Tigers!

I know I sound like a bit of a stuck record but I have had another slow hobby week this week. I have put a bunch of plastic space Dwarfs into the Dettol and cleaned them off. I then separated them down into their components and quickly discovered that I have got enough heads/bodies/weapons for about 35 troops... but not enough arms. It isn't a problem because I'll just sculpt them on but it does add to the length of time it will take to put them all together... and it is something that will be on the back burner for now anyway.

I've been throwing bids on Ebay this week and failing in glorious fashion... so I don't have any news about that.

I am looking forward to the end of this Kickstarter project (Mechadrome):

Mechadrome Kickstarter Link!

I have pledged for a small gathering of these awesome little mechs and I hope that they are as awesome in hand as they appear on the site.

Speaking of mechs, Prodos Games has been updating a lot of their Warzone Resurrection miniatures and they have been doing a great job. The one that really caught my eye was the new version of the Bauhaus Vulkan... a proper stocky little chap:

Click the Pic!

I think that this will make an excellent addition to any Squat/Space Dwarf force... oh... and Warzone Bauhaus force (of course).

In other news, the Forum of Doom is having an Unofficial Diorama of Doom competition again this year. At the moment, the final poll is up to vote for a theme. If you want to pop along, have a look and vote it would be very cool of you. Here's the link:

UNDoD 2014 LINK!

You never know; you may be inspired enough to join in with your own offering.

From a personal hobby perspective, I managed to throw a basecoat on my Torge's Tigers dropship. It is still very WIP but, I think I have the patterns roughly in place:

Click the Pix!

So... tomorrow I am travelling down to Somerset for the funeral of my friend who recently passed away after her fight with cancer. It's not one I am looking forward to but I wouldn't miss it for the world...

See you from the pit!

Life and death.

This week has been one of highs and lows.

On the one hand, our nest of Robins is now empty... the chicks have fledged. Here is a picture of one of them making its way from the fence to the relative safety of a tree:

Click the Pic!

Once we are sure that the Robins aren't going to reuse the nest, I'll clear it from the fan duct.

On the other hand, one of my friends from school passed away after a long struggle with cancer. If I was a religious man, I might say that what the lord gives with one hand, he takes with the other... but I'm not... so I'll just say that this week has been one of reflection.

Rest in Peace, Angie. You've earned it.

Wasn't it great to see that old veteran escape from his old people's home and go to France for the D-D commemorations? It was a fine display of the bulldog spirit that I am sure he used when he was involved, for real, 70 years ago. It is also shows that life has to be embraced... you never know when you won't be able to do what you are planning...

In other news, I am involved with the Pay-it-Forward project and have so far ticked off 2 of my 'victims'. With this in mind, I thought it was time to start the next one so here is what I have put together so far:

Click the Pic!

The person I am creating this for, likes Pugs so I couldn't think of anyone more appropriate to send this one-of-a-kind 'statue' to. I still have a long way to go and the three miniatures at the front will be removeable so they can be used for gaming.

Apart from that, I haven't done any hobby stuff this week... but as you may have gathered, my mind has been on other things.

See you from the back of the room, just behind the rubber plant!

An interesting week...

Hello again. Welcome to Inso's World and you find me sat at my PC on a glorious sunny day. I can hear the sounds of lawn-mowers, smell the smoky air of BBQs and listen to the wonderful sound of bird-song. Today is a flip-flop day... so, what has been going on this week? To start with, work has been mental. Every time I clear a job, three come in so I have been run ragged. As a result, my hobby time has been restricted to what I can be bothered with... and that seems to be cheap, plastic dinosars. I have managed to paint another two:

Click the Pic!

As you can see, I have now got three finished and the beauty of these is... no matter how badly I paint them, they will still look much better than how they started. That means I can practically switch off while I paint and still end up with an OK finished product... and that works for me when I am tired out.

