The calm before the excitement.

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

Since the last post, things have been a little slow on all fronts. The consistently miserable weather has had quite a negative effect on my mood and motivation so I am hoping that things will get fully back up to speed soon.

With that out of the way, April is very much a month for getting ready for a few big events...

First, the charity shop where I work, has been closed for refurbishment but is set to reopen in a couple of weeks and that will mean a thorough clean of the premises, a restock of the shelves and a time for learning the new layout and equipment. As a result, I am going to have to pop in and have a good look around before taking the helm on the 25th April... and I am looking forward to the start of the next chapter.

Next, we have the Flora Day preparations and celebrations. It'll start with the band practice parade on the first of May (07:00hrs and 19:00hrs), then there will be all of the town preparations on the seventh of May (the town is transformed with hanging flowers, garlands and banners) with the usual "Flora-Eve" celebrations and finally, on the eighth of May, it will be Flora Day (my favourite day of the year). I have mentioned it before but Flora Day is a massive Helstonian tradition where the town is filled with dance, music and festivities. There are four main dances and an additional pagan dance called the Hal-An-Tow. I start the day with a pint of ale and a pasty (followed by a bacon roll) at around 06:45hrs and stay out for the day; sharing great times with friends, family and newcomers. I can't wait.

THEN... My daughter is getting married in the same week as Flora Day! AS a result, I have a lot of family coming to visit and some will be staying for Flora Day as well... not to mention the planned celebration for my daughter's wedding! 

So there is a LOT for me to look forward to in the coming weeks... and an awful lot of getting things to get ready too.

What about the hobby?

Well... I have done NO sculpting. Not a jot since the last post. I tried but could not muster the briefest period of motivation... so it all stopped... and I decided to give painting a go for a change. 

So what have I painted?

I have been lucky enough to receive a few bits and bobs from Chris at Macrocosm Miniatures and as a result, I was able to paint up a Priest:

Click the Pic!

I also decided to paint the concept Beastman I sculpted because I didn't really think he would be a good choice to get cast up... so I painted the green:

Click the Pic!

With no sculpting motivation and a lack of inspiration for a way forward with the Beastman project, I continued to paint and have been working on my Proxy Catachan platoon:

Click the Pix!

So far, I have two Infantry Squads, two Command Squads and a bunch of characters painted (the top pic is everything and the other three "close-ups" of the Platoon). I also have another Infantry Squad that is ready for highlights and a Heavy Weapon Squad that has a rough base-coat; waiting for the neat base-coat to be applied. That will finish this platoon and enable me to start the AK Troopers platoon; which will be a proxy for the Death Korps of Krieg (DKoK).

The DKoK platoon will be two large units of 20 Infantry in each, led by a grizzled Commissar and most probably, the Priest from the Catachan platoon. That means that I will need to convert some of the AK Troopers to fit specific roles and will need to sculpt a suitably gnarly Commissar, most likely with a massive power claw and a bionic eye... 

All I need is some motivation and enthusiasm!

Sadly, no Salute for me this year. Last year was a bit of a mixed bag, spoiled by my anxiety... great to meet people and see some of the great things but my inability to cope with the crowds cut things abruptly short and I let a few people down so when I go again, I will definitely need a chaperone for the day. This coming Saturday, I will send out psychic emanations to all my friends who are attending the show and hope that they have a cracking time... I will be scouring the web for pix and videos so I can get my fix in a safer manner.

Best of luck to everyone at Salute. It's a cracking event.

Right, that's it for this post so lets hope the weather improves, the world calms down a bit and we can get back to enjoying things again.

See you from the top of the world!

Back to the Army.

Hello again. Welcome to Inso's World.

This week has been a beautiful, challenging, tiring and rewarding week.

Work has been really good. I have worked with some proper team players and have had a very positive week... even though the temperatures within the care home have been like a sauna and I have faced some challenging behaviour from some of the residents. The good thing about the challenging behaviour is that it isn't the resident's fault, it is their dementia so I can blame the disease and not the person which means I never feel the need to get upset with anyone.

I can safely say that this week has really confirmed the fact that I love my job.

In other news, the garden is now cleared and has been mowed and actually looks like a garden again... which is nice. As well as sorting the garden out, I also managed to get a trip out on my bike during the week and yesterday, I drove up to Aylesbury to see my in-laws. It was a lovely visit and although short, was very much worth the long drive.

Alfie has properly settled in and has been well and truly adopted by Sam. It is ever so cool, watching Sam protecting little Alfie when he goes out into the garden. It's like he's got a little brother that needs keeping an eye on. Yep... Alfie is properly settled:

Click the Pic!

Now for some hobby news and I have had a distraction again. I have stalled on my Electropriests because I got fed up staring at an older project on the work bench. After a bit of effort, I finished off the third of the three veteran units for my Dwarf Army:

Click the Pic!

This unit will join two others and Colonel Straken to form a Vanguard Detachment. The same detachment will also include some Ogryn but they haven't arrived yet. After all my indecision, I finally decided to get some Ogryn from Mad Robot miniatures in the USA. As a result, I have six of THESE (with guns) on the way. When they arrive, they will climb to the top of the conversion list so that I can finish off this detachment fully... and also see how the miniatures assemble and maybe write a short review.

