Pirate Accessories and 28mm Scale Hospital!

This week I have been working on my pirate costume. It was in need of a sword and a gun, so using some Amazon vouchers which my wife got for doing some surveys, we purchased a nice cheap gun and sword all for under a tenner (so for free with the vouchers!).


The gun was all silver when it arrived as seen in this photo: (that's not my hand.. it's taken from the Amazon website as I forgot to take a "before" photo...). So, I wasn't keen on the silver finish, or the orange tip, so I decided to give it a make over.

As you can see, I sprayed it gold, then gave it a brown wash over the detail. I then painted the inside of the gun black, and "aged" the tip to give it that "used" look.

I think it looks much better and looks less "plasticy".

What do you think?

Second up is the sword! I bought this for two reasons. Most looked small (short) and kinda of childish (as they are toys!). This one had a longer blade, and quite a cool looking handle compared to bare metal.

However, when it arrived the blade was broke. So I had to pin it, glue it, and stuff some Miliput over the join to make it stronger. The join is noticeable, but at least it wont break now.The blade was also black and not silver like Amazon shows. So I didn't like that. Also the skull needed something... so in my next photo you'll see the difference!

I painted the teeth, and put in a gold tooth, and also painted the blade silver. I wasn't liking that black colour!

Here's the finished stuff... well, the gun still needs some painting on parts (trigger area and such). But I think I have made cheap toys look better :)








Ok, so here's some pictures of the hospital which I thought I posted, but apparently not. There was some questions about whether it was one piece or many. The answer is, it can be either. It's designed to be separate as shown (for easy storage and moving).

BUT!! If you are up to the task, it can easily be made as one large piece as shown below: It would just need some calculations to get the floor and roof as one piece, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Ideally it comes apart as this version is only small, and it's designed to eventually be bigger. But that's your choice :)

In the documentation I will provide all the measurments to make it one piece or separate. So it's up to you then how you want to make it. But keep in mind I will be expanding the hospital with new parts ad so forth.

Anyway, that's all for now. Sculpting has once again begun, so yay for that. I'll do some more in a bit. I tend to split my time between quite a few things (not all business!). Anyway, I hope that helps with whoever had those questions or thoughts.

Feel free to leave comments as usual, but until then, over!

Video of the 28mm scale Hospital Building

I have pretty much completed the Basic Hospital and I am pretty happy with the way it's turned out. I was a little bored after I stopped for the day, so I decided to make a video with some interesting music from Mass Effect (first one).

 

 

 

The filming is jumpy, and not "flowy", but it's not meant to be taken seriously, it's just a bit of fun!

 

 

I still have a couple of things to add to the hospital, minor things such as sky lights and roof stuff but by the time I write a new blog it will be complete (that's the plan). I made a mini entrance for this version but I will eventually make a larger entrance/concourse area for bigger versions of the hospital.

 

Ok, so that's all for now. I didn't plan to write a blog today but I couldn't resist posting my ever so awesome (ha!) video hehe

 

On a sad note I have to take my wife to hospital tonight. She needs to have a liver biopsy and will be away for the night (possibly longer...but hopefully not!). Hopefully it's nothing serious and they can sort out why the levels in her liver have been abnormally high the past 2 months. She hasn't been well for the past two month, so I'm hoping this will finally sort things out.

 

So anyway, enjoy the video, and I'll write a new blog in a few days :)

 

Cheers...

 

 

Zombie Sculpts and Buildings!

To kick start this blog I would like to say a big thank you to Inso (Steven Marchant) for sculpting a tribute miniature in memory of my brother Gareth (aka Grekwood). Here's a photo taken from Inso's blog:

Click to zooOOMM

I will be casting him at some point and he will then be available on the website. Because he is a tribute to my brother, I am thinking of donating some of the profits to the CGD Society, that way it not only helps out Grekwood Miniatures, but it also helps out the charity.

Now I have been working on that Hospital again! I have now completed 4 wards. So here is a photo of them all lined up!

In the photo there is a green, grey, blue and pink ward. They can be stacked on top of each other, or laid flat. If laying flat then there should be a gap between each ward (not bunched together as shown) as there should be a courtyard between each ward with trees and stuff. It is designed to be two stories high (ground and 1st floor) as it is bases on Landough Hospital.

Now some sculpting progress: Here are 3 figures I started the other day, so they are all WIP. 2 males and one female in the middle.The sculpting on these is an improvement on the first batch I ever did. I am making things more defined and including all the detail I can such as a zip on the females clothes. 

The butcher (above far right) has sideburns like the butcher from "the league of gentlemen" tv show (picture right). I'm not giving him an axe though... maybe a survivor for one of my later planned moulds (I'm looking at next year for that though).

The females are more "curvy"... she got booty... Again the sculpting (in person) resembles that of resin plastic figures, so I take this as a sign of better/smoother more defined sculpting. These figures are going to be more torn up that the other ones, so representing more walkers and stumblers rather than just walkers.   

