Grekwood Miniatures 1st Birthday!

It's apparently been over two weeks since my last post... crazy! I just thought I would talk a little about what will be going on in Grekwood Minaitures over the next few months. Before I start, here's a fun photo some of you may not have seen:

Click to zooooooom

Recently I launched the expansion pack for the hospital. It's been a long time waiting so I am happy it is finally out there! I also uploaded the mini dinosaur I sculpted to the website. He can be found in the "Critters" section.

Birthday!
On the 27th of this month it will be Grekwood Minaitures 1st birthday! To celebrate this, I will be releasing the "Grekwood in a Fez" tribute figure (sculpted by Inso) on Monday the 22nd. It will be a perfect way to celebrate the 1 year birthday and it will also serve as a reminder to everyone of why Grekwood Miniatures is here.

£1 from each sale will go to the CGD Society.

Grekwood Minis is Growing!
I have quite a few figures coming out over the next few months. These include the one's mentioned above, along with "The Tenderiser" (marketed as "Hammerman"), Bexi Warrior Princess, and Alliwen the Space Ranger!

I also have 4 werewolves which can be interchanged. I am still trying to work on a price for them. They cost quite a lot to produce because they are quite large and chunky. They are meant to be for 28mm scale figures, but they are 40-45mm tall (equivalent of 8 or 9 feet tall). I plan to bring out more arms for them at some point.

I am also working on some extra figures for the Bioblyte range. This will involve one pack of figures similar to the armless guys, but this time less bulky torsos, and arms which have claws on the end. A second pack will be like the Bioblytes themselves, but holding weapons rather than them being integrated. They will also be less bulked out.

15mm Buildings and Roads
I am finally working on building/altering the buildings for 15mm scale. This means reducing the files sizes by roughly 60%, and then tweaking the files to make them more suitable. As the walls are not as long, it means some walls can be connected together making less parts. They will be based on 3mm foam board which is weirdly super cheap on eBay. I found 10 A3 sized sheets for £9.99 (bargain!).

So if you know of anyone who is wanting some 15mm stuff, then send them our way!

Ok that's all for now, cheers for reading!

28mm Hospital *Extended Cut*

Bit of a short blog, but for those who have not seen on Facebook, I have been working on the "Hospital Extended Cut" PDF, and we (my dad and I) put together the following building the other day:

The extended cut includes:

1) New end sections
2) New Centre Entrance
3) New hallway section including a lift and stair entrance.
4) Stairs and Lift compartments.
5) Fire Escape sections on the end of each ward.

Here is a promo photo from above. I have put the car park and some roads out around the hospital to make it look "real".








I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out. hopefully it'll be ready in the next week or two :) I still have to take some photos (tomorrow) as the battery ran out whilst photographing it the first time.

Ok, that's all I have to talk about at the moment, apart from... HAPPY EASTER!!! and if you don't celebrate it, then have a great weekend as always!

My next blog will hopefully have some info about up and coming figures ...

New Miniatures and Super Store Ideas

In an attempt to get back into the whole blog thing here is another blog post!

Last week I began talks with Crooked Dice to stock a few of their figures, 18 of them to be exact. So on the website you should notice that they are scattered around there. I am attempting to get more on the website, but that depends on companies co-operating or not. So if they don't I will move on to something else, either way, someone is getting my money haha

Here is a little promo picture I made of some of them:

On another note....

Today I spent a few hours working out how the large super store could be built. It will be constructed in a modular system, similar to the way the hospital was built in sections.

Here is a photo of what we came up with as a base plan. It measures 4 square by 5 (each square is 6" x 6").

The 4 squares on the left with the figures on represent the butcher, fish monger, bakery, and deli. Each square would be it's on area.

The top 4 squares would be a warehouse, office, and canteen area.

The other 3 square by 4 square area will be the main shop with the entrance being in the bottom right corner where the white square with the figure on it is.

So, this is quite a big building, but it's meant to be for playing games in, and not just another piece in a town...also...it's going to look really cool haha

Ok that's all for now!
Comments always welcome!

Up and coming Stuff...

Welcome new followers!!

It's been a while (again) since I last posted a blog, so here one is!

