A funny thing happened...

...on the way to wherever I was going.

I was thinking about stuff (as you do) and the conversation turned to human nature and how the environment affects how people respond to things. From the simplest of things that cause arguments to the more major things that cause tears of joy...or heartbreak, different peolple will react differently to others.

Throughout my life, I have seen many things...from the birth of children, to the death of a family member...from military funerals to being under fire in a 'peace keeping' environment...yet throughout all of my experiences, one thing has always stood out and that is how people react to situations...sometimes in a completely unexpected fashion.

I have seen pillars of the community cowering under a table when an air raid siren went off...being bolstered by someone who, normally, would be a timid little rabbit. I have seen people I would not expect, sobbing with grief...and others sobbing with joy (some of them real 'MEN' too...)...

...this got me thinking about how sci fi wargaming could be effected by a different sort of psychology...one that isn't 'the captain is an inspirational leader...immune to fear' but more like 'the captain is an inspirational leader who is normally immune to fear but sometimes is momentarily affected by indecision, fear or uncertainty'.

I can say that people react in an unpredictable manner in stressful situations...some fall to pieces where others throw aside their timid nature and take control. I know this because I have seen it!

Why am I going on about this? Like I said, a conversation got me thinking...how about a random generator for the unpredictability of a stressful situation?

Roll a D6: on the roll of:
1 to 3 - the character behaves as they would normally expected.
4 to 5 -The character faulters and needs to take stock...missing all of the actions this turn.
6 - The character loses their nerve and breaks. Treat them as if they had routed.

Add to that, a few extra categories, like becoming immune to fear/terror or charging into the enemy in a suicidal attack...it could be interesting. It could also be applied to troop models...how would they react if the officers weren't keeping an eye on them? How could an officer affect the poor trooper's actions...would he inspire or break the trooper?

I saw a lizard at work today. It was about 8" long and smooth. and grey/green in colour.

See you through the arched window!

On a different note...Tuskers Beer reminds me of Toby Bitter...something I remember from a long time ago.

Are we there yet?

...Yes, we are.

After an 'interesting' journey, we arrived in Kenya and have now settled into our rooms and begun to get to grips with work. I have bought a nice bit of internet time so that I can keep myself entertained and still keep up with stuff like updating Inso's World.

Here is a picture of some elephant bones that are leaning up against one of the buildings at work:

Click the Pic!

Due to all of the travelling, losing three hours due to the change to Kenya time and generally not sleeping very much in the build up to getting here, I am pretty tired out...so I'll be getting an early night tonight :).

As you will probably understand, I have not brought any hobby stuff with me so any updates are only going to be text based where that is concerned...but there may be a few pix of things out here because I did bring a camera with me.

All that remains to be said is that normal service will be resumed in April when I get back...but until then, you never know what may turn up on here so keep watching...

...especially because I don't have a TV or music to distract me, nor painting or sculpting...so there is likely to be a bit of story telling and other bits and bobs :) .

So...I'll see you from the shadow of Mount Kenya!

3...2...1...BLAST OFF!

It's a great day today. Why? Hat Guy has just joined in the fun at Inso's World as the 100th follower! Welcome aboard Hat Guy, I hope you enjoy your journey through the place and take home plenty of inspiration for your own projects.

I have had a rather slow end to the week...the anti-malaria meds have had a dramatic effect on my sleep and that means touching anything vaguely hobby related would lead to a catastrophic accident of some kind...so I only managed to finish off the three death-scooters:

Click the Pic!

Unfortunately, it will be a good few weeks before they see any paint because this week I am mostly travelling to Africa at some point. Yes it is that time where I go to sunny climbs for a month or so to work at my usual job...but in a hotter place...and for a different, yet similar reason.

This time, I hope to go on safari at some point but I guess I'll just have to wait and see on that one.

So...what have I been thinking about this week? I have been thinking about Urban Grymn.

