Nice sculps, keep on the good work

 Inso wrote:
@ Colonel Jacka - Chris is casting some masters this week so the comms troopers should be available VERY soon .

Inso,

Awesome and I am just about to start on the Troopers as well. Is Chris only doing them in resin? Metal? Look forward to purchasing some of them, I think I need 6 - 10 figures. There were three types so that will work well. The Astropath looks great as well.

 Colonel Jacka wrote:

 Inso wrote:
@ Colonel Jacka - Chris is casting some masters this week so the comms troopers should be available VERY soon .

Inso,

Awesome and I am just about to start on the Troopers as well. Is Chris only doing them in resin? Metal? Look forward to purchasing some of them, I think I need 6 - 10 figures. There were three types so that will work well. The Astropath looks great as well.

I sent resin masters for Chris to cast in metal. The issue he's been having is with resin casting the masters, ready for metal casting. He out-sources resin casting but does metal casting in-house... so now he has the resin masters, he can cast up metal versions .

I sent three different comms troopers for casting so you will have three different options .

I'll contact him a bit later to see what's happening.

I'm quite happy with how the Astropath is turning out... not at all what I was planning but a more "shamanistic" look works quite well for a seer/sooth-sayer .

The Astropath is finished ...

@ Colonel Jacka, you've got a Message :

Inso,

The Astropath is really good, a great looking character.

Good to see these Vox Lads done, they will round out my units nicely.

Nothing like metal Troopers. Very much appreciated Inso and give Chris my thanks.

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Inso,

The Astropath is really good, a great looking character.

Good to see these Vox Lads done, they will round out my units nicely.

Nothing like metal Troopers. Very much appreciated Inso and give Chris my thanks.

No worries and will do !

A Squat adventurer today :

Inso,

Nice job, are they goggles on his head?

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Inso,

Nice job, are they goggles on his head?

Cheers ... and yes they are .

Some more nice work Inso,

Cheers,

CB

 Captain Brown wrote:
Some more nice work Inso,

Cheers,

CB

Cheers .

There is more on the way but I am working on a non-Squat commission at the moment that is taking up a lot of sculpting time... however, the next Dwarf sculpt will be something completely new so (hopefully) worth the wait .

Just a heads up on the range... it seems things are not as rosy as they could be at Macrocosm Miniatures:

https://www.macrocosm.co.uk/2024/05/01/price-rises-incoming/

Especially the bit about "Going forward based on our websales we will be assessing the viability of continuing to run the shop."

I have no further news and am currently working on more miniatures for Chris but I have no idea what the future holds for the range as a whole (or even what will happen to what I am sculpting now).

Rest assured, I will keep you all posted when I find out any information... but in the meantime, the army build continues... the sculpting continues and there is going to be new stuff on the way .

In the meantime, this is what the hold-up has been:



Two human snipers for a commission from the USA .

Now that they are finished, I will be able to dedicate more time to my Squats again ... with a WIP sculpt that is so close to being finished that I'll wait until it is before I share images .

Nice ghillie suits Inso.

Cheers,

CB

 Captain Brown wrote:
Nice ghillie suits Inso.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks . They're sent off to the US of A now... and that means I can get back to sculpting some Squats again...

... that said, while I was working on the Ghillie twins, I was working on another sculpt:



It's a chaos Squat who is very predatory ... and now he's finished, I can get back to sculpting normal Squats again .

So good!
Where can one aquire these lads?

The snipers will be available from here (they are currently on their way across the Atlantic):

https://www.modelsandminis.com/

... and the others will be available from here (but I tend to sculpt a batch before I send them off so it won't be for a while):

https://www.macrocosm.co.uk/product-category/macrocosm/space-dwarves-macrocosm/

I am not affiliated with either shop and once the casts get to them, that is the end of any involvement I have and I make no money from them through royalties/sales .

Thank you sir!
I just took advantage of the ModelsAndMinis 50% off deal.

 Mothsniper wrote:
Thank you sir!
I just took advantage of the ModelsAndMinis 50% off deal.

Cool .

Good work Inso. Really Like the snipers. Not good about Macrocosom.

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Good work Inso. Really Like the snipers. Not good about Macrocosom.

Cheers .

I'll be nosy about Macrocosm at some point to try and find out what's going on. I'm going to have to be, just to find out if I'm wasting my time with his commission... The Chaos Squat is part of it.

The cool thing (for me, at any rate) is that my army is more or less complete so if things go awry, I can get the few figures needed by paying for them to be cast up (once they are sculpted). That doesn't help people who buy from the shop... but short runs of miniatures wouldn't be out of the question if I'm getting them cast up for myself...

I guess that, for now, we go with the flow and hope things turn out OK ...

I'm still alive and sculpting .

I am currently working on a small diorama for a couple of Squats but while I'm doing that, I have also been making some alien creatures... this one is a Rattle-Tailed Spiker:



... and this one is a Cyclopean Gill Worm:



The Squat is there to show scale.

I have been using waste putty for these creatures and it is a nice little palate cleanser... however, more Squats are certainly being worked on and will appear in due course .

Kudos for branching out Inso.

