A special evening.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

Today, I have a last evening at work before two week's holiday and I am mildly happy about it... well... very happy because I need a rest.

I started in care work almost a year ago (Oct 11th, 2018) and like a complete idiot, I have only had a week's holiday since I started. With dementia care being so physically and psychologically challenging (especially considering  that I had not worked for over a year, prior to starting the job), I have made a big mistake and should have had a bit more time off because I am pretty burnt-out at the moment. Lesson learned. At least I still love my work, the people I care for and the mates I work with... I just need to get the balance right.

This week, I have mostly been tinkering... with no real progress on anything so I don't have any hobby pictures to show off.

The Taurox conversions are coming along. I have almost got the box bodies on the three hulls finished and will most likely be focusing on those in the coming week or so.

In other hobby news, I decided that I needed to make some progress on my Squat Primarch (counts as Roboute Guilliman LINK) and instead of finishing my sculpt (sorry, no images), I have decided on a different approach and have bought an Orruk Megaboss (LINK) to convert. You may think it is an odd choice but I have looked at the proportions and think that it will be just what I'm looking for. I have already started the conversion... I have assembled the body (without the head) and have started sculpting a new, Squat-like head instead. I have also clipped off the axe head and will be creating a hammer head in the shape of an anvil. His other arm will have a ranged weapon of some kind (to match the Guilliman profile). I will post pix once the conversion is complete. Further to the conversion, I popped into my local gaming shop and have picked up a few paints for the finished item... I have some plans...

This coming Tuesday could be interesting. I am hoping to look at/purchase the VFR 750 that I have mentioned... so that will be cool (I am very keen). I also have my charity shave so next time I post a self portrait, I'll lookslightly different.

Click the Pic!

Only two days to go so please pop along and donate, if you are able:

Steve Baldly Goes LINK

Well... apart from a bit of chilling out, I have very few plans for the next two weeks so I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

See you from the island!

Tanks for the memories...

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have mostly been absolutely shattered... so things have happened in fits and starts.

Work has been very good and I am still loving it. A few changes have happened but the team is pulling together and making everything tick along nicely so Kudos to everyone there.

From a charity perspective, I have been very humbled by the massive support I have received from my work mates and visitors, for my "Boldly Goes" event. I have collected over £150 in sponsorship pledges so far and that will go very nicely towards my goal of buying a new 'Flexi Porter' chair for my care home. I have also been invited to carry out the little shaving event at my local pub "The Rodney Inn", in Helston so that's where it will happen and many thanks to Terry and Emma for that wonderful gesture.

As for the on-line fund-raiser, I could do with a bit more support so if you are able to, please see if you can add some funds here:

Steve Boldly Goes LINK

In other charity news, I will likely appear in the local paper at some point in the next couple of weeks because Marie Curie received a very kind donation from Wendron Football Club and the committee needed a few bodies for a photo-call to accept a big cheque... it seemed appropriate for the treasurer (me) to be there so I attended. A MASSIVE thank you goes out to Wendron Football Club for their donation!

More charity... this time a little bit of sculpting. One of the members of a sculpting group I am on (Facebook) has found out that he is afflicted with Sarcoidosis (a condition where lumps called granulomas develop at different sites within the body) and he has come up with an idea to raise some money for the UK charity. As a result, sculptors have been sent small shields and have been asked to sculpt faces on them before returning them for casting and sale. With this in mind, I was sent some shields and did this: 

Click the Pic!

If you are interested in this little charity drive and use Facebook, here's a link:

Shield Aid LINK

That all leads me nicely onto hobby stuff. Sadly, I have not been up to much hobby BUT I have managed to start work on my four Taurox IFVs for my Squat army. At the moment, I have a 'proof of concept' vehicle and have now started work on building up the other three vehicles to the same standard. Obviousl, I have a long way to go but this is where I am at the moment:

Click the Pix!

