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 family week.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been all about family. My son, daughter and their partners were down in Cornwall for the week so I spent quite a lot of time in their company. It was my son's 21st birthday this week so we decided that it was a good idea to both get tattoos to celebrate. We have taken a long time to decide which tattoos we would like but eventually settled on a raven each. It was all booked in for Wednesday but last Sunday, we were made aware that the tattooist no longer worked at the parlour. I popped in to the parlour on Monday, had a chat with the owner and she agreed to do the tattoos instead and I am so glad that she did because, not only was it my son's birthday present but she also did an absolutely fantastic job.

So... me and my son now have matching tattoos... a raven that watches our backs:

Click the Pic!

That means that I have had a tattoo with both my children now.

Spending time with family this week has meant that my hobby hasn't even had a look in. The only vaguely hobby related thing I have done this week is buy this:

Click the Pic!

It was £8.00 in a local factory shop and is currently in a box in component form, with all of the electronics removed. The main reason I bought it was for the legs. but I think there are a few other bits that may come in handy.

Well, that's it for today.

See you from the spiritual home of the piskie!

Party week.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been a blur and I can't work out where most of it has gone.

After a 'no sleep Sunday' and another night of restless sleep, I started the week a little jaded. I was due to go to a friend's leaving party on Thursday so I decided to make sure that the old car (not the newly bought one) was functioning... and it wasn't. Dead battery. Wednesday, I was charging it up but it failed to take any charge and it appeared that one of the cells had completely died so  a new battery was bought and fitted ready for the trip.

Wednesday night was interesting. Me and my wife were invited to judge a small cooking competition. The 'cheesecake challenge' was fun and we had six cheesecakes to taste and have an opinion on. It was a very close thing and they were all very nice but a winner was found. Fortunately, I got home before ten in the evening as I was up at three to drive for six hours back to Benson for the leaving party.

So... the drive up was pretty quiet... apart from being over tired, having a couple of swerves and ending up having to drink red-bull to get there safely. The party was great and went exactly as it should have and after a night in the mess, I drove back to Cornwall... ready for pub night. During pub night, it was decided that last night would be a karaoke night and it was hastily arranged because it was deemed necessary that a tired Inso should have a night of singing.

Saturday, my children and their boy/girl friends arrived and we all ended up in the pub together and having a great evening of karaoke... that ended at half past two in the morning.

There were a few down points on the evening... an accidental headbutt meant that I thought my nose was broken and today it is still throbbing... but fortunately, I think it is just bruised or something. No real harm done. Then there was the 'random person who tried to get me to react' and that was an interesting half an hour or so. I was far more sober than he was and I managed to confuse him enough to go and talk about me to his wife instead. Fortunately, it never amounted to anything but I think that if I hadn't been in the company of my close family and in such a good mood, I may not have been able to be so diplomatic.

So here we are today. As I mentioned, my children are visiting so I will be out and about and am very unlikely to be getting any hobby stuff done today... and as you can imagine, I have had little opportunity for hobby this week apart from something I have started to put together... something decidedly random... Drax:

Click the Pic!

It's been all about Squats lately so I needed something to just tinker with. I have lots of spare terminator legs so I am using them to create a thing. I'll let you decide what you think it may be.

Anyway... that is about it for this week. Hopefully, I'll get more sleep this week and be more productive...

... and Wednesday, it's tattoo day!

See you from the big chair!

A brief interlude.

Before I start... Welcome Dave Kelly! I hope you enjoy pottering around the grounds and hopefully gaining a little inspiration here and there... but be warned! Don't stray too far from the paths or you may become lost.

This week has been pretty bad for sleep so I have steered clear from most of my hobby stuff. I did, however, manage to clean up ten Mantic Forge Father, Forge Guard and partially assemble them, ready for conversion but I haven't bothered with pictures because they are just standard (at the moment).

