The day of the Badger.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World on another dreary Sunday.

Life has been and gone this week (biking, shopping, chores, paperwork...) ... so I'll get straight on with some hobby stuff.

To kick things off, one of my orders have arrived from the Warlord sale (12 Ghar Battle-Suit Sprues) and the other order (Concorde Sprues) was marked as dispatched yesterday so it should be here over the next few days (allowing for the bank holiday on Monday). I am looking forward to seeing what the Concorde troops look like and will most probably be distracted if they are of a suitable size for conversion... but I guess that we will have to wait and see there. I can safely say that the drones will be spot on because quite frankly, I won't be buying any others so they will HAVE to be. Here are some links to the sprues I have ordered (each sprue was £1.00 during the sale):

Ghar Bombers

Ghar Close Combat

Concorde Troops and Drones

In other hobby news, I found myself distracted by talk of Rough Rider conversions and for no reason whatsoever, ended up digging out my only Squat cavalry model, adding a spear-tip to it and giving it some painting time. As a result, Chuck Norrison has now been finished. Here's a before and after glimpse:

Click the Pix!

I was originally, going to put together a squad of ten of these but Rough Rider cavalry was removed from the Codex so there is no way of keeping them, while keeping to the limitations of the Codex (they are in the index but that isn't part of the Codex). As a result, Chuck will be on his own (for now) and will not be joining the Squat army unless there is a change of Codex or I can work out how to include him as some sort of a special character (a bit like Sly Marbo).

The painting may have been interrupted slightly but it didn't stall and I managed to finish the first infantry squad for the first platoon:

Click the Pic!

This is a bit of a milestone for me because it is my first basic unit of Squats. Luckily, I was very close to finishing them yesterday when I noticed how rubbish the weather was going to be today... so I prepped and primed the second squad, while I had some sunshine:

Click the Pic!

I am hoping to get some decent painting time in, this week so hope to have these finished in a week or so... maybe not for next Sunday but fairly close to it.

Thinking about the army, I have a number of branches that aren't getting much 'solution' time. What I mean is that there are bits that need to be made, that don't have a solid idea of what they should look like. My main focus for a long time, has been the Astra Millitarum side of the army but there are two other sides; Adeptus Astartes and Adeptus Mechanicus. The Mechanicus part is very up in the air at the moment but I have already put together quite a lot of the Astartes part. That said, there are still holes. At the moment, I am thinking about Scout transport; namely the Landspeeder Storm. 

The Space Marine Scouts in my army will proxy as Squat Hearth Guard and I don't really see them as scouts... more as 'up-rated' troops so I want to give them some transport. I have checked the Codex and I like the idea of Landspeeder Storms but don't like the models so I will be finding alternatives. What I am look for is a bit like a Mule from Serenity but with a forward cargo platform, ramp and weapon station. It is probably something that I will end up trying to scratch-build... but I need six so it may be a challenge... 

Anyway, that's it for this week.

See you from the front line!

The platoon is growing.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World on a lovely, foggy day.

This is currently the view from my window:

Click the Pic!

It's definitely different to last weekend... Hopefully, it will disappear and we'll get some sun again.

Back on track... this week has been one of travels and a bit of hobby so we'll start with travels.

My missus has had a bit of a holiday and we have been pottering around and doing everything she wanted to. We have been to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, Pendennis Castle, Trebah Garden and have also traveled up to see my Step Mum in Seaton. While we were there we went for a lovely ride on the Seaton Tram system and had lunch on Colyton station. In lesser travels, we have also been to see Ant Man and the Wasp at the cinema. I was also (thankfully) left at home when my missus went to see the second Mama Mia film with my niece so that was a bullet dodged. We have also pottered about in town and spent some quality time together so this has been a good week.

On Monday, I had a bit of official duty to perform. I went over to Mullion in order to take part in a little photo opportunity for Marie Curie. There was a 'big cheque' handover that needed some yellow-shirts to be present and that went really well. I can't share the whole photo but here I am in all of my Marie Curie finery:

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As you can tell from the sun in my eyes, Monday was a little less foggy than today!

That's enough life for today so let's talk hobby now. Last week, I showed off two finished elements of the first infantry platoon for my Squat army. This week, I get to show the first complete, Squat elements. This is the Platoon Command Squad for the First Infantry Platoon (complete with Primaris Psyker, as shown off last week):

Click the Pic!

As you can see... there are ACTUAL Squats painted! Okay, it isn't the best pic but when the platoon is all finished, it will get a decent photo-shoot. 

Now that the troop units are well under way, here's a WIP of the First Infantry Squad:

Click the Pic!

The image shows the first, basic, base-coat, ready for tidying up prior to a wash. The gun-tractor has been progressed since the picture and is already washed, ready for highlights... mostly because it has to be painted in a different way to the troops due to the need for it to be separate from its base. It's also nice to have a 'little project' when painting blocks of troops, just to take the edge off a bit.

