Sunday again.

Today, I'd like to welcome Rovanite to Inso's World. He is the guy who has just started up Grekwood Miniatures so he is more than welcome here. I hope you have a look around and make comments where you see fit. Feel free to link to bits and bobs and if you have any questions, just ask.

Something strange happened last night.

I thought about Space Dwarfs. I thought about how people would normally think a Space Dwarf should look. I thought about what sort of equipment they might carry. I thought about the armour they might wear and how I could sculpt it. I even got as far as thinking about their boot-fasteners.

I have been thinking about recon vehicles for my sniper units. I only need four and have probably decided that there isn't a vehicle that I could use on the market at the moment. I'd love to have the Stoat armoured car from Micro Panzer but they are just too small to be of use. The Warthog ADV from Antenociti is too big and I am not set on the Old Crow range, even though the vehicle I chose will have to fit in with the rest of the Old Crow vehicles that I have for my urban army. A while ago, I started building some AFVs for a project and they may well get an airing at some point to see if they can be used (I'll just need to find some tracks or wheels to use).

I have been thinking about dropships again. Smaller ones than I have of late. Not a platoon level dropship, more a squad sized one. It must have something to do with HALO and my current thoughts on the subject (especially seeing as there is a smaller scale version with some of the aircraft being released at some point in the near future).

All this, of course means nothing until I start tinkering again but even on that front, things seem to be progressing. The varnishing is going really well. I have decided not to varnish my Super Soldiers at this time but have really put a dent in the rest of the troops.  So far, I have varnished (just troops so far):

• The VASA bike platoon (10 bikes, 3 bikes with side-car) LINK LINK LINK LINK
• The VASA Black Legion (5 minis) LINK
• The Syntha marine squad (5 minis) LINK
• The Beetle-bots (13 minis, 9 Dogbots and 3 skimmers) LINK LINK LINK
• The Tunnel Fighter auxiliaries (3 medic bases, 3 k9 bases, the drone unit - 14 minis and an OGrymn) LINK LINK LINK LINK
• 4 squads of basic Tunnel Fighters (40 minis) LINK LINK LINK LINK

I don't think that it is too bad for a week's worth.

Only 70 more Tunnel Fighters to go before I have to worry about vehicles and mechs... but I won't be worrying too much about those until I decide to start buying more cases for them to be stored in. The cupboard is my only worry at the moment and there is getting to be plenty of space in there... which is really pleasing because it has been a bit of an anchor around my neck.

Hopefully all this housework will stimulate a little bit of a movement with my muse.

See you from the midst of a varnishing haze!

A few updates

First of all, I'd like to welcome Manus to Inso's World. Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy your stay. Feel free to comment as you see fit.

I have been busy varnishing and I am now into the Tunnel Fighter troops... gloss varnish is going on ready for matt spray. The house really does gain an 'interesting' odour when I start spraying. I gloss varnish one day and matt the next so the varnish smell is pretty much constant at the moment.

As a side effect of all the varnishing, I have had to order another miniatures case. Once I have finished all of the troops, I'll be starting on the mechs/vehicles but I am not in too much of a rush to get them stored away so I'll hold off on buying cases for those for now. It will just be nice to see some empty space in my cupboard!

I have been pottering about and I'd like to make a specific mention about Grekwood Miniatures. If you do not know, Grekwood was a long time patron of the Forum of Doom who sadly lost his life to an inherited disease a short while ago. In tribute to his brother, Carl Sutherwood has set up a miniatures company in remembrance and has managed to collect a small range of miniatures and accessories together in his store. The small range of miniatures are fairly 'rustic' but have bags of character. His shop contains Green Stuff, basing materials, glues and the Cote d'Arms paint range, amongst other things (which may be particularly apt now that GW has messed up their paint range...Cote d'Arms made the original GW paint)... so it is well worth a look.

I have added a permanent link on the right hand side of my blog.

On a different note, you may have noticed that I like my mecha. Well, I have added a blog to my blog list called Mech Dude's Blogspot that is pretty cool. He is in the process of getting the Macross range of mechs on the tabletop. He is working with the IP holders to both produce the mechs and a rule set to go with them. Hopefully they will hit the streets sooner rather than later... but until they do, the blog contains some really excellent miniatures to ogle at.

Finally, I have now only got one more Megaro-Zamac kit to go for the whole set. The one I was waiting for from Germany has arrived and is now stowed with the rest. If anyone happens to know where I can get my hands on a 'Run-Valam' kit from the Megaro-Zamac range, please feel free to leave a comment.

I have had a really weird week. I haven't thought about miniatures ideas once. It seems my muse has really done a number on me! I hope she returns soon so that I can get some sculpts done... I am WAY behind the schedule where commissions are concerned.

See you from the desk!

Bank Holiday

I'm glad it is a bank holiday. I was still pottering about at 04:00hrs this morning so it would have been a bit annoying to be going to work for 08:00hrs today. It was nice to see The House of Flying Daggers again... and the X-Files movie... and a bit of American Pie 2... night time TV is better than day time telly :).

So far, I have been a taxi driver for my little princess, have dug a piece of earth about  a foot square so that I could plant a potato and have been filling the house with the wonderful smell of spray varnish.

After the varnishing adventure today, I have decided that a coat of brushed on gloss followed by a spray matt varnish after that is the way forward. I'm glad that I picked up a few cans of the matt :).

