Things...

Hello and welcome.

This week has been one of all sorts of things so let's get to it.

Cats.

On Tuesday, little Alfie went to get his first jabs and have a check up. He's in perfect condition and is settling in beautifully. He has adjusted to all the cats and they have adjusted to him... so we have a four cat family now.

Click the Vid!

Sam, on the otherhand, hasn't had such a good week. He got himself injured and his tail stopped working. After a few days of him disappearing and me eventually coaxing him in, I managed to get him X-rayed at the vets and he isn't too damaged after all... just bruising, swelling and a temperature... so he had an infection as well. Pain-killers, anti-inflamatories and antibiotics are working to resolve the issue and he has started to regain the use of his tail again.

Click the Pic!

He's got to go back to the vets on Tuesday for a check up and has to be kept in... but he has resigned himself to his incarceration and it has given him a chance to enjoy the company of the kitten... and he has been socialising with Alfie very nicely.

I'd like to say that was the end of the expensive week... but then there was the fence...

Fence.

Yep... we now have a glorious fence around the garden that is rock-solid and not rotten (YAY!). We are just waiting for a couple of old posts to be removed and the old fence to be disposed of and it will be a good starting block to crack on with the rest of the garden... money well spent but still 'more expense'. At least it was planned. I haven't taken any pix yet because of the rubbish in the garden. Once it is all cleared away, I'll get some pix.

Job.

This week, I have finished my care certificate, had my probation interview and also been trained as a care certificate assessor. I now have an extra "BUDDY" badge to wear at work. So I have an official qualification and have a second career (the first being aircraft, engineering technician) as a Health Care Assistant. I am rather happy about that.

Hobby.

As you can imagine, I have not really had the time or motivation for much hobby this week so I only have a small update that was finished last Sunday evening... and this is it:

Click the Pic!

The pic shows the last infantry elements of the Artillery Company... this is Blue Company Command. With these troops finished, I just need to sort out the vehicles and the company will be finished... well, when everything is properly based, of course. 

I have started work on the second infantry platoon for Orange Infantry Company... but have only got as far as base-spraying them and adding ten pink faces. Hopefully, this coming week will provide me the time and motivation to get back to painting them again.

Who knows what this coming week will bring?

See you from the surgery!

2018 in retrospect.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

It's very nearly 2019 so I thought I'd look back over a year that has seen a lot of change for me and my family... plus a little bit of hobby along the way... so let's get started.

Early in the year, things were pretty settled. I was at home, my wife was at work and things were ticking along nicely... then my other shoulder froze up so the painkillers came out again. As a result, I became lethargic and began to get a little bit house bound... so I decided to do something a little bit different, in memory of my Dad, and quit drinking for a year (the only exceptions were toasts for very special occasions and the passing of friends/relatives). Since 8th May 18, I have been on the wagon and have had seven toasts... I will be finishing this drought on 7th May 2019, which is the evening before Flora Day and the first toast will be to my Dad.

Quitting drinking has made a big difference and I have been more cheerful as a result. I have also lost all of my 'drinking' weight and am back to where I was when I was fit and healthy in the RAF.

This year has also seen the completion of my "leaving the RAF" list because I have not only become a member of a charity committee (Marie Curie) but have also got myself a job, working as an HCA in dementia care, for a non-profit, charity organisation... completing my list, which was:

• Move to Cornwall.
• Become part of the community.
• Get a part time job that I could walk to.
• Get involved with charity.

It wasn't a big list but it was an important one. Now the list has been completed, I can properly settle and get my feet under the desk. 

As I have mentioned, my job has changed directions in a dramatic way... from Aircraft Engineer to Dementia Care-Worker. It has been a real eye opener and has been extremely tiring... I haven't had such a physically demanding job for years... but I love the work and get a huge amount of satisfaction from it so I am likely to be doing care work for the foreseeable future.

