Busy Summer Heat.

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

Is it August already? Time is flying by at the moment and it seems that the summer heat has arrived in all its fiery glory, this year! The last month or so have been a mix of being half asleep, melting, sweating and being busy getting stuff done. I've been out on my bike a bit more, we have had our poorly boiler replaced with a lovely new one and I've also got a new tattoo so I am "tattoo symmetrical" now:

Click the Pic!

It's a traditional style Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer) and for the time being, I have no plans for any more tattoos. The tattoo marked the first day of a week away from work for my wife and I but rather than go on holiday, we arranged all sorts of annoying chores to be done during that week while we were at home to oversee things; namely a boiler fit and a few other bits and bobs... so time well spent.

On the hobby front, sculpting has been a bit on and off; mostly due to the weather being very hot and causing sweaty hands... but I have still managed to work through a few bits and bobs. First up, I sculpted three more Sergeants for the helmeted AK Troopers:

Click the Pic!

These have been sent off with the Commissars (shown in the last Blog post) and the Casualty (from February's Blog Post), to Macrocosm Miniatures and have already been cast so I should receive some copies soon. While I have been waiting for those, I have also converted/sculpted three more Comms Troopers for the helmeted AK Troopers:

Click the Pic!

On top of those, I have head swapped a set of the basic AK Troopers but they are currently drying so no pix yet. I have another set of basic AK Troopers that have got helmets but are waiting for their faces to be sculpt. I am also working on four AK Medics; three are on the corks and one has already been converted (sorry, no pix yet). Once those are finished, I'll be looking to sculpt some Special Weapon Troopers and some Heavy Weapon Troopers so the conveyor is truly working overtime at the moment.

The plan is to build all of the troops required to field a Death Korps of Krieg (DKoK) army so I will be hoping to sculpt some small weapon platforms to count as those seen in the DKoK heavy weapon squads... but that's a little way off yet.

Overall, I have the following list (so far) of what I am aiming to create for the helmeted AK Troopers range:

4 Commissars (including the old one from the first army)

4 Sgts

4 Comms Troopers

4 Medics

4 Special Weapon Troopers

4 Heavy Weapon Troopers

15 Basic Troopers

Later:

6 Heavy Weapon Gunners

3 Heavy Weapon Spotters

3 Heavy Weapons (Twin Stubber, Lascannon, Heavy Flamer)

1 empty Heavy Weapon Platform

That's quite a lot of sculpting BUT I am already getting through the list quite quickly so it isn't going to take a massively long time.

In my next Blog post, I should have all of the Basic AK Troopers finished along side the finished Medics so there's something to look forward to.

In a completely random direction... the bike that I passed on to my buddy a couple of months ago, is now running, repaired and has been rebuilt! As soon as I get to see it, I'll try and get some pix.

See you from the tattoo parlour!

Flaming June

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

The last couple of months have been pretty full-on with May being difficult to top. The first week of May having:

    Flora Day band practice.

    A Hen Night.

    A Stag Night.

    My daughter's Wedding.

    Flora Eve.

    Flora Day.

    The quiet after Flora Day.

All I can say is that it was the very best of weeks and I was on such a high after all of the social excess that I hadn't felt quite so happy in a very long time. My Daughter's Wedding went perfectly and she looked stunning. The Flora festivities went perfectly; especially with family stopping down to enjoy it with us. What a week!!!

I have also spent time in the newly refurbished Cornwall Air Ambulance shop and it is a much better space now. The interior has been replaced with cleaner, more modern decoration and fittings and the exterior is still undergoing repairs and refurbishment so it is really getting the transformation that it needs.

Work at the Day Centre has been as good as ever and next month (July) will be the second anniversary of me working there. To say that it has been a joy to work there would be an understatement. There are obviously aspects of working with people living with Dementia, that can be challenging and emotionally difficult but after two years, I am still very happy to be working where I do... and hopefully, will continue to enjoy it for the foreseeable future.

Do you remember me buying a second motorcycle after my friend crashed it? That was SEVEN years ago! It has been sat in my garage for all that time, waiting for me to break the emotional block (due to my friend passing away - RIP, Jules) to actually restore it. Well, a mutual friend has agreed to take the bike and restore it so the VFR has now gone to a new home and will get the love it deserves:

Click the Pic!

