We have a commander.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been another relatively quiet one so I have been able to get a small amount of focused hobby time in.

As I have mentioned, I need to get the Squat army command squad finished and have not been particularly motivated to do it lately so in a bid to get things moving, I have changed my tactics and have been focusing my sculpting on individual miniatures... and where better to start than on the army commander himself?:

Click the Pic!

You may well notice that his power fist has grown somewhat. Well, that was as a direct response to feedback from someone on one of the forums I visit. He mentioned that it looked more like a robot hand than a power fist... and now that I have finished the commander, I am glad that I took his suggestion forward.

I have yet to decide which member of the squad will get the focus this week but in the meantime, I have been using up the left-over green stuff on the second primaris psyker/Jedi Beastman:

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I have been concentrating on getting the face right and I am now happy that he looks suitably grumpy. I have put a base layer for his dreadlocks to be built up and I have decided that he has had his horns trimmed down (like Hellboy). He is likely to get a small goatee beard, some dreads dangling where his side-burns would be and some more 'wayward' dreads on his head (his hair looks a bit too groomed at the moment). The pole he is carrying will turn into a double light-sabre (like Darth Maul has) and his other hand will probably be a clenched fist. Obviously, I still have a long way to go... but now that I am happy with the face, the rest should be straight forward.

In other hobby news, I have bought a model kit to try and get the amphibious transport moving again. Hopefully, having the wheels from this, will stimulate some progress on the track units:

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I specifically chose this kit due to the relatively small road wheels.

... and finally... there may be painting very soon:

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These three Squats are ones that were spare so I glued some plastic arms on them and have undercoated them with Halfords primer; ready to be used for selecting an army colour scheme. That's where I'll leave that for now.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed today's little update.

See you from the armoury!

I have a cunning plan...

With all armies, you eventually come up with a plan. In my case, I start with a bunch of miniatures and then decide on what I might do with them. My Squat army is no exception... I started out with a bunch of miniatures decided roughly what I was going to do with them and then came up with a bit of a plan that allowed expansion. I tend to use Excel to put together little army organisation plots because it not only allows you to put your choices in boxes but you can also colour-code things. In fact, the charts that I have come up with, need no explanation... so here they are:

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Looking at the above organisation charts, you will quickly see that the main part of the army is Astra Militarum. I plan to fill the Enginseer boxes in the future but the main goal is to turn all those pink boxes green... then all the boxes blue.

But first... the command squad and psyker.

See you from the edge of the shingle beach, next to the dragon skull!

It's just a case of getting there...

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

It hasn't been a bad week and things have been ticking along OK. Little and often has been the main idea about hobby time this week and it has started to pay off a little.

I have one priority at the moment and that is to finish the command squad for my Squat army. Anything else is secondary. With that said, I have managed to get a bit further than the very WIP picture I last showed and have at least given them all their beards, equipment and weapons:

Click the Pic!

So, from left to right, we have:

• Commander with bolt pistol, power fist and refractor field.
• Veteran with sniper rifle.
• Veteran with comms set, laspistol and close combat weapon.
• Veteran with medi-pack, laspistol and close combat weapon.
• Veteran with company standard, laspistol and close combat weapon.

Obviously, they have a long way to go but it is progress. The commander will have a bionic eye and I am still working out how to blend the power fist into the shoulder. The standard will count as the close combat weapon for the veteran carrying it because I am going to give it a spear head. I am hopeful that my sleep patterns will allow me the dexterity to get more work done on these during the week but I guess that is just something to wait and see about.

While I have been working on this squad, I have also been ticking along very slowly with the second primaris beastman. He is starting to get a face that looks presentable but I am not going to show him off just yet bacause I'd like him to be a bit more finished.