From a Charity perspective, Not only have I been assisting and working for charity, I have also been able to do a bit of fund raising and donating and have raised well over £1200 this year for various charities... especially those of which my friends are involved. I hope to exceed this amount in 2019.

From a family perspective, my daughter is doing very well at her job and is gaining more training and responsibility... and getting suitable pay rises to go along with it. She has also found a nice lad to share her journey and things are settling down nicely... joint habitation is their goal in 2019. My son has been in the RAF now, for 3 years and is currently enjoying a detachment in the Falklands (another coincidence because the Falklands was my first overseas detachment when I was in the mob). 

Click the Pic! (Port Stanley, The Falklands)

He is enjoying himself and has really flourished in his military role... and he has grown up considerably as a result. He passed his driving test this year and will be getting a car when he returns to the UK. My wife has been pottering along as she always does... being the anchor for us all to cling to. She was the one who gave me some tough love and got me to seek work... something that needed to happen. She still loves her child-care job and is looking forward to a few changes to her work routine in the new year. The pets are all doing well (apart from Boris, our Giant African Land Snail, who passed away), especially my cat Sam, who has really grown into a proper cat now:

Click the Pic!

The house renovations have stalled... I am too tired to start doing all that stuff at the moment but will look to ramp things up in the new year. Another thing I plan to do in the new year is get some miles in, on my bike. I am ashamed to say that I have had the bike for a year and haven't even ridden a thousand miles yet! That will change in 2019... my bike needs to be seen:

Click the Pic!

From a hobby perspective, I have been fairly productive. In fact, I thought I'd been pretty slow this year until I checked back through this blog and listed what I'd done... Here's the list:

• Sly Marbo - Conversion.
• Valkyrie Drop-Ship - Conversion.
• Sgt Harker - Conversion.
• 6x Demiurg Air Guilders - Converted and Painted.
• Squat Berserker - Sculpted, Sold, Cast Received, Painted.
• Halfling Cavalryman - Converted and Painted.
• Badger Rider Squat - Converted and Painted.
• 2x Dreadnought - Converted.
• 5x Squat Bodies (Commission) - Sculpted.
• Tank Company - 11x Armoured Vehicles - Converted and Painted (Awaiting Decals).
• 10x Halfling Snipers - Painted.
• Engineseer and 4x Servitors - Painted.
• Primaris Beastman - Painted.
• Squat, Platoon Command Squad - Painted.
• Squat, Infantry Squad - Painted.
• Dash Hound (Superhero) - Converted.
• Big Olaf - Painted.
• Snorri the Giant -Converted and Painted.
• 3x Hearthguard Bikers - Converted.

On top of all that, I have also painted a few Primaris Marines, part painted a host of Drones (for my Demiurg project), part sculpted a bunch of commissions (but lost my mojo and haven't sculpted properly for most of the year), part sculpted an Ogryn, Lizardman and various other characters... and I am currently in the process of converting a couple of Hearthguard Biker units. That said, I think that my crowning glory, this year, has been my tank company. I have always struggled to complete armoured vehicle conversions so I am glad that I have managed to complete the tank company:

Click the Pic!

That was 2018... so what will 2019 bring? 

Hopefully, a settled year where I become accustomed to the physical aspects of my job and start getting my home-life back... rather than getting home and flopping! More bike riding, more charitable activities and more hobby time. I don't make resolutions because they just set you up to fail but I do plan to try hard in 2019, just the same as I do every year... and that is resolution enough.

I'll be celebrating the New Year in company and will be having a toast at mid-night (the only drink of the evening) so I will take this opportunity to wish everyone a 2019 that they deserve and also that you all stay safe and remember that living to work, will kill you... so work to live!

Click the Pic! (Taken at Perranuthnoe Beach).

See you from the big reveal!

You can't stop the music.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

What can I say about this week? I think the word 'random' comes to mind.

The week started with a day that was sunny enough to paint the rear of the house (just) but the weather didn't hold for long enough to paint the side of the porch so I still have that to do... plus a few little bits of wall furniture to paint in satin.