I have a LOT of Grymn set aside for my Urban Grymn project...and now that Hasslefree have more Grymn specialists in the pipeline, I have plans to add a few of those too. The only thing that has stalled my plans for these is the way I plan to base them. I have purchased a lot of resin bases but have absolutely no enthusiasm for using them. As a result, I am not going to use them and will be using my standard basing technique. This means that I can concentrate on getting them prepared for painting and when they are done, they will match the bases of all my other troops.

It also means that my Tunnel Fighters could be added to the Urban Army as a separate regiment...which is nice :). Of course, I have to finish the Tunnel Fighters too...but that is a different kettle of fish.

To finish off this post, I can safely say that the next one will be from sunny Kenya...whether it is on a Sunday or not...I can't say.

See you from the window of air transport!

Wednesday Distractions.

To kick off today's post, I'd like to welcome Sergeant Crunch to the blog. Please be sure to stick to the paths and feel free to ask questions and take notes as you potter around my meandering little blog.

I thought I'd finish assembling a part assembled mech today. This one is more or less finished apart from a pilot and the shoulder-guards...see? I haven't forgotten about the Tunnel Fighter army:

Click the Pic!

Once I had got so far with the pink mech, I decided I'd start my Neo-Soviet conversion...so I began chopping and adding a few bits of plastic and this is where I am at with this one:

Click the Pic!

I view this one as an itch I had to scratch...I saw the new Blood Angels dreadnought and thought that the gun arm would make a good turret...so I had to give it a go. Please remember that this is really WIP at the moment so the general shape of the thing may change...but there you have it...it is indeed, a start :).

The Beetle-Bot death-scooters have progressed a bit further. Gaps have been filled, a pilot has been partially built and the fairings are nearly finished...but I thought I'd break up the monotony with something different tonight so no pix just yet.

Here's a couple of questions for you...

If you were buying a bunch of resin vehicles that had been produced by 3d printing, would you expect the 'stripy effect' to be removed prior to it being cast or would you be prepared to remove all of the lines yourself?

If you were a miniatures company and were selling 3d printed models, would you remove the 'stripy effect' prior to casting or would you just cast it and let the punters remove the lines?

I think that 3d printing has a huge part to play in the future of war-gaming and model-making products but at this early stage in the game, would having to clean off all those lines, or even seeing miniatures on a website that had those lines present, put you off buying them?

Do the pictures generally 'exaggerate' the 3d printing lines to an extent where you would be uncertain of what quality you would get?

Feel free to comment on this...and anything else that you see on here for that matter!!!

Yesterday, I took my first anti-malaria tablet prior to going to Kenya. That meant no sleep...so I am feeling a bit fragile today. Roll on next Tuesday when I have to take another one...

See you through the arched window!

An odd Sunday...

Before I start, I'd like to welcome my two newest followers; Ubique and Dan...WELCOME! I hope you enjoy the tour.

So, my son has had his girlfriend visiting today so that meant coffee in town with my daughter. We had a nice time and returned home with the prospect of building a trench system for a history project together. Fortunately, My daughter had already baked the cakes, collected the troops and assembled the ingredients for the mud and duck-boards.

The base was chocolate sponge with chocolate butter icing covering the entire thing (and gluing stuff together!). Once the shapes were cut and covered, duck-boards and wall supports made from wafers were placed where they were needed...closely followed by the defenders and attackers. The final touch was barbed wire made from twisted jewelry wire and a few cocktail stick spikes. The blood was red icing.

Here is the finished product with a few choice captions:

Click the Pic!

As you can tell, I have been pretty busy with being a dad today (I reckon I'll be dying hair later as well!) so I have had little time for Beetle-Bots...

...but I have managed to get all of the three basic destroyers to the same level:

Click the Pic!

I am now happy with the basic shape and layout of the vehicles themselves but still have to make another rider and then finish off the platform areas...like I said, they are very much 'basic shapes' at the moment, with lots of filling and fairing-making to come.

I call them 'Death Scooters' and I think that they suit the general theme of my army much better than having bikes with swept forward riders.