The local store PDF is now available on the website (click here). Here is a photo for you to see:

 

I also have a car park which works with out buildings/roads, so that is coming out hopefully in the next week. I just need to finalise a few things before I can do that.  So in case you haven't seen it yet, below is a photo of the WIP version. As I said, it's designed to work with our roads (or others I guess), so the "T junction" would be from another road pack, and not the car park pack, as you can't have a car park without roads. In the road sections there are "yellow line stoppers", which allow you to end yellow lines appropriately. The tile by the T junction also has changed. I have also go white arrows going around the carpark (two versions, one for driving on the left, and one for the right).

 

 

Umm...what else... oh yes, I finally finished the dinosaur I started last year (it didn't take that long, but I put it aside and forgot about it). So here's a photo of that:

 

 

 

Finally... I will be contacting the caster about a couple of figures. Do you remember Hammerman, Grekwood in a fez, the sci fi alien with guns, and the "not dr who" dalek princess? Well I will hopefully be getting them back soon *fingers crossed*... assuming they don't break in the mould again! Oh I might rename Hammerman as "The Tenderiser", as he's a mix of a butcher and an executioner...and he has the worlds biggers meat hammer lol

 

Ok, I think that's enough for now. Oh if you know anyone who needs sculpting putty, then it might be useful to know I have dropped the price to £10 for Green Stuff, and £7.50 for Procreate. I think this is "one of" the cheapest deals you can find online in the UK, so that's all cool...share it...share it share it haha

 

Oh and congrats to the Welsh Rugby Union team who beat England 30 points to 3 for the "Six Nations Championship". Not a bad end to the day!

 

Comments always welcome! and apologies once again for not getting around the blogs. I seem to spend most of my Grek Minis time updating our facebook page!

 

Cheers for reading...

 

Photography and other stuff

It's been over a week since my last blog, so I thought I would write one!

Local Store:
I have almost finished the local store. I have been taking ages building up the shelves, so they have individual items on them. I have only put basic furniture in some rooms, like a table/desk, and maybe a cabinet or two as I don't want to clog up the rooms too much because of the size, and also I'm not the best at making tiny furniture! The main building and shop is the main focus anyway, so that's the main thing!

Sculpting:
On a sculpting note, my next couple of ranges (releases) won't exactly be zombie related. The current figures I'm working on are some sculpts my dad started work on a year or so ago, but they go put aside and kind of forgot about as new things popped up. I've been working on them for a couple of days now, so hopefully towards the end of this month I will be able to send them off. I don't want to add photos yet as I don't want people to become board of them before they are out. They won't be everyone's "cup of tea", but then not everything is! They are of a "fantasy/horror" theme though, and there have been a few movies about them or including them in the past.

My second range I am working on has a more fantasy/medieval twist to it. There will be some undead guys in it, but they are not technically zombies. They could still work as" fancy dress" zombies who have been to a "dress up" party or something.

Photography:
I have been looking through my photos this morning on my facebook photography page, and thought I would share some here. I haven't really done much photography in the past year or two, I have just been focussed on other things. So here's some of my photos.

Below left: Photos of Kate. Below right: Kate holding one of my other samurai swords. It's a display model (so made to look pretty but not for slicing!). Below right: Nathan Wyburn, known for his marmite art work on toast! he was on Britains Got Talent, and has done many pieces of art for famous people. I photographed him before he really got "famous".

 

Below: Fireworks as Disneyworld, on Halloween night.

 

 

Below left: Light photography. Kate made the star, Carmel made the tree, and Gareth made the blue box. Middle: A chimp from Drayton Manor. Right: A lily in my parents fish pond.

 

 

Below: Infrared image of a lake near my parents house. The infrared camera makes all greens white. It also makes people look a bit demonish haha

 

 

Finally, a "Banana vs Skittles War". I was feeling creative. I borrowed a Hasslefree (I think) gun from my brother, and made this diorama!

 

 

I have taken way more images, but these are just some I decided to share. more can be seen on my photography page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carl-Sutherwood-Photography/239146450525

 

Ok that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed looking at the pics!

 

Cheers all!

 

My Birthday!! ...A zombie and some PDF Stuff

Welcome to the new followers! I hope you will find many things to keep you interested!