In other hobby news, the two 1/35th scale Panther tanks that I ordered, arrived this week (as did a Megaro Zamack kit that I was lucky to win on Ebay for a reasonable price - only one more kit to go and I have the full set)... so I am now in a position to convert two more Panther-Russ tanks.

In the real world, I have started to assemble my storage shelves so that means that I am beginning to think about unpacking some stuff... however, the shelves need to be finished before that so I still need to have a level head for long enough to build them.

Yesterday, we picked up a new car and decided to have a little potter over to Marazion. The weather was extremely windy and we were not too surprised to see a host of kite surfers out on the sea...

Click the Pix!

The car is only a diddy one but it's all we need for pottering around in. In the second pic you can see St Michael's Mount and a few of the many kite surfers.

Well... that is about it for now. Hopefully, I'll sleep better this week and be able to achieve more.

See you from the peak of the mountain!

Beep! Beep!

Hello again.

Time is flying by and everything is slowly falling into place. All I need to do is start getting a bit more enthusiasm but my lingering chest infection is still slowing me down... otherwise I would be a wood-working, storage building monster!

From a life perspective, my wife and I are nicely settled now. I haven't started looking for a job yet but my wife starts her job, full time, on Monday. My RAF pension and lump sum have arrived and I am happy to discover that I will only need to work part time in order to top up the monthly pot so I will be able to pursue some charitable concerns and that is REALLY great! It is also great that my wife is supporting that idea and is happy for me to be directing some of my attention towards a little bit of altruistic endeavour.

Last night we had a great evening out our local pub; a pub where the landlords instantly made us welcome when we arrived and is now filled with people we call friends. There was a local band playing and the pub was packed... a great sight and I hope a very profitable one because the landlords work very hard to make that place what it is.

Yesterday, we went to a car dealer's and bought a little car. It was a complete catalogue of errors from start to finish. First we had to wait a while due to the dealer having another person to sort out. Then we asked for a test drive but the battery was dead... so it was power-pack started, but needed petrol so the dealer took it to get fuel and on his return the car had picked up a puncture. So we were offered a test ride in a similar car... the first one had a flat battery, the second had no fuel and couldn't be started and the third one... was fine... so we went for a test drive. We liked the test drive so we bought the car with a dead battery and flat tyre (they will be replaced before we collect it next week). The poor dealer was so apologetic! I then explained to him that the moment 'our' car started being awkward, that was Karma's way of telling us that it needed to come home with us. I got a strange look but he chilled out after that. So next week we collect a little car with a tiny engine to potter around Cornwall in and once our other car runs out of MOT etc, it will be sold on.

The main reason we decided to get the car now was because I have a leaving do to attend in a few weeks and I needed transport and now that my wife is commuting to work I couldn't have the car... so we brought forward the car purchase JUST to get me back to Oxfordshire for a mate's leaving do. How's that for dedication?!

When I left the RAF I wanted to get involved with the local community, change direction with work to something more manual labour oriented and join some charities to help out. I think the community aspect of my plan is going well and once I get a job I will be able to tick the other two boxes because I will have an idea of what the work/spare time routine will be.

So... onwards and upwards.

OK... I'll share my hobby stuff now. First up, I have finished the transport and tank for now (counts-as Leman Russ and Chimera):

Click the Pix!

I say 'for now' because I may revisit them a little, once I have put together a few more. Speaking of putting together a few more, I now have three more Hanomag kits sitting on a shelf with two more Panther kits being delivered at some point. I would rather convert a couple of Panthers first so the Hanomag kits will sit for a while. I think that I will stop at three Panthers because I want my army to be more geared towards infantry and not loads and loads of tanks. With three 'counts-as' Leman Russ tanks, I can fill either one or three heavy support slots, depending on where the army leads me in the future.

As you are aware, I have also been working on my Exo armoured troops, namely the Wolverines. Well, they are now finished:

Click the Pic!

