.

Before I start, I'd like to welcome Justin Zimmerman and CJP to my blog. What better way to start your time here than to have a look at a few progress pix :).

...So I said that I had the last of the Grymn Tunnel Fighters nearly finished? Well now they are done. I had to paint ten troops and then put the whole army so far into squads. Once I had done that I had to add all of the shoulder markings...so here are some pix of the fifty four members of the army so far:

Click the Pic!

This pic will end up a bit bigger when you click it:

Click the Pic!

At the moment, these are all of the basic troops that I plan to have. I can now focus on getting the command squad finished along with all of the support robots that I am planning...not to mention the transport vehicles...and I have just started putting together some powered armour troops...

What is 11mm tall, bulky and in need of weapons? You guessed it...it is the humble Space Dwarf. With them in mind, I made up a special stamp for trying to get some weapons made and have come up with a strip of pressed weapons. I now have to remove them from their backing and see how they look. so far, they look a little 'soft' on the detail front but I reckon that a bit of jigging will sort them out. It is the first time I have tried making stamped out weapons so it is a learning curve and I'll need to learn the technique...but in the big scheme of things, I have made a little progress with the 15mm Space Dwarfs so it can't be a bad thing...can it?

I don't know what tomorrow will bring...maybe Grymn, maybe Dwarfs, maybe even Kindred...who knows?

See you through the stained glass window!

Tuesday...

I am not in the best of moods. I appear to have some sort of bug that has not only made me feel nauseous and dizzy but very tired as well. As a result I am doing a little bit but not very often.

That said, I have started to write a bit more Grymn fiction that will no doubt appear on my other blog at some point soon. I have also been painting the last ten Grymn tunnel fighters and have them all base-coated, ready for a tidy up before washes are applied.

What else have I done? Well...

...I have a 15mm weapon stamp made. I plan on stamping some green/brown stuff to make moulds for green/brown stuff weapons which can be fixed to the Dwarfs once they are dry. I will be using more putty to attach them so there won't be the issue with weapons falling off (during casting) by using glue. Now all that remains is to see whether everything works...if it doesn't, it will be back to the drawing board again.

Anything else? Of course there is! We have another follower. I'd like to welcome 'Jack of all games' to the blog! Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy your stay.

I find one of the interesting things about the various followers who have joined is what blogs they like to visit. Some of the followers are here to attract more hits to their blog (by following thousands of blogs) and others have a small area of interest which is reflected in the blogs that they follow. When I get a new follower, I have a brief flick through their favourite blogs to get an idea of why they are here and quite often, I am pleasantly surprised to find some fantastic links.

It is always worth while exploring the follower's blog list...you never know what you'll find!

You could say that as much as they visit to gain interest for themselves...the followers trade in kind with sharing their blog lists with us all!

See you through the dusty sky!

3, 2, 1...Aaaand I'm back in the room!

After an extremely busy couple of weeks, I have taken a big chill and come back down to earth again. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show off but that doesn't mean that I have been idle; it just means that I have been doing a little consolidation.

First of all (for all you people who are keen on finding out what is happening to the 15mm Dwarfs). I have taken the Dwarfs out of my cupboard and they are now nestled together on my work table. I have been thinking long and hard about how to deal with the weapons (which is why they stalled) and have come up with a cunning plan to sort something out very soon. Once I have the weapons on, I think they will get finished very quickly so I hope to have some progress pix soon...WATCH THIS SPACE.

Next up, I have finally assembled all of the basic troops for my Grymn Tunnel Fighters. I have ten assembled miniatures sat on my work table in various states of paint and hope to get them finished very soon. Speaking of my tunnel fighters; I have continued to sculpt the big robot and have bulked up the shoulders and started to detail the joints and main components of the arms. I have also begun the painstaking task of cleaning up all of the Epic scale Landraiders that I have, ready for converting into robot barriers.

Speaking of Landraiders, I have been using them for a bit of an experiment. When they arrived from E-Bay, they were all in various states of paint so I needed to paint-strip them. After browsing the forums for paint-stripping advice, I settled on Dettol disinfectant to do the job. All I had to do was throw the Landraiders into a glass bowl, cover them in Dettol and leave them over night. In the morning I brushed them vigorously with a toothbrush and repeated the process over a couple of days to get them perfectly stripped. One thing I found out was that you shouldn't rinse them with water in between as it makes the paint sticky. Apart from that, I now have 8 more nicely clean Landradiers that have begun the transition to robots...so a job well done!