Cheers,

CB

 Captain Brown wrote:
Kudos for branching out Inso.

Cheers,

CB

It was mostly to use up wasted putty but it's also good to just have something different to sculpt so that you get to try different textures and ideas .

In the meantime, I've also been working on this:



I'm deciding on whether I make a custom base to go with it...

Amazing sculpts! Lots of character in the last two.

 muette wrote:
Amazing sculpts! Lots of character in the last two.

Cheers . It's something I've been meaning to sculpt for ages and I'm relieved that it turned out OK (the grieving Squat diorama).

The little diorama now has a base:



... and currently joins the rest of the finished sculpts that are languishing on my work bench...



I am currently working on the small unit of squats that are hunting the chaos Squat...

Impressive sculpting skills. Best I can do is make cables. Any basic advice for newcomers to sculpting?

 blockade23 wrote:
Impressive sculpting skills. Best I can do is make cables. Any basic advice for newcomers to sculpting?

Cheers .

Basic advice...

1. Choose a putty that works for you. I use Green Stuff but others prefer other types of putty. I think that Green Stuff is an excellent "novice medium".
2. Always work onto an armature or something solid. I use twisted, brass wire that is securely anchored into a cork.
3. Work in layers. Try not to get carried away and do too much in one go. Make sure that things are thoroughly dry before you start the next layer.
4. Keep your sculpting tools moist. Water, Vaseline, skin grease, spit... whatever... but a moist tool won't stick. (I use saliva... so there's that ).
5. You don't need a lot of tools... I tend to work with four sculpting tools and the odd shaped piece of something for specific indents.
6. Practice... practice... practice and when you've done that, practice some more. If I have too much time away from sculpting, I lack precision.
7. If you work a piece and you need to sharpen the details, leave it for 20 minutes and go back to it again. The partially set putty will enable you to get crisper edges.
8. Have patience when working on an area... if it isn't working straight away, keep at it. The more you work the putty, the more it behaves .

Here's a couple of links to my process (you'll need to scroll though the images and click on the "load more images" button at the bottom):

https://imgur.com/gallery/UoL4cfy

https://imgur.com/gallery/PEyURK8

These are my tools:



1. Scalpel (for cutting the Green Stuff to length).
2 + 3. Sculpting tools.
4 + 5. Clay Shapers (used for blending and soft details, like cloth).
6. Pin vice (for drilling holes through plasticard to sit on the corks and also to drill sculpts for pinning... 0.8mm drill bit).
7. Side cutters (for the wire).
8. 0.8mm diameter brass wire (for armatures)
9. Green Stuff (guess what for ).

I also use plasticard to sit on top of the corks. It makes a nice solid base and gives the base of the sculpt a smooth surface.

That's about it... if you need any more info, let me know . I have worked with Green Stuff, Milliput and a mix of both... also Brown Stuff (which is a version of Green Stuff that gives sharper edges but has different consistency) I have no experience with other putties.

The latest Squat:



Just the basing tab to go

Nice! Reminds me of Sven Ole Thorsen in Abraxas.

It's been very quiet on here lately but I'm hoping to change that soon. There are "reasons" for it... mostly the fact that I have got a new job... you can read more about it here:

https://insosworld.blogspot.com/2024/08/back-in-system.html

... and that includes some of the "not dwarf" sculpts I have done (hence I've linked to it ).

Inso,

Like the latest scuples mate. The grave guys would make great mortar men.

Cheers .

I think that, if I was to convert/sculpt mortar crew, I'd probably start with the Sgt sculpts... but I guess the standing mourner would be OK too (due to the arms being away from the body, like the Sgts).

Indeed, and I am using the Sgt sculpts for the Mortar Crew as well.

I was never asked to sort mortar crew... and seeing as Chris already converted a few from my existing sculpts AND sorted a mortar, I couldn't see much point.

I don't have any mortars in my army... otherwise, maybe I would have sorted them myself...

Currently, I'm struggling to sculpt... but I have been working on a complete distraction, behind the scenes. It's an important miniature to finish off an "advisors" unit for 10th edition... a second Astropath (I have enough of the artillery/navy bods for two units so I needed a second Astropath to finish off two complete units). I've almost finished it (just a head and a few details to go) so it should arrive fairly soon... if I can get a grip !!!

A female Astropath today :

Nice. I love her bird on a stick scepter.

Very radical flattop and shades combo

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Very radical flattop and shades combo

I went for '80s hair to go with her shades... Astropaths are blind (I think) so I thought I'd give the pair of them shades rather than the cloth that they sometimes get .

I like them, The shades work.

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
I like them, The shades work.

Cheers ... much better than a strip of cloth/ weird hood.

I've actually managed to sculpt a bit more on the "Predator" project... I just have the arms/head of Hawkins to finish (plus the basing tab) and he'll be ready for his photoshoot .

It's taken a long time... but part of that is "meh! Sculpting sucks" and part of it is because he's the prototype for the basic troops and I'm making things up as I go along. I still need to sort out a las-carbine design... but that'll be after the head and right arm are finished... yay! Fun...

The latest jungle trooper, a comms specialist, is finished. The next one will be a trooper with a grenade launcher :

Will we be able purchase these ones Inso?

