A week in the life of...

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

This week has been one of travelling, hospitals and missed opportunities.

Monday I do chores for me and a friend who has a few health issues.

Tuesday, I travelled up to Somerset so that I could take my Dad for his first set of chemotherapy for his terminal cancer. Dad chose the chemotherapy option to give him a few extra weeks/months so I got to his place in time to have some lunch, travel over to the hospital in time for a coffee before heading to the ward to start the treatment. Luckily, I decided to buy a lightweight wheelchair because it REALLY helped with the journey from the car, through the hospital to the ward.

The first round of treatment went relatively smoothly but took a little longer than expected (due to a possible reaction to the drugs). A few extra drugs helped things along and we made it home OK. I stayed overnight to make sure things were OK and travelled back home on the Wednesday. So far, apart from a little nausea and a lot of tiredness, Dad has been OK. His breathing has even been a little better so it seems to be going OK. The second round is this week so I am hoping it goes a little smoother again as we get used to the process.

Thursday, I was a bit of a zombie. Friday, I was kept hanging around to find out when I was taking my daughter's boyfriend to the railway station so I couldn't really get much done. I did, however get a small amount of (secret) sculpting in.

Yesterday was a slow day but we managed to get some cinema time in. We went to see 'Valerian and the city of a thousand planets' which was a good film but sadly confirmed what the critics have been saying... "no chemistry between the leading characters, shallow plot but a wonderful spectacle of special effects". It was good... but not awesome. Worth going to see though.

Tomorrow is another week of much the same. Chores, chemo and hopefully, an opportunity to get something moving on the 'Inso's Diminutive Emporium' front. At least I now have all of the components to get things moving (boxes, labels, bases, bubble wrap, light-box for photos... ). Hopefully, I will get the time, alertness and inclination to get things started.

Seeing as this has been a bit of a slow update, here is a picture:

So much to do... so little time.

See you from the queue!

Another bank holiday weekend.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

There has been quite a bit going on this week so let's get started.

First up, to repeat my previous announcement, I am doing a charity hair and beard shaving event this coming Friday so please, if you can spare a donation, I would appreciate it. All you need to do is click on the link below and follow the instructions to make a donation... every little counts and the charity is one that helps everyone who is touched by the spectre of terminal illness of all kinds:

Inso's Charity Page LINK

In appreciation, here's a big smile:

Click the Pic!

So... I have had quite a hobby week... starting with a bit of painting! Yes... PAINTING! I have finally dug my paints out and, although I don't have a proper painting area, have managed to put a very basic layer of paint on one of my Hasslefree Miniature gifts... so work has started and although I really want to show things off... you won't see it until I have finished it because I am very mean (and it is an amazing little miniature that is too cool to show WIP shots of).

In addition to the painting, I have been continuing with my Halfling sniper sculpts and have got this far... two finished and one WIP:

Click the Pic!

I'll not say anything about anything else in the picture apart from, 'tiny distractions'.

Speaking of distractions, I finally buckled and bought some of the new Kharadron Overlord miniatures from Games Workshop. I decided that I needed to see what they were like, for myself so that I could come to the right decision about them. I bought the most basic troops of the lot; the Arkanauts. Here's the link to the box I bought:

Arkanaut Link

It is the first time I have visited a Warhammer store for a very long time and I was treated very well. The guy who took my payment was in the process of painting some of the Arkanauts and was doing a very nice job of it. 

Anyway, I have taken a lot of comparison pictures so here they are:

Click the Pix!

From what I can see, the Kharadron kit doesn't match well with my old plastic Squats so will not be included in my army at all. That said, I think the Kharadrons are nicely made and with a few minor modifications, would make a great alternative faction. I think that changing the weapons to sci-fi ones, putting larger heads on them and removing the steampunk bits is all it would take... but that is just my opinion and I know that there are many people out there who will be using them as Squats; straight from the box.

In other news... I got my veteran badge this week. Truly, it is the end of an era for me:

Click the Pic!

Tonight may well be a karaoke night... and why not?

See you from the stage!

A Dwarfy problem.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World on a fine Sunday morning.

I will quickly sum up my week:

• Chopping down a tree.
• Chopping up tree into logs.
• Disposing of logs.
• Building shelves (still WIP).
• St. Patrick's Day drinking and karaoke.
• Six Nations rugby... and recovery.
• Today.

Now that is out of the way, let's talk about an interesting development in the world of GW miniatures... namely, the new Age of Sigmar Duardin miniatures and models.

So... we have all got our heads around the fact that Warhammer Fantasy turned into Age of Sigmar and that things immediately went pear-shapes because... round bases and non-point based armies. Then came the Sigmarines... giant, heavily armoured angel-knights that dwarf notmal men. This was followed by all the other races getting swept up in PDF format and the introduction of new ranges of miniatures.

