Iron Man Sunday.

What has happened this week?

I have been working hard and finishing tasks at work... including a closing meeting for a big modification that has been on-going now for over eight years! BOOSH!

I have not been sleeping at all... and that has been a real downer but I managed to get a bit of extra kip last night so it isn't all bad.

I managed to paint my Sharclon troopers (from last weekend's Salute haul):

Click the Pic!

I really like these and will be getting many more. Andy (owner and sculptor of Heresy Miniatures) has said that more will appear at some point but probably not before Christmas. Just for a bit of information, I have put together a scale pic with other ranges:

Click the Pic!

In other news... I decided to finish off a superhero that was sitting on the table... and also put a name on another one's base. So I now have The Judge and Tango Man joining my team of human sized superheroes:

Click the Pic!

The group is looking a bit too masculine at this point so I have also been painting the first female, Exocette... and she will be making an appearance soon (once I have finished painting her base). She is the first flying superhero; hence her name.

This weekend has been a bit odd. Friday night I had to get up in the middle of the night because I was wide awake. I realised that at 02:30hrs, my son hadn't returned home from work and got in touch with him (he should have finished at 23:00hrs... and he's 17 and had been at college all day before going to work at 17:00hrs). He finally got home at 03:15hrs and they wanted him back at work for 11:00hrs. To cut a long story short... Saturday lunchtime, I had a one way conversation with my son's boss after threats of sacking because my son wasn't at work for 11:00hrs. Needless to say the Health and Safety training that I have received really came in handy when quoting policy for young workers and a stream of apologies suddenly happened. The Royal Air Force trains its personnel well.

Today... we went to see Iron Man 3 and I thought it was awesome. Some of the story was a bit lame and needed some padding for those not in the comic-book know but that really didn't matter because there were lots of different suits flying about. There was also a big twist involving the Mandarin (that I didn't expect) so I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The 'botanist' was quite nice too. I'd recommend seeing the film and would say that, even though the Marvel films have a bit of info after the credits, on this occasion it tells you nothing but it is worth stopping back to watch because it is amusing.

Well... that is it for now. This week I'll be finishing off Exocette, trying to get some sculpting done (I'll need to get a bit more sleep before I can focus on that so here's hoping) and then get cracking on my Grymn in powered armour again.

Life is never dull.

See you from the top of the tree!

Post Salute lethargy.

I slept properly last night for the first time in ages... ten whole hours! Why? Because I was completely exhausted after Salute.

I was up at 06.00hrs (after a fairly sleepless night) to travel to London on Friday morning. Had a leisurely trip, lunch and a bit of waiting before getting into the venue at about 13.20hrs. I bumped into the Rev and Akula from Frothers and while I was waiting for the van to arrive, I helped the Rev unpack his scenery and I can safely say it was pretty disturbing...

Unpacking the van with the crew didn't take as long as I had expected; we automatically worked as a team and that made the work fly by. Once we'd finished setting up as far as possible, we booked into our hotel and then had a few beers before popping out for dinner... and a few more beers... and a sleepless night caused by the water-pipes in the hotel whistling all night.

The final stand prep started at 07.05hrs and was all finished by about 09.15hrs so there was a short time to hit the stands before the doors opened.

Once the doors opened, we had a constant stream of punters to the Hasslefree stand and the only time there was a bit of a lull was when the painting results were being presented so by the end of the day, all of us were done-in.

So... Major thanks go to:

Neil, who managed to do his share AND direct us all to set the stand up properly.
Dave, who I don't think has a flustered bone in his body.
Jason, who has the gift and can wrangle money out of punters like a pro.
Scott, another professional salesman who also managed to get a mention in the painting competition.
Matt, who managed to arrive and join the team even though he was in casualty first thing with his poorly bairn.
...and of course Dameon, who was running the Artemis Black stand and still answering all of our queries and keeping an interested eye over the Hasslferee stand too.

I'd also like to thank all the people who came and said 'hi' and give a big shout out to all the Frothers I met too.

I had a great day and although I was completely exhausted by the time I got home, it was a satisfied tiredness that comes with knowing that we all did a good job. The team was a joy to work with.

Obviously, it wasn't the same without Kev and Sally being there... and I know that if Sarah had been there, the Goblin Aid tin would have been over-flowing!

Salute seemed to be packed again this year and I think sales were very good. There were some great tables (the Frothers corner had some very original and interesting games on the go), a good mix of cos-players, plenty of variety in the games, lots of stands and it seemed to be very well run apart from a few delays here and there... which didn't seem to be too much of an issue (apart from the usual discord about the length of the queues and waiting to get in).

I even had time in amongst everything to go and do a small amount of shopping... I guess I should share the haul...

3 broken down, Corvus walkers that need a bit of work (a bargain for the price - cheers, Ben).
1 GZG 'power-loader' mech (15mm).
2 Antenociti Spider weapon support platforms (15mm).
1 ALF and 1 Alien trooper from Four A miniatures.
5 Sharclons from Heresy Miniatures.
2 Graku and the mounted knight on lizardy thing from Twilight Miniatures.
16 Grymn in powered armour from Hasslefree miniatures.
1 Kev Adams pack from Wargames Foundry.
1 Salute 2012 mug (it was going cheap and looked lonely).