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Will we be able purchase these ones Inso?

These ones are a commission from Macrocosm so they will certainly be for sale at some point .

By that, I mean the Jungle team and the chaos "hunter". The rest will hopefully see a mould at some point too (although the little beasts may end up elsewhere...)

The next trooper is done... Poncho :



He Joins Dutch and Hawkins:



... and the next one on the cork is Blain .

I do like Poncho. You have it covered Inso. LOL!

Poncho is a nice sculpt.

Cheers,

CB

This is awesome on so many levels.

Cheers .

I've got Blain on the cork and he's got his padded armour but still needs a LOT sculpting... once there's more to see, I'll share pix .

Looking forward to the next pics.

Here's Blain:



Just three more to go... Dillon, Mac and Billy

Ahhhh miniguns, so menacing. Excellent job!

I love popping in on this blog from time to time. Your Squat sculpts are really inspiring. I wish I had your talents, but I specialized elsewhere. These "totally not the characters from Predator, but also yes, those guys" additions look fantastic as always.

Blain works for me. Great job Inso.

Cheers .

The roles of each of these will be:

Dutch - Militarum Platoon Commander.
Poncho - Command squad special weapon.
Hawkins - Command squad comms.
Mac - Command squad medic.
Dillon - Command squad veteran.
Billy - Sly Marbo.
Blain - Sgt Harker.

Now that I've got this one out of the way, I just have one more and then I can get back to sculpting the last three of the jungle Squats:



He's a cosplaying, narcissistic billionaire...

... I have to sculpt his Martian sidekick and then it's on to the usual stuff ...

The roadblock is cleared... now that the Martian is finished, I can get back to sculpting Dwarfs again ...

Those jungle fighters are some amazing sculpts Inso ! Youve outdone yourself......

Fantastic sculpts Inso, great work on the jungle Squats!

Cheers .

There are more on the way:



This is Dillon on the left and Mac on the right.

Dillon will be supporting his las gun with his left hand while firing his pistol off to the right.

Mac will be shooting his lasgun from the hip.

Just arms, weapons and heads to go !

Like the bodies on these guys knives on belts are good.

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Like the bodies on these guys knives on belts are good.

Cheers . I'm a little sad that I didn't do the knives on belts for all the troops but hind-sight is 20/20... however, with this being a separate little project with the prospect of different equipment... and the fact that these are representing "Catachan Jungle Fighters", I really needed to make sure that they all had knives so that's what happened.

Once these two are finished, I only have one more to go (Billy / Sly Marbo) and I haven't worked out how I'm going to pose him yet...

The group is up to six now... with just Sly Marbo/Billy to go:





All together:

Amazing, nuff said !!!

If I could sculpt like that, I wouldn't need GW.

SDKFZ wrote:Amazing, nuff said !!!

Indeed!

Tommygun1918 wrote:If I could sculpt like that, I wouldn't need GW.

At least we have Inso. Great work mate the latest two are fantastic.

Cheers .

I've nearly finished the final jungle fighter; Billy.

Just hair, moustache, eyebrows, arms (with "envenomed blade"), scabbard and basing tab to go.

THEN... I STILL need to sort out some Servitors for the army project... THEN... finish painting the army .

Okay, so only a few million tasks left then? You got this! I've seen your work, insurmountable is just a walk in the park for you. I look forward to seeing your progress.

 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
Okay, so only a few million tasks left then? You got this! I've seen your work, insurmountable is just a walk in the park for you. I look forward to seeing your progress.

It may seem a lot but it isn't too bad ... I need to sculpt 2 servitors. One will just have the servo arm and the other will have three heavy weapon options... but both bodies could be the same one (just different arms/weapons)... it just depends how I feel when I get there. They will be robots, not cyborgs... I want robot buddies rather than cyborg slaves .

The army painting bit isn't too bad either. I've painted nearly everything except for one infantry squad, one command squad and one heavy weapon squad... plus the miniatures I haven't got casts of yet... then I'll need to paint two astropaths and the four servitors... and that's it! OBVIOUSLY "that's it" just means "unless I decide to add extras" ...

Billy just needs his arms to be finished and a basing tab. I've chopped up an existing arm and the axe it was carrying to start the left arm... so that won't be too much to sort out. The right arm is just a bare arm with a glove on so that won't be too hard either.

So it may SOUND a lot... but it's not too much really .

On the Billy front, I hope to have him finished by the end of the weekend ... so pix soon!

This is Billy. He's the last of the jungle fighting team:



This is his team with the enemy that they are hunting:



That is the end of this little project so I can now get back to my Space Dwarf Army again .

All of them are excellent Inso, but that last one is truly brilliant. Really love the pose and the expression, great mini.

Lovely squad, sculpting on point as usual!

Inso,

Billy rocks mate, you really nailed him.

Cheers .

I think that Billy is my favourite... mostly because he is a bit different but also down to the pose.

I'm now trying to work out a design for my servitors... I want heavily built robots rather than cyborgs. I'm planning on a couple of bodies and then swappable equipment; servo-arm, heavy bolter, plasma cannon and multi-melta. The body will have two small arms and the equipment will be ounted in the centre, on the robots back. The back will be split into three units; left hand side - robot power-pack, centre - heavy weapon/servo arm and right hand side - ammunition/power-pack for the weapon/servo-arm.