Now that the veterans are finished, I decided to start work on something else from the army. After trying to clean up some legs for my Hearthguard and losing the will to live, I decided to keep things simple and start small so I dug out a Tau Firewarrior body and started work to convert it into a Beastman Psyker for the third infantry platoon. Here's where it's got to, at the moment:

Click the Pic!

It is very early days but hopefully, I can make a bit of progress over this week.

That's about it for now.

See you from the production line!

Back to normal again.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World.

It has been a bit of an odd week seeing as I have been at home instead of working and that has led me to post a bit more often on here... However, I am just about to put things back to normal so here is a picture:

Click the Pic!

It is the second Primaris Psyker (or Jedi Beastman) for my Squat army. He still needs the tips of his dual light-sabre sanding down but apart from that, I think he has turned out OK. The next one hasn't been started yet (although I have the components set aside for it) but I am not sure whether to continue with the last Psyker or start the Ministorum Priests...

... decisions; decisions!

In other news, I managed to finish a gift for a friend as part of the 'pay it forward' initiative. The idea is that you do something nice for five people... and they in turn do something nice for five more... and they do something nice for five more... and it goes on until everyone in the world is being nice to one another...

Anyway, here's the finished product:

Click the Pic!

So... there you have it... "IN DOG WE TRUST".

See you from the copilot's seat!

The ebb and flow.

Before I start I'd like to welcome Amy Clark and Ariel El vikingo dark to Inso's World. Welcome to you both and I hope that you enjoy your stay. Please feel free to comment on anything you see fit and share your thoughts.

So...this week has been a bit up and down. Humid weather, lack of motivation, itchy tattoos, family stuff... it all takes a toll on the hobby. Fortunately, this week, I took a day off work to do some sculpting and managed to acheive something; the command squad for the second platoon of Squats:

Click the Pic!

It isn't much but it is another completed squad for the army. Since the picture was taken, I have added an aerial (made from a sewing pin) to the comms trooper so he can actually be spotted easier. In addition to the command squad, I have been working on the secret project and also a little bit on the next Beastman primaris psyker. The Psyker will be continuing the Jedi theme... but may well be a little darker... Hmmm... when I get to a point when I have something to show off, you will see what I mean.

In other hobby news, I have been sorting out my box of plastic squats and have discovered that I have enough components to make a further 115 troops. That doesn't include the 66 that are already finished/WIP (1 and 2 platoons, the engineseer and a few tester troopers) so I am getting very close to the 200 mark. The good thing about this is that I have lots of complete arm sprues that I won't be using so they will be hitting EBay at some point... yes... I am going to be mercenary and ask for similar prices that I have seen on there (it will help me claw back some of the money I have spent on all these Squats).

Yesterday, I went to see Ant Man, with my wife. Without spoiling things, I thought it was a great little film, filled with humour, some good characters and just the right amount of 'jeopardy' to make it exciting. I am surprised that it got a 12A cert because I have seen more grown up films with a lower rating. There is a bit after the credits which sort of ties things up a bit... but you'll have to see it to find out what it is. A very nice little film with a few links to the Avengers. Well worth going to see. The 3D was subtle too so there wasn't a huge amount of blurriness you sometimes get.

At the moment, I am working on the Primaris Beastman, the first infantry squad for the second platoon and the secret project so hopefully, by next week, I may have some finished stuff to show off.

That's it for today.

See you from the microverse!

A very busy week!

Before I start I'd like to welcome Jayke Hall to Inso's World. Welcome aboard and feel free to wander the grounds and share your experiences.

So... this week has been one of much ado.

First of all, I decided that it was a good idea to show my daughter an 'about turn' with bare feet on a lumpy carpet... the resounding 'CRACK' that followed, signalled a broken toe. Luckily, it is quite numb and not causing me too much pain but it was a touch annoying because a few hours later, I attended a summer ball.

The summer ball was an all-nighter and was great. Lots of food, drink, dancing and entertainment. I got the opportunity to try oysters (which were nice) and even had some insects in jelly (which were nutty but crunchy)... not to mention various cocktails that I have never had before. We eventually left at 02:30 in the morning but had a great time while we were there.

This weekend has also seen the 18th birthday of my daughter so I have been caught up in the celebrations for that as well.

Hobby wise, I have been working on the first of my Primaris Psykers and have been putting out WIP images to get feedback... having listened to it all, and altering things slightly, this is where I have ended up:

Click the Pic!

I have aimed for a smarter looking Beastman who could double as a Jedi (if you squint a bit).

I have also had a small rethink about my sculpting queue.

I am still ticking along with my secret project but have stalled a bit on the Squat platoon so I have decided to change things a bit.

As it stands, the second platoon had a pair of auto-cannon heavy weapons. This wasn't right because I want the second platoon to have missile launchers so the loaders were carrying the wrong ammunition... as a result, I have removed the heavy weapon teams from the second platoon and will be adding another team to make up the heavy weapon squad for the first platoon... which means that I need to finish six troops rather than twenty five... and that should be easier to get motivated for. I have no pix but there should be something to show off relatively soon.

Well... that's about it for today.

See you from the world's end!