On the negative side, I picked up the free carrier bag with the guide and miniature inside (I bought a standard ticket, just to do this... even though I had a traders badge) and put it away straight away without looking inside. That meant I didn't get my free rucksack from Kaiser Rushforth :(... DAMN!

A few insta-thoughts about the day...

The Docklands Light Railway is cool.
The Saturday morning, walking to the venue was glorious, with sunshine, crisp air and swans asleep on the Thames.
My feet hurt.
VAT caused a few frowns.
Friendly people (especially the HF team).
Strange brew!
Variety.
Comraderie and fun.

Today, I am having a complete rest. I have unpacked and sorted out my Salute haul and have called it a day. When I have found some enthusiasm, I will try to put some pix together... but it will be next week I reckon.

See you from a point in time and space!

The list.

So... I have been looking around and having some fun and here are some interesting things that will hit Salute this year...

SALUTE

Hasslefree Miniatures will have multiple new releases including the Grymn powered armour and a bunch of other stuff that you will find HERE.

Heresy Miniatures will also have some new stuff on offer that may include Sharclons, sci-fi troopers, gangers and a new barbarian.

Antenociti's Workshop has lots of new stuff but the pick of the bunch is THIS and THIS.

World of Twilight has a host of new releases that can be found HERE.

Fenris Games have some interesting stuff (especially laser cut scenery) and is also the Goblin Aid central hub.

Ground Zero Games has some new mecha that looks quite interesting. It can be seen HERE.

Pulp City have a threesome of new releases that can be found HERE.

Studio McVey have some new releases too. My favourite can be found HERE.

There is also a mystery manufacturer that has some of THIS and THIS but unfortunately it won't be at Salute.

I am sure that I have missed some... but I can't think what.

Well... that is all I have until Salute is over and I return home on Saturday night. To leave you with something that I managed to finish today, here is a picture of Grekwood:

Click the Pic!

Unfortunately, the varnish was a bit patchy so I have to wait a while to apply a second coat and hope that it sorts out the glossy bits.

I hope to see you on the day. As I have mentioned, I will be on the Hasslefree Miniatures stand (walk through the doors, turn left and keep walking until you bump into the stand - it's TA03) and look forward to lots of visitors (especially two people who have some items to collect).

I am very excited.

See you from the front of the queue!

Preparation for Salute.

Today is 'prepare for Salute' day.

I will be picking up my Hasslefree Salute pack from the post depot very soon so that I will be ready to start work helping to set up the stand tomorrow.

I will be travelling over to London tomorrow and staying overnight so that I am there nice and early to start the day's trading. I have worked the Hasslefree stand a number of times but this will be the first time that Kev and Sally haven't been there so we the team has a big responsibility to get things right.

Another thing I will be doing today is to make up my list for the show... the things I want to  buy and the things I want to look at. Normally, the only thing I look at are the various stands because I don't have time to browse the games and boards... but this year, I will be in the building really early so I should be able to have a quick look around before the chaos starts.

Facebook has been full of interesting new releases from the various companies I keep an eye on so I will post up a bunch of links to go with my list a bit later on.

I need to sort out my bag for tomorrow, sanitise my wallet (take out all the bits and bobs that I don't need), make an 'INSO' badge so that people know who I am and, hopefully, come and say hello and I also need to get my train tickets (that is going to be an OUCH moment). I also need to make sure that I find a route to Excel that avoids all of the engineering works... yes... on London Marathon registration and race weekend, the rail network has planned in disruption again this year.

So... lots to do today...

... AND I have painting and sculpting to do (yea... fat chance of that!).

Watch the blog later for another update... there are lots of goodies that you may be interested in.

See you from the mail room!

Tuesday's news.

First of all, welcome EISENKREUZ. I hope you enjoy your stay. Please feel free to comment on what you see hear and share ideas.

Today, I received a nice little parcel from Carl over at Grekwood Miniatures. My green is now metal:

Click the Pic!

I am very happy about this and have started painting one of the casts already. Hopefully the miniatures will be available later this month.

See you from the base-line... you cannot be serious!!!

The last day of my holiday.

Welcome to Maj. Diz Aster! he is the newest follower of Inso's World and is most welcome. If you see anything you like or want to share ideas, feel free.

Deep breath time... I have a lot to share today and wanted to start with... a gratuitous kitten picture:

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She was fast asleep up until I unfastened the camera case... but you can see that Charmmy is now getting towards her 'catten' stage and will soon be off to be spayed and chipped ready for unsupervised outings into the big, wide world.

Such distractions but my week off has been full of them. The biggest was a day trip to London to shop around for my daughter's prom dress... which didn't take as long as I'd dreaded so that was a big worry lifted (and it was less expensive than I feared so it was win, win). Apart from that, I bagged another nine Grymn in powered armour and finished off the command squad whilst starting to paint the rest:

Click the Pic!