In other news, I needed to order some more green stuff so I bought some from Heresy Miniatures. While I was at it, I couldn't help myself and bought a few more Sharclon to go with my collection. When my sculpting mojo has died, I will be painting Squats and the Sharclon will make an excellent change of pace during the process. My last ones had a simple paint scheme and I will be continuing that with the rest of them. Here is what I have already painted:

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I need to swap things around a bit (I have plans for some heavy weapon conversions) but the paint scheme will stay the same apart from squad identifiers... I'm thinking some sort of symbol on the red part of the shoulders. I really love these little miniatures and it shows because these are the only miniatures (apart from those involved with my Squat army or VOTOMs) that I have purchased in a long while.

Turning my gaze towards 'life' now and my dad's condition has improved greatly so there is likely to be a shorter stay in hospital than expected... that said, I thought I'd share this image of him so that you can understand why my mind hasn't been as focused on things as would normally be expected:

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The short version is that he fell and broke his neck and it has now been bolted together; hence the head-gear. He has made huge progress over the last four weeks and his rehabilitation is going well. 

Aside from dad, my son has been getting on with his basic training well and it was ironic this week that I was getting gas-mask training for the last time, when he was getting it for the first time! I am sure that he probably enjoyed the process just as little as I did.

That's it for another week.

See you from the bus stop!

Another Item Ticked off the List

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

It hhas been another long week but fortunately, I have managed to summon the enthusiasm to work on an element of the Squat army that was relatively simple but took a bit of time; the second squadron of armoured Sentinels.

Using some of the money I have amassed from my EBay sales, I ordered in thre Vulkan Battlesuits from Prodos Games. I went direct because the packaging still shows the old style ofmodel (the long limbed version) and I couldn't guarantee that I would get the correct version if I ordered else where.

When the Vulkans arrived (after a VERY short while) I counted the components and was happy that everything was there so I cleaned everything up ready for assembly. When it came to assembly, I noticed that there was something wrong... one of the Vulkans had two left legs. This was a big disappointment because I was in the right frame of mind to build the Squadron but could now only build three. I penned a customer request email to Prodos but also risked an order from EBay for a whole new one; just in case my request for a replacement limb was ignored.

Needless to say, the whole one turned up from EBay (luckily, the correct type) and I have heard nothing from Prodos.

So... I now had three complete Vulkans and set about chopping and converting them. Here's what I used:

• Head - Plastic 'Jumping Bean', Plasticard, Plastic Tubes, Stick on Gems, Green Stuff.
• Right Arm - Lascannon from Space Marine Centurion, Tau Pulse Carbine, Green Stuff.
• Smoke Launchers - Chest Weapons from a Space Marine Centurion.
• Runes - Green Stuff.

As you can see, there was only a small amount of conversion required and fortunately, the sculpting wasn't too intricate so I could manage it even though I have been tired.

Here is the finished product; an armoured Sentinel squadron (for the support of the second infantry platoon):

Click the Pic!

So... I STILL haven't managed to finish the army command squad. It is still sitting on my workbench but I just don't seem to have the 'mojo' to finish it at the moment. I am sure it will happen soon... I just need to get my head right first.

As I mentioned before, my dad is in hospital after injuring his neck. He will be in hospital for a while and I have been going to see him at the weekends... but it is a 6 hour round trip and when you don't sleep too well, it sort of takes its toll a bit. That is why I have slowed down a bit with hobby stuff recently because I am at a place now where everything I pick up gets dropped, I put finger prints all over my sculpting work and I glue myself to anything I happen to be assembling at the time.

This weekend, he was moved to a hospital another half hour away so the drive is now a seven hour round trip... fortunately, he is recovering well but it is still going to be a long road to recovery and even then, he will have to amend his routine to cater for his new restrictions on his mobility.

Hmmm... 

That's it. I'm off. I have a lunch date with my son who has a weekend pass from basic training. It will be great to hear what he has been getting up to over the past four and a half weeks.

See you from atop a soaring eagle!

Remembrance Day.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

Today is Remembrance Day and as usual, I will be going to the local town with my family to join in with the festival of remembrance.

