Dragons Teeth Tank Traps

A month or so ago I used some 3D software to design some tank traps aka "Dragon's Teeth" and I gave some to my dad who built some scenic pieces.  I've been casting those up and I must say they look pretty cool when all stuck together!

There are straight sections, and corner sections. Each corner section is made up of 3 pieces, one being 15 degrees, another being 30 degrees and the final one being a 45 degree angle. There is also an outside corner piece for curving the other way (makes sense when you see it).


The Casting Bore...
I get bored of casting as the first cast is always held back as a "master" as the original piece sometimes gets broken when de-moulding. I then need to cast up a set for painting/displays, and then I need some to "destroy" a bit with weathering, war stuff etc. Finally after all those are cast I can start casting for selling... It's a lengthy process and not too bad if only one cast is needed, but when a set include 4 or 5 of the same item, it means I have to cast up tons before I can even start casting items to sell. Gahhhhhh... gotta get done!

Season Greetings!
Finally I'd just like to wish everyone who stumbles across this page a Merry Christmas or happy holidays for whatever you celebrate this time of year. ...and if you don't celebrate anything this time of year, then I hope you have a great few days anyway!

Barriers, Barrels and a Vacuum Chamber

I'm back! Not sure for how long as stuff seems to get in the way, but I'll try and do updates again as much as I can.

Ok, so over at Grekwood Miniatures I've been learning to use 3D design programs as I thought it would be a good thing to get into. I started off with basic shape items that I thought would work well for an apocalyptic style world and therefore came up with the below items.

Before I write about these items, I just want it noted that most of these items have been done by other companies over and over. So while it's nothing "new", the dimensions will be different, plus what I plan to do with them (and their prices) will also make them unique.

Tall concrete walls - I made walls which are 55 (or 60cm, can't remember!) high. I plan to destroy some to have bullet holes, cracks etc. I also plan to do extreme damage, like broken ones which can all be replaced as and when they are destroyed in games.

Jersey Barriers -  I originally made these to scale, but realised that since the figures are on bases, it made them look small. So I scaled them up a bit to compensate the base, and now they look more "correct". I have made the main barrier and a sloping end piece.

Tank Traps (Dragons Teeth) - I decided to do these as they were simple shapes to get used to using the 3D programs. I also noticed that many companies only do one or two shapes which can look a bit boring. After some quick research I saw that there were many shapes and sizes, so I thought, why not do them all! Variety is good, right? There are 6 varieties.

Oil Barrel - I have always wanted to create some cool scenery, like supply dumps, barricades etc, so I thought an oil barrel would be a perfect addition into those things. I plan to do a lot of different scenic items with them.

Good news is, everything is casting up well, so hopefully they will all be available later this month as I need to build up a large enough stock. 

15mm
Other good news is all these items will be available in 15mm scale. Again, I thought I may as well produce stuff in 15mm if I can.

Pinzguaer
Oh it's probably worth mentioning, for those that don't know, I've been making a Pinzguaer model (6x6). I also plan to make a shorter 4x4 version. Hopefully these will be available soon too. Depending how they sell, I may make more as the vehicles I used to stock from S and S Models have all been discontinued.

Vacuum Cegassing Chamber

I bought one! After a few years of struggling with air bubbles in resin, I finally had the funds to buy a vacuum chamber. It's basically a glorified cooking pot, with a thick acrylic lid, some funky pipes/gages and a pump. The good news is it seems to work really well!

I used to have tons of trouble with the hospital beds I made. Casting them was a pain as there was always an air bubble somewhere because of the fine detail. But after a few tests, the chamber seems to solve the problem!

Right Oh, as always thanks for stopping by, and apologies for the absence of posts!

Blast-Tasitc 2014

Yesterday we headed to Bristol for a new wargames show called "Blast-Tastic". It was a show purely about Sci-fi, which was cool to see as so many have historical figures everywhere.

Overall it was a decent day. We left Cardiff around 07:20, and got there around 08:10-20 which gave us plenty of time to set up our stand (see image right). As soon as we finished setting up, we got our first order, and from then on there was a steady flow of customers throughout the day. There were a couple of quiet moments, which were welcomed (always nice to have a sit down!), but in general it had a nice relaxed atmosphere which was great from a traders point of view.

