Another Sunday update...

Well it's Sunday again and that means it's time for a bit of an update here in Inso's World.

It has been a week of night-shifts, assessment writing and family stuff this week...so I haven't had a lot of time for the hobby :(.

I have completed the first base-coat on the Tunnel Fighter squad and am in the process of tidying them up ready for the ink wash.

I have base-coated the flesh on the Ork-ogre conversions...and that is as far as I've got with them.

I have been busy pinning and posing the Space Marine commission and have started the sculpting in earnest now...a lion here an Ultra Marine symbol there...the usual stuff :).

I have started a new squad of Tunnel Fighters too. It is a medic squad and consists of a stretcher party, a Dr. with an orderly and a pair of field medics. There are three bases and each one has two miniatures on. I will add a bit of equipment to each base and have posed the miniatures to look like they are doing the job. All I have done so far is stick the minis to the bases and pin new heads on them...but they look like they will work okay :).

My insomnia has been a real problem for me lately. That means that instead of doing all the things I'd like to be doing, I am reduced to the simple stuff that I know I will be able to achieve without messing up. Hence, base coating and assembly is about as much as I could cope with. That makes me quite irritable so I often begin to think about stuff that I could be doing...and invariably that leads me to vehicles.

I have seen a few new bits of 15mm stuff that has fired my imagination and there is very little (if anything) available in 28mm scale that covers the same design theme...that means I have to build it myself. What will probably happen is I think about it, partly assemble something and then leave it to go dusty in a cupboard...but you never know, I may end up surprising you...and myself by finishing something. I am being deliberately vague until I have some WIP pics to show off BUT, I will say that it could be something with an AVATAR twist...who knows ;)?

I have just realised that I haven't got any pix to show off this time around...so here's a smiley picture of Lorraine Kelly to make up for it:

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See you through the shower curtains!

Okay...I know it's Monday but...

I'm on night shift tonight and had a few minutes spare this morning so I thought I'd put up a pic of the To'Ok (with a Grymn in the middle for scale). All I had to do was paint the gun-metal on the metal bits to finish the yellow one...so a few minutes work meant that he could be finished and varnished...here are a pair of To'Ok:

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I had a look over at the Spartan Games website today (to see if I could get some more)...and they are no longer on the site. If anyone happens to know where they have gone, please could you let me know :).

See you through the misty, mist :).

It's a long, long road...

Hello.

Welcome to Inso's World on this overcast and typically British, Autumnal Sunday. Before I start with the post proper, I'd like to welcome our latest follower, Dr. Willett's Workshop ...Welcome! As you will probably notice, I have made the name a link so pop on over to have a look at the fledgeling blog. As for Dr. Willett; I hope you enjoy your stay and maybe find something here that gets your imaginative juices flowing.

So...what has been going on this week? Well, I have now returned to work and the first couple of days back were taken up with some military training...and for the first time in my military career, I had to re-take a shooting test! It is both bad (I guess I was in the wrong frame of mind) and good (I got to fire off a few extra rounds :) ). It is annoying because I have always passed before...and that is over 22 years service...that is a LOT of shooting tests :(.

I have been having a really bad patch of insomnia over this last week. I am completely shattered and still have lots of 'stuff' that I have to do...sometimes I wish I was a robot...at least I could be switched off for a re-charge then...

What have I been up to in the hobby world this week? Not very much I am afraid :( ...But I did manage to finish off the drone unit for my Tunnel Fighter army:

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Here is a collage of the operator for the unit...it would appear that her issued lap-top suffered a critical meltdown so she had to use her own:

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All I can add is MEOW!!!

The trouble with finishing things is that you need to be able to store them somewhere. I have a cupboard for that purpose but suddenly realised that I didn't have enough space in there for this squad! As a result, valuable painting time has been taken up with a LOT of varnishing and a LOT of emergency basing to clear the decks into foam-lined, carry-cases. That meant sorting out the cases as well...and ordering some new cases...which failed because I managed to mess up with my credit card on Pay-Pal and they have frozen my account (it is a good security precaution, I made a mistake and they treated me as a fraudulent attempt so froze my account)...so I can't buy what I want...Oh the vagaries of using a credit card at 4 in the morning, when you can't sleep...and after drinking half a bottle of vintage port...

