Ta-Daaaaah!

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been another busy one around the house and on the hobby front.

To start with, we now have a fully functioning guest room with all the furniture and a bed in there. All that is needed is a bit of linen and someone to arrive.

I managed to get a day where I could be outside and not melt so I took the opportunity to clear out the shed, replace all the shelving and give it a good old clean before putting most of the stuff back into it. There is actually floor space in there now... which is great.

On the hobby front, I have been busy sculpting and have continued with the ogre sniper (no pics) but also managed to finish all the Halfling Snipers so that they could be sent off for casting:

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As you can see, they all have nice little basing tabs so I know they are mine. They were sent off on Saturday and the casts should be arriving by early August so there will be an opportunity for other people to get hold of some, fairly soon. This will be the first time that I have had my own miniatures cast up for myself so it is a bit of a departure from the norm. It will be interesting to see how they are received.

As well as sculpting, I have been receiving hobby stuff through the post. First, a small batch of Primaris Space Marines arrived from EBay. There has been a bit of a faff because they weren't the ones I ordered but we have reached an agreement and things should be sorted soon. In the meantime, I decided to start work on the lieutenant model... so I replaced his head, moved his helmet to his belt and added a 'bulge' on his helmet so that his bionic eye would be able to fit:

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In the above pic, you can see the converted helmet and also see that he has been primed, ready for paint. I plan to paint these all in camouflage and have started to lay down colours to see what they look like. I just have some small black flecks to add... but this is going to be the pattern I will be using (with little black flecks added next):

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It will end up as a stylised version of British DPM. I have put the paints I have used, in the background so that I know which ones they are for later use (I have a lot of greens and browns). This miniature isn't one I ordered so I am happy to use it as a test model to see how things go. Obviously, I have a long way to go yet but every journey starts with the first step.

In other news, I stumbled upon an opportunity that I couldn't resist... cheap Megaro Zamac kits. On this ocasion, Run Valam:

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This particular kit is one that regularly turns up on EBay for £30+ but I got this one for £5.49. It was advertised as 'bits only' but later, the seller posted that all the pieces seemed to be there so I took a punt... and they were. Bargain. Now I just need to decide whether to add it to the rest of my 'retirement' Megaro Zamac kits or convert/build it up as a single. I am sure I will make my mind up soon... these are the retirement kits:

Click the Pics!

That is it for this week.

See you from the nice, clean shed!

It's all getting there.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

It is HOT! Damned hot! So hot, I have to keep wiping my hands while I sculpt to prevent the sweat on my hands making the putty too slippery to work with. It is absolutely wonderful having such glorious weather though... Cornwall is a magnificently beautiful place; when the sun shines.

So... sculpting. This week, I have finished the fifth Halfling sniper:

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That means that I now have five finished and am in the process of deciding whether to get the first five cast up or waiting for the next five to be finished, before I get all ten cast up... Decisions, decisions... 

... in the meantime, I have started on the next 'Halfling' sniper... but he seems to have been hitting the growth hormones a bit:

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It's all very well having a band of snipers but when the enemy turns up with a Dreadnought, it's difficult to take it down so there is a need for an anti-material weapon... step forward an Ogryn with a lascannon! As you can see, it is early days yet but the pictured dolly will be getting a lengthened lascannon with all the top-spec targeting equipment and a hat. Let's face it... you can't get ahead without a hat. 

The dolly started out as some 1mm brass wire, twisted together to form the frame, then a coat of Milliput was added (it is cheaper and more solid than Green Stuff) to bulk it up. Finally, Green Stuff is being used to complete the sculpt (with a few bits of rod). I haven't decided how camouflaged he is going to be but he won't be getting a full Gillie suit... and the leaves will be more 'tree like' than 'plant like'... Maybe I'll camouflage his head and torso in leaves and give him thick banded corduroy trousers to wear so he can be painted to resemble a tree! Who knows? 

In other news, the spare room is nearly kitted out. The furniture arrived on Friday so it currently looks like this:

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Only the bed to go (to be delivered on Tuesday) and we will be ready for guests. That said, we will be having one guest for a few months because my daughter is relocating to Cornwall and will be shacking up with us for a short while until she is able to make other arrangements.

Turning my gaze elsewhere, I have been working on another little project... Operation Cat Hotel! 