Amongst greeting customers, I finally met Colin from "Down Among the Lead Men", he's been a great supporter of Grekwood Minis, so it was cool to meet him. We started to have a chat and then I had to deal with a customer, so we only had a brief chat, but I'm glad I finally met someone from the blogs!

There were quite a few games going on, which we slowly watched from behind our stand. My dad (who is in one or two of the photos) had a look around and said he saw some pretty cool stuff happening. I didn't really get a chance to have a close look around, but I guess there's always next year! The table next to us (Precinct Omega.. above photo) had developed some rules for the Dreamforge figures which we stock, so that was pretty cool!

So yeah, great day! We'll definitely be going next year. I just want to say a big thank you to Michael Stockin of Angel Barracks who organised the show. Also to everyone who bought from us or came along to say hi, thank you, your custom is always appreciated!

Aliens, Guns and Pirates

I have come to realise that I don't use this blog as much as I used to when I first made it, which makes me sad, but I just don't seem to get time to write stuff like I used to or check out other blogs, so for that I apologise! On that note, I finally decided to post some stuff, so it's quite a long blog...

Lets start off with some Grekwood Minis stuff!
I haven't released anything which I have sculpted since the Fancy Dress Zombies last year. Lately I've been working on some guys/sci fi aliens to make the Bioblyte range more complete. They look different to the current Bioblytes on the website, but that's intentional. They are meant to be different as they have different purposes! The Bioblytes on the website are more "support" weapons with heavier guns. (It's not the best photo...sorry!)

The armoured guys are the regular infantry, whereas the claw guys are more expendable and are there to cause disruption amongst the enemy. I'm not sure whether they would be clones or not yet, but then i guess that's not for me to decide!

Project Zeke Miniatures
I started discussing things with Simon a few months ago, but wasn't in a position to buy in new stuff. So a few months later, I have some extra cash and started to stock some of PZM's figures! I thought they were pretty cool, and sell for an extremely good price, so why not!

I'm sure most on here have already seen them, but here they are on the right!

I believe they are most perfect for post apocalyptic games, or even during a virus outbreak! I really do like the SWAT/Security team!

Now for non-Grekwood Minis stuff ...but still rather cool...

My first Pistol Prop!

I recently started making props for cosplayers or general collecting. I decided I wanted to start off with something easy-ish. So I created a gun known as the "Paladin Pistol". It can also be used as a "Carnifex Pistol" since they are the same body, just painted up differently, and houses a different coloured LED. Furthermore, with the addition of a suppressor on the upper barrel, (and again painted differently with a different colour LED), it becomes a gun called the "Suppressor Pistol". So it's kinda 3 guns in one!


Once built, I used grey primer to show up any flaws, sanded it down, resprayed etc etc.

I decided it wasn't good enough as it is, so I decided that I was going to introduce electrics to it! Towards the front (on the sides) there's a groove where a light should be, so I will wire up some LED's and add a switch so they can be turned on or off :)

I plan to make a resin mould of this, so I can make more than one if needed ;)





Captain Hook:
I also made a cosplay costume based on a TV show called Once Upon A Time, and a character named Killian Jones/Captain Hook! I think I have posted the costume before, but just in case you haven't seen it, here's some photos (click to enlarge).

I realised a couple of days ago that I was missing the necklace which he wears, so I sculpted that too, and I think it turned out pretty well:

Well that's all for now. If anyone would like to see regular updates, go check on my "Sutherwood Photography and Cosplay" page on Facebook. It's a combination of Rovanite Cosplay and my "Carl Sutherwood Photography".

Thanks for reading everyone!

Ritual/Summoning Circles

Hi everyone,

It's been a while again since I wrote a blog. I don't really come here much any more as I get occupied with Facebook or other matters, so apologies for not "getting involved" with things.

I uploaded a few more items to our website. So here they are:

Ritual Circles (http://www.grekwoodminiatures.co.uk/RitualCircles.php)
These come in 3 sizes (S M and L), the smaller ones are perfect for markers or for placing underneath a characters base. The M and L ones are perfect as more of a centrepiece or something eye catching on a table. They can be used to summon demons/spirits, cast spells, make sacrifices, or even used as teleportation devices to get from one realm to another... or just to get from one part of the table to another.

For all you zombie fans, maybe it could be a place where the darkness originated and spawns from?!

