Life is life.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

Life has really got in the way of things this week so I have very little hobby stuff to share. The only vaguely hobby related thing I have managed to achieve this week has been the sorting of three sets of Vulkan parts into armoured Sentinel conversion kits:

Click the Pic!

The three Vulkans arrived from Prodos Games in good time and the parts have been separated from their frames but not cleaned up yet. As you can see, there are some Las-cannons in the boxes with the Vulkan parts; as well as half a bean and some tiny launchers from a Centurion kit (smoke launcher proxies). When these have been assembled, they will look similar to these (but with las-cannons instead of Auto-Cannons):

Click the Pic!

That's it from a hobby viewpoint, really.

From a life perspective, I have been a little bit (a lot, actually) preoccupied with my Dad's health. He took a tumble last Sunday and has been in hospital ever since. My sister has been taking care of everything and I finally got to see my Dad yesterday and I am now happy that he is in a 'good place' at the moment... so I can relax a little bit. He is likely to be in hospital for a while and is currently immobile so time will be the thing that boths heals and drives him crazy with boredom. It is going to be a long road.

In other news, my son has been at basic training for over a week now and is learning to deal with the realities of what is required of you in the military. Needless to say, he is working hard and learning the ropes with the ups and downs that go with things. Highs and lows... 

Right... I'm off to do stuff.

If you are in the UK and want to check out my EBay stuff, click HERE. It is unlikely that I will put anything up tonight but there is still stuff for sale so pop along and have a look.

See you from the badger's set!

Squat army organisation.

This is just a post about how my Squat army is made up. It is just to keep everything in one place.

I have been using two Games Workshop army books for this: Codex Adeptus Astartes and Codex Astra Militarum and I'll start with the Astra Militarum part because it is the main part of the army.

Astra Militarum Forces.

HQ:

The army command squad, made up of five standard Squats with helmets on (at present there are no plans for advisors but that may change).

Engineseers, that will have servitors to join them. Currently, I have one with a pair of standard servitors and a pair of gun servitors on tracks. I plan on adding upto two more Engineseers (with servitors) at some point so that I can fill the 'three for free HQ choice'.

Primaris Psykers, that will be standard apart from being Beastmen. I have one finished, one WIP and another that will join them to make up the 'three for free HQ choice'.

Ministorum Priests, that will be standard and represented by Squat berserkers. Each will have a big orange mohecan, a book of grudges and close combat weapons. I plan on three of them to make up the 'three for free HQ choice'. They will be joining the infantry squads of the third, reserve, platoon.

Elite:

Weirdvane Psykers, as standard. These are a squad of ten Hrud.

Bullgryns with shock maul and brute shield. There will be a squad of five. I may end up changing the weapons at a later date.

Troops:

1st Infantry Platoon, with a command squad, two infantry squads and a heavy weapon squad. There is a mix of special weapons but the primary heavy weapon is the auto-cannon. These are all standard Squats with helmets on.

2nd Infantry Platoon, with a command squad, two infantry squads and a heavy weapon squad. There is a mix of special weapons but the primary heavy weapon is the missile launcher. These are all standard Squats with helmets on.

3rd (reserve) Infantry Platoon, with a command squad, three infantry squads and three special weapon squads. The special weapon squads will have either Meltaguns, flamers or sniper rifles (with ghillie suits). All of these troops will have berets. There will be no heavy weapons in this platoon.

Fast attack:

1st Sentinel Squadron, 3 Sentinels armed with auto-cannons and attached to the 1st infantry platoon.

2nd Sentinel Squadron, 3 Sentinels armed with las-cannons and attached to the 2nd infantry platoon.

Rough Rider Squad, 10 badger riders with hunting lances. They will all be different characters from film and TV and will accompany the third platoon.

Heavy Support:

Heavy support has not been decided upon at this point and will be detailed later.

Adeptus Astartes Forces:

HQ:

Space Marine Terminator Captain, with power weapon and storm bolter and wearing Squat Exo armour.

Elite:

Space Marine Terminator Squad, consisting of ten terminators with Squat Exo armour, storm bolters, chainfists and a pair of heavy weapons. The sergeant is standard with power weapon and storm bolter. These terminators will act as the captain's honour guard.

Troops:

Scout Squad, made up of five veteran Tyranid hunters (converted Skitarii) with sniper rifles. There may be a heavy weapon (missile launcher) but that hasn't been decided yet.

Scout Squad, made up of five veteran Tyranid hunters (converted Skitarii) with bolt guns. There may be a heavy weapon (heavy bolter) but that hasn't been decided yet.

Other components of the army:

At present, I haven't got plans for anything else. That said, I will be adding heavy support choices and transport options once I have built the basic components for the tracked, armoured amphibious vehicles. I want to make my own vehicles but that will be a slow process (especially with all of the diversions I keep having). I would ideally like to have transports wherever possible and then have some Wyverns and Hydras to go with them for a bit of support.