What? More plans? Yes! This time not of a hobby nature. Tomorrow I bite the bullet and go to look at my motorcycle. I have had it sat in a garage for 2 years and have been putting off going to look at it because I am dreading what I'll find. The bike went into the garage in a rush and never got a clean or any other preparation for storage...top that off with a pair of popped fork seals and you'll realise why I have been none too keen to look at it.

I hope you all wish me luck with it because, quite frankly, I need all the luck I can get!

Well...that's it for today!

See you through the glorious sunshine!

..."Send Message; Over"

..."The Dwarfs have reached the table"
"I say again...the Dwarfs have reached the table".

"Message Received and understood; Out"

Thankfully, it is Friday.

Having worked for 12 days straight and partaken in the consumption of a few sherbets last night, I am completely frazzled. That means I still haven't been able to work on my hobby but that is about to change. I have finished work for the weekend and I plan to catch up on some sleep and chill out with a bit of painting.

I have been slowly converting the last of the basic troops for my tunnel fighters...the heavy weapon troopers. They take a little longer than the usual troopers because they are multi-part miniatures even before I chop their heads off and give them new ones. Once they are fully converted, I will have the last ten troops to paint to complete the troops :)...once that is done, I will post a bit of an army pic (even though the command and character models are not finished).

So...what else do I have to talk about? VOLCANIC ASH! Yes, the last couple of days have been interesting in the helicopter world. When everywhere else in the UK was a no-fly area, our helicopters kept flying...for long enough to be told to stop and put them in the sheds! Today was the same so I have been driven mad by pilots keep asking whether they are flying or not...and I couldn't answer because I don't get paid enough for those sort of decisions! Lots of frustration and lots of stupid questions have been the order of the last two days...so I am tired out.

That means I have been too tired for painting so that is why I have been doing slow time converting instead.

Anything else to add? You bet! I have noticed another couple of new followers (taking the tally up beyond my first 50!). I'd like to welcome 'Sean' and 'quarter=25'...WELCOME to Inso's World and I hope you find something to inspire or enjoy here.

That's it!

See you through the stupor!

What? No update?

I'm sorry to say that as a result of work commitments, I won't be putting up an update today. This is because I have had no hobby time since the last update...so I don't have anything to show off.

Everything will be back to normal by next Sunday so stay tuned.

See you through bleary eyes!

Bandits; Angels High!

Is it Wednesday already? These weird shifts I'm on at work make me lose all track of what day it is.

This is a bit of a change because it is (strangely enough) something I've wanted to do for a very long time but never had the excuse until now. What am I talking about? WWI aeroplanes, that's what.

As you know, I have recently bought a bunch of tanks for a small contingent of Kindred (available from Hasslefree miniatures) and it got me thinking about what else I could use in the little force. Well, what tank platoon would be without scouts and spotters to make sure the road was clear ahead or warn of what strength the enemy has? That thought gave me the perfect excuse for a little air-power in the form of a WWI aeroplane (or two).

First thing first, to buy the kit and in this case it was a 1/72nd scale S.E.5a from Revell. All I needed to do was bulk up the pilot a bit and he was the perfect size for a Kindred (shown to scale...with a Kindred Officer):

Click the Pic!

The pilot was complete but then I had to build the aircraft and I suddenly realised just why I hadn't bought too many WWI aircraft before...they are a pain to put together (what with having fiddly little spindles to keep the wings in place)...so after assembling the thing (NO! I am not putting any support cables on the wings...if I did the thing would probably learn how to fly VERY QUICKLY!!!), I have started to base coat it...this is still WIP but you get the idea of what it will look like:

Click the Pic!

The colours are what the box art was displaying so I thought I'd just stick with it. It will have RAF roundels on it and will be very much part of the force.

If I buy more aircraft, I will not buy all of the same type because I will be going for a 'flying circus' feel...that way, all of the pilots can be aces and have special rules (for whatever system I eventually choose)...