So anyway, here's some photos (Click them for size info and bigger pictures).

 

 

Clear Police Box and Solid Post Box (http://www.grekwoodminiatures.co.uk/StreetFeatures.php)

Below is a clear resin police box. The clear resin means the it can be painted and the windows can be left clear to give a "real" glass effect.

Also below is a nicely detailed UK post box! It's a perfect combo along side out telephone box, so go check it all out!

Cheers guys!

Grekwood Minis - 2 Years Old!

It's been a while (again!) so here's another update. This post will be a mini update for everything over the past month and future plans:

Grekwood Minis is 2 years old next month!
Yup! I've managed to stay around for 2 years! Huzzah! Hopefully there's another year or two in it. I've expanded like crazy over the past 2 years. I started with only 25-ish minis (as you may remember) and the site has grown considerably, which is awesome!

I am trying to increase the number of followers on my Facebook page since it's where I do most of my advertising/updates. I tried posting a message for people to share, but only a couple did (which I thank those who did), but it only generated about 6 new likes. So I think the only way people are willing to "share" something is if there is a chance to win something. So I'll have to think of something to "give-away" to a winner...

1. Police Boxes and Telephone Boxes
These were released last month. If you haven't seen them then they are very worth checking out. They are larger than the Fenris/Hasslefree one, but about the same price I believe. They come in blue resin, so with some blue highlights they can look pretty amazing! The telephone boxes are extremely accurate, and even have hinges, door handles and a solid pannel at the back where the telephone goes. Again, a great piece of scenery.

2. March

March saw the release of some Shadowforge miniatures. 10 individual characters which are spread out across the different categories of our website. They have been around a while, but there are some great minis in there.

4. April 1st

Heading into a new financial year, I will be releasing quite a few minis! I'll be starting off with some Crooked Dice "Detectives and Lowlifes". I recognise similarities for 3 of them, but the guy with a hat is totally lost on me...any ideas? Either way, great looking figures!

urther more I will be releasing more Shadowforge minis. this time some sci-fi females! I really like the look of these figures, so will be taking some for myself. I like the futuristic style of the armour.

I also had some great news, that being that these three fellows would be joining my website as soon as they are launched. So I'm really excited for these (I'm sure you know why!). I do feel that the guy on the left needed to be a bit thinner/taller, but apart from that these are superb!

Ok, so that's my plan for April 1st and sometime after (with the giveaway).

Cheers for reading!

It's been a while...

So it has come to my attention that I haven't written a blog post since December when the "Zombie & Survivors" rules went online (which are still free by the way!). So I thought it was about time to write a blog and do a little update on me, the business, and aliens....ok, less of the aliens!

Business Stuff:

On January (25th) we (my dad and I) went to Crusade Wargames Show/Convention! We originally bought a 12' table, but the guy next to use didn't turn up, so the guys who run the show gave us a free table! We now had 18' of table space. We already had out display almost set up (it was about 30 minutes before opening time), so we had to re-juggle everything to make it work.

Anyway, the whole day was a success! We had a turnover which was almost 3 times that of our first year (last year) and we had double the amount of orders. We were able to meet new customers, and existing ones (which is always good!), so overall it was a great day.

Future:
Currently I'm looking at bringing some more minis to the UK from outside of Europe. There are roughly 100 figures all from one company. The minis I am going to stock have been around for a long time (some not so long but the majority a long time), but I like some of them, and my dad likes some of them, so why not stock them and have a set for ourselves! I'm mainly hoping that some people are unaware of them. But even if everyone has them, there will always be new customers and our website gets to grow even further. I plan to sell them cheaper too...that's always good...right?

Personal Stuff:
Nothing much is going on with me really (I'm boring!). I have started making a long leather coat (it's not real leather). It's meant to be like the one "Killian Jones aka Hook" wears in "Once Upon A Time" TV show. It's cool, so I thought I would try and make one. Maybe even sell them if I find it easy enough. Below (left) is the WIP so far (with a dodgy photo of me pulling a face for no real reason).

Also the Mass Effect armour is coming along nicely, but I lost my "mojo" with it a bit, so I need to get back to finishing it off... But here's how it looks at the moment (right):

Apart from that nothing is really happening with me. Just plodding along doing this and that, and shouting at the xbox when I get shot on Battlefield 3... Good times...