I managed to get out for a ride on my bike this week... OK, I got a bit wet but it was a much needed little excursion over to Marazion:

Click the Pic!

I also bit the bullet and sorted out some more of my Dad's personal effects and am getting closer to gripping things. It has been a bit of a struggle because with everything you sort, it gets closer to being final... it is very strange.

Friday evening was a great one. Me and my missus went to the Rodney Inn (Helston) and watched a great cover band. They were a Queen cover band called "The Good Old Fashioned Lover Boys" and they properly raised the roof. The pub was packed and one of the bar staff had dressed up as Freddie Mercury... and the way he was behaving, he could have been Freddie reincarnated (he had all the moves!). 

In other news, reinforcements have arrived:

Click the Pic!

Two more King Tigers are ready to go for assembly. So far, I have started the first one and just need to add the Green-Stuff to the Punisher cannon and it will be ready to start painting (all filling has been done, the lascannon is fitted and the punisher cannon has been built and fitted... just needs the mantle to be fettled with Green-Stuff). Luckily, I have already built and painted one of these so I am able to make some sensible choices about painting and assembly.

Unfortunately, I've had a couple of painful days but, in a strange twist of fate, I have used those times for a bit of sculpting and have managed to finish the five Squat bodies (the first of the commissions to be ticked off):

Click the Pic!

They should have been posted yesterday... but tired/hungover/didn't happen so it will be done tomorrow. They are all packed and ready to go and as a result, I freed up five corks and now have a couple of extra goblins and a large shell (as in cannon shell) on some of them... so it has been fairly productive; commissions wise.

As a final note, Forgeworld have got their Necromunda Squat on PRE-ORDER so I have jumped on board and pre-ordered one. I am not impressed at the price... and struggled to click the pay button... but I am treating it as a special case (due to it being the first official Squat release for over 20 years) so that my conscience can cope. I now look forward to its arrival so that I can get a proper look at it and see what I want to do with it.

That's it for today. This coming week will be strange (it would have been Dad's 75th birthday this coming week) so I am leaving things 'open to interpretation'.

See you from the car park!

Sunshine and showers.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

I know it's been two weeks since my last post but I have been keeping myself busy with household chores and haven't had very much time for the hobby so I haven't had very much to update.

There have also been days that have been wiped out due to painkillers... so boring stuff that really isn't worth posting about.

Luckily, as a result of a week or two of preparation and painting, the front of the house now looks presentable (having painted the walls, mowed the grass and tidied up what needed tidying), the rear of the house is almost at a point for painting and the grass in the garden has been mowed/cut so the property is starting to look a bit more lived in and maintained. I've also had a friend round to look at removing the tree stumps from the garden (something I would have done myself if my shoulder wasn't too crook for me to swing a pick-axe or sledgehammer) and once the stumps have gone, it means I can focus on sorting out the verge and making it presentable as well.

This coming week, I hope to finish painting the back wall and also finish painting the side of the porch (I have chatted with my neighbour now so I will be able to stand on her property to gain access to it - it was only polite to ask). Once all that is done, I can get in touch with Collingtons and they can take pictures of the nice windows they fitted.

So... no hobby? Well, that isn't strictly true. As much as my sculpting mojo has left the building and I have been totally unable to sculpt anything (much to my displeasure because I am letting commissions slide and that isn't good), I have been ticking along with a model kit. The model kit in question is a Meng, World War Toon, King Tiger tank. I decided that it would make a nice proxy Leman Russ so I converted the weapons and it is now armed with a Punisher Cannon and a Las Cannon instead of its original weapons.

This is what I started with:

Click the Pic!

The main gun is made up of some of the plastic sprue from the kit and a couple of bits of tubing from the barrel of a pen. The Lascannon is one from a Centurion Kit from GW. Once the weapons were converted, I started painting. Some of the bits and pieces were painted on their sprue and others were sprayed after they were assembled. This is what the base-coat looked like:

Click the Pic!