I'm working on the basis that it goes: Fresh zombie (runner) > walker > stumbler > Crawler > Corpse (just this time it remains that way!). The further right you go the more damaged they are. I'm thinking of bringing out a "specials" mould at some point. But more on that another time :P

Ok I think that's all for now. Oh housing news, we found a different place, loved it, and went for it. We're in the process of sorting out all the paperwork, but fingers crossed there will be no issues! It has a great sized 2nd bedroom, perfect for taking over as a sculpting/business room :)

Ok now that really is all for now! Comments as always are welcome! Cheers for reading :)

28mm Zombie Hospital beds - almost ready for sale...

I have some news which I think some of you might be glad to FINALLY hear. The hospital beds will be ready for sale in the next week or two (hopefully). We have cast loads so far, so many that the moulds have started to split (literally!).

Because of the shape of the beds, the moulds require bending quite a bit to get the beds out of the mould. So slowly little bits start breaking off in the mould. Luckily we have managed to get all those beds in the photo out first (see photo).

Click to ZOOOOM

So currently there is a limited availability, but we are going to remake the moulds so we can make more. I am probably going to do some work to the originals to make them pop out of the mould easier (to make it last longer). Nothing visual will change, it's all "behind the scenes" type work which won't make a difference to the actual look of the beds.

We plan to spray them with a white primer (nothing definite yet), because they just look better when they are white (also it'll make painting a lot easier as paint doesn't stick too well to the bare resin). So we thought we'd help everyone out a bit more. Plus white helps show up the detail far more.

Progress on the hospital building has slowed down currently as I am focussing on getting the beds ready for sale as it's been a while since I actually added new stuff to the website...gaahhhhhh...

I think that's it for now... so until next time, all comments are welcome as always! Thanks for reading :)

Zombie Masters... and other beings... coming shortly

Masters for the current batch of 28mm figures arrived today. So they have been sprayed white to show up the detail a bit better (silver is too reflective!). So, without any further delay, here they are:

4 Zombie nurses with "normal" zombie heads. Nice, how badly do you want these lovely ladies to look after you?!? haha

and  now for the behind shot...

 Some demon people. Kinda zombie like, just without arms flapping about. So they have a "straight jacket" appearance.  Their expanded chest has caused the front to tear open, making it a weak spot...or a weapon which squirts out infection?!?

... now for their behind shot...

Now for those mutants with guns! I like these, I know I sculpted them so I should like them right? But it's one of those things where you sculpt something and think...yeah, I really like them. I think I like the amount of detail I managed to put on them, and just because they were something different for me to sculpt.


So...behind shot, tubes everywhere, butts handing out...ummm.. yeah...





Ok that's those sorted for now. I assume that the production castings will be in my hands in the next week or two, but we'll have to wait and see. So I'l update when I know something. But for now, it's one step closer.

Once again, thank you for looking, feel free to use the photos to show friends and people who may like them. All comments are welcome as always. I will give an update on the Hospital beds and building next week. Cheers!

28mm Hospital Ward Complete!

This is the 3rd prototype, but I think it is the final one. I made the room at the back wider for a couple of reasons: Figures on a 25mm base take up a floor area of 5ft x 5ft, rather than what a real human takes up, about 2ft x 1ft. So a room scale room at 9ft x 9ft can only fit one figure in, whereas in real life it can fit quite a few people. So this was my first problem to overcome. I had to make some of the rooms (day room area/storage room and toilet) a lot larger to fit figures in. So, for example, the storage room is double the size of what it should be to compensate for bases. So it's no longer "true" scale, but it is visually better, and more playable for a game. Ok, now the fun part, here's some piccys!




Overall view of one ward. Notice the back part has been made bigger because of the reasons started above. It is actually more like the shape of the hospital I am basing it on (Llandough Hospital).

Bigger windows in the day room, with an emergency exit in the middle image.

I also created wall corner pieces to cover up joins and awkward corners. It helps make it look more detailed. It's a pain to cut out though, well, more boring that anything lol








Photo 3: So "cool" angle shots... I mean "artistic" shots :P Pretty much jst showing the basic layout. A front desk will be pt where the black figure is. The the small room will have a shower and a toilet/sink in it. There will be enough room to fit a figure, I mean you don't get people sharing toilets!






A closer view of the day room area. The large carpeted area is the day room. It'll have a couple of sofas and a tv in it. The room where banana man is in will be a storage room. I'll be making cupboard out of resin to fit in this room. Finally the small room is a toilet. Big enough to fit one figure in. Again, we don't share toilets!




Another angle to show the emergency fire exit door (with signs!). As the wards will be upstairs, I plan to make a little staircase to go up to them.

Finally a birds eye view of the ward... just because!









Something a bit different. This is the floor plan idea that I have come up with and I am building. The wards will be on the 1st floor (2nd floor depending where you live.) The ground floor (or first floor) will have the entrance area, x-ray dept, outpatients and so forth. It is designed so that the building can be as many levels as you like :)



Ok that's it for now. I should get back to design work or building or something...

Cheers again for any comments and for reading!