Now, the latest new range is on the horizon and it has caused a bit of a stir in the WH40k world because... Squats (or not).

The Duardin seem to be a race of Dwarf, steam-punk, sky-pirates who float about in anti-gravity blimps. I expect that the anti-gravity side of things is 'arcane technology' rather than anything believeable... like helium. Unfortunately, the anti gravity side of things seems to be metal clad balloons.

In a bid to not cause any trouble, I am going to link to the official site so you can see the pictures:

Link to Warhammer Community

As you will see, there is a nice mix of models that consists of:

• 3 anti-gravity blimps of varying size.
• Floating troopers.
• A floating hero.
• Lightly armoured sky pirate troopers.
• Heavily armoured sky pirate support troopers.
• 4 heroes in varying armour and ranging from leader to engineer.

What do I think?

A lot of people are saying "they are good to go as Squats" others are saying "with weapon swaps, they are good to go as Squats" but I think that they are not good to go as Squats unless you have already started building your Squat army from fantasy dwarfs. I would like to think that there are a few components that could be used but having looked at the images closely, I think that these Dwarfs will be in excess of 25mm tall so will be a little tall for my army. Add to that the fact that there is steam powered stuff all over the place and fantasy styled weapons (cannons and flint lock pistols), I am struggling to think of much that is salvageable... or worth buying... for a Squat army.

Onto the heavy armour. It is very nice and would likely make a nice basis for Exo armour or heavy armour for a Hearthguard unit but with the height thing in mind, it may be a bit of a tall order (pun intended) to fit them into my army... and the steam aspect may be difficult to remove.

There are also some design aspects that I don't like. The anti-grav balloons, the overly ornate helmets with top hats and monacles and the jarring mix of fantasy and tech weapons all make me cringe a little bit. It's all a bit 'Barron Munchausen' for my tastes.

I imagine that these Duardin will fly off the shelves (pun intended) and will be used by many WH40k collectors as the basis of a Squat army but I won't be one of them. Don't get me wrong... as an Age of Sigmar army, I think they fit in perfectly well and are definitely an interesting idea... but WH40k isn't Age of Sigmar and these troops just don't work as Squats for me.

There you go.

And just to clear my pallette... a proper Squat:

Click the Pic!

Captain Bjorn Thorsson 'Hammer Hand', Leader of the second company of the League of Forges' infantry.

See you from the iron throne!

A Mantic Deadzone Post.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again. There will be two posts today and this first one is going to be all about two boxes of miniatures I have bought this week.

To set the scene, Mantic Games put together a Kickstarter for Deadzone. They removed all of the Deadzone miniatures from their shop so that they could start again with some new miniatures... a sort of reorganisation with some units disappearing in order for them to be replaced with more upto date versions. Obviously, my attention was grabbed by the Forge Father part of the Kickstarter; namely these:

Click the Pic!

Yes the new design for the Steel Warriors was great but I didn't fancy jumping on board with the Kickstarter... so the long wait started. Well, this week, after a preorder, my Forge Father Faction Starters arrived:

Click the Pic!

Straight away I noticed that the video cassette style boxes had been replaced by sturdy cardboard ones but they were very tough and had lovely artwork on them so it was all good so far.

Inside each box were 6 Forge Guard:

Click the Pic!

These appeared to be exactly the same miniatures as had previously been released and were made from injection moulded plastic that can be glued with polystyrene cement. Also in the box were 4 Brokkrs and 20 standard mantic bases:

Click the Pic!

Again, these were the same miniatures that had previously been released and were made from premium plastic (restic) that needs to be glued with super glue and can be difficult to clean. The bases are injection moulded plastic. Finally, we have 10 of the brand new Steel Warriors:

Click the Pix!

The first pic shows how the Steel Warriors arrived with some of the components being on a sprue and the others in a bag. The contents of the bag are in the bottom image. Each box contains 2 lots of sprues/bags so that you can build 10 troops.

The Steel Warriors are made from injection moulded plastic that can be glued with polystyrene cement.

Due to me already having loads of Brokkrs (from previous a Kickstarter) and already using the Forge Guard in my Squat army, the focus of this post will now swap to only the Steel Warriors because they are the bit everyone will want to know about.

First of all, the Steel Warriors have lots of nice details. There are enough components on each sprue/bag to build 5 standard troopers with machine guns wearing the same helmet. There are also additional helmets to peronalise your troops to be leaders (little winglets), gunners (targeting lense), out of gas masks or a main leader with ornate helmet. There are a couple of extra chest pieces to flavour things up along with 2 flamers, a melta, a heavy machine gun and a missile launcher. There is also a pistol and hammer combo with a bunch of little bits of equipment to add to belts, like ammo pouches and grenades. There are 7 back packs to add to your troops to finish them off and plenty of shoulder pads to bulk them up (including some heavier ones and a pair of ornate ones for the main leader type).