Anywho, cheers for reading, and I apologise for not getting around the blogs much at all. I do most of my online stuff through Facebook!

"Zombies & Survivors" RULES now available for FREE!

Hey all!

First of all Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to you all!

I have finally finished checking over the zombie rules we have created, and they are now available, for FREE on the website right here: http://www.grekwoodminiatures.co.uk/Rules.php

So go ahead, check them out, they are free, relatively basic and easy to follow.

If you use them or even just download them then let us know! Also feel free to email us with any suggestions. Please don't post them here, instead email them to carl@grekwoodminiatures.co.uk or grekwoodminis@btinternet.com

Cheers, and have a great end of December!

Testing Grekwood Zombies Rules PART 2

...and so it continues...

TURN 7:

All four members cautiously move forward into the gap between the lorry and the red car, while Xavier protects their backs. Gina, Adele and Ben decide to reduce the number of zombies coming from down the road (which are now visible to all) , but they ALL miss (terrible shooting and I feel another wave of panic begin to spread!!). Xavier tries to slow the mass of party zombies coming down the and shoots the maid zombie reducing her to a stumbler. 

Since the survivors are moving around a vehicle, some zombies cannot see the survivors any more, so the zombies who are closest  (coming up from the local store)will head towards the last place they saw the survivors as they don’t know where the survivors plan to go. Well they don’t have much brains!

Finally, luck is on our side, we rolled a 19 which means no new zombies appear!!

TURN 8:

All the survivors continue to move extremely cautiously. Gina moves through the gap in the vehicles and around the back of the lorry, while Ben moves around the red car to protect Gina’s back. Xavier and Adele cover the others whilst moving backwards. They all shoot…but miss!!! Arghhh Now’s not the time for bad shooting with all those zeds getting closer!!

7 more zeds appear at 2 different locations… will this town ever run out of zombies?!

TURN 9:

With the zombies closing in, the survivors see that the wooded area (aka Dragon Park) is relatively clear/empty. They need to increase the distance between themselves and the zombies as there are just too many of them, so they decide to leave the protection of the cars, pick up the speed, and jog into the park. They don’t run as the view isn’t 100% clear as zombies could be hiding behind trees.

Since they are jogging they get a negative modifier, and unluckily everyone misses yet again, what’s wrong guys? Good job there’s now some distance between them and the approaching hordes!

The zombies creep forward, but luckily no new zombies appear. Maybe the town has finally run out of zombies (yeah.. I doubt it…).

TURN 10:

Since there is a little more distance between the survivors and zombies, the survivors decide to stop jogging, and walk deeper into the park, while heading towards their primary objective, Grekwood General Hospital. Both guys manage to hit and kill oncoming zombies, while both women score hits which only wound. But at least that’s better than the misses they have all been having lately!

As the zombies move in, 7 new zombies appear at locations 1 and 3. Luckily 3 is on the other side of the table so it most likely won’t affect them.

TURN 11:

The survivors see that the Hospital fire escape is close, so they head straight for it. Xavier and Adele both miss. Ben searches for a shot through the woods, sees a nurse, shoots, and kills her… “yes!” he says under his breath. Gina sees the pregnant zombie, and hesitates, but realises she has to shoot, and ends up killing her.

All zombies move towards the survivors, but luckily no new zombies appear.

TURN 12:

The group now move to the bottom of the fire escape stairs and take a quick look to see if there are any zombies present. Luckily it’s clear. Knowing there is nothing on the stairs, all turn their back to the fire escape for one last shot. Ben quickly fires, but misses everything…he doesn’t even hit a tree (it was that bad!). Xavier and Adele both shoot and kill 2 more unlucky zombies. With no zombie too close, Gina searches for a visible shot, and amazingly she spots a zombie through a tiny gap in the trees! She raises one of her guns, looks down the barrel and through the gap in the tree, and pulls the trigger. Boom! It’s a kill!

This is our favourite photo (to the right) of the whole game. We used “line of sight” a lot to determine who we could see, or what we could shoot, and this just takes it to a whole new level of “real” line of sight! The gap between the trees was SO small, but enough for Gina to see a potential kill.