At this point I realised that there were a few holes to fill (I left the aerial off and also an over-large spade) so I popped some Green Stuff into those and touched up the paint, prior to a Wash with Nuln Oil (for the grey bits) and Agrax Earthshade (for the green bits). After this, I stippled the tank with the original colour (Warpaints Army Green), touched up the grey again (Coat d'Arms Iron Grey) and then dry-brushed the whole tank (Vallejo Green Grey). A bit of black for the tracks on the side of the turret, followed by the all the tracks getting a dry-brush of Iron grey. Windows were just painted blue (Coat d'Arms Wizard Blue) and may get a highlight if I feel brave enough to squeeze a brush in there. This is where I am, at the moment:

Click the Pic!

I plan to add markings similar to British WWII tanks and have assembled some decals to do this. Unfortunately, I haven't got everything I need so I have put in an order with Dom's Decals for those I am missing.

I am really very happy with the kit and I think it is perfect as a proxy Leman Russ. I plan to put together a small company of them (ten tanks) with different weapons. With this in mind, I have ordered another two tanks from EBay so they should arrive sometime this week. I plan to arm the first three in the same way, with the next three having Battle Cannons, the three after that with Plasma Cannons and the leader with a Vanquisher Cannon. First things first though, the three Punishers.

Apart from that... not a lot of hobby at all. I really hope that a bit of sunshine this coming week, will help get my DIY jobs done and that I can stay off the painkillers for long enough to get some sculpting done. I guess that only time will tell.

That's it for now.

See you from the top of the ladder!

Green? Super green!

Hello and welcome to Inso's World.

This week has seen the completion of the window and door replacement and that has opened up my 'job book' somewhat.

Basically, now that the windows are done, the mould can be tackled in the house and the exterior can be painted. As a result I have emptied the porch and have started work on filling and preparing the walls, ready for some paint. I first de-moulded it with a chemical and have been filling all the rough areas with some wall filler. The only trouble is that the more I look, the more work I find... so it has been a bit of a prolonged exercise that I can see taking a week or so.

Luckily, the weather is rubbish, otherwise I would feel guilty about not working on the outside of the house as well... but I have enough to keep me busy with the porch at the moment.

So... hobby wise, I have been sculpting a small amount and that sculpting time has been spent on my commissions. Nothing too major to speak of but all progress is good progress...

Click the Pic!

I'll not say too much about them but there is a Squat living ancestor, a Squat heavy weapon specialist and a Goblin boss in the photo... obviously WIP. I have also been working on a second batch of Squat bodies but they aren't at a position to show off yet.

My order from Mantic games finally arrived and I have now got a pair of spray cans with 3 pots of matching 'Army Green' paint to go with them. In a rare moment of dry weather, I sprayed both the Valkyrie proxy and the pair of Squat dreadnoughts in this new green colour and it really is spot on for my requirements. Once I get a bit further along with painting them, I will share some pix.

I have been watching Facebook (as usual) and have noticed a few of my Berserker sculpts turning up in various paint-schemes. It is proper cool to see and I reckon that I will compile an album of the various paint-jobs to share on here at some point.

This coming week will be a bit mixed but I plan to focus as much as I can on my commission sculpts, in amongst the DIY stuff that I have to get done.

See you from the show ground!

WINDOWS and DOORS!

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been quite productive with lots going on so I won't waste any time and I'll get on with it.

After just over a year in our house, the windows and doors are being replaced. They were the bane of my life over the winter and I will be glad to see the back of the howling gales and damp that was a result of our terribly fitted windows and doors. This week, the fitters have been in and everything has been replaced apart from the back door and side panel (which will be getting done on Monday). The difference is amazing.

It's funny how a house full of tradesmen inspires a bit of work... as a result, I have been sculpting commissions and other bits and bobs... but sadly, not too much that I can show off yet. I do have this though:

Click the Pix!