Due to the multi part aspect of the kit, you will be able to pose your miniaturesin lots of different ways with a bit of mix and match giving a huge range of possibilities.

In order to see how they went together, I started with the first one and immediately noticed a number of issues:

• The fit between the torso and legs was very poor (it left a large gap).
• The fit between the chest and back plate was poor, with very little plastic to glue and no firm connection (allowing for the parts to slip)
• The cup for the head to fit in seemed just big enough if you wanted the head to face forward but if you turned the head, it rose up out of the cup.
• The arm sockets were larger than the ball of the arm so you have to spend extra time making sure the arm stays where you put it.
• Some of the details have been lost during the casting process.
• The assmbled troops are bigger than I expected (not an issue for people playing Deadzone but for me personally, it is an issue).

So, let's have a look at some of the issues:

Click the Pic!

In the image, you can clearly see the big gap between the torso and top of the legs. This could easily be filled but you would expect a better fit. There are only two small points of contact (front and rear) that keep the torso glued on. You can also see the poor casting of the torso in the shoulder socket. When you look at the legs, you can see the poor quality of the details in certain areas. It is almost like the moulds didn't have enough plastic in them. Now, most of the detail is insanely good but there are a few areas that you will have to spend time repairing them and that lets these down... fortunately, it seems that most of the problem sits with the legs and unless you want to go all 'Golden Demon', on the table top it won't matter too much.

So... how big are they? This big:

Click the Pix!

In the upper pic I have a pair of existing Forge Fathers either side of the new Steel Warrior. In the lower pic, I have a GW Squat, a new Steel Warrior Torso on a pair of GW Squat legs,  a Steel Warrior and a GW Space Marine.

To finish up, I really love the style of the new miniatures and because I would class myself as an experienced modeller, I will have no problem assembling them and possibly repairing the damage to the legs. If you are inexperienced, I can see the assembly of these becoming really frustrating, really quickly (just the gap between the torso and legs... the rest should be no problem). 

Now to explain why I think they are too big. Well, I bought them to fit in with my other Squats as part of the army. I didn't really pay too much attention to how big they looked because I thought they were so cool (rule of cool blinded me to size!) so when they arrived, I got a bit of a shock. That is why in the image above, I have tried a torso on a pair of Squat legs to see if it works and I think it does... so I now have the problem of making 20 pairs of up-armoured, shorter legs.

For everyone playing Deadzone with these new miniatures, I am sure that the size will not be an issue... especially seeing as they have been designed for that game! 

That about sums everything up. If you have any questions, leave comments and I will try to answer them.

See you from the sidelines!

Salute weekend.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World on the day after Salute 2016.

What can I say about the show? Nothing... apart from I am both glad and saddened that I didn't go this year.

This week has been very quiet and I haven't really been very much of a hobbyist. I received another box of Ghar suits from EBay and a storage case from Kaiser Rushforth... meaning that I had some storage space to fill so a bit more sorting got done and a bunch of miniatures got packed away.

Whilst rummaging around, I found a few things that I have put on the painting table as 'quick wins' so I have been tinkering with those... but there is nothing to show off yet.

In other news, on Friday My wife and I went to the Sergeant's Mess for a Spring ball and enjoyed the event. Lots of good food, good music, great company and fabulous dancing daaahling! Saturday was a little slow to get going... as you may imagine.

So... Salute. Why didn't I go? To keep it simple:

• I was still a little jaded after the Spring ball.
• It costs a lot of money to just get into the show (including travel).
• I wasn't working for anyone so probably wouldn't have stayed too long.
• I didn't have anything specific to go and see.
• I am thinning down and knew that I would buy stuff I didn't really want/need.
• I couldn't be bothered to deal with the train mess in London.

As a result, it would seem that last year is my last Salute for some time (maybe ever).

The good news is that, from what I have heard from various people who went, it was a profitable show and they did pretty well.

I would have liked to have gone and met all the people I know and offer my support but it just wasn't to be this year.

Yesterday, I was on my own while my wife went to see a football match with my son so I watched 'Dredd' for the first time instead. I quite enjoyed it and thought that Lena Headey played a really gool baddie. Judge Anderson was cool too and Dredd... well he was Dredd (which compared to Stallone's version was MUCH better and quite true to the written character). If you haven't seen it, I'd suggest you do but be prepared for quite a lot of gory violence. In the meantime, you could do a lot worse than watch this nice little fan film:

That's it for today.

See you from behind the wire!

Catching up.