So... lighter shoulders and a lot of "stuff" going on. Then the wheels sort of fell off a bit. I have struggled a bit with a dark mood over the last couple of weeks; not helped by a big twitch after hearing some air-raid sirens on the news... proper rattled me. I guess that I still have some sharp memories from my time in Iraq... but it has passed now so I have landed and the dreams have declined in tempo.

As you can imagine, with everything that's been going on, I haven't had a lot of time for hobby... but I think I've done pretty well. I wanted to sculpt three Commissars and that is what I've managed to do:

Click the Pix!

The first two are designed to be basic Commissars that will join Commissar Butters as part of the leadership team. The third one is a rather special Commissar Lord who has been designed to use the rules of Commissar Yarrick and as such, is "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) for that character.

I am planning to add a Death Korps of Krieg (DKoK) company to my existing Cadian/Catachan army and will need a bunch of Commissars for the job... hence these sculpts. 

With DKoK in mind, I have started the process of adding more helmet-clad, AK troopers to the mix and have decapitated a few "chip Hat" troopers for conversion:

Click the Pic!

While the muse lasts, I may as well use it.

That's it for now!

See you from a new district!

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!

Phase one is complete...

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World. This post will be all about my Space Dwarf Army because I have reached the first major milestone... it has all been sculpted, it has all been cast up and converted and it has all been painted. What started as a brief conversation over six years ago, has finally reached this milestone and I reckon that it is worthy of a recap so please feel free to pull up a sandbag because it's a bit of a story...

Around nine years ago, I retired from the Royal Air Force and moved to sunny Cornwall. I hadn't been there long before I thought I'd sculpt something and when I showed it off, people wanted me to share so I decided to get it cast up and would see how it went. The sculpt in question was a pair of legs that shortened a standard Terminator into a Dwarf version. The image shows the legs fitted to GW Terminator bodies. This little foray into the world of selling casts of my own work didn't go brilliantly; selling a dozen sets of five legs and not really making back my costs:

Click the Pic!

Undeterred, I decided to make a small unit of Halfling Snipers to get cast up to both use in my armies and sell some copies. This fared slightly better but I didn't sell all of them and I ended up selling the greens to Checkpoint Miniatures:

Click the Pic!

After this, I continued to build my GW plastic Squat army until there was a competition to sculpt a sci-fi character... so I sculpted my Space Dwarf Berserker:

Click the Pic!

The sculpt didn't win and I felt it would probably be better selling it off... so I did. After this, there was a further competition and I sculpted a pair of Space Dwarfs:

Click the Pic!

Again, these didn't win but I didn't sell them and kept them in my collection... THEN, I got a message from Chris Nicholls (owner of Macrocosm Miniatures), saying that he had bought the Berserker sculpt from the guy I sold it to. I said that I had a couple of greens sitting idle if he wanted them so he bought the two competition sculpts from me. THEN we had a chat and I suggested that it would be cool for me to sculpt a range for him, at my own pace and all I'd need in return would be casts of the sculpts... and the deal was struck! That was about six years ago and led to me sculpting a range:

Click the Pic!

It was a bumpy ride... I had a mental breakdown and was in therapy for three years, caught Long Covid which lasted about 13 months, got side-tracked a few times and lost my mojo a bit but the range kept growing, the sculpts kept getting done and eventually, all of the items on my army list were ticked off. During the process, I was arranging my casts in to units and getting paint on them as I went along... culminating in an army of painted miniatures that is 125 miniatures strong:

Click the Pic!

As well as the army, I painted a few other bits along the way... like Thor, an Adventurer, a Berserker, a Grief Diorama and a few other bits... but they are for another post (maybe)... and the focus is on the army and having all those miniatures painted is the end of Phase One.

Phase Two will be adding tufts to all the bases and varnishing the army... THEN, the army will be finished and ready for Phase Three; the creation of a scenic display base.

However... I am currently basking in the successful completion of Phase One and will get around to starting the next phase when I have cleared some of the sculpting backlog I have managed to build up.

This has been a journey! 

I have received a lot of encouragement along the way, from the hobby community and a few people who are almost as Dwarf obsessed as I am. I certainly couldn't have done it without my friend Chris at Macrocosm Miniatures, who has left me to it and been very patient with my progress!

