Fit to drop.

Hello and welcome to Inso's world on a lovely, sunny, Sunday afternoon.

This week has been fairly eventful. I have started running and exercising again, after a 14 month hiatus. I have managed just over 13 miles and a hundred press-ups/sit-ups... which isn't a huge amount but it is a start... and it was also a bit of a struggle after such a long absence of fitness activity. I am getting fit again so that I can undertake my next charity challenge; a 25 (ish) mile run from Helston to Land's End. I am hoping to do the run near Christmas... but until I start getting a few miles under my belt, I can't set an exact date yet. Here's the link if you wish to add your support:

Steve's Charity Link

In other news, my niece (who lives nearby) was visited by some family members this week so I got to catch up with my sister, brother-in-law, my oldest niece and her lovely little lad; who I hadn't met before. It was great to see them and meet the baby for the first time.

Sculpting-wise, I have finished off the first trio of Demiurg:

Click the Pic!

From the left: Controller, Leader and Technician. I posted this picture on a few forums and got a couple of responses saying that the leader's crest looked a little odd... and I agreed... so I made a few adjustments:

Click the Pic!

I was much happier with how it looked so I embarked on the painting journey... however, I only managed to get as far as priming before I had a muse-failure so I stopped and continued preparing the next three:

Click the Pic!

As you can see from the picture, I haven't got very far with the next three Demiurg but it is a start. The picture also shows my kneeling, Halfling sniper in the background. In between Demiurg sculpting, I have been ticking along with the sniper and have got pretty far. It's just his head and rifle to finish now... and then I'll get on with number five.

I may have mentioned that, in order to finish the Demiurg, I needed to get hold of enough 'sky pikes' for the Controllers. Well, this week (through Facebook) I have managed to arrange plenty of them... with seven having arrived already and a further two on the way. Than means I have enough for a total of ten controllers (if I need them) so I have options available to me now.

Well... that about covers things for now. Next week's blog post will be a little late because I have a very busy weekend. I expect the post to be late Monday or early Tuesday so watch this space.

See you from the mole-hole!

Sunday BLAMMO!

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

It has been a good week where I have enjoyed the social scene, had a bit of luck, reached my charity target and got some hobby stuff done... so let's start at the beginning...

I have had a little bit of a boozy week, with a live band on Thursday (after visiting my Father and Mother in-law), pub night on Friday and Eurovision on Saturday (again, at the pub). I was in the pub again today but not drinking... I got a message that I had won a lottery draw so we left the beach and popped to the pub to collect my winnings. I had won £30 straight out but had to 'pick the ace' in order to get the rollover... and I did! As a result, I ended up with over £100, everyone got a drink and I was also able to top my charity total up to the target... and I still had pennies to spare. Bargain!

Speaking of my charity target, please feel free to donate here:

Charity Link

Still on being a bit boozy, I was also the benefactor of a half keg of local ale, kindly donated by my local pub; the Rodney Inn. It was left over from the little ale festival and would have gone to waste so THANKS!

Hobby wise, I have stalled a little bit on the snipers (even though I have made a small amount of progress on the kneeling one) but have managed to finish a couple of Demiurg:

Click the Pic!

They are made up of Kharadron Overlord Arkanauts, Anvil Industries Pack, and pistols and sculpted heads. I have a third one on the table at the moment but he isn't nearly advanced enough to be shown off just yet so that will have to be a next week show-and-tell. 

At some point I will put together a bit more information on the project.

Well... short but sweet, this week.

See you from the end of the rainbow!

Second Post Sunday.

So this time around, I am purely posting about my recent little charity head shave. As I have mentioned, I have been raising money for Marie Curie and here is my just giving link:

JUST GIVING LINK!

I have raised £400 over the last two weeks and am really happy with the donations I have received. I still have a small amount of money to come in so I can't post an absolute final amount but I think £400 is pretty good.

Obviously, I would like to thank everyone who donated and would also like to share some images. If you are overcome by the need to donate, there is still plenty of time... but in the meantime, here are a few pix:

Click the Pix!

As you can see, a lot of people got involved and the end result is testament to their efforts.

The next charity fundraiser will be a run from Helston to Lands End but I will need to get some training in before I can set a date.

Life can be interesting sometimes!

See you from the barber's chair!

First post Sunday

This week has been so full of stuff that I will be putting together two posts for it all. This first post will be all about Flora Day and hobby stuff.

So... every year in my new home town of Helston, in Cornwall (UK) they have a special day where everything stops to focus on dancing. The roads are closed, the shops are open really early (as are the pubs), market stalls are set up and the streets are decorated with spring flowers... bluebells, daisies, gorse, Lilly of the Valley etc.

The dance is the Flora Dance and it consists of a long line of dancers that parade through the town with bands accompanying them. The dance itself isn't difficult but when you are doing it solidly for an hour, as you wind around the hilly streets in procession (not to mention dancing THROUGH certain houses!), it gets very tiring.

The day has a number of dances. The first is at 07.00 hrs and that is followed by the Hal an Tow (a small play to see out winter and see in the summer). Then the children dance at 10.00hrs. The midday dance is for (very selected) local born people and finally the 07.00 hrs dancers come back for the last dance at 17:00 hrs.

It is a wonderful day... the community gathers together with the visitors and the town is packed. Here's a glimpse of some of the dancing:

07:00 Hrs 1

07:00 Hrs 2

Hal an Tow 1

Hal an Tow 2

Midday 1

Midday 2

Midday 3

Terry Wogan's Version

All in all, it is a great day out.

So... hobby stuff is next. First of all, I have finished the third Halfling sniper and have a fourth one on the cork (a kneeling pose):

Click the Pic!

In the picture are two unrelated items; a Chaos Dwarf head WIP (practice sculpt) and a hollowed out helmet that will be used to make new heads for something separate.

In other news, I have decided to turn the recent Kharadron Overlord purchase into some Demiurg troops. I will be basing them on the sketch that was circulating a while ago and will effectively be updating my old version (shown here):

Click the Pic!

The plan is to have an individual (or pair) of Demiurg in charge of a squad of drones. That way, I can keep the Demiurg miniatures to a minimum  whilst finding interesting drones to equip them with (maybe, even drones that I build myself). I will just use the box of Kharadron that I bought and will maybe get a box of thunderers to act as the command unit. I am planning to replace the helmets with sculpted heads, replace the weapons with something a little more sci-fi and remove the bits and pieces that give them a steampunk style. All this is a future thing but while I am sculpting other things, I will be thinking about what will happen... it should be an interesting diversion at some point.

That's it for now. I will be posting again later today with additional news.

See you from the conga line!