I just need to come up with a suitable design now !

The eight of the sculpts have been sent off for casting so now it's just a case of waiting to see if they come out alright .

The servitors are being stubborn because I haven't been able to set a design for them... even though I know what I want to achieve.

I'm sure I'll sort something out .

Yes, kickstarter soon!

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Yes, kickstarter soon!

There is likely to be a slight delay on a Kickstarter due to Chris having to take some time off for a broken arm and wrist (his dominant arm)... but he has the miniatures and has sent them / will send them off for casting in resin.

Inso,

Will they also be done in metal?

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Inso,

Will they also be done in metal?

The resin is for masters and sending to me. All the miniatures Chris casts, are in metal... so these should be metal too .

 Inso wrote:

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Inso,

Will they also be done in metal?

The resin is for masters and sending to me. All the miniatures Chris casts, are in metal... so these should be metal too .

Gotta be happy with that.

Marvellous sculpting and converting, Inso. Great army vision and wonderful character captured in all of your models. Your sculpts keep getting better, and among the many great details and designs the diskjockey Squat stands out the most for me. Eventually, when personal finances allow, I'll have to collect him and others of your great range of Space Dwarfs.

I've long kept an occasional eye on the inspired and inspiring work that you do, both for Squats and Demiurg. Do you have a separate Demiurg project log here on DakkaDakka?

It is fantastic to see you keep on trucking with Rogue Trader style Squats. I hope that you will eventually return and further develop your Demiurg conceps.

If the new Leagues of Votann releases did dampen your enthusiasm for the Demiurg, then might I share my view as a Chaos Dwarf fantast? Chaos Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy has been reimagined in a new style every decade since the 1980s. This wild plethora of different styles have only served to strengthen the appeal and community creativity of Chaos Dwarfs. I would like to propose that a similar view is suited for Squats of all kinds:

The more styles, the merrier. Just as 1980s Chaos Dwarf styles keep on trucking in independent company ranges alongside Assyrian big hat derivatives and ranges inspired by the Hellcannon crew and Legion of Azgorh (plus a few wholly inventive new styles among third party producers), so can surely Space Dwarfs flourish with Rogue Trader quilted gambeson Squats side by side with NASA-punk Kin, exotic Demiurg, Necromunda Squats, Kharadron Overlord conversions and many more possible styles beside these.

And as has been the case with Chaos Dwarfs Online, enthusiasts getting creative and expanding the different styles with new concepts might cross-fertilize each other with new ideas for the better, even while approaching similar new concepts in purely different styles.

Besides, would you be interested in posting your glorious Chaos Squats over on CDO? People will love them over there, that is for sure.

Keep up the stellar work, maestro. You're both a king of RT-style Squats and a visionary for Demiurg.

Cheers

@Karak Norn Clansman - Thanks for the enthusiastic post . I try to keep things fresh so you never know what's coming next.

Here's a link to my Demiurg thread on here:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/744875.page

I am DEFINITELY planning to get back to the project at some point and have a LOT of miniatures ready to be assembled/converted/painted for it. But My current project is pretty much the only personal project that I am working on at the moment (my self-sculpted Squats).

My Chaos Squats are sort of a kill team so aren't likely to get much more added... but you never know... HOWEVER, the Chaos side of things doesn't really ignite my enthusiasm so I tend to stick with the good guys. If you want to link my images to CDO, feel free but it's another forum on top of a dozen that I follow so it's unlikely I'll be getting involved in that direction.

All that said, I have packed away my sculpting stuff this evening and have dug out my paints so that I can get more of my army painted and have a bit of a break from the putty... so there should be some painted miniatures turning up here soon .

An update. The jungle fighters and Chaos Squat are at the casters.

Chris is still "broken" so things are moving slower but I will be sending the Astropaths, adventurer and the little diorama to him very soon.

In the meantime, I am painting troops again... with the second infantry squad of third platoon getting painted at the moment .

Once they're finished, I have nine troops to paint and I've finished all the troops for the army that I have. I just need a pair of astropaths and four servitors to be finished/cast up and painted and that will be the army finished ...

As mentioned earlier, I've started painting the second infantry squad for the third platoon :



That's the whole unit but only eight need painting because two are already painted. I've finished the base-coat and wash stages now (wash still wet in the following pic) and will start the final highlights later today :



It's nice to be back painting again .

Great progress! Your sculpting is, as usual, on point.

 blockade23 wrote:
Great progress! Your sculpting is, as usual, on point.

Thank you .

The squad is now finished:



On to the heavy weapon squad now ...

Nicely painted Inso.
What do you use for the crackle on the bases?

 Tommygun1918 wrote:
Nicely painted Inso.
What do you use for the crackle on the bases?

Cheers .

For the crackle effect, I base-coat with GW Tuskgor fur, then blob on some GW "Technical" Martian Ironearth. Once it dries crackled, I then wash with GW nuln oil and drybrush with the tuskgor fur. I like the cracks to really stand out, hence the dark wash... but if you want a more realistic effect, a lighter shade of wash and building up to lighter highlight colours would provide a more "deserty" look.