I have no plans to add fliers, however, with two scout squads requiring a ride, there may be a pair of small gyrocopters in the equation at some point.

From a work in progress perspective, I have the HQ Command Squad, three Sentinels, two Scout Squads, nine Badger Riders, five Terminators, five Bullgryns, two Engineseers (plus Servitors), two Primaris Psykers, three Ministorum Priests, the entire third platoon and the vehicles to start/finish so I still have a long way to go.

Lots of work to go but lots of units already finished and ready for paint. When this army is finished it will be quite a spectacle!

See you from the command bunker!

A Momentous Week.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again. A lot has been going on this week so I shall take a deep breath and plough in.

Nearly 20 years ago, my son was born. This week, he has left home and joined the Royal Air Force. Ever since he was old enough to have a mind of his own, he has wanted to join up and now he's done it. It was a bit of a wrench to say goodbye, when I dropped him off at his training unit but it was also a very proud moment for me. It takes a certain kind of person to join up and take on the responsibilities that go along with military service and to think that my son has taken the big step makes me very proud.

I wish him the best of luck in his future career and am really looking forward to going to his pass-out parade (even if it means that I have to polish and press my No 1 uniform).

As you can imagine, it has been a very strange week of trying to get my head around the situation and sort out the wake of everything left behind... but I have sort of landed and have managed a tiny amount of hobby stuff.

So... I have managed a small amount of sculpting on the command squad but nothing much to show off. The same can be said for the second Primaris psyker (Beastman Jedi)... again, not enough to show off. I have also gone and done this:

Click the Pic!

I could be cruel and say "can you guess what I'm planning" but I'm not going to...

... a while back, someone suggested that I should have some veteran Tyranid hunters in my Squat army and it has been playing on my mind ever since. First I needed to decide what I wanted to create and the first thought was this:

Click the Pic!

For those of you who don't recognise him, he is a recruiting sergeant in the film Starship Troopers. He is also missing his arm and both of his legs because he was in the mobile infantry; fighting the bugs. This really struck a chord with me as any survivors of a Tyranid invasion would likely be in the same boat... so, here's the back-story:

When the Tyranid invasion hit the Squat homeworlds, the war raged. Towards the end of the massacre, the Kings of the strongholds made the decision to launch escape ships with all of the wounded, some technicians, medical staff, children and women on board... as well as scientists and practical people; in order to start again elsewhere. As the ships disappeared into the vastness of space, the shockwave created by their dying world washed over them as a grim reminder of what the Tyranids had done... but they were saved and needed to get to safety.

Sadly, the huge amount of wounded quickly became a problem too great for the crew on board to deal with and they needed to urgently seek help. Many of the wounded had suffered multiple amputations and severe burns and needed urgent treatment or they would succumb to their horrendous injuries. Fortunately, the ship entered Mechanics space and was hailed by the princeps from the planet below. Quickly, the enormity of the situation was realised and bargains were struck between the Squats and the Mechanicus... engineering knowledge in exchange for the 'repair' of the injured.

When the Squat ships landed, the Mechanicus servitors swarmed aboard them, quickly removing all of the injured Squats and taking them to the infirmaries. The creators of the Skitarii were hugely involved in the repair of these Squats and without stopping removed both legs from each of them, closely followed by any injured limbs. These were replaced with mechanicus prosthetic limbs. Where burns were found, the flesh was removed and replaced with vat grown flesh. Dead eyes and ears were replaced with cybernetic implants. Struggling organs were repaired or replaced. It was only be sheer luck that one of the Squat medics saw what had happened with the leg amputations and was able to prevent the poor injured having the full Skitarii treatment (brains augmented with data-collectors, eyelids removed etc...).

When the wounded left the infirmaries, they were changed in body and spirit. Their chests were now encased in a special carapace that was linked to the power pack that enabled the various cybernetic components to operate. They all had robotic legs and some had robotic arms. Some also had robotic facial implants, eyes and ears and some were so badly disfigured that they now wore a mask of metal.

These Squats had been altered in spirit too. Who knew what suffering they had gone through during the repair process... but one thing was certain; their hatred for the Tyranid race was all consuming and they would be at the forefront of any fighting if there were Tyranids involved.

So... there you have it; Veteran Tyranid Hunters.

The only issue I have now is deciding how I am going to slot them into the army. There are four options:

1. Skitarii Rangers.
2. Astra Militarum veterans with carapace armour.
3. Militarum Tempestus troopers/platoon.
4. Space Marine Scouts.

To be honest, I am tempted to go for Skitarii Rangers because of the bonuses that are provided for the bionic bodies but scouts would work to explain the extra buffs due to the mechanical components. However, I am interested to hear any thoughts you people may have.

