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...