In today's news, the Astropaths, Adventurer and "mourning" diorama have been sent off for casting .

I've also finished the penultimate unit:



Just the command squad and a few "characters" to go now .

(EDIT - The guy, front left, now has the black parts of his ID disks painted ).

Here's the last of the standard troop units for the army; the command squad for the third platoon:



... and this is the view of the army box (everything is painted ):



Now I just need the six miniatures to be created to complete the army... so I will be fettling until they are sorted .

The army fettling has begun...

... currently, I am converting a pair of advisers (air-force and artillery) in order to replace the two that have been overly converted with patches and ranks on their sleeves (these ones):





I have also decided to put together another platoon in order to use up some of the spare miniatures that I have accumulated. This platoon will be assembled like this:

Command - Officer, Medic, Comms, Sgt and Heavy Flamer.
Infantry Squad - Sgt, Comms, Flamer and 7x Lasgun.
Infantry Squad - Sgt, Comms, Flamer and 7x Lasgun.
Infantry Squad - Sgt, Comms, Flamer and 7x Lasgun.
Heavy Weapons Squad - 3x Autocannon and 3x Lasgun.

So far, I have selected the units and have put them into their own bags. Any conversion/painting work for this platoon will take second place to the existing army plans... and it won't form part of the army display that I'm planning to build (unless I change my mind).

Lots to do .

Indeed lots to do.

... but the main job is finishing the troops for the army .

With that in mind, here are a pair of conversions that are ready to be primed and painted for the army...

Artillery Advisor:



Airforce Advisor:

The new Advisors have now been finished:





Now I'm just waiting for some Astropaths to finish the two Advisor units .

I recently went to Salute 52, at the ExCel centre in London. I had a great time and have put a blog post together, to share my thoughts. Here's the post:

https://insosworld.blogspot.com/2025/04/salute-52-plus-other-animals.html

There is also a hint at what direction the Servitor sculpts might take... so it may be worth a look .

Looks like a fun day!

 blockade23 wrote:
Looks like a fun day!

It was, once I got there . The travelling was a grind... but it was worth it for a great show .

Since I have returned home, I have got quite far with my servitor robot. The body just needs a few tiny details and then it'll be time to focus on the arms (normal, servo arm, plasma-cannon, heavy bolter and multi-melta):



It's getting there, though... which is good since it's the 5th or 6th attempt at a design for the Servitor robot...

Nice, I never thought about squaty servitors before.

I decided to get the army out and see where we're at :



Everything that I have, that is destined for the ORIGINAL army plan, is painted .

Evening Inso, your sculpting skills are amazing, I like the old school squat feel of your minatures. The airforce advisor has a very 40's RAF look to him!

Have you sculpted all the models in your army? and how many more are you planning on doing?

 JordySteve wrote:
Evening Inso, your sculpting skills are amazing, I like the old school squat feel of your minatures. The airforce advisor has a very 40's RAF look to him!

Have you sculpted all the models in your army? and how many more are you planning on doing?

Thank you . Old school is definitely what I was aiming for.

I was in the Royal Air Force for 28 years and wanted the first of the advisors to have a chip-hat and a handlebar-moustache because he's Air Force .

All of the miniatures in the army, are from my sculpts. I have a deal with Macrocosm Miniatures where I sculpt what I want, send them to him to be cast up and then he sends me a few resin copies and sells other metal casts in his shop. That way, I get my miniatures for the army and I don't have to pay for them because the greens pay for my troops... so TLDR, all the miniatures are casts of my sculpts or casts of my sculpts that I have converted.

How many more? I currently have 2 Astropaths that are away for casting and also a little diorama (two Dwarfs at a grave site) that will be added as an objective marker. I also have a Servitor that I am in the process of sculpting with all the arm options. Once that is finished and cast up, I will be adding 8 of those to the army plus a second Engineseer (converted) and that will be the end of the project.

That said, I may sculpt a few proxies for the big characters in the Astra Militarum army but they won't be part of this army.

So TLDR, 2 Astropaths and a diorama (waiting to be cast and sent), 8 Servitors (still being sculpted) and 1 Engineseer (will need to be converted... but I have the base model).

So far, this project has taken me about 5 years... I think that it needs to be finished soon so that I can start on something new .

Exquisite Servitor robot sculpts so far, and great work overall! Inspiring as always. Neat job on the diorama.

I am watching your robot concept with extra curiosity. I'm currently making an acrylic painting of Rogue Trader Squats with some attempts at flying robots overhead.

Count me in as a flipping bird fan.

Also, that is a good deal with Macrocosm. I have a similar with tjub (plus sharing 50/50 on profit margin for his Tjublings), and that way he can both get all the cast models he want for his army, and not pay a dime for moulds and cast stock as Tjublings reach collectors the world over.

You're not thinking of Chaos Squats next, are you?

So much character in this army, your sculpting is amazing.
Robots are well done.
I love the flipping the bird guy, squats with hella attitude.

 wulfbrigade wrote:
So much character in this army, your sculpting is amazing.
Robots are well done.
I love the flipping the bird guy, squats with hella attitude.