So...I have now sorted out my cupboard so that I have the miniatures segregated into those that need varnishing and those that don't... I still have a long way to go but now I have to start thinking about how I am going to store the varnished ones... I do have an empty case but I need to adjust some of the sponge compartments to fit things in... I may just get another case with some differently sized compartments.

Hmm... decisions, decisions.

I have had a strange week. I have had absolutely no compulsion to do any painting or sculpting. None whatsoever. I have looked in my cupboards at all sorts of things to try and kick-start a muse... but nothing.

I am beginning to think that summer is creeping into my mind and that usually spells trouble for my hobby.

Hey... maybe I'll start getting my bike back on the road again! Oh... probably not... hell hasn't frozen over yet!

here she is:

Click the Pic!

She needs a lot of attention...

Hmmm...

See you from a chilly plateau near the top of Ben-Nevis!

Sunday

It is Sunday again. I am in the house-hold driving seat because my better half is a bit poorly so I have been to the shops and prepared dinner.

I had one of my late nights again last night...02-30hrs due to not being sleepy. I had the opportunity to surf a bit and get a bit more varnishing done. Speaking of varnishing... here is a pic:

Click the Pic!

Varnishing has been a bit of a pain really. I have been gloss varnishing by hand, followed by a brush matt-coat and the matt hasn't been very good at all. That has led me to get a few cans of spray varnish (which is REALLY matt) to give them a final coat. Three coats of varnish seems a bit excessive but it keeps me busy. As you can see from the pic, I have got my Void stuff and Beetle-bot stuff on the the table and will be starting on the Beetle-bot brush-matt coat this afternoon. 

Yesterday's trip to Hobby-Craft also produced a couple of packets of Milliput so that I can bulk out armatures for a couple of sculpts I have to do. They will be caricatures of friends at work and will be about 4-6 inches tall. You never know, it may stimulate the artistic juices! I also have two other sculpts that I have promised to do so I really need to find my mojo fast!

In other news, I have spent far too much money on another little passion... Megaro Zamac kits. Looking at the following pic:

Click the Pic!

I have already got five with 'Va-Gal' on his way from Germany (too much money but it was one of those things) and only 'Run-Valam' to find. There are two others that aren't in the picture (a Harrier gerwalk and Phantom gerwalk) but I am not really bothered about them. I really don't know why I am collecting them... it is probably nostalgia but they are fairly nice kits... even if they look a bit 'Power Rangers'.

Well... that's about it for now. I'm off to find some Paracetamol and a nice glass of water.

See you from the bottom of the deep, blue, sea!

A dad's adventures.

My daughter and I were chatting about things and the subject of dying hair came up. My daughter is in her teens so she has dyed her hair before (the first time was scarlet... it was permanent... and I dyed her hair for her without telling her mum!) but we decided that a silver/white would be cool. So we bought some dye and went for it this afternoon.

Bear in mind that her hair is currently a reddish brown with her natural blonde roots coming through.

Well... now she's a ginger with white roots!

The dye just didn't work as well as it should have. At least it will take less time to grow out and then we can go for it again.

After dying her hair and sitting back for a moment I thought...'not many dad's would do this.'

Soooo... time to do a bit more varnishing.

See you from the cliff edge!

The fragility of life.

Facebook is a strange place.

You potter along, minding your own business when all of a sudden you get a friend request. Usually (for me at any rate) you know the person straight away so you can make an instant decision on whether to accept them or not. Sometimes you really have no idea who they are and it is an equally quick decision to make.

But sometimes you get a friend request that you are not quite sure about. Usually it is a woman whose name you don't recognise (due to being a married name), who has changed over the years so you can't quite remember them.

So you start the detective work and find out that it was someone who you knew at school so you accept the friend request and have the odd chat and send/receive the odd message and over time you get to know them all over again.

Well today, I found out that a friend from school died in her sleep last night.

It was a surprise to say the least but it made me think about how we deal with life and death.

She was my age. It is no age to pass away. She collected friends on Facebook like an avid hoarder. She loved her cats and until recently, her status was married. She was certainly a larger than life character and after a few drinks, liked to chat about this and that.

I am almost ashamed to say that I didn't know her any more than I have mentioned here.

But that is just the way of things. We all have circles of friendship that start at the point the pebble hits the water and expands to barely a ripple. It would be nice to think that we can keep every friendship we ever made but it wouldn't be possible. Some friendships are fleeting and others are a part of you.

Facebook helps us recall those fleeting friendships of the past but doesn't help at times like these. It doesn't comfort you and sympathise with your loss. It doesn't help you get back on track or take away the guilt or doubts you may be suffering. All it does is keep providing the opportunity for re-kindling all those long forgotten associates and friendships from the past.

Rest in Peace Caroline. I knew you half as well as I should have and a hundredth of what you deserved.

See you from the pebble beach.

And lo, it came to pass...

My muse has left me.

She has picked up her bags and walked away.

What that means is that I will have a bit of a lean period on the hobby front because no matter what I have tried to turn my hand to, I just can't motivate myself enough to enjoy it... or get it finished.

Obviously, the last few months have burnt me out so I need a bit of a break so I will use this time for a bit of consolidation. Sorting things out and maybe (if I can stomach it) some varnishing.

It isn't anything to worry about because I always have peaks and troughs with regards to the hobby and now that I have more time at home in my new job (rather than going on trips abroad) it has just compounded the problem because I am pretty immersed in things when I am at home.

I will continue to add blog posts but they may not include very much in the way of hobby progress.

Sometimes you just need a bit of a recharge.

See you from the vaults!