NOTE TO SELF: Don't do it again!

I have been doing a small amount of sculpting but I have to be very careful at the moment...I am very irritable and the slightest mistake fills me with so much frustration that I am likely to launch what I am working on...Grrrrrr... ;).

Today, I will be dry-brushing a few bases, painting the rims and then varnishing the minis. There are 16 of them and they have all been shown off before...apart from a couple from Spartan Games...but pix will wait for another update. I also have some 'homework' to do...some long overdue assessments for work...oh the joys of military life :(...

See you through completely bleary eyes...

A new day...and a new dawn...

Well, it has certainly been a strange week. I met up with a school friend that I haven't seen for over 22 years (had an excellent lunch :) ), I went to a birthday party where I didn't know many of the people there, I have played the ukulele a bit, had a few stark reminders of my wide and various obligations and I have found out that I am back at work from 07:30hrs tomorrow morning.

So...I haven't got as far with my latest Tunnel Fighter squad as I would have liked:

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...however, I have certainly not been idle and have managed to more or less finish all of the drones for the drone squad:

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I need to add the bases to the ground drones, paint up the Grymn controller and then paint all of the bases. As I have mentioned, the Grymn controls the three ground drones and they in-turn, have control over three aerial drones each.

Now you may think that a squad of almost complete drones would be a weeks work for me...especially seeing as I have had so many distractions this week...but NO! There is more...

I was over at the Lead Adventure Forum and saw a thread that was talking about 15mm Ogryn. A guy named 'Hybrid' did a cracking conversion using some Games Workshop Orks and I was so impressed that I went and bought some Orks to give it a go myself...here is the result:

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I have no plans for any 15mm armies so these will probably end up as flesh-coloured Orks...or even...SPACE PIRATES!!!

Still keeping up? I would say 'finally' but this is only the last picture, not the last bit of news...here is the other deep-one...Bruce:

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I'm not as happy with the paint job on Bruce as I am on the previous one...but I'm sure they will look fine together on the tabletop...especially when I paint up the eight smaller ones I have :).

So...in life we all make choices and we all have obligations. I have a habit of getting a bit carried away sometimes and offering to do all sorts of wide and varied stuff...I have designed tattoos, sculpted leaving presents, have been asked to do various commissions and even fix things (cars, houses, motorbikes etc...)...occasionally, I get so carried away that I say I'll do stuff that I really don't have the enthusiasm for...and it is that stuff that has caught up with me...

I have a commission to convert some Space Marine parts and I also have one to sculpt a Tiger onto a pipe (one that has been used to smoke tobacco in). Today I have decided that they are now on my work-bench and will be finished as soon as I can. That is a pledge and I will endeavour to make it happen...I will be able to post pipe pix but not Space Marine pix (shhh...they are secret ;) ).

Well...that is about it for today...I hope it is enough because there isn't any more!!!

See you through the sliding doors!

A mid-week distraction...

From what I understand, a plan never survives contact with the enemy and the same can be same for painting plans not surviving the release schedule of certain miniatures companies...

The other day I was trawling the forums (as you do) and I saw that Fenris Games had finally released the Ogre-sized, fish-men to go with their deep-ones range...I have been waiting to get my hands on these since I first saw the WIP pix of them so I immediately ordered a set of masters...and I wasn't disappointed. There are two of these, one is a shark man and the other has pre-historic leanings...here is the latter:

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I painted this one with a gun-metal base coat and just added washes to get the fishy/metallic look to him. The Grymn in the last pic is to show how big the fish-man is...

...On to other things and I have now under-coated the Grymn squad and aerial drones and the only reason I haven't started painting them is that the fish-man jumped the painting queue. To go with the Grymn theme, my latest order from Hasslefree Miniatures arrived today so I now have enough miniatures for another tunnel-fighter squad, the drone operator and a stretcher party...which is good :). The second fish-man is in the process of assembly too...so I haven't been idle.