Cheers .

The flipping the bird guy was a homage to the tales of bowmen, waving their draw fingers at the enemy (apparently, the enemy would cut off the draw-fingers of bowmen they captured so it was used a s a taunt). I felt that an artillery advisor would "push a button" so I felt the bird was the best option ...

Nice work Inso. The spirit of Rogue Trader and Second Edition echoes throughout these models.

Cheers,

CB

Cheers .

Here's the latest update on the Servitor. This one has a standard arm and a servo arm (POORLY stuck on with Blu-tack):



I am in the process of making the three heavy weapons that can replace the servo arm but they are little more than wire covered with a layer of putty at the moment.

I love how overwrought the arms are. It really makes it look "roboty". Telescoping and clampy.

Agreed, nice work on the surprisingly long arms. A good design call!

One more fan here for the looong arms. It's like a mini robo-gorilla.

Cheers .

I wanted the arms to be "gangly" so the design didn't look like a copy of the old Exo armour.

I've just finished the second Engineseer for the army :



Just 8 Servitors and 2 Astropaths to go (when they are made ).

Here is the first of the heavy weapon arms for the Servitor; the Plasma Cannon:



The focus will now be on the Multi-Melta .

The Servitor and all its arms is now finished :





These will be sent off for casting once I have sculpted a rifle for another project (then everything will be sent off together ).

I have finally got some of the newer casts and have cleaned and primed the first three :



These are two Astropaths with a random adventurer, in between them .

I have also received the "Predator hunters", their enemy and the small diorama that I made (all in good numbers) so it shouldn't be too long before Chris does something for them on his site/through Kickstarter .

Marvellous robot arms and weapons! And congratulations on receiving the new casts.

"So far, this project has taken me about 5 years... I think that it needs to be finished soon so that I can start on something new "

Amazing dedication to your squats, has been fun watching all the work you've put into them over the years. Very impressed by the dedication. And those new armoured suits of yours are brill. Very retro.

Am curious though... What do you think your new project might be? Personally I'd like to see your take on say... Viking age dwarves. Celts, Britons, that sort of thing. Or do you reckon you'd so something else entirely?

GrimPunk wrote:
"So far, this project has taken me about 5 years... I think that it needs to be finished soon so that I can start on something new "

Amazing dedication to your squats, has been fun watching all the work you've put into them over the years. Very impressed by the dedication. And those new armoured suits of yours are brill. Very retro.

Am curious though... What do you think your new project might be? Personally I'd like to see your take on say... Viking age dwarves. Celts, Britons, that sort of thing. Or do you reckon you'd so something else entirely?

Thank you ... it has certainly been a journey!

What will my next project be? Well, I am purely a sci-fi enthusiast when it comes to sculpting and I deliberately avoid historical stuff due to the constraints placed on the subject (and the inevitable "button counters" )... that said, I wouldn't be averse to a bit of fantasy sculpting but I would need some serious encouragement for that.

Short term plans are to finish this army (painting, varnishing, adding tufts to the bases and build a display base for it), tick off a couple of commissions (some weapons and a few Squats that will be the same as those in my army but armed differently) and then see if I can sort out some armoured vehicles and some bikes. Chaos Exo-Armour is also on the list...

... and I also have a charity "thing" that I'll be sharing soon... and I'd like to make my own sci-fi Beastmen / Lizardmen at some point...

So a lot of possibilities... nothing very set in stone... I'll probably write a blog with "the story of an army build" as the theme and explanations of time spans and the thought process behind things...

Hmmm... .


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The two Astropaths are now painted :

This is the diorama I made a while back. I received some casts so was able to paint one up :



I have 20 copies, in resin, that I plan to sell as a limited release (with all proceeds going to the Royal British Legion charity) so I'll post more information when I'm ready to do so .

Another newly delivered cast; the Squat Adventurer :



I'm not sure what's coming next; while I wait for the Servitor to be delivered...

While I'm waiting for some Servitors to arrive, I thought I'd start work on an additional platoon of troops. These will be added to the army but won't be part of the planned display base; due to size restrictions. The platoon is unusual in the fact that it has three infantry squads, rather than the two in the other platoons. This platoon has flamers, auto-cannons and a heavy flamer. It consists of a command squad, three infantry squads and a heavy weapon squad... everything is converted and assembled, ready for paint, apart from the heavy weapon squad (as shown):



I'll be converting/assembling the heavy weapon squad next (assuming that no Servitors arrive any time soon) ...

I've had word from Chris that my Servitors will be posted to me tomorrow ...

... I can't wait .

On the cork, I've got a veteran commander to go alongside the predator team... but he's still WIP:



... and in other news, I've just received a parcel with the Servitor casts in (plus some rifles):



I will be prepping the Servitors this weekend... they are the last miniatures in my big army project .

The first Servitor:



only seven more to go .

Six more to go :



The next one has a Plasma Cannon .

Awww the servitors are awesome! nice one

 PaddyMick wrote:
Awww the servitors are awesome! nice one

Cheers . I've got the next two on the table so pretty soon, I'll have the first Servitor unit finished .