Six years...

Worth it!

See you from the top of the pedestal!

Mid August? Already?

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

Time is flying by... Birthdays have come and gone... Christenings too... my daughter got engaged... work... and my bike passed its MOT (it had only done 71 miles since the last one so it really was due to pass)... life continues in pretty much the same vein as it usually does... Ticking along, as I usually say.

I managed to go to a small wargames/CCG event, locally... it was a nice little event and it was run by a local charity called Roll the Dice.

The hobby has been rather eventful... I received casts for the greens I showed off in the last post so I have assembled and painted some of them...

Click the Pic!

That's the first of two units consisting of an Engineseer and four Servitors. I have another unit to build and paint but I have been preoccupied with sculpting since then; especially because there were some of the AK rifles in the pack of castings... these are WIP but I am nearly finished with these five "AK Troopers" for Macrocosm Miniatures:

Click the Pic!

Just heads, collars and basing tabs to go now. They should be finished very soon because I am a sculpting maniac at the moment and you have to make hay while the sun shines. Once these ones are finished I have to create a helmet for a set of them so that it can be sent away for mastering... then, when I get some troopers and the helmet back, I can sculpt alternative heads/headgear on some.

In other news, I have a few commissions that are outstanding; namely some small arms for a Rogue Trader sculptor and some weapon arms for some of the Bob Olley Exo armours, for another chap. In the meantime, I have been working on a "secret project" that is ticking along in the background and will be unveiled when it is finished.

On top of that, I was asked to sculpt a Historical figure for Check Point miniatures and ended up with this:

Click the Pic!

It is Grigori Rasputin and was made for their Weird War range... and yes, he's a Dwarf. It is likely that there will be more character models sculpted for that range in the future so watch this space... although I was also building a "Goblin land torpedo" which is on the back-burner until I finish some of the other stuff... here's a WIP:

Click the Pic!

The three "volcanoes" are part of the "secret project", with the land torpedo above ; also showing the tracks underneath.

Since the last blog post, I have also based and converted another platoon of troops for my personal army:

Click the Pix!

It's a Command Squad, three Infantry Squads and a Heavy Weapon Squad (with autocannons). The units are pretty standard with the Infantry Squads having a flamer as a special weapon and the Command Squad having a heavy flamer instead. This platoon won't be part of the end display but will still be counted as part of the army (I just wanted to have some flamers in the army and use some autocannons too).

That's pretty much it... apart from the "secret project" and a special character for the Jungle Dwarfs (WIP):

Click the Pic!

As a result of all the work that is going on, I have stopped taking commissions for the foreseeable future as I have quite a lot to get done!

... my non-drinking continues and as a result, I have now lost over 2 stone (15Kg) in weight... which is a thing... It's nice but I need to keep an eye on it because I didn't plan on the weight loss... so I'm going to have to start eating more pies/pasties/fish & chips; if it goes too far!

See you from the chippy!

Sculpting, painting and a brief step back in time.

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again. Things have been hectic over the last month and there's lots to get through in this post so I'll get straight to it.

First up, life is ticking along as usual... work at the Day Centre is still great, I'm still getting the occasional shifts in the Cornwall Air Ambulance shop and I'm also getting a lot of hobby time in (at the expense of going out on my motorcycle).

My son has just finished his courses to become a fully substantive Corporal the the Royal Air Force so I am very proud of him. My daughter is working very hard, "cheffing" in the kitchen at the restaurant where she works and I'm very proud of her. My wife is still working hard, managing the playschool where she works and I'm very proud of her.

The cats are still being themselves and that's brilliant.

My motorbike is just sitting in the garage being neglected... something that has to change or it'll die...

Now for some hobby news (takes deep breath)...

First up, I have finished sculpting all the bits and bobs for the Servitor and it has been sent off for casting, along with an "AK47" styled weapon for the next little project:

Click the Pix!

The next little project has started and I currently have five armatures on corks with the first layer of putty on them, waiting for some enthusiasm to get to work on them.

I have also been commissioned to sculpt a few infantry weapons for a different company than usual so there will more news on that once I get into the work on those.

While all the sculpting has been going on, I have received a large batch of miniatures back from Chris at Macrocosm Miniatures and have been busy, prepping and painting them... 