Well, it is almost time for me to eat so I am off to set the table.

See you over the roast-filled plates :).

Keeping on the trail.

I have been busy again today and have managed to finish off the first Lord. Here he is with a couple of body-guards:

Click the Pic!

They all need decals...but I haven't got any yet so that will have to wait...probably until after Salute (I've ordered my ticket :) ).

Next up will be something different...yet familiar :).

See you across the card table!

The Lord has arrived...

...The Beetle-Bot Lord, that is...

but before I go into all that, I'd like to welcome Freakazoid and Oddleg to the blog...WELCOME! Hopefully, I'll keep the momentum going so that you have something to keep you interested on you stroll around Inso's World.

So...Beetle-Bot Lord...

Click the Pic!

I have probably gone as far with the Lord as I am planning to. He is armed with my more military interpretation of a Staff-of-Light (a Gauss weapon that can be fired like a gun and also used in close combat). I know it looks more like an assault cannon...but I can cope with that :).

I have deliberately made him more stocky and imposing because the stats for a Necron Lord reflect it. I await your judgement :).

I did a really bad thing today. I'm not proud of it. It was just one of those things I felt compelled to do. I usually call it 'scratching an itch' but on this occasion I'd call it...

...going into a Games Workshop and buying a Blood Angel's dreadnought.

I have a plan you see...another distraction...a small group of miniatures a bit like my Starship Crew but more...Neo-Soviet. The Dreadnought will make a cracking centrepiece (once I have converted it...you didn't for one moment expect me to just assemble it, did you?) and I have a few miniatures in mind to act as the troop side of things. I will add a vehicle or two so that the little group looks like it is self sufficient enough to survive in a post apocalyptic world. There will obviously be Grymn involved and maybe a few Beetle-Bots (not of the grey, army type...more of the civilian working type).

So...more stuff to ruin my current muse!

See you as I surface for the second time!

Focus...FOCUS...

I've had to really tone down the amount of STUFF I am working on in order for me to actually get something done. I have been converting the Destroyers, building a Lord, building a Tomb Spider and trying to paint the existing Beetle-Bots. It got to a point where I was saturated so I stopped everything and focused on painting the Beetle-Bots. I still need to paint the bases but here are the first 12 Beetle-Bots:

Click the Pic!

I plan on putting a few more together and getting them all painted...then I'll put on some markings. I am thinking of getting some very tiny decals for numbers and little white stars. I reckon a number on the rear of one shoulder with a star on the other...maybe another star either on the head or chest...

...So I went to Hobby-Craft and bought some big wooden dolls-heads and have commenced building a proxy Tomb Spider. It isn't going to hover but instead, will stamp heavily across the battlefield. I am going to build 3 and they will all be different...a bit like character models :).

The Lord is progressing nicely. I've used the larger torso from a Destroyer to make him look more imposing...it also means he is quite a bit taller than the usual Beetle-Bots. I am in the process of beefing up his legs and I hope to have some pix of him by tomorrow evening...if I can get my backside in gear!

The Destroyers have just sat there...but looking on the bright side, my parcel turned up today so I have the rest of the Destroyers to go into the mix. I have assembled the third of the basic Destroyers so I will get that one to the same standard as the other two before I go too mad with them...then I can work on all three in the vain hope that I can get them to look the same.

The remaining two Destroyers will be a heavy Destroyer and a Destroyer Lord. Should be interesting :).

See you across the frozen tundra!

The wheels turn...an introspective...

Before I start, welcome to novikov-roman, our newest traveller into the realm of Inso's World. I hope you find something to whet your hobby juices while you wander among the catacombs :).

Now then...I am a regular viewer/poster on a lot of forums and sometimes I notice the vast differences between them. On some forums, the replies are measured and constructive...on others it is no holds barred, say what you really mean and to hell with the consequences.

This got me to thinking about how different the general populations of the various forums must be.