Because the survivors have reached the base of the stairs, this now activates the zombies in the hospital wards closest to the survivors (the zombies we placed on the roof when setting everything up). We do the location rolls using a 6 sided dice, and determine that there are 4 zeds on the middle floor in the ward, and 5 zeds in the middle floor day room. Now the hospital entry points are activated, it means there are now 8 entry points total.

New zombies appear at 4 locations, these now being entry point 7, 2, 5 and 7 again. 11 zombies total with 2 being on the ground floor of the hospital.

TURN 13:

After an almost all round successful turn of shooting, the survivors go up the first flight of stairs to increase the distance from the zombies. A “normal” walking pace takes you up 1 flight of stairs per move. They see that the day room on that level 1 is full of zombies, so they have a choice, either fire, OR use the rest of their “move” to get to the bottom of the second flight of stairs. Since they only moved 4” it meant they could either shoot, or turn their move into a run and move a total of 8”.

Not wanting to get trapped by the zombies coming from the forest, they decide to risk it and to carry on to the next level.

Luckily no new zombies appeared.

TURN 14:

The survivors scrambled up the stairs. Amazingly, the day room was empty which allowed the survivors to gain access to the hospital. …and so the game had ended!

END OF GAME

Overall not bad! It’s the first game we have done where we have actually reached the primary objective and the first game where we never had any injuries!

The game turned out to be a rather strange one for most zed reinforcements all seemed to come down the back alley where the party zombies came from. I suppose [in reality] that’s where the housing estate is so the game actually gave a ‘real’ result.

When we started we thought we would have been forced more toward the general store, rather than the straight line option we actually got. If more reinforcements had come in at the back edge, then everything may have turned out differently.

With our survivors entering the hospital, the next game will be to get the meds and scarper! (when this game will happen I don't know... so for now, that's all folks! Hope you have enjoyed it. Stay tuned for the rules which will be posted up on our website in the next week. Everything has been delayed as I have been ill for about 2 weeks, but I am finally starting to do better, so apologies for the wait!

All comments as usual are welcome.

Testing Grekwood Zombie Rules PART 1

My last post showed how we roughly set up the table, so now we’re all ready to go into action. Using our FREE downloadable fast play rules (which will be online in the next few days), we mention that any zeds in the open on the playing surface would automatically be attracted to the survivors.  I’m not going to give a play by play account of what happened, so I won’t bore you with all the specifics, but you can get all those from the rules!  For ease of play we assumed all the starting zombies were walkers.

So we begin:

TURN 1:

Our four heroes: Adele, Ben, Gina and Xavier pulled up in their car, with their head count trophies neatly stored in the back. The actual street seemed quiet. Everything seemed clear but there was an almighty ruckus coming from the back alley behind the houses to their left. 

The group moved cautiously down the road. But unknown to them, there was a zombie in the house to their left. 

We rolled for priority using a 20 sided dice, and unfortunately the zombie was first to strike. This meant he caught the survivors by surprise (never good on your first move!). The house zombie therefore entered the street but luckily he was rubbish and failed to bite Ben [the closest survivor to him].

Ben “baseball bat”, alerted by the noise of the approaching zombie, manages to spin around and clobber him with his bat and lands a critical hit! The zombie is no more…  One down 7 billion to go whoo hooo!

Meanwhile…. the zombies in the back alley have sensed there are survivors near, and begin to pile into the back gardens and rear of the nearby houses (You can roll to see if doors are open/unlocked, or you can assume all are open).

The rest of the zombies on the playing surface now move towards the survivors, in as straight a line as possible. Since the survivors were taken by surprise by the first zombie, we needed to see how it affected their morale. So we rolled, and everyone failed!!!. The gang, now scared, automatically started to run away… well, that was a quick game!

Rather than running off the board or jumping back in their car [as would be normal], we decided to leg it down the road towards the petrol tanker (which appeared clear).

TURN 2:

Since our survivors are routing, they have to be dealt with first. Being startled they ran down the road at maximum speed towards the lorry which meant they are unable to shoot.

All the zombies therefore continue to head directly towards the survivors. The party zombies in the alley way continue to move towards the survivors previously known location as they can’t see them. This means they are now moving through the houses!

We now checked to see if more zombies appear on the board… but luck is on our side, and no new zeds appear!