As you can see, it is not designed to look like the official Taurox but I think it looks okay. I have tried foe a German WW2 version of a Swedish S-Tank. The main guns are the twin-linked auto-cannons that a basic Taurox can have and they are more or less fixed... a bit like fitting them to the rear positions on an official Taurox. I am currntly working on the 'top boxes' for the three remaining hulls.

There's more... my Kick-Starter from Bad Squiddo Games has arrived. I pledged for 'all the Dwarfs' and they are very cool. Here is a link to where you can see them on the Bad Squiddo site:

LINK to Dwarfs

I haven't really had a chance to look through them but from first glance, they look excellent.

There's even more... but this time it's all about bikes! I have an opportunity to own a Honda VFR 750 that has had a bit of a scrape and needs some TLC to get it back on the road again. Of course, I want to streetfighter it so it will make a nice little project for me to keep my engineering hands in. I haven't seen the bike yet but it is a given that I will own it! More news when I actually own it.

Finally, I start two weeks holiday on 30th September so hopefully, I'll be able to rest, recouperate, visit the doctor (anaemia) and generally recharge. What will happen over those two weeks is anyone's guess so we will all just have to wait and see.

That's it!

See you from the sea-side!

A whole month?!

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

I know... it's been a month but I have not really been getting up to much that is worthy of comment... so I thought I'd wait until something came up.

A date has been set for my head/beard shaving, charity event... the first of October. Here's the link:

LINK

Click the Pic!

I have booked some holiday time so at the end of this month, I have two weeks off. That means I will have time to do some things... like get new glasses, see the doctor about my anaemia, get my bike serviced, see my son and maybe even chill out for a few minutes!

Life has been pretty regular... still working and enjoying it, still loving Cornwall and still enjoying time with my wife and all the cats that seem to be arriving.

On to hobby stuff and I did okay in the sculpting competition. I got 4th for the trooper and 7th for the Sgt:

Click the Pic!

There were 13 entries and some were by professional sculptors so I don't thing I did badly. It spurred me on to think about sculpting a few more BUT...

... I started to sculpt and my muse disappeared...

So I have been converting up another Meng, King Tiger, "World War Toons tank"... and have just finished painting it... so here is my version of a Hydra, anti-aircraft tank:

Click the Pic!

It just needs decals to be applied but I will do that when I do the rest of the tank company. With that in mind, I have finished the building/painting of the tank company now and that means that I don't have to add anything else to it. That said, I still need to build transport vehicles for 13 units of troops so I came to the conclusion that converting 13 Chimeras would drive me insane. That meant that I needed to have alternative options so I have chosen to convert 4 Taurox transports for my command units and 9 Chimeras for my troop units. As a result of this decision, I have ordered the remaining King Tiger that I need to convert into Chimeras and 4 Tiger 1 tanks, to convert into Tauroxes. I am awaiting their arrival and will attack the Taurox IFVs first, followed by 3 batches of 3 Chimeras.

Phew! I'm getting there...

Due to me being tired and a bit down in the dumps, I have taken to spending money on toys again... so on top of the afore mentioned tanks, I have also bought a box of THESE. They have since arrived and the cockpits seem to be the perfect size to fit Squat pilots into them... that means I have to think about how far I convert these... but all in good time.

In addition to that, I found a cool little shop that has snuck into my town, below my radar and it happens to sell wargame stuff. As a result, I have bought some 'space dinosaurs' (Reaper miniatures) and some GW enforcers (LINK). I have no idea why... but I am sure I will find a use for them.

In other hobby news, the Kickstarter pledge that I mentioned in my last post, has arrived and I have had time to mock up a couple of troopers. I haven't done any filling on them yet so I will wait until I have done that before posting any images. I am tempted to try out some Contrast paints on these troops... but I am not quite sure yet.

Well... I think that's about it for today. Hopefully, I'll have something to talk about next week as well.

See you from the top of the tree!