Only a month until... the DoD is over

Well, it's that time of the week again and I am sitting in front of my shiny new PC typing another blog post. I have had an interesting week of leaving parties, parent's evenings and wedding anniversary meals and have managed to land this weekend.

...so what have we got this week then? Well, I waved goodbye to a bunch of work colleagues who have either left the RAF or are being posted to pastures new. The speeches were good, the drink flowed and the company was excellent.

I had to go to school for a parent's evening which consisted of a bunch of different teachers saying how they thought things were... and then telling me that everything was cool except for all of the resits that were going to be needed. My daughter is doing really well but they think she can do better so they would like her to resit certain parts of the courses she is doing. Teachers eh?

Friday was my 21st wedding anniversary. I have now been married for longer than I haven't! The amazing thing is that me and my better half are still happily in love with each other. Life is full of little miracles. Here's to the next 21 years.

In other family news... I have been hairdressing again:

Click the Pic!

I managed to convince my daughter to try orange instead of bleached blonde... so I spent an hour getting things to the stage you can see. She was happy with it but no doubt the school won't be so chuffed... I have seen ginger hair that vivid so bring on the contender!

Little kitten Henry is growing a lot:

Click the Pic!

Henry isn't a Kitten any more and isn't a cat yet... he is officially a 'catten'. He is also the coolest catten around.

So... I read something and it was a question:

"Has anyone converted a Hellbrute into a Daemon Prince?"

... so I now have a Hellbrute on the way from E-Bay (I don't know why but I fancy giving the conversion a try).

Finally, I have an update in the Grymn Tunnel Fighter project; namely the specialist squad being complete:

Click the Pic!

That means that I have two vehicles and three units of Clankers (30 models in all) to finish in order to complete the army. I must admit that converting and painting the Grymn was good fun... it has been a while and I have missed it.

Well, the next few weeks will be mental so I have no idea what sort of updates will be forthcoming but there will be updates of some kind.

Finally, I have to mention the 2012 Unofficial Diorama of Doom. Two months have passed and there is just a month to go. For more information, have a look here:

LINK TO DoD

Have a good week, watch out for the flooding, stay safe and I will see you next week.

See you from the runaway train!

Just a quick word.

Andy over at Heresy Miniatures is having a bit of a clear-out to both help him raise some funds and also to put a few pennies in the charity pot. Please feel free to visit his E-Bay auctions to see if it is something you want to bid on:

LINK

See you from the homestead!



The times, they are a changin'

Welcome to another Sunday post. Unfortunately, there won't be any pictures today because things have changed at home and I have had to retire my old PC. In it's place is a shiny new computer that runs on Windows 8. What that basically means is that I have a new operating system that is completely alien to me and I have only had the PC for a couple of hours so I haven't worked out how to do a lot of stuff yet.

... but I'm sure that I will get to grips with the machinations of Windows 8 fairly soon.

So what has been going on over the last week? Well the obvious thing to start with is the rapid demise of my PC which began to misbehave last Monday and went down hill after that. I think the graphics driver has died so I thought it was a good excuse to get a new PC. As I have already mentioned, I will need a little time to get to grips with it but all that means is that once I have, there will be a host of pictures waiting to be displayed.

This week has seen the end of the scenery painting. Every day I went back to work until gone 21:00hrs to get the boards painted and between myself and a willing volunteer the job was finished and they all looked good. As a result of that, I didn't have much hobby time but that will change from now on.

Speaking of hobby time, I have managed to assemble and convert the Grymn and comms robot for the specialist unit in the Tunnel Fighter army. I had forgotten how simple they were to convert so I was happy when I finished them in short order. I have also been painting the heavy walker for the same unit but have only got as far as a rough base-coat. That pretty much sums up the progress... not a lot but at least it is something.

This week I am off to Duxford for a visit. The Imperial War Museum and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight are what I am going to see so that should be interesting.

That is about it for now but I will leave you with a gratuitous nod to my new PC:


See you from the new horizon!

Lest we forget.

It is remembrance Sunday so as usual, I joined my family at the local town for the service. It was a cold day with bright sunshine and the RAF marched past and stood in lines. The other paraders (including veterans, Scouts, cadets, Brownies and all manner of others) joined them in reverent silence and as a community we remembered the fallen. There was a low flypast by a Merlin and Puma.

We remembered them.

This week has been pretty disjointed. I have had a trip away, a head cold, various distractions and have also managed a small amount of hobby time... but it has been erratic to say the least.

I have also been painting Pantomime scenery... so that will be taking up a lot of my time because I need to get it sorted before the show.

Back on to the proper stuff and I have ordered more Visitors and in the parcel I received there was an extra surprise... which I will share at a later date. What that means is that I now have all of the components to put together the second wave of the Visitor force.

Actual hobby time has steered me towards the final squad of my Tunnel Fighter army and I have been putting together the elements for what promises to be an interesting unit. It will contain:

• The OGrymn Mystic
• The OGrymn chain gunner
• A heavy walker (more on this below)
• A Grymn with pulsegun
• 5 Grymn with shotguns
• A comms robot (the same as the infantry ones)

I have converted the heavy walker and here is a pic:

Click the Pic!

