..."Send Message; Over"

..."The Dwarfs have reached the table"
"I say again...the Dwarfs have reached the table".

"Message Received and understood; Out"

Thankfully, it is Friday.

Having worked for 12 days straight and partaken in the consumption of a few sherbets last night, I am completely frazzled. That means I still haven't been able to work on my hobby but that is about to change. I have finished work for the weekend and I plan to catch up on some sleep and chill out with a bit of painting.

I have been slowly converting the last of the basic troops for my tunnel fighters...the heavy weapon troopers. They take a little longer than the usual troopers because they are multi-part miniatures even before I chop their heads off and give them new ones. Once they are fully converted, I will have the last ten troops to paint to complete the troops :)...once that is done, I will post a bit of an army pic (even though the command and character models are not finished).

So...what else do I have to talk about? VOLCANIC ASH! Yes, the last couple of days have been interesting in the helicopter world. When everywhere else in the UK was a no-fly area, our helicopters kept flying...for long enough to be told to stop and put them in the sheds! Today was the same so I have been driven mad by pilots keep asking whether they are flying or not...and I couldn't answer because I don't get paid enough for those sort of decisions! Lots of frustration and lots of stupid questions have been the order of the last two days...so I am tired out.

That means I have been too tired for painting so that is why I have been doing slow time converting instead.

Anything else to add? You bet! I have noticed another couple of new followers (taking the tally up beyond my first 50!). I'd like to welcome 'Sean' and 'quarter=25'...WELCOME to Inso's World and I hope you find something to inspire or enjoy here.

That's it!

See you through the stupor!

What? No update?

I'm sorry to say that as a result of work commitments, I won't be putting up an update today. This is because I have had no hobby time since the last update...so I don't have anything to show off.

Everything will be back to normal by next Sunday so stay tuned.

See you through bleary eyes!

Bandits; Angels High!

Is it Wednesday already? These weird shifts I'm on at work make me lose all track of what day it is.

This is a bit of a change because it is (strangely enough) something I've wanted to do for a very long time but never had the excuse until now. What am I talking about? WWI aeroplanes, that's what.

As you know, I have recently bought a bunch of tanks for a small contingent of Kindred (available from Hasslefree miniatures) and it got me thinking about what else I could use in the little force. Well, what tank platoon would be without scouts and spotters to make sure the road was clear ahead or warn of what strength the enemy has? That thought gave me the perfect excuse for a little air-power in the form of a WWI aeroplane (or two).

First thing first, to buy the kit and in this case it was a 1/72nd scale S.E.5a from Revell. All I needed to do was bulk up the pilot a bit and he was the perfect size for a Kindred (shown to scale...with a Kindred Officer):

Click the Pic!

The pilot was complete but then I had to build the aircraft and I suddenly realised just why I hadn't bought too many WWI aircraft before...they are a pain to put together (what with having fiddly little spindles to keep the wings in place)...so after assembling the thing (NO! I am not putting any support cables on the wings...if I did the thing would probably learn how to fly VERY QUICKLY!!!), I have started to base coat it...this is still WIP but you get the idea of what it will look like:

Click the Pic!

The colours are what the box art was displaying so I thought I'd just stick with it. It will have RAF roundels on it and will be very much part of the force.

If I buy more aircraft, I will not buy all of the same type because I will be going for a 'flying circus' feel...that way, all of the pilots can be aces and have special rules (for whatever system I eventually choose)...

TALLY HO!

FINALLY, I have further news of the Diver. Check out this post on the Forum of Doom:

http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?topic=12908.0

If you are not a member of the Forum of Doom then here is the content of the post:

***Thanks to Kev and Sally's generosity and Inso's sculpting skill I have a Limited master casting of The Dwarven Deep Sea Diver from Insomniac Miniatures now available for sale, I will be selling 20 copies of this and 100% of the proceeds will go to a veteran's charity of Inso's choice.

All you need to do is send me money, cost is £5.50 plus £1 P&P. Send me cash via paypal gi6ers (at) hotmail.com, please also add your forum username and your address etc.

£5.50 is a minimum payment, if you feel that the miniature and cause are worth more then just send me what you think it's worth.

ta!***

The charities will be the Royal British Legion and/or Help for Heroes.


See you through the wind-rush!

Sunday and a small update.

After all the excitement of getting parcels yesterday, I have come down to earth with a bit of a bump. I have spent quite a lot of time assembling and converting the next 6 tunnel fighters (that arrived yesterday) and have just this minute finished undercoating them...so I don't have any pix of them to show off. The good news is that I now have all of the tunnel fighters I need to finish off all of the basic troop squads...and only have 4 more to convert. That means that pretty soon I'll be focusing on getting some of the more unusual components of the army...starting with this guy:

Click the Pic!

He will be acting as a local guide for the commander...speaking of the commander, I have put a bit more putty on him; not to mention his big, robotic helper too...unfortunately, they are still pretty unfinished so I haven't taken any pix.

On to other things...I went to see Clash of the Titans at the cinema (great action film ruined by blurry 3d effects), dyed my 12 year old daughter's hair RED (and my wife didn't kill me), received my copy of Ancible magazine through the post (another GREAT read) and have been toying with the idea of building YET ANOTHER armoured personnel carrier; this time with wheels...

All that and I didn't get an Easter Egg :(...never mind...I had crumpets with home made Damson Jam from the local market (which was much tastier than a chocolate egg).

What else...

...NOTHING!

See you in the funny papers (what book is that from?...answers on a postcard ;) ).

A Day that will be Infamous!

A while ago, I was reading some posts on the Forum of Doom and someone mentioned that there were no Dwarf deep-sea divers and that they would be a cool miniature to make for 28mm scale. By the end of the week, I had finished the sculpt below:

Click the Pic!

I just sent it to the guy who started the original post and thought nothing of it. Next thing I know, I get an e-mail from him saying it was going in to get cast and that we would come to some arrangement as to whether it should be a profit/charity thing...

...again I just thought 'the charity thing' would be a better route to go (it was a bit of a joke sculpt after all) and completely forgot about it...until this morning.

I recently put an order in to Hasslefree Miniatures for...MORE GRYMN...and there was a surprise in with the ordered miniatures:

Click the Pic!

Not only was it a fantastic surprise but it represents two things:

1) It is my first full-sculpt that has been cast.
2) It has my tag on the base tag 'Insomniac'...that makes it MINE!

What happens to this miniature is out of my hands because it was a gift to the guy who suggested the sculpt...so whether or not it will be sold is up to him but I hope that it will turn up somewhere soon and that it will start making a small amount of money for some deserving charity (my hope would be the British Legion or Help for Heroes).

Colour me happy :) !

See you through the mist of joyful tears!

Good Friday...

It is Good Friday and I have the next few days off work. I was at home yesterday as well but I have been on night-shift so yesterday was a write-off. I am still pretty tired but I reckon I'll be up to my usual state a bit later today so things will get back to normal pretty soon.

Because I have been tired over the last week I have re-directed what efforts I could to something that I could cope with...so I haven't been painting/converting anything that I have been working on recently...I have put my focus into something different.

I think I'll probably have it done by the end of the day so I'll show off a pic soon.

I was hoping to have some more Grymn to convert over this weekend but they haven't arrived yet but there is always Saturday for the post to arrive so I am still a little hopeful (I am missing painting my tunnel fighters).

Well...a bit of a ramble but I felt like sharing...

See you through the crowded throng.