Change is a part of life.

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

It's nearly the end of February already and it has happened in the blink of an eye. It seems a very short while ago that I was preparing for Christmas and here we are... two months later! SHEESH!

Since the December post, I have struggled with the hobby and haven't really got very much done. The two sets of converted AK troopers have gone off for casting; along with the priest. There was a Kickstarter for the first set of AK troopers and the Catachan Colonel; which did quite well. I sculpted a Beastman and Squat casualty, revealed a few Exo-Armour bodies and started to paint a unit of troops for the Catachan side of my grand army (the attachment to my display army that is completed except for varnish, base-tufts and a scenic base)...

Click the pix!

The Beastman is a concept for a Tempestus Militarum range, the Casualty was sculpted because I was asked to and the Exo's are WIP (the arms need to be finished) and have been worked on, in little bursts, for a good few months.

I've only rough-base-coated the infantry squad so no pix for them.

That lack of production is a testament to my lack of motivation towards the hobby. It happens every now and again but I think that I am a little burnt out and a little bit under the "stresses of the world" after a run of rubbish so I've put things away for now.

Life. Yep, I've had a lot of it, lately and it has certainly had me reaching for coping tools. Late last year, I lost Imgur which ruined years of posts due to my photos not being visible in the UK. Lots and lots of memories... GONE! To make matters worse, Facebook closed my account of 20+ years or so (The AI thought I was advertising and then I was not able to prove I wasn't a robot... my only appeal was rejected)... and when they close it, they erase everything from the platform... like you never existed... So many memories and events... GONE! It really left me numb and deeply upset. On top of that, the Dementia side of what I do (Dementia carer), has been having a big effect on who I am caring for because, sadly, people are leaving... some to more appropriate settings and some succumbing to the disease...  and new ones are arriving. This has been very emotionally draining and tough to deal with.

As a result, I have been very reflective. and part of that, is a need to tidy things up and get "real life" lists ticked off... 

On a brighter note... I am no longer on the RAF reserves list. My pension rose a little bit and I had a birthday so I am another year older and another year wiser (apparently).

Down here in Cornwall, we have had rain and storms since Christmas. I am hoping that things brighten up soon so that I can get out on my bike without worrying about hidden pot-holes and getting soaked to the skin.

Every day we're here there's a chance of better things to come.

See you from the arm chair!

The end of 2025

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World; for the last post of 2025. 

As is usually the case, I plan on recapping the year's happenings, events and progress so without further ado, I'll start with "life".

LIFE

This year has been my first full year at the day-centre; where I work to assist people with dementia to have a good time. I no longer cook but still do all the other stuff for five afternoons a week. We have clients visiting from 09:00hrs to 16:00hrs each day (I start at midday) and it is my role to entertain them, dish out food and drink and to assist with care; depending on need. It's a great job and I hope that it continues to be great for a long time to come.

Although I am unable to volunteer during the week, I have still been able to attend the Cornwall Air Ambulance charity shop on a bunch of Saturdays this year; covering for the manager and helping to raise money for an essential service/charity. It is something that is important to me and I hope to continue for as long as I am able.

On a more personal subject, in January, It will be three years since I finished psychotherapy and so far, I have managed to keep my head above water; even though I have had some depressive times where I have struggled... but thanks to my therapy, I've snapped out of the spiral and got back on track. I hope that I can continue to be able to reset myself and not go back to the dark days where depression dragged me down.

In January, I will also be a year older and will wave goodbye to my military reserve commitment (Royal Air Force).

Family wise, everyone is OK, the cats are still in fine fettle and the world is ticking by nicely. Next year, there is a wedding to look forward to... but that is something for next year...

I have not been riding my motorcycle NEARLY enough and keep saying "I must..." far too often; without knuckling down and doing it. I admit there were times when I could have but was either too tired or too busy to just throw a leg over and get out on my bike.

We have been in Cornwall for nine years now and it seems like the blink of an eye. We love it here and know that we made the right choice to move here.

THE HOBBY

Part of the hobby involves getting out and seeing stuff. This year I went to Salute 52 and had an interesting time. I have also been to a couple of local events run by a local charity called "Roll the Dice". They work to provide safe gaming space for youngsters and adults and also have a shop that sells games and gaming sundries (miniatures, paints, scenery etc). Both events were relatively small but had a decent spread of themes, games and sellers. I am (at some point) hoping to put together a little sculpting session or two to see if there is any local interest in that side of the hobby. That is something that will happen "as and when"; with no immediate, set-in-stone plans yet.

Imgur let me down. Yes... Imgur hosted my online photos and after eight years, they have decided to stop allowing access to the UK. All of the links to my images now have a banner that states the images are not accessible in my region so for the second time, an online hosting service has let me down and eight years of forum posts, on multiple forums, are spoiled for anyone viewing in the UK. I don't like to say it but thankfully, we have Facebook so there's that...

Onwards to "the list"... in other words: "what have I achieved in the hobby this year?"... so lets start with:

SCULPTING

This year, I have sculpted:

• 1x Superhero (Elon Musk in a Homelander cos-play) (for Bunny Badger Games).
• 1x Marvin the Martian (for Bunny Badger Games).
• 3x Jungle Fighting Dwarfs (to finish up the hunting team for Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 1x Servitor body plus 5x arms (for my army / Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 1x AK rifle (for Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 1x AK helmet (for Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 1x Rasputin Dwarf (for Checkpoint Miniatures).
• 1x Jungle Fighter Colonel (Straken proxy).
• 5x AK troopers with berets (for Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 1x Priest (for my army / Macrocosm Miniatures).