In other news, I have had a proper 'couple' weekend. Friday me and my better half went to the pub and had such a good evening that we booked a room and stayed over night. After a smashing cooked breakfast, we walked the three miles home in glorious sunshine, through the Oxfordshire countryside. We've been shopping, dining out and enjoying life all weekend while our two teenagers go off and do their own thing. After all this time being attentive parents, we are starting to enjoy being a couple again... and it is great. In fact, this morning we went into town and had brunch together... no children in tow. But enough of all that... here is a picture:

Click the Pic!

The other day, I noticed a strange noise coming from the ventilation fan in the kitchen so I investigated and discovered that the outside vent had a hole in it and there appeared to be nest material sticking out. I disabled the fan switch (so it couldn't be switched on), kept an eye on things and soon found out that Robins were busy flitting backwards and forwards with beaks full of food. I decided I'd wait until things were properly settled and take a peek... and the best way I could think of doing it was with a camera... and as you can see, we have at least five Robin chicks in our fan duct. How cool is that?

Ebay has been a friend to me again... and this time Torge's Tigers get the benefit of my luck:

Click the Pic!

They get a nice Devilfish to travel about in. As you can see, it is still WIP and still needs clean-up but the basic assembly is finished (apart from the front guns).

Well, that appears to be the end of another mixed bag of stuff.

See you from the hide!

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!

Jaded

Today is a hangover day. I may have been partaking in a few glasses of port until about 5am so I am not firing on all cylinders today. That means that today's blog post will be a bit 'to the point'.

First up, I have been pointed at with another Liebster award from the Bandit86 blog. Rather than going through the whole process, I will just answer the questions... so here they are:

1. If you could be an actor in a film, what film and who would you play?
- I think I'd play the lead role in Sniper. I'd need the film's fitness trainers to go to work on me first but I reckon I'd be great as a gnarly old war vet who works alone.

2. If I could have lunch with 3 fictional movie characters, who would they be and why?
- Professor Flitwick (from Harry Potter) because he would be great dinner entertainment using his elevation tricks, The Silver Surfer because he would have some awesome tales to tell and could put on a holographic show of them and Pilot from Farscape to add a little calming influence on procedings.

3. What is my favourite part of the wargaming hobby?
- Honestly?.. Seeing the new stuff that turns up and being inspired by the creativity of it all.

4. What is my feeling on crowd funding and have I been involved?
- I think it serves a purpose but is being misused by people who don't really need to use it. I always thought it was a helping hand to get an idea off the ground for someone starting out... now it seems to be an easy 'advance order' system for larger companies. I have joined in with 5 kickstarters so far... I am still waiting for Mantic stuff from last June.

5. What are my favourite past/present TV shows?
- Farscape/Space Above and Below (a tie for the past one) and nature programmes.

6. Do I consider myself a nerd/geek.
- Of course... and I stand upon the tallest place and yell out loud about it. It is very funny when people expect you to be embarrassed about it, only to discover that you are happy to be so creative and childish.

7. What is my favourite figure that I have or want?
- That is very tricky because what I really want is a range of cut-down 1/60 scale Votoms mechs to be made... I would dearly love those. Failing that, The Grymn are under my skin and there are so many classic Grymn that I couldn't possibly just choose one.

8. Who is my favourite figure sculptor?
- Kev White from Hasslefree Miniatures. He has an exceptional grasp of anatomy and posture... and sculpts Grymn.

9. Do zombies creep me out?
- No. I just don't get the whole zombie thing. I never have and I never will (and I have no idea where the quote comes from because I don't watch any zombie films).

10. What is my biggest fear?
- I don't have one... I go with the flow and fear when I need to. I don't dwell on things to an extent where I could say 'that is my biggest fear'. I guess the safety of my family would be high up there though.

11. What gives me the most joy?
- Everything. I am one of those people who can see the best in a bad day. Children and animals are great to be around... they do the funniest things and can show such raw emotion that you would have to have a heart of stone not to feel joy in their joy.