This year will be a bit different because my children are away from home so it will be just me and my wife. It will be quite strange because we have always attended as a family apart from when I have been oversees on military duty; then it has just been my wife and children.

It is a particularly poignant one this year because my son is currently at basic training for the Royal Air Force, so is following my path in life (although he has joined as a different trade). Every year he has joined us on our trip to the festival, yet still has decided to join the military; with full knowledge of what can happen. I am very proud to have him as my son.

I think that in this everchanging world it is essential for our children to understand what foundations were laid for us to have a relatively free existance; not living under oppressive dictatorship, and standing for an hour, by the roadside, whilst listening to the names of the local people who fell during the various conflicts, helps to cement that understanding.

All of the men in a single family... dead.

Beloved sons... dead.

Cherished daughters... dead.

Supporting fathers... dead.

Loving mothers... dead.

Then there are those who live on... scarred by war in body and mind. Soldiers, living on the street because they have nothing left. Their suffering continues and needs to be remembered for them to receive the help they deserve.

As long as we teach our children the sacrifices that were made for them, us, our fathers and mothers... one day, they or their children, will eventually see the futility of it all and there will, in time, be no need for it. Until then...

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.

In other news, I have not really achieved anything hoby wise this week, apart from cleaning up the three Vulkan Battlesuits, ready for assembly... so I think I'll leave today's post there.

See you from a solemn place.

Time for some heavy hitters.

Hello again. Welcome to Inso's World and this week I have managed to achieve another tick in the army box. A while ago, I decided that I couldn't have a Squat army without exo armour so I thought that the Forge Guard that I got as part of my Mantic 'Deadzone' Kickstarter parcel, would be perfect for the task. I had to think how these would fit in with the army and it was an obvious choice to count them as space marine terminators so I decided to equip them in line with a standard terminator squad.

To start, I went for 5 standard terminators with one of them having a heavy flamer (because it suited the look of the Forge Guard weapon best). It quickly became apparent that I needed to get rid of the hammers on the existing miniatures and replace them with either power-fists or chain-fists. The easiest option was to add some chain-blades to the armoured fists of the Forge Guards so I bought some Chain Glaives from Anvil Industries. With a bit of chopping and putty work, the first five were finished:

Click the Pic!

Once they were finished, I set about making a leader for the space marine part of the army so I went for a pretty basic terminator captain. He has an iron halo but I haven't modelled it as a halo; I've decided that the fins on the shoulderpads can cover for it:

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His armour is a little more ornate than standard exo armour and I've added a few extra runes... and obviously replaced his head. He has a standard storm-bolter and power-weapon combination.

Finally, I needed to add a sergeant to the existing squad. Seeing as I had five other Forge Guard left, it made sense to max-out the terminator squad so I converted them all to include three standard terminators, another one with a heavy flamer and a sergeant:

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The sergeant was given standard exo armour but with the storm bolter and power weapon from the leader model. I decided not to change his helmet so that he looked more aligned to his squad. Now that they are all finished, here they are together:

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I now have a HQ unit and an elite unit for the space marine part of the army. Once the two small scout squads are added, that will be a further two troops units and it will make it a legal ally the  my Astra Militarum part of the army (which is the main part).

The reason I have been working on these this week, is that I am really tired and I didn't feel that I would be able to sculpt well enough to do the army command squad justice. Life has been far too 'interesting' lately and, hopefully, this little milestone will be the start of more to come.

In other news, last update I mentioned that my Dad was in hospital. Well, he has since had an operation on his neck and is in much better shape. He will be in hospital for a couple of weeks yet but now he has had the surgery, he can concentrate on getting rehabilitated. My Dad is in his seventies so his treatment has been a big worry to me and my family which has impacted on sleep, work and family life. Hopefully, now the big worry is out of the way, things can start getting back to normal but these things take time.

So... there you have it.

See you from the garden of great relief!