Also, I have converted:

• 2x Advisors (for my army).
• 1x Engineseer (for my army).
• 1x Bullgryn/Terminator (just for fun, from GW components).
• 7x AK troopers with helmets (for Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 5x AK troopers with "chip-hats" (for Macrocosm Miniatures).
• 1xSgt, 1x Comms and 1x Medic to go in a DKoK squad (for my army).

PAINTING

This year, I have painted:

• 1x Infantry squad (ten Dwarfs for 3Plt).
• 1x Heavy weapon squad (six Dwarfs for 3Plt).
• 1x Command squad (five Dwarfs for 3Plt).
• 2x Advisor.
• 2x Astropath.
• 1x Engineseer.
• 1x Adventurer.
• 1x Remembrance diorama.
• 8x Servitor (four gun Servitors and four standard Servitors).
• 7x Jungle fighters (Predator team).
• 1x Jungle Fighter Colonel (Straken proxy).
• 1x Jungle fighter infantry squad (ten Dwarfs).
• 1x Death Korps engineer squad (five Dwarfs).
• 1x Chaos Dwarf (Predator).
• 1x Jungle fighter Command Squad (five Dwarfs).

CONCLUSIONS

That makes: 21 sculpts, 19 conversions and 67 painted miniatures. 

I think that, with everything else I have going on, I haven't done too badly. As some will be well aware, I have periods of time where I am unable to sculpt (due to not having the mojo for it) but I have managed to paint stuff while that happened this year and that is pretty good.

HOWEVER... the lack of mojo has slowed down the commissions list and I have currently got a backlog so I am hopeful that I can rectify that, early next year, otherwise there will be some unhappy people... me included.

PLANS?

I try to make plans for the new year ahead but no plan survives contact with the year so I still haven't sorted out any Beastmen, armoured transports, tanks, bikes/trikes, Ogres or any of the myriad of "half ideas" that crop up along the way... mostly because I have been really focused on the Space Dwarf Army Project but now that is complete, I can see me trying to sort out a few little diversions in the year ahead... including my "secret Project" which has been rumbling on, in the background... so watch this space. Maybe 2026 WILL be the year of the Beast?!

WHERE ARE THE PIX?

I would be a terrible person if I didn't show off a few examples of this year's work so here they are:

Elon and Marvin Painted by Bunny Badger Games (Click the Pix!)

AK Troopers (Click the Pix!)

Astropaths, Remembrance Diorama, Adventurer and Chaos Squat/Predator (Click the Pix!)

Engineseer and Servitors (Click the Pic!)

DKoK Squad, Catachan Squad and Cadian army (Click the Pix!)

That was 2025. It won't be long before 2026 and the life challenges it brings so I guess it's time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I look forward to seeing you next year... CHEERS!

Click the Pic!

See you from the drunken halls!

What a difference a month makes.

 Hello and welcome to Inso's World again. It's been just over a month and in that time, a lot has happened so I'll crack on with things.

First up, Rasputin has been sent off to Checkpoint Miniatures and is now in their shop: LINK.

I also finished the AK troopers, they have been sent off to Macrocosm Miniatures, cast up and I now have a bunch of them to start converting:

Click the Pix!

While I was sculpting them, I also squeezed in a Dwarf version of a Catachan Jungle Fighter officer (Colonel Ironhand Straken) which was also sent off and cast up:

Click the Pix!

In addition to this, I have sculpted a Dwarf Imperial Priest to go with my planned "extra platoon" for my Squat army:

Click the Pic!

He's still waiting to be sent off and will likely join the AK trooper conversions when they are finished. 

Then... things stalled on the sculpting front. I bought a few kits to try and stir up some enthusiasm but only managed a single conversion:

Click the Pic!

It's an Ogryn conversion using one of the new Space Marine Saturnine Terminator suits. I plan (at some point) to add a few more but that depends on how I feel. I also bought some Tyranid Raveners but have only assembled two and "rough base-coated" them.   Then, in a fit of enthusiasm, I decided to paint the Jungle Dwarfs:

Click the Pix!

While painting and finishing these off, Chris at Macrocosm Miniatures unveiled his new Kickstarter that was for the very troops I was painting. You can see the Kickstarter here:

Kickstarter

Now for a bit of other stuff that has probably been part of the reason that I have lost enthusiasm a bit...

First of all, Imgur decided to block the UK from seeing or accessing any images on their photo hosting site, from 30th September 2025. They have hosted my images for eight years; following the Photobucket mess that forced me to switch in the first place. YES I can get access using a VPN but it still means that anyone in the UK can no longer see my images without using a VPN... and also, why would I want to support a platform that just blocked the UK off the cuff and without warning? As a result... all the forums I post on are filled with "Content not viewable in your region" signs, instead of images. Eight years of forum blogs gone! I am yet to decide what to do about the forum and hosting situation...

Next... army list woes. WH40k no longer has "vanilla" Astra Militarum armies... you have to pick a regiment. That meant that I had to make my army Cadians but in order to use some of the weapon options, the additional platoon has now got to be Catachan. Luckily, the Predator team are Catachan and in order to add more to the platoon, I can just paint red berets on my existing troops and call it quits. Not a major issue but frustrating, nonetheless.

The weather has not been kind. It has brought my mood low; as has the clocks going back. I haven't had decent sleep for months and work has been increasingly challenging (Dementia care is a challenging calling). I am currently in a bit of a slump and am hoping for some decent luck to improve my spirits. I still have a list of commissions that I need to finish but my sculpting mojo has deserted me...

... so that's what's been happening and I am always hopeful that the next post will be fairly soon and have at least something worth sharing.

See you from the valley!

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!