Thanks for the questions Bandit86, they were quite tricky.

I haven't really been hobbying much this week so I only have a couple of WIP pix to show off:

Click the Pix!

The top pic shows three mobile weapon platforms that have been made from Imperial Guard weapons, some plastic bricks and some old Epic Landraiders. They still need to have details added but are getting there. They are for my Squat troops to use (the ACTUAL Squat miniatures, not my converted-from-Imperial-Guard ones) because they are so tiny. The bottom picture shows a very early WIP of my Squat Warlord in Exo Armour. By the time he is finished, he will be completely different from the WIP.

Well... I hope you have enjoyed today's post. I am now off for a drink of water... and some headache tablets.

See you through bleary eyes!

An interesting week?

Hello again. It is Sunday so it is time to update the blog again.

I'll start with something completely different and talk about mobile phones. I have just been given an upgrade and I have not only advanced to the technological marvels of a touch-screen phone (with internet!) but I was also given a tablet as a free gift. I think it is great when you don't really keep track of things and a phonecall 'out of the blue' gets you... STUFF! Now, of course, I have to learn how to use them both but I guess that slow and steady wins the race.

I have had quite a sociable week that, coupled with a distinct lack of any identifiable sleep pattern, has limited my hobby time again... so I have just pottered along and have been bothering Ebay as well.

First up... I put a bid on some Squat plastics... and I only went and won them for a very reasonable price (less than £2.00 each!). That means two things... I have finally got some proper Squats and I have managed to find yet another distraction.

Now you would have thought that a Squat was a Squat, wouldn't you? Well... apparently not. You see, my Squats are bigger than yours:

Click the Pic!

The one in the middle is one of my Imperial Guard conversions and the other two are actual Squats (with new heads). As you can see, there is a noticeable difference between them so I am forced to think about how to mix them together. I have 20 Squats so that isn't enough for a platoon (I need 25 for that) so I can't make a separate infantry platoon... however, with 18, I can make a heavy weapon platoon so that is what I am going to do. I think that they have been chosen for heavy weapons because they aren't as big as standard infantry Squats and can have self-propelled weapons so they don't have to carry as much. The weapons I am thinking of using are these: LINK.

Speaking of Squats, I have now converted enough IG to make the first squad:

Click the Pic!

From the top left, Grenade launcher, Comms, Sgt, Loader, Las-cannon. The bottom row are all basic lasguns. Only another 26 to go!

Well... that is it for today.

See you from the bottom of the alphabet soup!

Liebster Award questions and nominations...

So... to continue on from the last post, here are my 11 questions:

1.  Why did you decide that wargaming was for you?
2.  If you had to team up with a super hero, who would it be and what powers would you have to compliment their abilities?
3.  What do you think is the cutest film creature (from a sci-fi/fantasy setting) and why?
4.  If you were sentenced to death by firing squad, who would you want staked out next to you and why?
5.  Zombies? In one sentence, explain why a rotten, animated corpse seems to be the coolest thing on the wargaming scene since... ever.
6.  If you had unlimited surplus cash and had to choose a single wargaming army, what would it be and for which rules/game?
7.  If you lost everything apart from the clothes you are standing in... what would be the very first thing (after food/drink) that you would choose to obtain and why?
8.  What is your favourite pet?
9.  You are standing next to the director of a film that you really didn't like and were able to replace him in the director's chair. Which film would you choose to improve?
10.  What do you think is the best wargaming genre and why?
11.  Who would you choose to write your epitaph and why?

So... nominations...

John Bear Ross
The Rovanite
Maxxev
Dwartist
Brummie
Gunner
Vampifan
Tales from the Maelstrom
Bandit86
Brandlin
Chico

Hopefully, they will accept the nominations in the spirit they are sent.

How to do it?
Read the last post for information... then:

1. State your eleven truths.

2. Answer my eleven questions.

3. Choose eleven questions of your own.

4. Nominate eleven blogs.