First a pair of Astropaths:

Click the Pic!

These represent the penultimate miniatures in my army project so I've just got the Servitors to go and the army will be finished... although I will need to varnish all the miniatures in the army... and add tufts to the bases... and build the display base for it...

... however, the additional Engineseer needed some paint so he got some:

Click the Pic!

Next we have an Adventurer:

Click the Pic!

He is just a random chap that isn't part of the army but I just wanted to sculpt something different. 

Lastly we have a painted Diorama:

Click the Pic!

I have 20 resin copies of the diorama that will be sold, at some point, to raise money for the Royal British Legion charity. More news on that once I get things sorted.

I have yet to get proper paint on this lot, however, since this photo was taken, they have been properly based and primed... they are the Predator Hunting Team with the Predator (Chaos Dwarf) at the front right:

Click the Pic!

As a result of getting extra hours at work, over the last couple of weeks, I have lost my motivation for sculpting so I haven't really looked at it. This will (hopefully) change after this week as my shifts will return to normal.

In a look back into my youth, I have also spent a couple of hours building this Father's Day gift:

Click the Pix!

It was very enjoyable and really made me remember the joys of assembling Lego! Bearing in mind that when I was younger, I was Lego obsessed, I am hoping that I don't rekindle that "horrendously expensive" obsession to add to the other "horrendously expensive" hobbies that I already have... 

That's the lot, I think. 

In the coming months, I hope to sculpt a small unit of Space Dwarfs (commission), some infantry weapons (commission), convert a few Servitors (when they arrive) and paint up 8 Servitors for the army (when they arrive). Hopefully, my muse hasn't gone on holiday and I can get things done. Only time will tell...

See you from the head of the line!

Marching in to 2025.

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

It's been a couple of months but during that time, a lot has happened so I'll get straight to it.

Life-wise, I'm still volunteering with the Air Ambulance shop occasionally and I'm still working at the care-centre but in addition to caring for the clients, I have also been given the task of cooking their dinners and a bit of cleaning so things have ramped up, somewhat.

After nearly 2 years, I have made the decision to stop creating/delivering the bi-weekly quiz at my local pub. I've just run out of ideas and enthusiasm so I'm stepping aside for someone else to give it a go. This will have the effects of reducing my stress levels and giving me more time to do some stuff for me... which will be nice. You never know, I may even get some sleep occasionally!

Our goldfish passed away after 10 years of happy swimming... 

... and that's about it for normal stuff so it's on to hobby related things now.

So far this year, I have finished the Jungle Fighter project and have sent the sculpts off to Chris at Macrocosm Miniatures:

Click the Pic!

That's seven Jungle Fighters and one Alien predator. I expect these will be a Kickstarter at some point fairly soon.

While I was working on the Jungle Fighter project, I was also sculpting a couple of miniatures for the Bunny Badger / Frothers games at Salute this year. I was asked to sculpt a "fat Elon Musk in Homelander cosplay and Marvin the Martian" so I sculpted these:

Click the Pix!

They have since been sent off, painted and will appear on the gaming table at Salute 52, this year (12 Apr 2025).  

As well as these sculpts, I attempted to sculpt some Servitor robots for my Squat army but failed. I was hoping to add the Servitors to my other finished sculpts and send them off for casting but I decided to give up and send off what I had... so the two Astropaths, the Adventurer and the Mourning Diorama have all been sent off to Macrocosm Miniatures for casting. Hopefully, I'll get some casts soon.

Click the Pix!

Seeing as my sculpting muse has done a runner, I have been painting units for my Squat army for a change. So far, I have painted the second infantry squad for the third platoon and the heavy weapon squad for the same platoon. I am currently painting the command squad that will complete the platoon (one infantry squad was painted a while ago):

Click the Pix!

Once the command squad is painted, I only need to add two Astropaths and four Servitors to the army and it will be complete. Obviously, I need to get them delivered first so in the meantime, I will be painting up a few already started, spare miniatures to trial some stick-on, grass tufts, that I plan to use for the army... which is one of the reasons that I am going to Salute this year... so I can have a look at what's available and see what will be a nice colour to add to my army bases. I have a few other things to see while I'm there but that will be for my "post Salute" blog post.