I am now the owner of a Ukulele, a couple of song-books and a digital tuner so I have been embarking on the 'learning chords' trail...I have played the guitar, piano and penny-whistle before (self taught and I can't read music :( ) so I think I am doing OK and making good progress...my finger tips are quite sore if nothing else!!! The digital tuner was a miracle...it is only when you actually tune an instrument correctly that you realise how out of tune it was before...lesson learned there!

So...Grymn first, drones second, shark-man third I think :)...

See you through the knot-weed!

First Sunday update...post Kenya.

I guess I have no excuse to talk about non-hobby stuff now...so I'll kick off the first Sunday update since my return from Kenya with a picture of my current WIP:

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Starting from the right, we have the latest squad of Tunnel Fighters. They have been fully converted now and are just waiting for their undercoat before painting commences properly. Top left we have 9 aerial drones (from Ground Zero Games' 15mm range) and bottom left we have more GZG 15mm drones, these 3 will be used as controllers for the aerial drones. Once I get my latest order from Hasslefree Miniatures, I will have the comms specialist than will be operating all of the drones...the unit will be 9 aerial drones with each of the control drones in charge of 3 of them...the comms specialist will be directing the ground units and collating information.

In amongst the Hasslefree order I have another squad of Tunnel Fighters (just like the one above), a pair of Grymn for converting into stretcher bearers and the comms specialist (as already mentioned)...so the final goal is getting closer...

...So...what else have I got? Well, I have managed to bag me a pair of master casts from Fenris Games. The pair in question is of the larger sized 'Deep Ones', a shark ogre and a bone-fish ogre...I will post pix once they arrive and are assembled...but if you really want to see what I'm going on about, you could click this link to Frothers Unite UK (it can be sweary there...you have been warned!): LINK

Finally, I have just finished dying my daughter's hair again...the things us poor dads have to endure!

see you through my spangly new glasses!

Uh-Oh!...the lawyers will be out to get me...

I have reached a true milestone...over 40,000 visits to Inso's World!...and not a war-hammer in sight ;).

...So...what is on the radar at the moment?

I have another 9 Tunnel Fighters on the table and have finished all the chopping but still need to do the putty work. I am taking things slowly at the moment because I am suffering from fatigue quite a lot at the moment and I don't want to mess things up. The good news is that with all the sleep I am getting, I reckon I should be back to normal very quickly.

I have a couple of orders in for other bits and pieces. A Hasslefree order for another squad of Tunnel Fighters and a couple of specialists and also an order from Ground Zero Games for some more robots and drones.

The idea is to end up with 10 squads of basic troops (7 squads with pulse guns and 3 with close combat weapons) a command squad (which is already complete) and a few specialist units (I plan on having a stretcher party, the existing k-9 patrol and some aerial drones with a specialist to control them). The drones will have a Comms Officer as a controller with nine drones being in contact with 3 ground stations...you'll get the idea once the bits and pieces arrive from GZG.

On a completely random note...

...I have bought a Ukulele and various song books and will be happily strumming away until I learn a few songs...

See you in my little snapshot album :)...

Three...Two...One...AAAAND I'm back in the room :)

What an interesting time I've had over the last few days...

Monday, queued for a baggage truck at 08-00...finally got to load it at 09-15. Jumped on the coach to a staging post...got there 4 hours later...waited for a further 7 hours during which time we unloaded the baggage truck, emptied all of our bags for security checks, re-packed them and re-loaded them...then we jumped on another coach for the hour's trip to the airport...where we waited for a further 3 hours (by now it was 04-00 on Tuesday morning...local time) before jumping on the plane, flying for 8 or 9 hours to arrive in Blighty...where we picked up our bags and waited for an hour for the bus drivers to have their lunch before a 2 hour trip back to camp...where we off-loaded all of the bags and sorted out a bit of administration before going home...which took ten minutes :).

I am officially back home!

It is great to breathe the moist, dense air of England again. It is great to drink PG Tips tea with pasteurised milk (instead of UHT). It is great to sleep in my own bed. I would go as far to say that it is just great to be home.

...and to think...I'm back to Africa in February/March...

See you through bleary, sleep filled eyes!