It isn't too far along but it is a converted GW Cold One who will eventually become a sci-fi Lizard-man with heavy weapon. There are three more that will also get the sci-fi treatment but that will be in-between other sculpting work.

In other hobby news, I have been sent a couple of casts of my Berserker and last night, I decided to paint one:

Click the Pic!

His name is Steppen Odinson... and here is his story (you will need to open in a new tab/window to read it):

Right click and open in new tab to read!

While I was painting the Berserker, I used one of GW's painting handles and I am really chuffed at how easy it was to use. I would recommend getting one and I think at £5.00, it is a bargain... well worth the money.

So... what's on the table at the moment? Well...

• Commission: 5 Squat bodies.
• Commission: Squat heavy weapon gunner.
• Commission: Goblin leader.
• Charity: Squat Living Ancestor.
• My stuff: Lizard, 2 Bullgryn, Predator team (movie Squats).

What is my focus on? At the moment, in this order:

1. Commission: Squat heavy weapon gunner.
2. Charity: Squat Living Ancestor.
3. Commission: Goblin.
4. Lizard.
5. Commission: 5 Squat bodies.
6. Other stuff.

I would prefer all the commissions to be at the top but my mojo is just starting to reappear at the moment so I expect to be able to improve my commission rate very soon. That is just the way the cookie crumbles.

So... Monday will see the end of the window/door fitting and I can get a few things sorted out... which probably means 'house jobs' so my hobby time will reduce... but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

See you through clear windows!

Of bathrooms, bikes, and radio controlled cars...

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been a bit all over the shop (again).

The bathroom replacement is finished and now it is up to me to get the painting done and so far, it is going steady... I am taking my time to make sure that it looks nice. The bare wood has been primed, the various bits of sealing I needed to do are done and next it will be a case of painting a watery coat of paint on the coving before I paint it properly... along with the ceiling. Then it will be watery paint on the walls... sand down... then paint. Hopefully, I will have a painted bathroom by next weekend... that's the plan, anyway.

Hobby time has been a bit hit and miss with a little bit of work on my Demiurg troops. The second one; the Mech, is now finished and I have started the leader now... here's the Mech:

Click the Pic!

I think the simple paint scheme works quite well on these. It is also a good thing that I have pointed myself at this little project because a change is as good as a rest. It is also quite fortuitous that the Black Friday nonsense has caught up with me and I saw the opportunity to get hold of some more drones for the Demiurg at a cheaper price... so I bought a box of THESE, a box of THESE and a box of THIS. The last one will be the basis for an army commander conversion. To add to this, I have a little story...

... recently, I have been getting a lot of pain from a poorly shoulder so I decided to take the plunge and have some PROPER painkillers. To cut a long story short, I got a little spaced out and went shopping on EBay... and I bought a radio controlled truck. I don't know why I decided on that truck, particularly... or for that matter, why I bought anything... but it has arrived and it is big. I was left wondering what the heck to do with it so I have decided to turn it into a Demiurg war machine. I think it would look good as an up-scaled Taurus type vehicle... the next picture shows the truck (left) and the shape of the Taurus (right) that I will be scaling up:

Click the Pic!

It should be fun... I have already stripped the truck down to its chassis and am trying to decide how to start building up the body.

Wednesday is coming... and that is the day I hope to pick up my motorcycle. It will be great to get back in the saddle again... I am rather excited.

That's it for today.

See you from the drag strip!

Another late post.

It seems like fortnightly posts are becoming a habit lately but welcome to Inso's World all the same.

The last couple of weeks have been and gone. Not a huge amount to mention but I have had quite a lot of disruption because we are having our bathroom replaced and at the beginning of the week, it looked like this:

Click the Pic!

With the builders pottering about and all the noise and upheaval, it has been difficult to concentrate on very much. However, it has not been in vain because on Friday, the bathroom looked like this:

Click the Pic!

It's not finished but with the additional work that was required (the rotten floor and atrocious plumbing), I am pleased with the progress. It should be all finished by Wednesday, then I can paint it. The guys doing the building work, are mates from my local and have been great... much better than people I am not familiar with... but I will be glad to get my house back again.