Well, it's another Sunday where I was debating whether or not to update the Blog but then I thought... what the heck... so here I am.

This week has been very quiet on the hobby front with no painting being done on the pugs but a little bit of painting has been done on Big Robot... you remember Big Robot?:

Click the Pic!

He'll be painted similar to this one (on the right):

Click the Pic!

I have no idea why I decided to paint him but I am sort of 'clutching at straws' with the hobby at the moment. I guess the long run of sculpting Squats has sapped my hobby mojo and I need to recharge.

In other news, I finally got to watch a film that I have wanted to see for ages: Kingsmen. Well I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of stylised violence with a lot of classic 'James Bond' nonsense. It was definitely worth the wait; even if at times it was totally predictable.

I also found a copy of one of my all time favourite films; Brazil (by Terry Gillingham) so I will be able to watch that again soon.

In other news, the ginger cat has been poorly... and expensive this week so we've spent a bit of time at the vets trying to get things sorted out. Fortunately, things seem to be on the mend so hopefully (touch wood) she should return to normality very soon. She's 17 and a half years old, senile but seems to be as fit as a fiddle.

I'm sure you remember me mentioning that my son was away on basic training for the Royal Air Force... well, he has finished all the hard work and is now preparing for his pass-out parade in a week or so. The boy done good!

Finally, I have a few items for sale on EBay again (starting at 16:30 GMT today):

EBAY LINK

That's it for now.

See you from the top of the ladder!

A week of calamity, reflection and insomnia.

Welcome to the 900th post on Inso's World.

Before I start this week's post proper, I'd like to welcome MIKE OLIVER to Inso's World. Welcome aboard, Mike and I hope you enjoy your stroll around. Feel free to comment on what you find.

So this week I have been hit with the insomnia stick and have not really been on the planet. That said, I have still managed to go to work and get a few things done at home as well.

First up, I have put in my notice and will be leaving the Royal Air Force in January 2017 (if they accept my notice). At that point, I will have completed 28 years  and 4 months service. Now I have put my notice in, my hobby time will dramatically reduce due to having to sort things out for my move and change of life. That is all I am saying about that at the moment.

A lot of other stuff has been going on that I want to share, and it is all about the Windows 10 upgrade.

My Dad decided to upgrade his computer to Windows 10 from Windows 7. He clicked on the free download and his computer has died. Now, I am sure that a computer engineer can sort it out but all the fixes that I have had suggested have failed because you can't actually enter anything in normal mode. As a result, my Dad, who is a pensioner that lives alone, in a town where there are no computer shops is stuck with no internet (fortunately, I have a spare tablet to send him so it shouldn't be for long).

So... part of my travels to try and find a solution was to join the Windows community forum... and guess what? Windows 10 is killing computers all over the world. For some it is minor stuff and for others it is like my Dad's computer... expert level fixes.

There are a few things to think about if you plan on upgrading to Windows 10:

1. Make sure you investigate system requirements before you start.
2. Make sure you save all of your important files to an alternative source.
3. Make sure you have the correct listed updates installed on your computer.
4. If the internet/your computer is essential... have an alternative handy.
5. Wait a short while for all the bugs to be ironed out before you go for it.
6. When you do it, make sure you are prepared to have to fix things.

You have been warned!

I went to Oxford yesterday. The main reason was to talk to my tattooist about getting my tattoo retouched... but he wasn't there so I'll have to go back another time. It isn't an issue because it has turned out very nicely with only a tiny area that needs a bit more filling. While I was there I popped into the Games Workshop store and noticed that they had one of the new base packs for sale... so I bought a couple. The reason I did this was because they have just introduced a wide range of oval and larger bases that I thought would come in handy. Here is what I bought:

Click the Pic!

The pic shows one packet that I unpacked and another that is still sealed. As you can see, due to a packing error, I got a free 40mm base. You will also see that one of the base packs was £8.00 so that price may put people off a bit. That said, the bases will all get used and one of the main reasons I bought them was because I needed bases for my badgers and they seemed perfect:

Click the Pic!

The badgers use the smaller sized oval bases and it is as if they were made for each other. I decided that I would fill the little moulding dimple in the middle of the base with green stuff so that when I come to add detail to the base, I don't have to worry about it.

Due to me being so tired, sculpting has been completely off the menu this week so I have had to find other things to keep me occupied. As a result, I had a check of the rule books and made a note of what was legal and what wasn't. I needed to change the Sentinel heavy bolters for autocannons and the Exo trooper hammers for either powerfists or chainfists. So, after a bit of thought, I opted to go for Anvil Industries chainglaives and howitzers for the conversions... and with a bit of work, have carried out the basic assembly work, ready for the sculpting bit to start:

Click the Pic!