That's about it for now.

See you from the hangar!

This is the end... of 2024!

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again... admittedly, after quite a break... but welcome, nonetheless!

Tomorrow is the last day of 2024 and as a lot of people do, I decided to have a look back over the year and see what has happened in my life.

To start on a miserable note, I have come to the conclusion that the long COVID I had for over a year has permanently affected my breathing. Plans to run marathons have been permanently put on hiatus until I decide to go and get things checked out by the professionals. Apart from that, another cracked rib and a few aches and pains (related to my age and past activities), I'm feeling pretty chipper. 

This coming January, marks the second year of not being in therapy so I'd say that my mental health is pretty good and I'm in a good place with regards to that side of things. I am finding that NOT watching the news every day and ignoring the things that I can't change has really helped me to chill out and I am a lot less stressed/frustrated with life... which is nice...

I've been working in an elderly care facility for almost six months and I am really enjoying it. It's a day centre for people to visit, be looked after and entertained and then go home at the end of the day. It is great fun and I am getting on well with the clients and my work mates. For me, it's a bit like getting paid to go and have fun at a social club (with a bit of care-work thrown in) so I can see myself staying there for the foreseeable future.

I have started a college course to do with "behaviour that challenges" and plan to do more care related courses when I finish it and when they become available.

I still volunteer at the local Cornwall Air Ambulance charity shop on some weekends... something I really wanted to keep up with, after getting my care job.

The two-weekly quiz that I run at my local pub is ticking along nicely still... it's been over a year now and I have a group of regulars who pop along... as well as the occasional newbies.

Family is good. Cats are good. Norrel (our gold fish) is weird but still going strong.

I have been out on my motorcycle less than five times this year... that needs to change.

I (we) haven't had a holiday away, since we moved to Cornwall (8 years ago)... that needs to change.

All in all, I'm ticking along nicely but need to get a few ducks in a row in order to start getting more back from life.

The hobby... is it though? Is it a hobby? Over this year, I haven't been as active with my hobby as the previous year. I haven't painted anything... and I've sculpted 8 miniatures for myself. Everything else has been for other parties. This coming year, my main goal is to finish my "commission" list and not accept any more until I have had the chance to do some hobby, rather than "work" at my hobby. I need to learn to be a bit selfish and work on finishing my Squat army. I do a lot and don't have time for finishing my own projects... and that sucks.

So... what have I managed to finish this year? This:

• 4x Teletubbies, Noo-noo and a Tubby-Toast coin for the Frothers games at Salute 2024.
• 2x Astropath (for my army)
• Ukranian president for the Politicos range.
• 1x Squat adventurer (personal sculpt... for no reason).
• Chaos Squat (Predator) for Macrocosm Miniatures.
• 2x Human snipers in ghillie suits for a US company.
• Squat memorial diorama (personal project... for reasons).
• 3x alien creatures to use up left over putty from other sculpts.
• 4x Squat jungle troopers for Macrocosm Miniatures.
• (Preemptively) 1x Superhero for the Frothers games at Salute 2025.

Some images:

Jungle fighters so far - Click the Pic!

The Teletubbies and Noo-noo (painted by Badgers) - Click the Pic!

My memorial diorama - Click the Pic!

In the next few months, I need to finish:

• 3x Squat jungle troopers for Macrocosm Miniatures.
• 1x Martian for the Frothers games at Salute 2025.
• GET STUFF CAST UP AND IN MY ARMY!!!

It doesn't seem a lot but hopefully, I can get it finished and then I can get back to finishing my Squat army... which still needs some servitors to be sculpted... plus a few bits to be cast up and of course, everything that isn't painted, will need painting.

In other hobby news... I have got my ticket for Salute 2025. I am planning to use it and I am planning to meet a few friends who I haven't seen in a while; from the hobby community. Going to Salute is as far as any plans have got, apart from buying a ticket... so getting there, accommodation etc. is still required... but it's not for a few months yet... 

That's about it. 2024 hasn't been a bad year at all. It could have been better... but so could the weather! I'm looking forward to 2025 in much the same way as any other year... skeptical optimism. I hope that it's a s good a year as you or I deserve and hopefully the wheels don't fall off.

See you from the past... looking into the future!

Cheers! Have a Happy New Year!