TALLY HO!

FINALLY, I have further news of the Diver. Check out this post on the Forum of Doom:

http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?topic=12908.0

If you are not a member of the Forum of Doom then here is the content of the post:

***Thanks to Kev and Sally's generosity and Inso's sculpting skill I have a Limited master casting of The Dwarven Deep Sea Diver from Insomniac Miniatures now available for sale, I will be selling 20 copies of this and 100% of the proceeds will go to a veteran's charity of Inso's choice.

All you need to do is send me money, cost is £5.50 plus £1 P&P. Send me cash via paypal gi6ers (at) hotmail.com, please also add your forum username and your address etc.

£5.50 is a minimum payment, if you feel that the miniature and cause are worth more then just send me what you think it's worth.

ta!***

The charities will be the Royal British Legion and/or Help for Heroes.


See you through the wind-rush!

Sunday and a small update.

After all the excitement of getting parcels yesterday, I have come down to earth with a bit of a bump. I have spent quite a lot of time assembling and converting the next 6 tunnel fighters (that arrived yesterday) and have just this minute finished undercoating them...so I don't have any pix of them to show off. The good news is that I now have all of the tunnel fighters I need to finish off all of the basic troop squads...and only have 4 more to convert. That means that pretty soon I'll be focusing on getting some of the more unusual components of the army...starting with this guy:

Click the Pic!

He will be acting as a local guide for the commander...speaking of the commander, I have put a bit more putty on him; not to mention his big, robotic helper too...unfortunately, they are still pretty unfinished so I haven't taken any pix.

On to other things...I went to see Clash of the Titans at the cinema (great action film ruined by blurry 3d effects), dyed my 12 year old daughter's hair RED (and my wife didn't kill me), received my copy of Ancible magazine through the post (another GREAT read) and have been toying with the idea of building YET ANOTHER armoured personnel carrier; this time with wheels...

All that and I didn't get an Easter Egg :(...never mind...I had crumpets with home made Damson Jam from the local market (which was much tastier than a chocolate egg).

What else...

...NOTHING!

See you in the funny papers (what book is that from?...answers on a postcard ;) ).

A Day that will be Infamous!

A while ago, I was reading some posts on the Forum of Doom and someone mentioned that there were no Dwarf deep-sea divers and that they would be a cool miniature to make for 28mm scale. By the end of the week, I had finished the sculpt below:

Click the Pic!

I just sent it to the guy who started the original post and thought nothing of it. Next thing I know, I get an e-mail from him saying it was going in to get cast and that we would come to some arrangement as to whether it should be a profit/charity thing...

...again I just thought 'the charity thing' would be a better route to go (it was a bit of a joke sculpt after all) and completely forgot about it...until this morning.

I recently put an order in to Hasslefree Miniatures for...MORE GRYMN...and there was a surprise in with the ordered miniatures:

Click the Pic!

Not only was it a fantastic surprise but it represents two things:

1) It is my first full-sculpt that has been cast.
2) It has my tag on the base tag 'Insomniac'...that makes it MINE!

What happens to this miniature is out of my hands because it was a gift to the guy who suggested the sculpt...so whether or not it will be sold is up to him but I hope that it will turn up somewhere soon and that it will start making a small amount of money for some deserving charity (my hope would be the British Legion or Help for Heroes).

Colour me happy :) !

See you through the mist of joyful tears!

Good Friday...

It is Good Friday and I have the next few days off work. I was at home yesterday as well but I have been on night-shift so yesterday was a write-off. I am still pretty tired but I reckon I'll be up to my usual state a bit later today so things will get back to normal pretty soon.

Because I have been tired over the last week I have re-directed what efforts I could to something that I could cope with...so I haven't been painting/converting anything that I have been working on recently...I have put my focus into something different.

I think I'll probably have it done by the end of the day so I'll show off a pic soon.

I was hoping to have some more Grymn to convert over this weekend but they haven't arrived yet but there is always Saturday for the post to arrive so I am still a little hopeful (I am missing painting my tunnel fighters).

Well...a bit of a ramble but I felt like sharing...

See you through the crowded throng.