As I have already mentioned, they are still WIP and will be, until I have the aptitude for a bit of sculpting.

Well that, as they say, is that. Have a great Week and hopefully, I'll be back next week with something a bit more substantial to share.

See you from the side of the long and winding road.

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!

Oooo... something NEW.

Hello again.

It has been a good week really. Much of it has been fairly normal but I also had a leaving do to attend (lots and LOTS of cocktails) so that was nice.

So what's new? Well... there is a new tabletop gaming magazine out and it is called Tabletop Gaming (OK... not the most original title... but it certainly is all about what it says on the cover).

I bought one to see what was inside and you get 162, full colour, nicely laid out pages for the price of £5.25. It is an independent magazine so has stuff about a host of games (by host I actually mean HOST!!!!!) with a certain amount of advertising throughout. I bought mine from WH Smith's and it was in the computing section... which didn't surprise me because it has the look and feel of a computer magazine.

The content of the magazine is a mix of gaming types with everything from card games, through board games and dice games to wargames. Due to this magazine being about '101 Games You Need to Play' there are a lot of games with a small amount of detail. There are one or two of the games that have interviews and are expanded a bit but generally, you get a brief overview of the game and not much else. If you are expecting a wargaming magazine, this isn't it... and there is only a two page spread of hobby material, which seemed a bit lost.

With all that said, it was worth getting and there is a bit of text that says that the next magazine will get a bit more balance... so there may be more hobby stuff in there. So look out for Tabletop Gaming Magazine when you are out and about.

Now that has been said... what hobby have I been getting upto this week. Well, I have been working on my secret project a bit but have also managed to finish the second Gun Servitor which completes the Engineseer's little unit:

Click the Pic!

He is armed with a Multimelta... even though it happens to be one that has been traded from a Tau. The gun choice was out of necessity due to me not having anything else I liked the look of and I didn't want to go parts shopping again.

In other news, I have been working on my Beastman Primaris Psyker and have managed to get the proportions right but I haven't got far enough to show him off so you'll have to wait for him a little while longer... but he is a Jedi so he should be worth the wait.

As well as the beastman, I have been tidying up the easy areas of the second platoon ready for the arm slog. I have attached the comm sets where I need to and will be sorting out the carrying straps soon. They are very nice little comms sets from Mad Robot and can be found HERE.

That's about it for now... next weekend is socially very busy for me so if there is a blip, don't worry, I'll make sure I post an update Monday/Tuesday instead.

See you from the box under the wardrobe!

Squat Exo-Armour

As you will be aware, I have been putting together a small Squat army lately. Now, I don't want the army to be a copy of the old Squat lists from 'back in the day' but there are certain components that I like and that I want in the army. These include transport vehicles, bikes, Squat mechanics (engineseers) and of course, Exo Armour.

Exo armour was the Squat equivalent of Space Marine Terminator Armour and was a handy addition to the Squat inventory. With my objective being to create a plastic army, I have been looking around for some 'counts as' Exo Armour and have recently unpacked some miniatures from a kickstarter that may fit the bill. They are Forge Guard from Mantic's Deadzone range and here is a picture or two:

Click the Pic!

Click the Pic!

As you can see, he's a big lad and stylistically, he's a bit more ornate than the standard Squat but I reckon, with a bit of tweaking, I can put that right. Looking at the scale image above, I think that if I lowered the codpiece a little, a Squat would realistically be able to fit inside but his feet would sit at ankle level. Fortunately, there is space on the miniature for that to happen so it isn't too much of a big deal. 

Onto the (hard plastic) sprues:

Right click and open in a new tab to get BIG pix!

Each of the bodies has a letter and the legs/shoulderpads that fit that particular body have the same letter. Although that means that each body is in a set pose, there is a variety of poses and the fact that the arms are not restricted to particular bodies (except for the melta weapon) means that it is fairly easy to get quite a variety from your sprue. Each sprue has six troops on it; one of which is a leader and the other is a melta trooper. There is also the option of adding a heavier machine gun to a further standard trooper so, in theory, you could have two heavies, a leader and three standard troops if you wanted.

Preparing the miniatures was not too bad. Clip them from the sprue with side-cutters, clean up attachment points and remove mould lines with a sharp scalpel and glue together with standard polystyrene cement. I would suggest scrapping the standard Mantic bases and putting the troops on normal plastic bases... but that is up to you.

Overall, I am quite pleased with these. They will make a great basis for some Exo Armoured Squats and could be used straight from the box if you wanted. They are also pretty cheap so if you decided you wanted to convert them, it won't break the bank if you mess them up.

Here's a link to find them in the shop: LINK

See you from the workshop!

Midweek Extra

I know it's midweek but I forgot to mention something on Sunday's update... I went to see a movie last Friday.