The last couple of weeks have been quite interesting on the hobby front. I have been converting up a Veteran squad for my Squat army and have got to this stage so far:

Click the Pic!

The shotguns are from HERE, the comms pack is from HERE, the meltaguns are from HERE and the chain sword from HERE. The next stage will be the addition of hands. Then it will be arms and finally cuffs. They are coming along nicely though.

Due to the distracted nature of the week, I decided that I needed a change of pace today... so I looked at my painting station and saw these:

Click the Pic!

They are my Demiurg troops... on the bottom line, from the left... a controller, leader and mech. They are converted from THESE and have Ion pistols from HERE, rifles from HERE and backpack from HERE.

Today, I decided to just get one painted and the first one was the controller:

Click the Pic!

I just need to tidy the base but apart from that, he is finished and I plan to paint the Mech next.

On to other things and I have finally sold the last of the Exo Armour Legs and am hoping to sell the green to completely finish off the little project. I have had an offer and I am just waiting for a response.

That's it for now.

I have no idea what is happening next week so I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.

See you from the edge of the world!

Times are a changin'

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

This week has been a house week; mostly geared towards getting the spare bedroom to a liveable standard (we have a guest arriving in a month or so). As a result, it had to be emptied, the curtain rail needed to be replaced and furniture needed to be sourced.

That meant putting a lot of my hobby stuff in the loft/attic, sorting through other boxes and getting rid of stuff, removing the existing curtain pole, repairing the wall, fitting a reinforcing beam, fitting the curtain pole and ordering a bed and bedroom furniture.

Well... it's all done apart from the furniture; which has been ordered and will be here in a couple of weeks.

I have also been doing the usual chores so I haven't really had much time for the hobby. However, I have continued to tick along with the prone Halfling sniper and he is nearly finished so I will, at least, have something to show off next weekend.

Seeing as I haven't got anything current to show off today, here's something from my back catalogue:

Click the Pic!

This is the leader of my trenchcoat gangers. He is a converted Ogre from Heresy Miniatures (Nakka - sadly, not in the store at the moment) and started out as a fantasy miniature. This is what he looked like, before paint:

Click the Pic!

As you can see, it was just a case of replacing his fantasy weapon with a gun and then sculpting a coat and glasses. The gun is a standard Ork one from Games Workshop. 

As it stands he is the only ganger that is painted. I do, however, have the rest of the Heresy gangers stored away, ready for paint but it seems they are destined to stay there for a while due to my sculpting muse being the dominant one in my life at the moment. Maybe one day soon...

See you from the lead-pile!

Getting things done.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

This week has been geared towards finishing up commissions and that is likely the way it will continue for a while.

I have tried to sculpt the second of my Squat Assassins but have monumentally messed it up so all interest in that particular project died... so I decided to continue with painting Death and got him finished, ready to give to my friend:

Click the Pic!

I was quite pleased with the finished result and particularly the way that the varnish tied all of the highlights together. It has now been boxed up ready for delivery so I hope my friend likes it.

If you are interested in where Death comes from, try here: DEATH

With commissions in mind, I have nearly finished the third of five Squat bodies. I just need to put the belt and chest disc on it. I have also started to build up the armature for the fourth one so that I have somewhere to use the leftover putty from the third one. I have decided that 'enough is enough' and it's time to get these done. Hopefully, I can do just that.

My little time waster (Sam the Kitten) has properly settled in and is a real firebrand. He is great fun but you have to watch him like a hawk. He is into everything and also reserves all of his 'angry play' just for me... so I have pretty scratched up hands at the moment... but he is just perfect so I give him the benefit of the doubt. I'll take a video of 'fight time' and pop it up so you can see just how angry he gets (in a cute kitten stylee of course).

House buying is progressing but things are slow... it's hurry up and wait at the moment but things are ticking along.

