Inso's World

A long time ago in a galaxy not too far away...

...well...this galaxy actually.  An addicted hobbyist decided to put together a small Starship crew.  To go with the crew, a starship was needed; a SMALL starship...

After deciding that one of my support vehicles needed some new wheels, I managed to get hold of some yesterday and after ripping them off a cheap 4WD toy, I set about fixing them to the vehicle. While I was sorting that out, I was also assembling the other vehicle...so here they are; the first two support vehicles all assembled, ready for paint:

I went out last night...had a complete blast...and one too many glasses of port...GREAT!!!

...so I am a bit shabby today and don't have the will power to do anything other than sit, chill and rehydrate.

Here is my Space Dog with a finished base and a coat of varnish:

I received this in the post yesterday...I couldn't resist painting it (but haven't finished the base):

Time flies when you are working strange shifts...so I haven't really managed to get much done except for to tidy these up:

Welcome to Friday evening in Inso's World. I am a little bit confused as to this first announcement so you'll have to bear with me.

First of all, I'd like to welcome BRUNA OLLY to my blog. Normally it would be a case of me hoping that a new follower gains something from my blog but I'm not sure that would be appropriate in this case. It seems that BRUNA OLLY is some sort of a performer who has joined almost every blog in the world for a bit of exposure. I doubt if she will even be visiting this blog and if she did, I'm not sure whether her English is good enough to take an active part in it (I could be wrong but seeing as my Spanish is terrible, I am just making that assumption).

That said, I looked at her blog and she seems nice enough so good on her for showing a bit of initiative ;).

So Welcome BRUNA!

Now then...something completely different. I have been distracted again by the need to finish stuff that I started an age ago. Well this guy had different arms in other pix but now the latest member of the Starship Crew is finished. He is called APE and is the latest civilian version of the Beetlebot 2000; he helps Sola with the mechanical duties and organising the ships stowage:

Welcome to new follower Steven Weidner. I hope that you enjoy your stay and maybe get a tiny bit of inspiration from something here.

What couldn't I resist? The final member of the Starship Mystics is finished:

Welcome to Sunday's update. I have deliberately left an update for a few days just so that I had a few things to show off.

Before I start, I'd like to welcome our newest follower; Phil C. Welcome Phil, I hope you enjoy your stay :).

So what have I been up to over the past few days? Well, I've had a few parcels turn up...

I received a parcel from Hasslefree Miniatures which contained a bunch of conversion bits and pieces and also a very cool little Mystic Panda which is shown next to a Grymn pilot here:


In amongst the same order, I received a bunch of Rhino heads which I have been using for my Games Workshop Space-Marine Terminator conversions here:



They are going to be 'Counts as' Space Wolves. The squad in the top pic is being led by Arjac, a special character.

I received another parcel from Fenris Games which contained a whole host of resin bases. I was going to put up some pictures of them today but I have been a bit too caught up with the terminator conversions and haven't had enough time to prepare them for photographs...so they will be arriving in a future update (sorry).

A further parcel arrived from E-bay with five plastic Terminators in. I now have a total of 15 which will be converted to Rhino-men as soon as I get around to it.

What...more parcels? You bet! I finally got my parcel from Renegade and the miniatures look lovely...just 2 weeks too late to be useful.

I think that is about it...I'm not sure if I already mentioned the Void miniatures from E-bay or the Plasticard/Milliput from Evil Mushroom Games...but I guess I have now :).

Finally, I have made a decision about the Ogarix. He was sitting there looking very sorry for himself and all because I couldn't make up my mind how to make his gun/club weapon so I have decided to make his weapon a purely close combat weapon. That means I have chopped the end off, tidied up the shaft and now have a direction to focus on. All he needs to be finished is a few bits on his hand, a bit on his shoulder and to tidy up the head of the weapon...I must get him finished this week. Here is a pic of the alterations:


On to other matters...I've actually managed to get a bit of sleep over the last couple of days so I am hoping it is the start of a trend.

I also managed to drill straight through the end of my thumb with my pin-vice. Fortunately it was only a 0.8mm drill bit so the hole wasn't as big as it could have been. It still bled quite well :)...so, everybody...take care when drilling...it hurts if you drill yourself!

