Sunday INVASION!

Look to the skies! The invasion has begun!...

...Well, not really but I had an itch that I needed to scratch after seeing some cool conversions over at The Miniatures Page. What I saw were some converted Agarix miniatures from Hasslefree Miniatures and I was so taken with them, I had to have a go myself. Well the order arrived and I used some Hasslefree railrifles (trimmed down a bit) and a lot of little brass pins to turn the Agarix into these...MUSHROOM MEN FROM OUTER SPACE!:

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I think they may be called Stroganoffians! Here is a scale pic with one of the Grymn desert veterans:

Click the Pic!

Speaking of Grymn desert veterans, I have been pottering along with the conversions and have finished 15 so far, with 10 more in progress. Here is a pic of the platoon in progress:

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As you can see, quite a lot of work has been done but there is still quite a lot to go.

Tomorrow, we have family visiting so I won't get as much time as I'd like to carry on with the sculpting but I'm sure I'll get something done. I still have 4 more MUSHROOM MEN FROM OUTER SPACE to put togethr so maybe they'll get some of the days effort spent on them.

Who knows?

See you on the wild side.

Thursday progress.

It has been another sunny day and we all visited Basingstoke today. I haven't been there for a good few years and the whole place has changed dramatically. It now has a very nice shopping centre with, amongst other things, a couple of model shops so I was very pleased (even though I didn't actually buy anything).

When I returned from my travels, I found that a parcel had arrived and in it were some minis from the Twilight creator; Mike Thorp. I have been sworn to secrecy over two of the minis but I can tell you that they are very, very nice... you may see a certain Enuk in the pic further down this post (I'm sure he won't mind me showing that one off...well, I hope not!)...

...while we're on the subject of the pic, it shows the first work for ages on my desert veterans:

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I have started to bulk up the existing troops with extra water bottles and pouches. Most of them already had their hats sculpted about a year ago but a few still needed them adding. The pic shows the first squad of a platoon. Five have had extra pouches and bottles added (they just need buttons) and five are awaiting the same treatment. I have a total of 40 of these to do.

You can also see a scale pic (at the bottom) of an Enuk next to the leader of the squad. I think it will make a really nice cavalry mount and I have a selection of armoured ones in the post ready to join this one when they arrive. I think that the riders will take a lot of converting...but I'm sure I'll think of something!

That's it for now!

See you on the other side.

Holiday time!

I am on holiday. I went in to work on Monday and just couldn't face being there so I've put in a week and a bits leave. That means I have got a little bit of R&R time. So far we (as a family) have been to Reading and Oxford and have been out and about to various places. I've even been out and kicked a football around with my lad (which is a bloody miracle!).

I have also had a bit of internet time and have been hitting the E-shops hard!

As I have mentioned before, I have a bit of money set aside in the Hasslefree Miniatures shop (it was a Bonus Credit deal...buy £150 of credit for £100) so I have ordered a bunch of Twilight 'Enuks' and 'Baruks' along with a bunch of Grymn to make a squad of eight cavalry.

I've also been very lucky and have been in touch with the designer and sculptor of the Twilight miniatures. He is sending me some very special Twilight items that are not released yet. When they arrive and I have them assembled, I will post some pix. The REALLY special thing about the items that are being sent is that one of them is the miniature I have been most looking forward to seeing since I saw it partially completed at Salute a couple of years ago...I CAN'T WAIT!!!

On another Hasslefree front, they are having the yearly bonus event at the moment. Basically, there are all sorts of deals going on including 'buy stuff and get free miniatures', ' buy stuff and get free miniatures and a bonus bag' and 'buy stuff get free miniatures, a bonus bag AND raffle tickets for master castings from the whole year!'...it really is too good an opportunity to miss...

...so I bought a lot of stuff (not using credit but REAL MONEY) including more Grymn, some guns and some mushroom men!

Did I mention mushroom men? Well, I was browsing over at TMP and clicked onto a Golgo Island game thread and shown in some the pix of the game were some converted alien mushroom men. I took one look at them and saw justification for me buying some (I have been looking for a reason to buy some for ages...now I had one!). Now all I have to do is wait for them to turn up, add the guns that I bought to go with them and off we go!

Back to Grymn. As you can tell, I have been thinking Grymn a lot lately. They are my favourite miniatures at the moment and I feel that I have somewhat neglected them recently. As a result, I had my storage cases out last night and have been looking through the Desert Veterans to try to sort out what I was going to do with them. I totted everything up and I have a full platoon, a special weapon squad and a colonel to lead them. The order that I placed was for 4 troops to join the colonel in the HQ squad and ten troops to make up an armoured fist squad. That means that the little army will be as follows:

Command HQ (HQ Choice):
Colonel, Comms, Medic, 2x Melta.

Special Weapon Squad (Part of the Colonel's HQ Choice):
3xSMG, 3xSniper.

Infantry platoon (Troops Choice):
HQ: Lieutenant, Comms, Medic, SMG, Melta.
Squad1: Sgt, Comms, Grenade Launcher, Missile Launcher, 6xSMG.
Squad2: Sgt, Comms, Grenade Launcher, Missile Launcher, 6xSMG.

Armoured Fist squad (Troops Choice):
Sgt, Comms, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, 6xSMG.

All six of the above units will be mounted in Tiger APCs (they will count as Chimeras).

Doctrines will be: Mechanised, Carapace Armour, Special Weapon Squads and possibly Rough Riders at a later date...depending on how the cavalry experiment turns out.