Stretchy arms on the servitors are great, they have a lovely retro sci fi vibe that just works for squats.

Amazing progress on display in here Inso, this is truly one of the great passion projects and I'm so glad you've taken the time to document it here.

The bearded Astropath is right up there with Squatzenegger for cake takers IMO.

Thanks for sharing!

 tzurk wrote:
Stretchy arms on the servitors are great, they have a lovely retro sci fi vibe that just works for squats.

Amazing progress on display in here Inso, this is truly one of the great passion projects and I'm so glad you've taken the time to document it here.

The bearded Astropath is right up there with Squatzenegger for cake takers IMO.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers . I'm glad you are enjoying it.

The first of the Servitor units is complete:







One more to go and the army is finished .

The next requested miniatures (WIP) :

Awesome work as always Inso. Love the servitors.

Cheers . I'm expecting some more Servitor casts to arrive soon and then I'll get the final squad put together and painted .

I should (hopefully) have the AK-toting troopers finished this week, assuming I can keep the momentum going .

A small distraction... I needed a change for a short while...



Just needs a base and he's finished .

A finished squad of AK troopers, today :



I'm now sorting out a helmet to get mastered to add to a squad of these, once everything is cast up .

Old Iron-Arm is finished:



He'll proxy for Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken and completes the Catachan characters (using the Predator team's troops).

Making some good progress here!

 blockade23 wrote:
Making some good progress here!

Cheers ... but sadly the progress has now stalled so I'm not sculpting at the moment.

However, I have painted three of the four Servitors for the last unit and am WIP on the last one... but I've noticed that the army commander's command squad, doesn't have a lieutenant in it so I have re-mustered the Lieutenant from the flamer platoon and he will join the army commander. The flamer platoon will be leaderless until I decide on a replacement .

I have some commissions that are waiting for putty but after that, I plan to get on with my Exo Squad... but that's enough of that talk for now ...

Still lots going on but not so much in the sculpting direction.

Hey, Inso. Am i wrong or your army have no commissars? It's realy suspicious and close to heresy...
Joke aside amazing work as always!

 kabaakaba wrote:
Hey, Inso. Am i wrong or your army have no commissars? It's realy suspicious and close to heresy...
Joke aside amazing work as always!

Cheers .

The army has one Commissar who is attached to the company command squad:



At some point in the future, I hope to sculpt a Commissar Lord and maybe a couple of more "energetic" commissars .

Here are the last five miniatures for the "official" display army:



Here's the Lieutenant for the command squad; pictured with the final four Servitors .

This project has been going on for over six years and it is now at a point where everything is painted! I still need to varnish everything, add tufts to the bases and build the display board... but this is a massive milestone because there is no more sculpting required .

Once everything is properly dry, I'll sort some army pix but for now, I'm just happy to have finished the troops .

The army :



Next will be adding tufts to the bases and varnishing everything ...

Solid force, you need some appropriate tanks for this guys and chimeras(pr what that squats use instead)

The vehicles are in the earlier posts.

Although there are vehicles in earlier posts (an armoured company plus others), those are a separate entity and are attached to a GW plastic Squat army, rather than my home-made army.

This army will not have any vehicles for now... it's always been the plan to display it as an infantry army... but I am planning to design and build a few master vehicles that will be an extension of this army. HOWEVER, I am notoriously terrible at getting very far with scratch-building vehicles so it will not be massively high on my priority list.

That said, I am currently looking for components to build a vehicle that is floating around in my head... so it may or may not happen soon ...

Wow huge congrats! Such an achievement to have sculpted and painted this all up.

The vehicle sounds interesting, is going to be particularly Old Skool?

 Olthannon wrote:
Wow huge congrats! Such an achievement to have sculpted and painted this all up.

The vehicle sounds interesting, is going to be particularly Old Skool?

Thanks . It's certainly been a journey .

The vehicle is just an idea at the moment. I have the rough shape and design in my head but the style isn't set at the moment. HOPEFULLY, if I can manage to finish them, I will end up with two modular vehicles that will proxy for a Chimera and a Leman Russ... but they will be wheeled and more reminiscent of converted mining vehicles than military vehicles...

Like I said "just ideas". I need to find some suitably sized wheels and then I'll get started .

As is usually the case, I have lost momentum and, as a result, have been sculpting a "random" miniature in order to try and stimulate some enthusiasm...

... that miniature is my version of a Ministorum Priest.

While that has been going on, I have replaced the stolen Lieutenant from the auxiliary platoon's Command Squad and have been checking 10th edition to see what's what... sadly, a lot of things have disappeared or been put in "legends" so in order to use the platoon, I have chosen to make them "Catachan Jungle Fighters". By doing this, I can include a heavy flamer in the command squad and also a sniper rifle... meaning that I will have examples of all of the special/heavy weapons that I have sculpted for this project.

I'll add the Priest to this auxiliary platoon.

With all the 10th edition changes, I have had to make the display army a mix of "Cadian" and "legends" units, in order for them to fit in... SO... I have a proxy Cadian army as a display army and a Catachan proxy platoon as the auxiliaries.

At some point, I will sort out an army list/army organisation plot.