I took the stray cat to the vet and managed to get a nicley torn up hand in the process. It's all very sore but it is also functional so I can't really complain. We now know that the cat is male, is between 7 and 12 years old, doesn't have an identity chip, WILL NOT ALLOW ITSELF TO BE EXAMINED, and has a really bad set of teeth. He's back to the vet on Tuesday to get fixed, one way or the other (depending on test results). We'll see!

That is about it...at last!

See you through the blood!

What a week! So much to do with so little time. Sleep? What the hell is that? It's too damn humid to sleep! On the bright side, it's Friday at last. That means I have a couple of days to get away from it all...apart from Sunday (when I have to go to work in the Morning...but at least I get to play with real helicopters...so it can't be ALL bad, can it?).

So...with packing aplenty and lots of trips to the dump, I guess I'll not have too much time for the hobby this weekend...but you never know :).

Well, I've finished painting Sola:

It is Sunday, I've slept for over 9 hours (the most I've slept for months), the air is fresh, my daughter is 12 today, I don't have to call the bingo EVER AGAIN and I've just had a lovely cup of tea...if it wasn't for the fact I have to do the food shopping today, it would be a perfect day.

Well, what has been going on? I had a potter around the shops yesterday and all I came away with was the latest White Dwarf magazine. Every month I buy it and every month I flick though it and question my decision. White Dwarf stopped being worth a read A LONG TIME AGO...I suppose it is a case of A) Habit and B) what else would I buy to read?

I had a very small parcel turn up on Friday that contained a Grymn Spotter (from Hasslefree). He is going to be the lieutenant for my second urban light-infantry platoon. The miniature itself was a pre-release, master casting and was very sharply cast.

On the subject of actual miniatures, I have finished basing the Grizzly, so here is a pic:

Before I start with the usual Sunday update, I'd really like to welcome Sonny to our humble blog.

He is a miniatures painter that frequents many forums and I know him especially from the Forum of Doom. Inso is particularly fond of his 'gritty' style of painting and has bookmarked many of his Grymn paint-jobs for his personal gallery.

So, Sonny, welcome to the blog!

Well...it's that time again...another move is about to begin. Over the next few weeks it will be chaos in the Inso household as plans are made to move house (again). That means that things will be packed away and time will be short for hobby activities.

It also means that he isn't as focused as he could be and is a lot less patient when things start to go wrong.

So...what has he been upto then? Well, I can tell you straight away that there are no pix this week.

The spaceship has had a total change of colour. It has also had a total change in texture as a result of brush painting and it currently looks terrible. There are brush streaks all over it, colour runs and blobs of paint where it has pooled. To be honest, the last time Inso had a failure like this (a sculpt for a competition) he threw it at the wall, smashed it to pieces and threw it in the bin. I just hope that he can work out a way to save it, otherwise I can see this one going the same way. I have suggested that he should pack it away and concentrate on other things in a vain hope that it will give him time to calm down and think of a way to save it...

...I think that an airbrush will be top of his shopping list when he moves because he is extremely put off painting large things with a brush (and he has 6 Tiger APCs, 5 Glaive APCs a Gladius tank, a resin truck and a resin VTOL to paint...in addition to the Phoenix)!

On the bright side, Inso has mentioned that the ship will be finished, even if he has to buy another TB2 and start afresh (well...it's only cost him less than £10-00 so far)...so even though he is upset about the whole thing, he is still remaining positive.

On to other things...

The pilot/mechanic and the warrior for the starship crew have received a small amount of paint...unfortunately not enough to show off.

Inso dug out his Catachan Imperial Guard army to have a look at. They are all metal (apart from 6 Sentinel walkers) and there are about 160 of them. Even though they were painted a while ago with enamel paints, they still look quite presentable and would certainly look OK on the tabletop. In the same draw were his Soran troops. They are the old metal Cadian Imperial Guard and there are about 60/70 of them. They have a few tanks to go with them (a Griffon, Leman Russ and two Chimeras). I was keen to get Inso to put them on the table and take pix but he was in a weird mood and couldn't summon the enthusiasm.

Short Kroot. Terminator conversions. VTOLs. Grymn scout vehicles. Robots.

All things that have been occupying Inso's mind lately. He gibber-jabbers on about all sorts of things but rarely shares pix or exact details...so I have no idea where these thoughts will lead.