They are pictured above, with my Captain Lysander proxy. I have a backstory for the Wolverines but I will share it at a later date however, they are weaponised mining suits and are worn by a full unit of female Squats (and with Lysader also being a woman, they are her fighting escort). 

Now that these are done, I can put them with all the others I have finished:

Click the Pic!

This shows proxies for captain Lysander, a chaptermaster in terminator armour, a squad of five close combat terminators and a squad of ten standard terminators (with a pair of heavy flamers). I still have ten more standard terminators to put together and they will have a pair of assault cannons to go with them. When they are finished, there will be no more Terminators added and I will concentrate my infantry attention on the scouts and the third infantry platoon.

This coming week, I am planning to sort out the legs and see how I am going to put them up for sale. As a result of the interest that I have received, I will be looking at getting more cast up... so I am probably going to have to be a bit clever so that it is all done fairly... which is one reason why I have taken a while to get them up for sale. I must admit to being very surprised at the response and have been overwhelmed by it. Who'd have thought it?

Well... that's it for today and I'll catch you next time... but before I go, here's Sam; rolling about on the patio in the sunshine yesterday:

Click the Pic!

See you from the garage!

Time flies.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World on a positively dreary Sunday afternoon.

This week has been another slow one because I have been carrying a cold and cough which has, for some reason, played havoc with my enrgy levels and the steadyness of my hands. As a result, I have chosen to leave the Wolverines well alone and focus on my vehicles.

The Hanomag pattern Chimera has seen a small amount of work; mostly filling gaps but I was unable to progress as much as I wanted because I needed to wait for some 4mm semi-spherical rhinestones to turn up from EBay. Now that they have arrived, I have got a bit further but I will be saving the pix for the finished vehicle now.

The other vehichle (that I am calling my Panther Russ) has progressed a lot since the last picture I showed on here. As you can see, it now has a turret and some additional bits and bobs:

Click the Pic!

Since the pic was taken, I have added more details and filled a few gaps so I will post additional pix once both the armoured vehicles are finished.

So while I am ticking along with these vehicles, I am thinking about power armoured Squats and what they would look like if they were not influenced by Imperial design. I am of the opinion that the Squats would hark back to their roots and would have long armoured coats. With this in mind, I have decided that they would have a powered exo-frame rather than a powered set of armour. I am not really able to explain what I mean so I have started sculpting a test model. Hopefully, it will take shape over the next week or so... but it all depends on how I feel.

In other news, I have not forgotten about the legs that will be going up for sale soon but, to be honest, at the moment I really am not in the right frame of mind to faff about with selling stuff because I just don't have the energy. I will try to get it sorted soon though.

Well... that's it for today.

See you through the gloom!

Nurgle has come to tea.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World... but I wouldn't get too close, if I were you... Nurgle is in the house!

Yep, this week I have been filled with cold so I have really not done very much of anything at all. I did manage to get to the pub a couple of times but that was to celebrate some good news and also to watch the rugby.

This week has been a bit of a waiting game. My wife has been job hunting and attending interviews; culminating on a new job offer on Friday. That is brilliant news as it is the start of us both building a routine. Soon it will be my turn but I am in no immediate rush. My wife's new job meant an evening in the pub on Friday with me coughing all evening... but we celebrated well.

Yesterday was a day in the pub watching the rugby (well done England!).

This week also saw the birth of my first Great-Nephew, little Arthur. He and my niece are both doing well and it was lovely news. I now look forward to meeting him.

With regards to hobby stuff this week, I have had neither the inclination or dexterity to do very much of anything. That said, I have managed to put a few details on my Hanomag pattern Chimera:

Click the Pic!

The Hanomag now has some hatches and some lights but I still have a long way to go.

I need to apologise for not progressing the leg sales thing but I have really not been very interested in anything this week, sorry.

Hopefully, I'll shake this cold off this week and get back to a bit of carpentry and hobby stuff.

Well, that's about it for now.

See you from the scrap-heap!