So... Avengers: Age of Ultron (without spoilers):

First of all, there are the familiar characters with a few extra thrown in for good measure. The Avengers have the usual rapport and there is still a little bit of humour BUT there is a darker tone to the movie... almost one of impending doom. As a result, it isn't as light hearted and there are times where it becomes a serious film... but overall, it is even better than the last Avengers movie (which is saying a lot because I loved the last one). There is the usual mix of toned down violence but there are a few bleeding bullet wounds so if you think your child is going to be upset about that, then go to see the movie without them... then if you think it is OK, take them along the second time you go because it will be a great excuse to see the movie twice.

There is a lot going on in the film and the new characters hardly have time to get aquainted with the audience but I'm sure they will be expanded upon in the next film.

Don't forget to watch the clip after the credits... it's the big one!

I thought the film was excellent and I strongly recommend you go and see it.

So... I've been home for a whole week now and that means I have had time to add a couple of backpacks and the little gun tractors to the two Squat infantry squads:

Click the Pix!

I've also been clipping another platoon's worth of Squats from their sprues ready to be cleaned up for conversion and have started to work on a Dreadnought to go with them... so watch this space.

See you from the bigger chair than last time!

A week of nice distractions.

I knew I wouldn't be able to focus on the Squat project this week... especially when I have my Mechadrome mechs sitting so close. As a result, I have spent a lot of the week messing around with my mechs and... to be brutally honest... first impressions didn't last.

Don't get me wrong, the mech casts have suberbly sharp and crisp details but while I was cleaning up the resin components, I quickly realised that quality control at Gangfight Games could be a little better. This week, I have focussed on cleaning up the resin components and getting them washed ready for filling/assembly.

Click the Pic!

The light mech bodies aren't too bad apart from one or two being fractionally misaligned and the steps on the right side being in various states from perfect to missing... but not so bad that I couldn't fudge it enough to look OK (that means 24 little brass foot rails need to be made and fitted into 48 little drilled holes).

The medium mechs took a lot more work and to be frank, for the money I paid for them, the work was too much. However... they are cleaned and washed ready for filling. Here are the components for the medium mechs:

Click the Pic!

The picture shows the torsos, legs, gun-arms, rocket pods (they go on the top of the torso), a pair of fists, the shoulders, the little pistons (for the rear of the legs) and two mystery components (I think they fit to the front of the cockpit... but I guess I'll just have to wait and see).

Overall, the details are fabulous and the design is excellent but there are a number of things that bothered me about the resin components:

• The legs were slightly misaligned and took a lot of work to look OK.
• The torsos were slightly misaligned and took a lot of work to look OK.
• There are a good few airbubbles and blobs of excess resin that obscure details.
• The guns were so misaligned that I had to cut them down their length to realign them.

Here is a picture of the guns:

Click the Pic!

I think that the main issue I had with the legs could be as a result of them being cast as a single item, rather than being broken down into two legs and pants for casting. 

What about the metal components? Fortunately, they were much better and didn't need too much clean-up. Iwas disappointed to find that I have been given opposite fists rather than two left fists (like I ordered) but I am not hugely concerned as it will just mean that one of my eight mechs will be a lefty (a special character... maybe the overall leader).

I still have to sort out the metal components for the light mechs but I have checked them and they are all correct so it will just take me the time to clean them up prior to assembly.

So quality control could be better but I am not unduly concerned (however... it did take the shine off a little). I could complain but I can't really be bothered as I have made the best of them anyway and it just adds time and awkwardness to the whole thing... and I want these to be assembled... NOW!

To cheer things up, an online friend of mine (DWartist), sent me a very generous gift this week:

Click the Pic!

You may not be able to see the pic very clearly but there is a veritable horde of Grymn and a rather handy Old Crow Hammer's Slammers vehicle. I'd like to extend a public THANKS! to DWartist for his wonderful gift that really cheered me up after fighting with my mechs all week. And what better way to highlight how much it cheered me up by showing what I plan for the vehicle:

Click the Pic!

That's right. The Engineseer now has some transport for him and his two servitors. I will be adding a servitor head in the hatch on the front to act as the driver and I will also be adding a mechanical arm and a pair of bolters. Big Robot will either have to walk or be sent off to another army.  

In other news, I recently spotted my work on the Impact Miniatures site. Unfortunately, it was labelled as being sculpted by someone else... so I contacted tham and queried the mistake. They got back to me straight away, corrected the error and are sending me a gift. I didn't ask for anything, other than the change of details so I am really very impressed with Impact for their kind gesture. The miniature in question uses the body from this miniature that I sculpted for Goblin Aid:

Click the Pic!

but with the head sculpted by another sculptor.