He is armed with a big flame-thrower and a weird claw... and looks a good fit with the Clankers so he's in the special unit. I got him from a mate (Gi6ers from the FoD) and wasn't sure what I was going to do with him... so he was perfect for my little unit of misfits.

Well... that is about it for today.

See you from the cardboard box I am hiding in!

Meandering through memories.

Have you ever sat back and waited for the inevitable... and then it didn't happen.

I once lay in a bed protected by a wall of breeze-blocks with a roof of sheet steel and sand bags and I listened to the rockets getting closer and closer... but the expected one didn't land and I got to go about life the next day.

(Yes, there is a mattress under there!)

Things like that help you focus on what is important and I simply thought that my children would be fine because they had their mum to look after them.

I remember sitting in the Green Bean coffee shop at a US Camp in Kuwait and this US soldier was sitting there with a look of terror written across his face. He was a teenager...19 and he was due to ship out to Baghdad the next day. He was on his own so I bought the guy a coffee, we had a long chat and I would like to think that I soothed his troubled spirit a little. I don't even know his name but I'll always remember his face.

As a senior rank, I have the privilege and responsibility to look after the welfare of the juniors under my command (and sometimes other junior ranks who just need a little guidance in unfamiliar territory) and I have walked more than a couple of chaps around the airfield to hide their tears... but the thing is... they all got through and they all returned to their families.

This Sunday is the most reverent day of my year. It is the day that I get to stand and bow my head to all those servicemen who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Their motives may not always be for Queen and country but they still laced their boots and put on the uniform and went to do their duty... and they never came back.

If there is a remembrance service near you, make an effort to attend. Listen to the names that are read out. Think of their sacrifice but also think of the families that are left behind.

For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon

 With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, 

England mourns for her dead across the sea. 

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, 

Fallen in the cause of the free. 

 Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal 

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, 

There is music in the midst of desolation

 And a glory that shines upon our tears. 

 They went with songs to the battle, they were young, 

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. 

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; 

They fell with their faces to the foe. 

 They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning 

 We will remember them. 

 They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; 

They sit no more at familiar tables of home; 

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; 

They sleep beyond England's foam. 

 But where our desires are and our hopes profound, 

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, 

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known 

As the stars are known to the Night; 

 As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, 

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain; 

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, 

To the end, to the end, they remain.

It is the poem of remembrance and it is the thought of all servicemen penned on parchment. 

I am truly blessed that none of my close friends have been taken in conflict but I know so many who have been affected by loss and when I stand and face the memorial this Sunday, I will remember them.

I hope you take the time to share an act of remembrance. Just stand and listen to the names of the fallen in your local town or village. Think of how the names are often linked into families and the effect it had on them.

Dwell on it.

Think of how they may have fallen.

Think of those who were left behind.

Think how you would have behaved in similar situations and how it would affect your family.

But most of all...

Bow your head, show respect and remember them.

You may not think the politics were correct but you cannot question the duty that was undertaken by these people in their country's name... they did what they thought was right and they believed their sacrifice made a difference.

I'd like to make further reference to all those soldiers around the world who died in service to a different land... the Czechs, Polish, Indian, Nepalese (Gurkhas), Russian, French, Austrian, Australian, American and many others who simply fought for freedom and peace.

Remember them... it's only fair... they died in the hope that we could all have peace.

See you from a point of reflection!  

Of Grymn and other things...

Before I start, I'd like to welcome a new visitor to Inso's World, P... B... A... (I can't work out how to type the Russian script). Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy your stay here.

Last week was very busy for me, both at work (overtime) and at home so I don't have many pix for you today... but thanks to some luck on E-Bay, I have managed to get hold of the last Vulkans for a Tunnel Fighter Clanker unit. Here is the last squad in kit form:

Click the Pic!

The following pic shows the two squads I have already assembled (the bottom image shows the contents of a basic squad):

Click the Pic!

The assembly of the last unit is likely to be my Christmas project... In other Grymn Tunnel Fighter news, I have been painting the OGrymn mystic and have got as far as base-coating it... so I don't have pix. I have also been painting the Visitor bodyguards but haven't got very far there either.

In different news, I have finished sculpting the Space Cowboy and have it all packed up and ready to go on its journey to the Netherlands. Once I have been given the go ahead, I will show off some pix but until then... I'm not allowed. The good news is that I don't have any commission obligations now... so I can relax.

Yesterday I started trimming large cardboard sheets and have begun to paint the Pantomime back-boards. I had no idea that cutting cardboard would take so long... then the paint wouldn't cover very well... but a start is a start.

I hate Peugeot cars. We have one and it is dreadful. The key fob perished so I got a replacement fob. I swapped everything over and the car wouldn't start because it went into Eco Mode. So I charged the battery and still the thing wouldn't start. The RAC were called and he quickly pointed out that there was a chip missing from the key. After a root through the bin and a bit of tinkering, the said chip was installed in the new fob and the car started. The chip was in addition to the circuit board and nib of the key, was exactly the same colour as the fob and was cunningly hidden in plain sight. I hate Peugeot cars.

Well... it has happened... I have two published poems! Here is a LINK to the page but you will need to register to read it (I think that is only due to some adult content). My poems are on pages 41 and 42... I am happy.

Hopefully, I'll get as much done as I did last week and instead of it being mostly work, I hope this week will be mostly hobby. I guess we'll just have to see!

See you from the wings!