Since we moved here, we have noticed a compost bin at the bottom of the garden: 

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It was filled with un-composted material so I decided to empty it and put it to good use. After a quick brush-up, I drilled a few holes and threaded some rope across:

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I then added some leatherette fabric to act as a hammock:

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I also put a reinforcing wooden batten across the front (which you can't see) so that the rope wouldn't droop at the front. I still have a lot to do (tidy the fabric up, possibly put some windows in and paint the outside) but it already acts as a shelter for the cats when it rains and they have been into the hotel for shade (although I haven't seen them use the hammock yet).

Well... that's about it for now. This coming week will be about a new bed, liaising with a friend of mine about getting the bathroom renovations started and sculpting an Ogryn with a lascannon... not to mention, the imminent arrival of some Primaris Space Marines. 

It should be an interesting week.

See you from the dais of change!

Times are a changin'

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

This week has been a house week; mostly geared towards getting the spare bedroom to a liveable standard (we have a guest arriving in a month or so). As a result, it had to be emptied, the curtain rail needed to be replaced and furniture needed to be sourced.

That meant putting a lot of my hobby stuff in the loft/attic, sorting through other boxes and getting rid of stuff, removing the existing curtain pole, repairing the wall, fitting a reinforcing beam, fitting the curtain pole and ordering a bed and bedroom furniture.

Well... it's all done apart from the furniture; which has been ordered and will be here in a couple of weeks.

I have also been doing the usual chores so I haven't really had much time for the hobby. However, I have continued to tick along with the prone Halfling sniper and he is nearly finished so I will, at least, have something to show off next weekend.

Seeing as I haven't got anything current to show off today, here's something from my back catalogue:

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This is the leader of my trenchcoat gangers. He is a converted Ogre from Heresy Miniatures (Nakka - sadly, not in the store at the moment) and started out as a fantasy miniature. This is what he looked like, before paint:

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As you can see, it was just a case of replacing his fantasy weapon with a gun and then sculpting a coat and glasses. The gun is a standard Ork one from Games Workshop. 

As it stands he is the only ganger that is painted. I do, however, have the rest of the Heresy gangers stored away, ready for paint but it seems they are destined to stay there for a while due to my sculpting muse being the dominant one in my life at the moment. Maybe one day soon...

See you from the lead-pile!

It's all gone a bit wobbly.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

As you may have noticed, it has been very quiet on here for a couple of weeks. That is because, quite frankly, I didn't have anything to write about and have been travelling a bit.

The weekend before last, Me and my missus travelled back to Oxfordshire for a long weekend with our daughter and also met up with our son while we were there. It was a very pleasant weekend but was accompanied by the usual mix of limited sleep and lots of driving so it was a mixed blessing. It was lovely to see our brood again so it was well worth the trip... even though my cat, Sam, was traumatised by his stay at the cattery (they were very nice there but he was not happy). Gratuitous Sam picture:

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After the trip, I managed to find some time to start work in the spare bedroom which consisted of removing a curtain pole, extracting the remains of far too many raw plugs from the wall, filling holes and then being too tired for ladder work so I still need to sand down, fit the reinforcing woodwork and then attach the curtain pole. I need to have the room cleared and prepared because we will be having a guest staying with us for a while soon. Luckily, the afternoon was a lovely sunny one so I spent it re-staining the shed. I still have to do a second coat but weather has stopped play on that. Apart from the usual chores, that is about it on the house front... apart from being in the process of arranging for the bathroom to be replaced.

On the hobby front, I have done practically nothing for two weeks. All I have really done is start painting the Demiurg (which only have the fabric roughly base-coated) and finish the fourth (kneeling) Halfling Sniper. Here's where the snipers are, at the moment:

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The picture represents the culmination of a bit of 'back and forth' on a forum about them 'being all the same'. I hope that it is clear that they are not the same.

So... I popped into Truro on Saturday and happened to walk into the Warhammer store. They happened to have an open box of the new version of WH40k and I happened to look inside it and happened to really like the Primaris Marines. The Nurgel miniatures were also very well made and detailed but... Nurgle doesn't work for me so I had a bit of a conundrum. I don't game, don't like Nurgle and don't have a huge amount of space... so instead of pre-ordering the game, I have pre-ordered some of the marines on EBay. These ones, specifically:

Click the Pix!

I reckon that these will make a nice little patrol and will likely get painted in proper military colours with a bit of camouflage. I will need to think properly about how I go about painting them because they are single-pose miniatures with some voids that will be difficult to reach if they are fully assembled, prior to painting... so it could be tricky (as I found out when I started painting my Demiurg... WHY did I fully assemble them... WHY!?).

Well... that's about it for now. Hopefully, the blog posts will get back to normal this Sunday.

See you from stasis!