Finally, there is great news from the Twilight front. Hasslefree miniatures have just added the range of cool miniatures to their site. I strongly suggest that you take a look at the following link so that you too can see what Inso has been enhusing about for so long:

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/range.php?range_id=64

For more background information have a look here:

http://www.worldoftwilight.com/

I think you'll all agree that there is some great stuff there. Inso will be splashing the cash over at Hasslefree once he has moved and a lot of it will be on the Twilight miniatures (he doesn't game so the rules aren't what he's into).

So a bit of an odd week on the whole. I can't say what the next update will bring but I hope there will be a few pix of painted/converted miniatures to show off.

Catch you later!

Before all the festivities, I'd like to welcome our 15th follower, Ivan Goncearuc, to the blog...

...WELCOME!

Now for the news...

Well I guess this was overdue in arriving but it seems Inso is now happy to share his WIP starship:

I've just seen Inso and he is covered in dust. He has been busy filling gaps and sanding filler down on his new spaceship.

What's good about the spaceship? Well, it is a nice shape, it looks like a spaceship and when it is painted it will be quite original and may cause a few giggles...

What's bad about it? It didn't arrive as complete as Inso would have liked so he had to make a few more modifications than he would have liked but most of them were to do with the internal structure to tidy up panel lines and things. It is also a bit smaller than he was expecting so it looks like the boarding party will be left at home when the starship crew take this one out for a spin...a shame but that is the way things go.

I would LOVE to tell you more about it but I am sworn to secrecy...sorry :(.

There is still quite a bit of work left to do before it is ready for paint but I am fairly confident that it will see undercoat by Sunday evening's update.

Stay tuned for more info!

Catch you later!

Standby for broadcast.

The Starship has landed.

I repeat...

The Starship has landed.

End of broadcast.

Welcome to the Sunday update! First on the agenda is to say hi to Mike Thorpe, our newest follower! Mike (also known as Carcharoth) is responsible for sending me ten of the fantastic Fubarnii knights that have appeared on this blog. He is also starting up a new venture with Hasslefree miniatures called 'Twilight'. It is a fantasy game that will have a host of miniatures to buy and game with. They are nearly ready for release and as soon as they are available, I'll be posting some details!

Welcome aboard our humble blog Mike!

Inso has had a bit of a slow day today. He has not had a great run of sleep and he is starting to wane...insomnia can be a cruel mistress sometimes. Apart from food-shopping, cooking lunch and dinner and generally trying to keep himself awake (oh...the irony!), he has managed to work on his little starship project. This pic shows the pilot/mechanic of the crew and the start of a worker robot:

I guess that Inso has had a quiet day today because he sent me over this pic of Captain Flint Bergstrom:

I've just been sent a pic or two...

Here's mystic Jen:

...And so is Inso. Today he got up late, did the shopping, went out with the family and generally had a lazy day. The Tyranids got no paint...not a single splash. However, for some reason, Inso dug out part of another project and has finished it off (apart from the base...he is waiting for inspiration to finish that). So, without further ado, here is Sensai Alissandra, keeper of the sacred knowledge and one of the Starship Crew:

First of all, I'd like to welcome the latest follower of our humble blog; Bandit86. He has a blog as well and it is well worth taking a look (especially because it has Grymn in it). Welcome aboard!

From grey plastic to this in a few short days:

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/wip.php?PHPSESSID=aad3f977966e5bd4d8f94348ffc4c1d2

He reckons that it will make a perfect companion for his starship crew (which is still WIP):



There are a few interesting sculpts on the workbench and Inso is looking forward to a few...especially all the Grymn and little Megan in powered armour.

On a Grymn note, Inso recently received his order from Hasslefree and apart from a command squad and a platoon leader, he has his Grymn urban army all bought and ready for preparation. If only the mortar spotter on the workbench was ready to buy...

Well, that is about it for today.

Catch you later!

It would seem that Inso has been busy over the last day or so because he has sent over a bunch of WIP pics for us to look at.

First up is a beefed up Fin Dus. He has had a bit of shoulder definition added and a few areas of folds on his legs. He's also had his elbow joints made to be more realistic looking. Here's Fin Dus as he currently stands (there is still more work to do!):




Well, that is it for now. Inso doesn't have too much to do tomorrow so there may be more updates to look at.

Oh...I almost forgot. Inso has ordered a few Lego parts for another project he has been thinking about for ages. It would appear that there are plans for a few Grymn vehicles...8 to start with (if he can stick with it!). It will certainly be interesting to see what is going to turn up.

Catch you later!