Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.
It's been an interesting couple of months...
I am now working at the (Dementia) Day Centre an extra five hours a week due to higher care demands with certain clients... which is a double edged sword because on one hand, I get to spend more time doing a job I love but on the other it's playing havoc with my body-clock and it has put a lot of extra physical exercise on my body that my lungs are struggling with. It also means that I have less time for home stuff; including hobby... so I have made the difficult decision to stop volunteering at the Cornwall Air Ambulance shop.
I've had a random anxiety episode (due to workmen creating just the right sound to remind me of artillery) so that took a week or so to get rid of.
I was assaulted on the way home from the pub... by that, I mean that I was bear-hugged by a large, random woman who has cracked my ribs and I have had a lot of pain and as a result, not a lot of sleep... meaning that, on top of everything, my batteries are running very low and my hobby time has suffered.
However... life goes on and I'm still smiling... so let's talk about hobby stuff.
Sculpting.
After an excellent spell of churning out lots of sculpts, my sculpting muse has taken a break. Luckily, I finished most of what I could... apart from a single Medic but I've sculpted three of them so that should be enough for now. Here are the three Medics:
Click the Pic!
The Medic on the left has separate arms so will need assembly.
As well as the Medics, I was able to convert another two sets of AK Troopers; after receiving casts of the first set... so now there are fifteen individual AK Troopers to mix and match through different squads:
Click the Pix!
I have a LOT of casts coming from Chris at
Macrocosm Miniatures and they include miniatures for my army and a bunch of bodies / components for creating heavy and special weapon options for the AK Army. I'm hoping that the arrival of the parcel might fire up my sculpting motivation again but I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that.
That is all the sculpting that I've managed to sort out since the last Blog post... so it's on to painting now...
Painting.
I have discovered that I am just the right amount of tired to get the brushes out and paint some tiny people.
First up, I promised a friend of mine that I would paint him a miniature... so I did:
Click the Pic!
It turns out that a 40mm base is the perfect size to fit a disposable shot "glass" on... so my friend got a "Squat in a shot". He seemed pleased with it so I am happy.
On to the army and I have been cleaning and prepping resin casts for the AK Army and this is what I have primed, so far:
Click the Pic!
That's forty three troops including Sgts, Medics, Comms, Commissars and a few Special Weapons Troopers and multiples of the basic AK Troopers. It's a start with many more to come and I don't plan on painting any until I have the troops arranged into their squads... so the amount of primed troops will increase until I have all of the troops I need.
While I was sorting those out, I was doing some proper painting too; this time on my Catachan Training Platoon. As a result, the platoon has grown to have three Infantry Squads, a Heavy Weapon Squad, two Command Squads and a small selection of Special Characters:
Click the Pic!
In addition to the troops shown in the above pic, I have added a Priest:
Click the Pic!
I thought that a zealous Priest would be a good partner for a Catachan Training Platoon... those newbies need some fortitude to deal with the flora and fauna that a Death-World presents you with. As well as a Priest, I felt that it would be a good thing for some AK Troopers to get some training as well so I have started painting an Infantry Squad to add to the platoon... but I got distracted and painted a squad of Ratling Snipers as well. This image shows a complete Ratling Squad with a WIP Infantry Squad in the background:
Click the Pic!
It was nice to paint the Ratlings because they were fairly easy to paint and were also a nice blast from the past; with them being my first foray into sculpting and casting my own miniatures. The AK Troopers are painted differently to my other troopers so it made a change to paint a different paint-scheme.
The Catachan Training Platoon is growing!
What's Next?
The plan is, to keep sculpting and finish the final Medic, along with the Special and Heavy Weapon Troopers for the AK Army. Before that happens, I will finish the WIP squad that I am painting and clear away the paints to try and regain a bit of sculpting focus.
But no plan survives contact with the enemy...
See you from the start line!