Well...that's all the paper-plans, what about the work plans? Well, the Urban squad will continue being painted but they will be joined by a few desert veterans who will be getting a bit of Green Stuff work done. Most of the troops have had desert head-gear added but there will be extra pouches and stuff to add as well. I have NO PLANS to work on the Tiger APCs in any way at the moment. I need a decent sander and an airbrush before I even unpack the Tigers from their box.

PHEW! That is about it at the moment. I'm sure that there will be more to follow soon!

See you on the funny side!

Chilled out Sunday.

What a nice evening for posting on my blog. I have just got back from a couple of hours just sitting on the edge of a rural part of the Thames river, drinking coffee and chatting with my family. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a couple of beers but I was designated driver so just coffee for me.

That is one thing about being in England that is really good; I don't have to check a map or ask the security guys where I am allowed to go (like I had to in Northern Ireland), I can just go where I like. It gives you a real sense of freedom.

So...on with the pix. First up is a pic of a 1/35 scale Marshy Dog; complete with the pilot and a Grymn for scale:

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Obviously it needs paint but I really only assembled it to get an idea of scale and how the pilot fits into it. I really don't know what I will do with it but I'm sure something will come up. I only bought the two 1/35 scale Votoms to make up a minimum order value...so they were just a bonus really.

The next pic is a WIP of the fourth fireteam for my Urban Assault Platoon. I have got the hard bit out of the way (TINY SQUARES!!!) and have started to paint the brown bits:

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I still have quite a way to go on these but they are a bit of a milestone because I haven't painted actual Grymn for absolutely ages (mostly because of the camouflage being daunting). Hopefully I'll manage to finish these off and then I'll get back into the swing of things and paint the remaining eight for the platoon. We'll see.

Just to show what a chilled out evening we've been having, here is Moggy smiling for the camera:

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And Fred who really doesn't give a damn!:

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As you can see, the cats have settled into our new home!

See you on the flip side!

Saturday reminiscing

It is Saturday and rather than showing pix of new stuff I thought I'd dig out my first complete Grymn army instead. This is my standard, temperate DPM camouflaged army and it is the only Grymn army (so far) that I have finished.

It is based on the now replaced Imperial Guard codex from Games Workshop. It uses the Grenadiers, Carapace armour, Ogryn Squad, Stormtroopers Squad and Special Weapon Squad doctrines.

It consists of:

Command platoon with 2 special weapon squads and a heavy weapon squad.
1 infantry platoon with command squad, two infantry squads and a small remnant squad.
1 infantry platoon with command squad & two infantry squads.
1 grenadier squad
1 sentinel squadron (a single sentinel).
1 Ogryn squad.
2 stormtrooper squad.

First up is the whole army:

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Next up is the command platoon with the command HQ at the front, a special flamer squad, a special sniper squad and a heavt rocket launcher squad:

Click the Pic!

Next up is a squad of grenadiers (a troop choice that uses the stats for stormtroopers):

Click the Pic!

This pic shows the first infantry platoon. There is a command squad at the front with two squads (each with a melta-gun and mini-gun) behind and a small remnants squad of five troops at the back:

Click the Pic!

Another infantry platoon, this time the two squads have a grenade launcher and missile launcher:

Click the Pic!

Finally we have a few support units. There is a Sentinel at the back, a small OGrymn squad and two small squads of Storm-troopers at the front (the heavy weapons are counted as plasma guns):

Click the Pic!

Now I know that the photographs could be better but this is the first time I have had the whole army on the table at once and I am not used to taking wide angled pix of troops...I usually stick to a squad at most. One day, I'll actually learn to take decent pictures!

I'm sure there will be more pix soon so stay tuned!

Friday and I'm connected!

Well, I'm back on-line at last. The engineers turned up and sorted out the connection in about 10 minutes. I just wish that BT had sent them around to sort it out 7 days ago...then I wouldn't be so narked at them.

This is a very short post just to let everyone know that photos will start very soon, now that I have internet in my own home.

I don't have much to show off at the moment but I have painted the black squares on the four Urban Grymn I started painting a few days ago...

Catch you on the flip side!

New Home Woes.

Wow...my 20th follower has come to join the fun! Welcome aboard Ajsalium!

Well, I warned you all that there would be less traffic for a few days due to the move...well, I am now living back in England so hopefully things should return to normal soon.

At the moment I have no web access at home due to BT being totally useless. After 8 days, they still haven't sent the right sort of engineer to our house to sort out the web connection...I am starting to get a little bit psychotic about it...

...luckily, I have nice in-laws who have allowed me a little time to browse the net so i thought I'd post an update.

What has been happening recently? Well, I have begun to unpack a few bits and pieces but have by no means got rid of all the boxes...I need more cupboard space!

I received a small parcel from Comet Miniatures with a pair of 1/35 scale Votoms kits and another 1/60 scale Scopedog diecast. I now have an assembled 'Marshydog' sat on one of my cupboards ready for whatever I decide to do with it.

I have unpacked all of my painting stuff and have painted the little blue squares on four more Grymn urban troopers and have suddenly realised why they have been sat in the cupboard for so long...LITTLE TINY SQUARES!!!

That is it really. Until I get web connested, I can't post pix and have not been able to do any shopping...so I have been pretty bored lately.

On the plus side, it is great to be back in England again so hopefully my mood will improve!

Catch you all when I get more web access!