This coming week should be one of more component cleaning, assembling, filling and maybe a bit of converting. 

... and I have to go into the gas chamber again (yes... it is that time of year again). 

See you through the bleary eyes of realisation!

Sunday sculpting and converting.

Hello again. It is Sunday so it is time for me to round up the week with a post about the things I have been getting up to.

First of all, I have been running a bit. That has meant a number of things...

Firstly, I have run around 13.5 miles this week. That was in 3 runs but still amounts to a half-marathon. This has led to the conclusion that...

Secondly, I need new trainers because my shins are not at all happy. I expect this to be as a result of the old trainers I have been running in so I went into town today and bought some shiny new running trainers and they are WAY better than the old ones.

Thirdly, I have signed up for a half marathon. That will be the furthest I have run in a single go (currently, it is 10 miles) and I will have to decide on a charity to get donations for... although it is likely to be the Royal British Legion.

The trip to town was eventful too... I managed to kill a pheasant. It ran all over the place and then ran at the car with fatal results. It was not a good start.

So... that is running done, now let's talk about the movie 'The Edge of Tomorrow' (I finally got to see it on DVD after missing it in the cinema).

The film is all about a bloke who ends up being labelled a deserter and put in a small unit of troops who are chosen as the first wave in a massive assault against alien invaders. The attack goes wrong and when the bloke is killed, he wakes up back where he started and has to re-live the day's events again and again. This leads him to meet a hero in the army who helps him on his journey.

There are aliens aplenty, some excellent powered suits and really cool looking aircraft. There is also the scene with an RAF Puma helicopter landing in Trafalgar Square (the very same aircraft that I have fixed in the past) so that was great.

What did I think of the film? I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any sci-fi film buff.

On to the hobby now... and here is a picture:

Click the Pic!

As you can see, the hovercraft conversion is coming along quite nicely. It is in the process of getting the add-ons shaped to fit the hull. There is still a way to go and the front and rear sections will change a bit before I am finished. The Squat Engineseer is starting to get his armour and is also taking shape nicely. I have learned that my sculpting finesse has taken a hit because the surfaces aren't as smooth as usual but I guess that I am just a little out of practice. As a result of only being able to do tiny bits at a time on the Squat, I have been bulking up the 'thing' in the middle with the leftover putty. The 'thing' will be revealed at some point... it should be worth the wait. Finally, at the bottom of the page we have the five eights. These are five sci-fi troopers from Hasslefree Miniatures that are going to be purple to go with these guys:

Click the Pic!

As a result, 'Meg and the Purple Pugs' will soon become 'Meg and the Purple Pirates'. When new stuff turns up, it is always a case of 'adapt and overcome'!

This week also saw the arrival of my sculpt for the Hasslefree sculpting competition 2012:

Click the Pic!

As you can see, the sculpt survived the casting process completely intact... and you will also notice the metal version next to her. I am very happy to have another of my sculpts in the metal. Hopefully, she will be deemed worthy to go into the Hasslefree Miniatures store... but we will have to wait and see. As well as my two sculpts, I also received a bunch of the winning casts and some others that were chosen, like mine, as HF choice miniatures. All in all... Hasslefree Miniatures have done me proud.

That is it for today. I hope to have some very exciting things to go in the next update so I hope you pop in and visit Ins's World again next week.

See you at a thousand miles an hour!

A very Autumnal post.

It's another Sunday and, as is usually the case, it's time for another post but before I start, I'd like to welcome the newest follower of Inso's World; Roebeast. Welcome aboard and I hope you get involved, share your comments and enjoy your stay.

This week has been a little bit interesting. First of all, I have decided to start uploading all of my short stories to the WWW and the ones I have started with are those that involve Grymn. Seeing as they are about Grymn, I thought it was appropriate to upload them to the Forum of Doom and here is a link to the section where they live:

Grymn Link

The stories in question will all start with the term 'Grymn Fluff' and be posted by 'Inso' so they should be easy enough to find. If you are interested enough to read the trilogy, it goes in this order:

The Duplicate Adventures

Rebirth and Realisation

Eastward Endeavours

I hope you enjoy my random musings.

Unfortunately, I may be forced to don a spandex costume and fight nefarious super-villains at some point soon. Why? Because I have been bitten by something that has caused me such discomfort that I can only assume it was this:

Click the Pic!

It has caused my immune system to make all of the glands in my neck to expand greatly. Fortunately, it just itches a lot... but the moment I get the urge to start running up buildings, I'll let everyone know!

Oh... go on then... how about some hobby stuff? This week has mostly been about waiting for little gun turrets to arrive... and that's what happened. I have also been shaping hover skirts and adding bulk to the Squat Engineseer:

Click the Pic!