On some of the more 'fan-based' forums there seems to be a complete inability to accept that either different miniatures exist that can be used for the game or that the rules can be used as proxies for troops that don't follow the fluff.

A perfect example would be my Beetle-Bots.

I am building them up to be an army using the Necron Codex. It seemed to be the best choice, seeing as I am using Necron components for the build material. However, there are elements of the Codex that don't fit with the theme of the army for me so I will be picking what units suit and just using those. They are:

Lord
Warrior
Scarab
Immortal
Destroyer (and their variants)
Tomb Spider
Monolith

Of those, the Monolith and Tomb Spiders will get a complete restyle and will not look at all like the standard models but will follow the same rules.

I will be completely steering clear of all the weirder elements because I am trying to build an army that represents a manufactured, robot army that has the brain patterns of existing soldiers imprinted into their neural net...a bit like this:

...

Cpl Jones slowly lowered his head into the headrest of the special chair. Once he was comfortable the nurse tightened the restraining strap over his forehead and asked if he was ready.

Cpl Jones said that he was and the seat slowly lowered to a roughly horizontal position. Once it was there, a robotic arm raised a laptop sized scanner and adjusted it so that it was about three inches from Jones's face. There was a click and about ten seconds of a barely audible hum before the arm withdrew the scanner and the seat began to raise to the normal position.

"All done!" said the nurse.
"Was that it?" Jones replied.
"Yep. Robot Jones will be waiting outside to meet you".

Jones left the small room and walked into a small collection area. Standing on a big yellow spot in the corner, was a blue/grey coloured robot who looked at Jones as soon as he entered. Jones stopped and looked back at the robot.

"Now that is just weird!" they both said together.

..."This will take a little getting used to" they both thought...

On to the next thing...posted opinions. There are times when you post things for critique and you think that they are just perfect for the role/style you had in mind...then someone says "it doesn't look right, have you tried this instead?". Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't but the main thing is...it makes you study what you have done. Sometimes, you look and think that it is still OK but others you look and think about throwing it away or starting again.

Critique is good. It is very easy to sit in an ivory tower, taking no notice of critique and turning out the stuff you like but it is so much more satisfying to produce something that gets a bit of a thumbs up from other sources.

Obviously, you can't please everyone all of the time but if you please yourself and a majority of viewers then it is a job well done.


So...why am I spouting on about critique? My Destroyer design, that is why.


My Destroyers have undergone a transformation since the pics of the last post. I received some critique that got me thinking. It was a tiny seed that had to flourish into a plant before it could be dug up and ignored. What that means is that I had to try turning the Destroyer around and having the rider at the back...which involved taking it to pieces, finding out I didn't like it, putting it back to how it was and then realising I didn't like that any more either!

So my Destroyers are very much in bits. I have plans for them that will make them more universal and easier to 'multi-task'. Unfortunately, I have to wait for the other three to arrive through the post before I crack on...so no pics.

Seeing as I have cunningly changed the subject to shopping...I have recently purchased a further box of Necron warriors, three Destroyers (in-bound from E-Bay), ten Grymn specialists (more news on them soon) and 102 plastic Daleks (the Daleks cost me a grand total of...£12-20!! Eat your heart out GW!). That means I have plenty to be keeping me busy for a few weeks...months...years!

I have a week's leave and will be sorting out my life prior to going to Kenya in the near future. That means I'll hastily gather my kit together and spend the rest of the time on my hobby.

Can't be bad, can it? Keep an eye on Inso's World because there are likely to be other entries this week.

See you across the ocean...across the sea...

I'm just a bit keen; that's all...

Another day and another welcome! This time it is Tomsche who has come to wander the winding paths of Inso's World...welcome to you and I hope you enjoy what you find here :) .

So...a mid-week update and this time the Beetle-Bots have some mobile support in the shape of a pair of Destroyers:

Click the Pic!

These two are both work-in-progress and still need a lot of tidying up but they are getting there and I personally like the way they are turning out.

See you across the arid land-scape!