Alas, for the second time, my photo provider has failed me and Imgur no longer allow UK users to have an account. That means that almost every image on this thread is not displaying; rendering years of work inaccessible.

As a result, This will be the last post I make on this thread because, without images, it is pretty useless.

Thanks for following and thanks for the comments.

 Inso wrote:
Alas, for the second time, my photo provider has failed me and Imgur no longer allow UK users to have an account. That means that almost every image on this thread is not displaying; rendering years of work inaccessible.

As a result, This will be the last post I make on this thread because, without images, it is pretty useless.

Thanks for following and thanks for the comments.

I still can see old picts.
Do you plan starting new one?

 kabaakaba wrote:

 Inso wrote:
Alas, for the second time, my photo provider has failed me and Imgur no longer allow UK users to have an account. That means that almost every image on this thread is not displaying; rendering years of work inaccessible.

As a result, This will be the last post I make on this thread because, without images, it is pretty useless.

Thanks for following and thanks for the comments.

I still can see old picts.
Do you plan starting new one?

I can't see the pics... I'm in the UK. I may start another one but I doubt it... this is the second time I've lost access to my on-line image storage and it's frustrating and I'm not feeling very motivated at the moment.

These are really great!

I spot checked from page 1 through to here, and can see all the photos, Inso. I hope you can continue posting here as I enjoy seeing your work.

Yeah, inso continue please, we love your miniatures. Just post directly to dakka. It's should keep them safe

Yes mate they are all still here in Oz. If they make it to Tasmania surely you should be able to access them.

 Colonel Jacka wrote:
Yes mate they are all still here in Oz. If they make it to Tasmania surely you should be able to access them.

The UK has been booted off Imgur. I have no access to my account so I can't add/delete any images or even see them on the site... It's frustrating (seeing as Photo Bucket killed everything off as well).

I will take time to process things but if people want to see what I'm working on, there's always my Blog (Inso's World) until I decide what to do :

Ouch. Please try out a free VPN and see if that solves the problem. Then you're no longer a virtual UK resident, but the signals will be physically rerouted to another country of your choice.

Your Squat log is a treasure!

That would be a terrible shame man ! While I understand the lack of motivation and the frustration, the pics are still viewable in France as well, so your work is not lost at all.

Your work is amazing, like other said there are options for you if you wish to continue, but rest assured that your amazing work is valued and appreciated here !

Inso, why not give access to someone whom you trust to move your picts to dakka for example? Dakka is a great photo hosting

Lovely Greenstuff work! They have allot of personality.

I tend to post in my blog when I have stuff worth sharing... it's Inso's World, link in my signature.

I can't see myself chasing a new photo hosting site any time soon... I am at the "burnt out" stage at the moment so I am struggling to get anything done that doesn't revolve around my real job (I work in Dementia care) and whatever life throws at me. I'm sure I'll sort something out eventually but not just yet.

I have investigated a VPN and by using it, can access my account using America as my home location... so I could continue with this topic without having to find a different photo-host. HOWEVER, I don't want to support a company that dropped the UK and has left all of my UK friends unable to see my forum images. As a result, I'm still in the position of deciding whether to find a new photo-host or just bowing out and sticking to my blog, Facebook and Instagram to share things. Time will tell but my enthusiasm to find another site that could potentially do the same thing with my images is very limited. I'm very much on the fence...

I assume the DakkaDakka Gallery does not meet your needs.

 Skinnereal wrote:
I assume the DakkaDakka Gallery does not meet your needs.

I visit a number of forums and would rather have a central storage area that I can link from, rather than uploading images, independently on a bunch of different forums... it just saves a lot of time.

I use dakka as storage and post links from here to b&C and local forum. No issues. Gallery even have links ready for different targets

I sympathize with you fully. Imgur must be morons. I also use Imgur as my central storage, and it would be a disaster if it went the way of Photobucket.

Fingers crossed you continue posting here. Forums are great for actually finding stuff, and gives a central place to find lots of quality project logs in one place.

I'm testing the Dakka gallery... so here's my latest work; a Squat version of Col. Ironhand Straken:



Sly Marbo and Sgt Harker:



Catachan Command Squad:



These are all part of the next platoon and are also linked to the Predator movie... on top of that, my friend, Chris @ Macrocosm Miniatures has just put them on Kickstarter so if it's your thing... pop along and have a look (I don't earn anything from the link, I'm just sharing because I made them ):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2076383099/space-dwarves-predators-hunter-and-hunted/description

The Catachan Platoon expands:

Great work again, love predator vibe from them.
do you satisfied with dakka as hosting?

 kabaakaba wrote:
Great work again, love predator vibe from them.
do you satisfied with dakka as hosting?

Thank you .

The Dakka gallery will work for now... it's easy enough to use .

Great job. You have a wonderfully unique army.
The painting is as good as the sculpting.

@Tommygun1918 - Thank you .

Next up... the first Infantry Squad:

Great job. Guy with melta the best one

A slight distraction...

I like the door-kicker!

Cheers ... I felt a kicker was an essential part of a close combat squad .

Here's something new; a bunch of AK troopers with helmets:



There are five basic troopers, a Sgt and comms specialist.