In other news, I have been lucky again and have managed to get hold of another 1/60 scale VOTOMs mech; the Snapping Turtle:

Click the Pic!

All I need now is a basic Scope Dog with parachute pack and a Diving Beetle (both in 1/60 scale) and I will be happy.

Well... that is it for today.

See you from beside the sign that reads 'Per Ardua Ad Astra'!

Preparation and progress...

Today's post doesn't really have very much hobby stuff in it but what there is, I'll talk about now.

I have been shopping on EBay and have managed to get hold of another VOTOMs kit, this time a Scopedog with Round Mover (that's just a fancy term for a jetpack):

Click the Pic!

The box is in a poor condition but the kit/contents are all perfectly fine. This was a strange one because I was convinced that I had a basic Scopedog already but I had all customs... so it was a case of buying it to make up the numbers. I have also got a Snapping Turtle on the way from Japan so I will have some 'swimming' feet for my project (you'll find out what I mean when I post pix of the kit). 

From a Squat perspective, I have started the command squad but haven't got very far:

Click the Pic!

As you can see, I have got the basic plastics glued together, wire in place for their arms and four of them have had their neckercheifs sculpted on. I have trimmed down a few of the beards and have removed the face of the leader. I have also found an old Eldar powerfist to act as the basis for the leader's powerfist. This coming week, I hope to work on these a bit. Part of the delay on these has been deciding what to kit them out with but now I have done that, I can get on with them.

So... the big news is that most of the delays have been caused because we, as a family, have been preparing to send our son off to basic training. Yes, he has followed in his father's footsteps and is off to start his Royal Air Force career this coming week. We have been busy getting kit sorted out and dealing with all the issues that arise as a result of one of your children joining the world at large; and especially a military environment.

We are very proud of him... and there will be strange days ahead.

As a result of a little bit of chaos in our lives, I will not be putting anything up on EBay this week but there is still time to bid on last week's stuff here:

EBay Link

Hopefully, the dust will soon settle and we will be back to normal service very soon... both on the 'life' front and the hobby front.

See you from the platform as I wave you off!

Victory and defeat... all in the same week.

Before I start today's update, we've had a flurry of travellers arrive so I would like to welcome Eddy War, Scalene (Warfactory) and Blaxkleric to Inso's World. I hope that you enjoy your meanderings here and feel free to share comments and ideas... it's what the hobby is all about.

So... this week I have had a week off work and have spent it with my wife. We have pottered around, got some chores out of the way and even went to the seaside for a few hours... but mostly, we have been inconvenienced by 'stuff we had to sort out' so it was less of a holiday and more of a week away from the workplace.

That said, I have managed to get a few things done and my little victories include getting my Squat APC to this standard:

Click the Pic!

The top pic shows the three current modules sitting where they should and the bottom pic shows them moved so you know what each one looks like. Obviously there is still a long way to go but I actually think that I may be able to finish it.

Another little victory has been something I quickly knocked together for a fun competition (no prizes). It is for Orktober and as you know, I am not a huge fan of Orks but felt that, in the spirit of community, I would get on board and give it a go. There were very loose rules and I knew that I could get away with just a single miniature so that is what I did. Here is Dezmond:

CliK Da PiK!

You may notice that he isn't a green skin. That's because I don't enjoy painting green skin... and it is also the explanation behind Dezmond eating the wrong mushrooms. Not bad for a two day project.

So... onto the dismal defeats.

First up... I have done no sculpting this week. None (gap filling on the APC doesn't count)... so the command squad is still just plastic bits glued together.

The second defeat is this:

Click the Pic!

The picture shows a nice little hatch, all ready to have mould rubber poured on it. Well, that's what happened and I learned a very valuable lesson. Now that I have managed to remove the un-set rubber, I know that latex is no good for a block mould. Yes, it has defeated me... but I will now be getting some silicon instead (once I decide where to go for it). Every day is a learning day. I am just glad that I was able to remove all of the latex from the hatch because I really didn't want to have to repeat the build if I could help it (so a little victory from a crushing defeat).

... and for the record, those are NOT Lego bricks so I am not committing any crimes against humanity (they are cheap bricks... although the base IS Lego... but I don't plan on damaging it in any way).

Finally, I am still trying to sell loads of stuff and will be putting more stuff up on EBay tonight. There will be a LOT of old style Howling Banshees, Jain Zar, some heavy weapon crews and two boxed sets of TEN plastic Dire Avengers so if Eldar is your choice of warrior, pop along to my EBay home and have a look (I'll be listing at 18:30 British Summer Time):

Inso's EBAY link (metalvest)

Well, that about sums things up for the week. I hope you all have a good week and I will hopefully see you here again next weekend for the next update.

See you from the war-torn surface of Mars!