Morale is tested once again at the end of the turn to check if the rout is stopped. One zed is within 8”, but there are obstacles in the way and nothing to “startle” them. No survivors are injured, so using the necessary modifiers (please see rules) every survivor manages to recover from the rout. Yay!

TURN 3:

Having recovered from the rout, the survivors get their bearings and become aware of the party zombies piling out of the house by their car. Nooo!! That’s the get-a-way vehicle is now compromised! (Photo left)

The gang of survivors decide to move forward at a normal pace [Each type of movement has it’s own modifier for combat].

Using the cars as a shield, they decide to shoot at the closest zombie to them, the “shopping lady zed” (image below). Adelle from Admin is quick to fire but misses, but Ben hits and wounds the zed. He turns to Adelle, smiles, and says “Yeaahh! That’s ‘ow it’s done”. Being wounded the shopping lady zed is now reduced from a walker to a stumbler as the shot didn’t kill her. Gina 2 guns attempts to finish the zed off but also misses!! Luckily Xavier shoots and kills. Yep… the men saved the day (the women had better stats on paper!) So that's two zeds down!! 

The zombies all move at a regular zombie pace and the new arrivals are calculated using the zombie reinforcement table. Zombies will enter the board at 5 locations, these being location 5, 1, 5, 3 and 3 again. Rolling a 6 sided dice, we determined how many turn up at each location. 12 new zombies appeared in total. They were as follows:

5 at location 5, 6 at location 3, and finally 1 lonely zombie at location 1.

TURN 4:

After the combined successful killing of the shopping lady, the survivors continued to walk cautiously up to the next car (the black one), where they were faced with more zombies coming from around the corner of the local store. Adelle decides to shoot first at the female zombie which is getting a little too close. She manages to wound her, and Ben quickly follows up with a killing shot. Xavier tries his luck and shoots at the other close zombie... He scores a critical hit! 

Gina “2 Guns”, with no zombies too close, decides to go for a long range shot, and unbelievably scores a hit which kills a zombie all the way in Dragon Park! Seems like the girls are getting their own back on the lads!!

The zombies all move closer again, with more zombies appearing on the table at 4 different locations, these being locations 1, 1, 4 and 3. A total of 11 new zombies appeared. 4 appeared at location 1, 4 at location 4, and finally 3 at location 3.

Turn 5:

The party zombie horde behind the survivors seems to be growing quickly, so the survivors decide that they desperately need to put some extra distance between them. They move to a  jogging pace which gives them a negative modifier when shooting. They see that there are zombies to their right coming around the side of the local store so they have 2 options:

1)      Attempt to kill the oncoming store zombies and get to the local store (plan B) with no idea what’s inside or,

2)      Head straight towards the lorry which looks clear, but they are not sure if there is anything on the other side.

After some quick thinking, they decide to head towards the clearer area by the left of the  lorry and take out some zombies. Since they are now jogging, they have a -1 modifier to their skill level. We rolled to see who gained priority and who was able to shoot first (this isn’t essential, but it can help if you are keeping score of zombie kills/ammo etc). Gina and Ben both shoot and miss by a mile! (Gina rolled a 20, and Ben rolled 19!). Xavier managed to kill the male zombie sporting the yellow tank top, and Adele managed to wound another. 

The zombies etch closer and their groans become louder and louder. Fresh zombies appear at 2 locations, bringing a total of 8 new zombies to the board.

TURN 6:

Adele decides to move cautiously to the corner of the houses to get a better look of what lurks around the corner. It’s not good…there are more zombies coming from the 5^th entry point.  Xavier slowly walks towards the lorry, with Gina closely following behind. Ben moves in-between both Adele and Xavier. 

Xavier and Ben both shoot but somehow miss!!! Noo!!!!!!! Luckily, Adele (with a + modifier since she’s moving slowly), and, Gina save the day and both score hits which kill. Another one for the girls!

The zombies all move again, but only 4 new zombies appear at 2 different locations.

Now with a large horde of zombies coming at them from behind, two smaller groups coming from either side, and a lorry blocking their view of the front...what will they do next?! ...Stay turned...

I don't want to make these posts too long, so in a day or two I will post another with the second half! I will leave you with a photo of the party horde coming up the road from the rear as you can see the side horde in the above photo.

Cheers  to everyone who has taken the time to read this so far. Any comments are welcome!