I still need to add rank and insignia but I will do that when the platoon is finished so that I can get them all done at the same time (that way they will all use the same colours etc.).

Next up was a small order to Heresy miniatures for some of their new Sharclon miniatures. I hope they arrive soon so that I can properly decide how they look.

In other news, I have been informed that the Grekwood green is now master cast and will be available to buy from Grekwood Miniatures in the near future:

Click the Pix!

In more sculpting news, I am getting there with the Wang Shambler and Thor sculpts and have even added some more putty to the Daemon Prince... but I have been forced to lose a few other minis from their corks to make way for my next exciting project... more superheroes! This time it will be two Dwarf superheroes with separate heads... and they are for a miniatures company... so watch this space for information (if not pictures) of how that goes.

So it is back to work tomorrow and Salute next weekend! I expect to post a couple of times this week with a bit more information about my plans for the event.

Interesting times!

See you from the bottom of the gorge!

New Diminutive Troops.

Before I start this post proper, I'd like to say welcome to the newest follower of Inso's World; Herr Zinnling.  I hope you find things to keep you interested and make sure you comment if you feel the need and share any ideas.

So... in a couple of weekend's time, it will be Salute and as a result, many miniatures manufacturers are pushing to release lots of new stuff. That is a double edged sword because they hold off releasing stuff for a little while before Salute and then release far too much cool stuff for me to be able to buy!

So... what the heck am I going on about? Well, there is the powered armour from Hasslefree Miniatures for a start. That will break the bank. Then there are a few bits and bobs from Twilight Miniatures that I like but what has just turned up is out of the blue.

Heresy Miniatures have just released the Sharclon:

Click the Pic!

Click the Pic!

The top one is a standard trooper and the bottom one is an officer. What immediately jumped out at me was how good they would be as enemies for my Grymn. They appear to be quite evil looking and with the right paint-job would be ideal for the job. They are just taller than a Grymn and are much more bulky so they would be worthy opponents. I liked them so much, I couldn't help putting an order in for a small unit of five... so I hope they arrive soon.

In other news, I am off to London tomorrow for an entertaining day choosing a prom dress for my daughter.

Wish me luck!

See you from the platform!

Powered-up Sunday post.

Yesterday, I showed off four pods. Today, they have all had their first base-coat and the tidying process will start soon:

Click the pic!

They look quite bright at the moment but I expect that to change over the next few processes. 

But what I really wanted to talk about is this:

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I know they were shown off before but I have just discovered that they are now available in metal from Hasslefree Miniatures Here LINK 

I just thought you'd like to know. In other news, Hasslefree Miniatures has an E-Bay shop that is selling various special items. You can find the items HERE.

I have obviously jumped straight in and ordered a bunch of powered armour troopers and hope to have them in my sticky mitts over the next couple of days.

I am very happy.

See you from the powered armour factory!

A Saturday Post... just for a change.

Before I start the post proper, I would like to welcome Zog to Inso's World. Welcome to the wonders of my world and feel free to stick around, borrow ideas and share your thoughts.

So why have I decided on a Saturday post? Well, it is the first day of a week long holiday so that is a good reason. Add to that I have just had a parcel delivered. Also... the sun is shining so I have managed to get some priming done. AND... among other things, I have a sculpt to show off.

That means that I can't keep quiet and need to blab (I have other news too)... so here we go.

I have been looking for a drop-ship for ages and as I have mentioned on a previous post here, I managed to get hold of an action figure toy version of an Avengers Quinjet. Well, it arrived today and I have been turning it over and making plans and while I was doing that, I took a few pix:

Click the Pic!

I will commence disassembly of the thing soon. 

As it has been a nice sunny day, I managed to get a bit of priming done today. That meant that I can now try out some of my new Coat d'Arms paints from Grekwood Miniatures. I don't have very many of them yet but I wanted to see how they cover before I go totally bonkers and replace all of my GW paints. Here is what I primed and a very rough base-coat on one of the items:

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As you can see, the greens are nice and bright so I will be moving on to the other three to continue with the base-coating later.

In other news, I have been thinking about the Frothers Sculpting Competition and how I am going to keep it in the front of people's minds while the forum is on a break. Seeing as I am a judge, I am not able to enter the competition so I thought it would be a good idea to sculpt a few miniatures to keep people thinking about the competition. The first one that I have finished is called a 'Moustachioed, three-eyed, hairy, Groper':

Click the Pix!

Keeping with the same sort of theme, the next sculpt (currently WIP) is called a Wang-Shambler... make of that, what you will.

Finally, there is some good news from Hasslefree Miniatures. First up, they have a lot of new releases on the site; including some Weird-World-War-1, Russian-style Dwarfs. Secondly... I have it on good authority that the Grymn Powered Armour is going to make an appearance on the site IMMINENTLY. I am rather pleased about this and have already drawn up plans for the ones I want.

That is it for now. I am sure I'll pop by tomorrow so watch this space.

See you from the happy garden!