Sunday stuff.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

This week has been pretty good from a hobby perspective. I have been properly focusing on getting my little Squat commission finished and have nearly got there... I reckon that by the end of today, I'll have all five finished but unfortunately, this pic shows that I still have the straps on the one on the right to finish:

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However, I have made great progress on them and am pleased with how far I have got.

In other news, I ordered something from Fenris Games that really piqued my interest. It is something that I wouldn't normally have gone for but as soon as I saw it, I knew what I needed to do to it so I ordered it (along with another awesome miniature) and it has now arrived. I have already started working on it (it is being very slightly converted) but I am not showing it off until it is finished or it will completely spoil the big reveal. The miniature in question is this one:

THE KING OF RATS

... and the other miniature I ordered (because it is one I really like - and is a duplicate of one I already own) is Duncan. Here is one that I have already painted up:

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I bought a second one to turn into an alien Rogue Trader (sci-fi) so watch this space (although... it may be a while before I get started on this one).

With hobby in mind, you will probably notice that I have stopped work on my Squat army for the time being. It is only a temporary pause as I take stock of things, and part of taking stock is thinking about how I can make improvements or change small things to add flavour. Well... I have been thinking a lot about transport and may be moving towards getting some super heavy transport for my two platoons; namely some Stormlords. They are big enough to hold an entire platoon, can be purchased, need minimal conversion and are single vehicles (I would need three Chimeras (or counts-as options) to transport my platoon and even then, the heavy weapon squad would have to walk) so they seem to be the ideal choice. They are also one step closer to a Squat land train so they are quite flavourful for a Squat army.

The things I think about...

See you from the vehicle manufactorium!

A new day...and a new dawn...

Well, it has certainly been a strange week. I met up with a school friend that I haven't seen for over 22 years (had an excellent lunch :) ), I went to a birthday party where I didn't know many of the people there, I have played the ukulele a bit, had a few stark reminders of my wide and various obligations and I have found out that I am back at work from 07:30hrs tomorrow morning.

So...I haven't got as far with my latest Tunnel Fighter squad as I would have liked:

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...however, I have certainly not been idle and have managed to more or less finish all of the drones for the drone squad:

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I need to add the bases to the ground drones, paint up the Grymn controller and then paint all of the bases. As I have mentioned, the Grymn controls the three ground drones and they in-turn, have control over three aerial drones each.

Now you may think that a squad of almost complete drones would be a weeks work for me...especially seeing as I have had so many distractions this week...but NO! There is more...

I was over at the Lead Adventure Forum and saw a thread that was talking about 15mm Ogryn. A guy named 'Hybrid' did a cracking conversion using some Games Workshop Orks and I was so impressed that I went and bought some Orks to give it a go myself...here is the result:

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I have no plans for any 15mm armies so these will probably end up as flesh-coloured Orks...or even...SPACE PIRATES!!!

Still keeping up? I would say 'finally' but this is only the last picture, not the last bit of news...here is the other deep-one...Bruce:

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I'm not as happy with the paint job on Bruce as I am on the previous one...but I'm sure they will look fine together on the tabletop...especially when I paint up the eight smaller ones I have :).

So...in life we all make choices and we all have obligations. I have a habit of getting a bit carried away sometimes and offering to do all sorts of wide and varied stuff...I have designed tattoos, sculpted leaving presents, have been asked to do various commissions and even fix things (cars, houses, motorbikes etc...)...occasionally, I get so carried away that I say I'll do stuff that I really don't have the enthusiasm for...and it is that stuff that has caught up with me...

I have a commission to convert some Space Marine parts and I also have one to sculpt a Tiger onto a pipe (one that has been used to smoke tobacco in). Today I have decided that they are now on my work-bench and will be finished as soon as I can. That is a pledge and I will endeavour to make it happen...I will be able to post pipe pix but not Space Marine pix (shhh...they are secret ;) ).

Well...that is about it for today...I hope it is enough because there isn't any more!!!

See you through the sliding doors!

A mid-week distraction...

From what I understand, a plan never survives contact with the enemy and the same can be same for painting plans not surviving the release schedule of certain miniatures companies...

The other day I was trawling the forums (as you do) and I saw that Fenris Games had finally released the Ogre-sized, fish-men to go with their deep-ones range...I have been waiting to get my hands on these since I first saw the WIP pix of them so I immediately ordered a set of masters...and I wasn't disappointed. There are two of these, one is a shark man and the other has pre-historic leanings...here is the latter:

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I painted this one with a gun-metal base coat and just added washes to get the fishy/metallic look to him. The Grymn in the last pic is to show how big the fish-man is...

...On to other things and I have now under-coated the Grymn squad and aerial drones and the only reason I haven't started painting them is that the fish-man jumped the painting queue. To go with the Grymn theme, my latest order from Hasslefree Miniatures arrived today so I now have enough miniatures for another tunnel-fighter squad, the drone operator and a stretcher party...which is good :). The second fish-man is in the process of assembly too...so I haven't been idle.

I am now the owner of a Ukulele, a couple of song-books and a digital tuner so I have been embarking on the 'learning chords' trail...I have played the guitar, piano and penny-whistle before (self taught and I can't read music :( ) so I think I am doing OK and making good progress...my finger tips are quite sore if nothing else!!! The digital tuner was a miracle...it is only when you actually tune an instrument correctly that you realise how out of tune it was before...lesson learned there!

So...Grymn first, drones second, shark-man third I think :)...

See you through the knot-weed!

First Sunday update...post Kenya.

I guess I have no excuse to talk about non-hobby stuff now...so I'll kick off the first Sunday update since my return from Kenya with a picture of my current WIP:

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Starting from the right, we have the latest squad of Tunnel Fighters. They have been fully converted now and are just waiting for their undercoat before painting commences properly. Top left we have 9 aerial drones (from Ground Zero Games' 15mm range) and bottom left we have more GZG 15mm drones, these 3 will be used as controllers for the aerial drones. Once I get my latest order from Hasslefree Miniatures, I will have the comms specialist than will be operating all of the drones...the unit will be 9 aerial drones with each of the control drones in charge of 3 of them...the comms specialist will be directing the ground units and collating information.

In amongst the Hasslefree order I have another squad of Tunnel Fighters (just like the one above), a pair of Grymn for converting into stretcher bearers and the comms specialist (as already mentioned)...so the final goal is getting closer...

...So...what else have I got? Well, I have managed to bag me a pair of master casts from Fenris Games. The pair in question is of the larger sized 'Deep Ones', a shark ogre and a bone-fish ogre...I will post pix once they arrive and are assembled...but if you really want to see what I'm going on about, you could click this link to Frothers Unite UK (it can be sweary there...you have been warned!): LINK

Finally, I have just finished dying my daughter's hair again...the things us poor dads have to endure!

see you through my spangly new glasses!