Well, that's about it for now. 

See you from the bunker at the corner of the street!

Paint?

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

It has been another slow week (where hobby is concerned), with a small amount of sculpting on some commissions being the only sculpting. I didn't even get any sculpting done on the Squat Eversor Assassin that I have started.

Instead, I have been enjoying having a kitten... who is growing very quickly and finding his feet in the family. Here he is with a feather:

Click Play!

He is so full of 'kitten wiggles' that he has been distracting me from my hobby... but I can also blame the humid weather as well. In fact, the weather has been so sweaty that I have dug out my paints and started a bit more work on Death:

Click the Pic!

Still a long way to go... but it is progress. You may notice the big slope on the base. Well, I noticed that he had a massive lean so I had to add a slope to the base in order to level him up again. You can't really see it but there is a bit of purple on the robes that will be getting highlights and washes in order to tone it down. As I said, still a long way to go.

House buying is progressing nicely. It is just a case of waiting for the process to continue and paying bills when they arrive. We also get the odd little mission to carry out (verifying documents etc.) so we are kept busy too. Still... all progress is good progress.

Well... that is about it.

See you from the countryside!

A new addition.

Hello again and welcome to Inso's World.

This week has been another week of house related fun... solicitors, mortgages and all sorts of other things so I would have loved to have had my mind taken off things by my hobby but unfortunately, the weather has been too hot and humid for sculpting so I have had to settle for one very small sculpting session to finish off this little sculpt:

Click the Pic!

As you can probably work out, he is a 'counts-as' Vindicare Assassin. I think he has turned out OK but there are a few things that could have been better (the arms are a little long, for starters). However, to carry out 'repairs' would mean a lot of rework so I will turn a blind eye to it and move onto the next one... an Eversor Assassin (but not as you would expect).

So the heat this week has meant that my hands have been constantly moist which has made working with putty practically impossible... so I needed something to take my mind off things and what better thing to do that than...

Click Play!

Yep, I now have a kitty all of my own and he is called Sam. We collected him on Monday and he has had a check-up, his first set of jabs, worming and flea treatment and he has settled in nicely. The other two cats are getting used to him but they all still need to find their places yet so that will be ongoing. The good thing is that this is my kitten, not the families, so he will be getting trained up to be able to do a few tricks... sitting for treats (our other cats already do that) and possibly some fetching. He is full of character and has a wonderful nature (a mix of cuddly and killer... which is spot on).

And that, as they say, is that. I am back to work next week so I will have to shave my beard off today...

Click the Pic!

... and I'll have to get back on the treadmill.

See you from the top of the hill!

Time for a break.

Hello and welcome to Inso's World again.

I can safely say that this week has been quite amazing and tiring in equal measure... and also no hobby stuff at all has been completed, started or even thought about (well... maybe thought about... but not worked on).

Why?

House hunting.

Last Sunday, I went to the F1 Grand Prix with my wife and then on Monday, I drove to Cornwall for a week of looking at houses.

We had a number of viewings booked but, in the end, we cancelled a couple because we had seen the one we wanted and put an offer in... which was accepted. We are just waiting for everything to sort itself out now before we start thinking about removals etc.

Things moved extremely quickly and, as you can imagine, my hobby was the furthest thing from my mind while all this was going on.

Now that I am back at home, I am absolutely shattered (two 6 hour drives, not sleeping very well and more than a little 'testing the local ales'...) so probably won't be getting much hobby stuff done for a day or so.

However...

The big thing is that my hobby spending will cease from this point for the forseeable future (apart from Green Stuff). I have a massive amount of stuff to be getting on with and we need all of the money we can lump together for preparing the new house. Luckily, with a bit of Green Stuff, I can pretty much make what I like so it shouldn't impact things too much.

So much to do... so little time...

I have this coming week off work so expect an update in the week.

EDIT: I guess I could post a better WIP of my little surprise project:

Click the Pic!

It should be fairly clear what he is now...

See you from the knife edge!