The top pics show the Smoothed out skirt on the buggy conversion, the next pics show the awesome little gun turrets (of which I now have 5) and the bottom pics show the padded out Engineseer body. 

Obviously, there is a lot to do... but the lines on the skirt will be scored out to represent different panels. Once that is done, I will tidy things up and start on the other two components that will make up the hover buggy's intake and propulsion systems. 

The little gun turrets are from Anvil Industry and they were absolutely perfect. The casting quality is exceptional and they only needed snipping from the sprue, cleaning up where it was clipped off and a bit of a brush with a tooth brush to remove the fine flash. I am extremely impressed with the quality of these and will be ordering more to go with the other squads. In addition to this... the sprue is actually cast up to look like rubble for adding to bases; which is a nice touch.

The Engineseer is still at a very early stage and will be getting armour and details from now on. You can see that he has a peg leg at the moment but that will slowly transform into a bionic leg. I am happy with the way he is going... so it is likely that he will get finished.

Well... that's it for today.

See you from the bridge of The Obituary!

A mixed bag.

This week has been one of good times and sad times.

One of the things about being a serviceman is the transience of it all. You just get used to people being about and then they move on to be replaced by someone else. On the plus side, you get to go to many leaving functions but on the down side... your friends move on.

This week one of my friends left the service so we had a proper leaving function and gave him a good send off... I hope that the next person who comes a long becomes as much of a mate as his predecessor.

So... I went to the cinema yesterday and saw the new X-Men film. Now here's the rub. On the one hand, it is a good film with lots of action, lots of characters and some excellent special effects. On the other hand, time travel is used to totally re-write the X-Men universe and change the relevance of the first two main films. The purists will be spitting feathers... those who just want a simple super-hero film will be spitting feathers (unless they can suspend their beliefs for a couple of hours)... those who like time travel and all of the rubbish it conjures up will love the film.

Me... the film was great apart from the time travel aspects. The writers have completely altered much of the previous work. You are even left in doubt as to whether Wolverine will ever get his adamantium claws...

Recently, I have been converting/sculpting but my juices have dried up... so I decided to paint a cheap plastic dinosaur fo no apparent reason:

Click the Pix!

It's amazing what a quick paintjob does for these cheap, rubber dinosaurs... I reckon that I must have spent about 30p on the painted one. Not a bad result, really.

That's it for now.

See you from the Cretaceous period!

Easter Sunday

Welcome to this week's blog update. I'll start by saying hi to my two newest followers; Darcy Perry and Fred Jackson. Welcome to you both, feel free to get involved and share your thoughts.

Where do I start?

Let's start with this:

Yes, it's 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Me and my better half went to see it and I won't share any spoilers but here are a few observations:

• It is a couple's movie (one to take your significant other to).
• There is a lot of romantic angst.
• Spider-man is pretty cool (he is so much better than Toby Maguire ever was or could be).
• Gwen is a cool character.
• Electro is very cool... he gets better and better during the film.
• Green Goblin is very sinister... the best representation of the villain yet.
• The Rhino is a big mechanical suit (rather than a cybernitc body suit)... so it was different.
• The Rhino is only in the film for less than 2 minutes! 

It was an OK film but I was pretty disappointed to see so little of the Rhino. The door is very much open for a sequel. I'd say that it was a chick-flick with some decent action and nowhere near as good as the Avengers films.  

Do you like art? Sometimes I view life as art and part of life is making altered egos. One of my altered egos is a Velociraptor and when I saw a dinosaur picture on Facebook I asked the painter to paint me a picture of a Velociraptor. It will be arriving soon... here's a preview:

Click the Pic!

It's by a very talented artist called Jacob who is just five and a half years old and I think the picture is brilliant. I can't wait to hang it on my wall (I did, however, insist that he signs it first). 

OK... let's talk about Miniatures. First of all, I have been busy adding decals and varnishing lately. My Powered armour platoon is finished and if you would like to see it, and the rest of the NMA (what has been finished so far), then check out this link:

LINK.

You will soon see why I have put it on the Grymn blog... but that is not all. I have been ticking along with the Squat program and have managed to get a bit more sculpted... and the Dreadnought painted:

Click the Pic!

The Squat on the left is the first spotter for my sniper unit. The other two are troopers for the first squad (currently up to five models now... the Squat with the bolter is going to be part of the command squad). I think I am likely to add some decals to the dreadnought at some point but he will do for now.

In other news... my resolve is weakening for this:

Click the Pic!

It is available from Puppet's War and has been on my radar for a long time but a reduction in price has made things worse. I am likely to get one soon to see how big it is and if it is suitable, it could be used for all sorts... watch this space.

Well, that is that!

See you from the edge of the dam!