In other hobby news, Warlord game have had a summer sale and the prices were so ridiculous, I felt obliged to spend some money with them. As a result, I have ordered twelve Ghar Battle-suits and ten sprues of Concord troops/drones. The reason for this was that the sprues were reduced from £10.00, £8.00 and £12.00 to £1.00 each! Instead of having to spend £20.00 on three battle-suits, I got twelve for £12.00! It would have cost me £120.00 to get ten of the Concord sprues... instead it cost £10.00! It would have been insane NOT to buy any... especially seeing as they will all be added to my Demiurg army and were already earmarked as future purchases.

Click the Pix!

... Speaking of which, when all the sprues turn up, I will have the following:

• 6x Ground Guilders.
• 3x Air Guilders.
• 1x Ground Guilder Command Crawler.
• 30x Ground Drones.
• 10x Large Air Drones.
• 20x Small Air Drones.

I will also have fifty Concord troops to add to the bits box and this may be an opportunity for a little conversion for something else that has been rattling around in my head lately... Kill Team.

... but that is for another day!

See you from the abandoned city!

The Dwarfs are on their way!

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been a bit up and down so it's going to be a fairly brief update today.

This week, I have met up with the local arm of the Marie Curie Committee and also the county's charity coordinator as well. I have officially claimed my place as the local treasurer and am now getting my teeth into what my duties are. I also got a T-shirt so that's cool. This coming Monday, I have an official 'photo-call' with a local shop who have donated a large sum to the charity so I will be pictured with a giant cheque, the shop owner and a few other local committee members for a newsletter... so I may get another 15 minutes of fame! The good thing is that now I am not in the military, it won't cost me beer if I get spotted by my colleagues!

In hobby news, I have been painting a bit this week and have managed to finish The Halfling Sniper unit:

Click the Pic!

This is the sniper squad for the first platoon so I thought that, seeing as I had started on the platoon, I may as well continue with it so I also painted the Primaris Psyker:

Click the Pic!

He is a Beastman Shaman but I will be using these as my Primaris Psykers because my Squats have left their psykers back on their doomed home-world so don't have any of their own anymore. Since the Primaris Psyker was now finished, I decided to give some Squat troops a go so I have opted to paint the Platoon Commander and his Command Squad. I haven't finished it yet but I have nearly finished getting it ready for the wash stage (I only have the weapons and beards to tidy up now). Here is a WIP pic of the troops:

Click the Pic!

The colours are down... I just need to continue with them and they will soon be finished. The plan is to paint the whole of the first platoon and then move on. The platoon consists of the following:

1. Primaris Psyker (Finished).
2. Halfling Snipers (finished).
3. Platoon Commander (Paint in Progress).
4. Platoon Command Squad (Paint in Progress).
5. Infantry Squad (Not Primed Yet).
6. Infantry Squad (Not Primed Yet).
7. Heavy Weapon Squad (Not Primed Yet).
8. Armoured Sentinel Squadron (Not Primed Yet).
9. Chimeras (Not Started at all Yet).

I have a way to go but it isn't too much to start with. The only stopper may be the Chimeras but I have the kits and if I don't convert them now, I can do it later but continue painting other things while I wait.

This coming week, I have company because my wife has some time off work so we will be pottering about and doing things. That means that I won't necessarily have time for much hobby activity but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

That's it for now.

See you from the top of the cliff!

Another week of summer.

Hello and welcome to another Sunday in Inso's World.

This week has been a rather lack-lustre one because my sleep patterns have been shot so I haven't managed to do a lot of what I wanted to.

The weather has been up and down so I have had to tailor what I did, to fit in with the weather as well.

During this week, I have had issues with debit cards (could have been embarrassing if I didn't have alternative ways to pay) and also the tourists have arrived in vast numbers so crowds of people and clogged roads are now a major part of life in Cornwall.

Yesterday, I was up at 3am and at 4am, I drove my missus up to visit with family six hours away. we had a great time and I drove back later in the day so it was a long, tiring day. Thankfully, I had Red Bull to keep me on my toes.

In the hobby news, I have finished the Engineseer unit:

Click the Pix!

I haven't edge-highlighted them because I am tired and it would have taken ages (I have so many miniatures to paint!) so I have just base-coated, washed and re base-coated them... with highlights applied to very limited areas (like the Guilds-man's face). 

From the top we have Jecub 'sure-grip' Mikkelson, Freya, Thor, Tyr and Loki. They are an Engineer Guilds-man with four helper robots but they count as a Techpriest Engineseer with four servitors. As was mentioned in the last post, they will be travelling in the Chimera and will be part of the Spearhead Detachment.

With this unit complete, I decided to dig something else out so what better than a nice simple unit of Halfling Snipers. Rather than go green, I decided to tie them into their bases a bit better and go for a mix of browns. It's very early days yet... but here is the unit so far (first they were primed and then base-coating was started):

Click the Pic!

Obviously, there is a long way to go but every journey starts with a first step.

That's it for this week. In the coming week, I will be collecting a fourth Toon Tank from the post office (so I will have a platoon's worth of Chimeras to work on) but will be working on the Halflings (this unit is attached to the first platoon so once they are done, I'll crack on with the Chimeras for the platoon as well)..

In other news, I have a couple of meetings with Marie Curie this week so I will be getting my teeth in to what is required of me as part of the committee. I have my wife with me for a couple of days because she has holiday so we will be going out and about. I also need to get a few bits of admin sorted... assuming that I get some sleep at some point!

See you from the queue!