Two days ago it was my 28th birthday. I had a lamp which has 2 magnifying glasses built into it from my wife. It really helps a lot when doing really small details on the figures so will be extremely useful in the future (and hopefully help save my eyes!! haha).

From my parents I had a Roman centurion sword! Its a working replica, so it's basically a real centurion sword made how it should be (just made in the 21st century haha).
The centurion sword has solid brass parts, a thick blade and a super sharp point. It also has a leather scabbard/sheath. It's pretty heavy for its size!

I now have a large collection of swords. Mainly Samurai swords (a mixture of Katanas, Wakisashis, and Tantos), about 11 or so I think. Some are display models which have thinner blades and are blunt, and would not stand long in a fight, and some are working replicas. Basically that means they are built how they should be, sharp, and thick blades. I have a real samurai sword from WW2 ... or 1... I think WW2. I have a working replica of the "Kill Bill" sword, which I can't seem to find online anymore. It's all the blunt versions, or ones where the handle isn't wrapped in leather.

Ok... Now Grekwood Minis News:

I have been working on the supermarket PDF. I have been making the shelves to decorate the interior (although not as detailed as Joe's supermarket over at Zabadaks Blog..you should check it out, it's super impressive!!). I have tried to customise each piece on the shelves so that it isn't just colour blocks, so this is what I have so far (below). I still need to fill up the shelves a bit more. I don't want "fully stocked" shelves, so there will be the odd gap or two where products have been taken off by customers, to help add a bit of realism.

Hospital PDF
I do still plan to bring out the expansion pack for this hospital. It may have to wait until early spring as I have a lot of stuff going on at the moment, but I haven't forgot about it, so keep an eye out!

Zombie bust
Last thing: here's a WIP of the zombie bust I am making:

Ok, that's all for now. I need to try and get back into the blog scene, with more blog updates as they are becoming less over the past few months.

Cheers for looking!

New Stuff: Zombies, Roads, Buildings and a Bust

It's been a while since I did a blog post, a week and 5 days in fact!

So new releases:

I have uploaded 2 new road packs to the website. This completes the "town" range. The two packs have single yellow lines, and double yellow lines, along with an extra minor side road which has either a cobble style road or smaller paving slabs.

Here are the large photos from the website, I decided to put a car on there for "scale".

Town Centre - Restricted Parking (Single yellow lines)

Town Centre - No Waiting (Double yellow lines)







I still haven't uploaded that snow flock I have... So I must get round to doing that.

Supermarket zombies and building
The supermarket range should be coming back from the painter next week, so my next blog post will hopefully be showing off them all painted.

I have decided to build a local store as well as a large superstore. I am part way through designing the local store. It will have a small staff room, store room (not warehouse) and an office. It will also be the first building that I will be fully furnishing with paper freezers, shelves, veg stands, counters and so forth. The local store will be 12" x 12" in size, perfect for use with our roads (or with other companies products of course!).

Bust
Here's the bust I have been working on. The image is a few days old so it is a bit different now. What do you think? Still early days... and she will have long hair (yes I decided to go with a female), so features are less dominant than what a males would be. If she turns out well I will cast her in resin. I'm going with a mini head wound, a cheek wound, wearing around the mouth, and a neck wound which hasn't been done yet).

Finally..

I think that is all for now... Apologies once again for not getting around all the blogs I usually go through, it's just been a very busy couple of week. January and so far February have been extremely busy with online orders and other shenanigans!

Thanks to all for reading!

Coming up in 2013

Happy new year everyone!!! Ok, this is a very text-y blog, outlining a few of the things I have planned for the coming year. There is more planned but that'll be announced nearer the time when work begins on it. So for now, here are a few things to look forward to :)


1. Go to Crusade (not that type of crusade... it's a war game show in Cardiff).

2. Launch Supermarket zombies (They will launch at Crusade, and will be available on the website after that).

3. The NEW hospital bed undercarriages will also launch at crusade and will be available on the website with the beds thereafter. A price increase will occur, but it will still be cheaper than a figure.

To help with a comparrison of pricing the beds, heres the calculations:

Our figures sell for about £2.37 each (which is quite cheap-ish in the wargaming world), so for two figures it would cost £4.74 and for 4 it would cost £9.50.

Hospital beds are sold in packs of 2, and currently sell for £2.75 per pack. So this works out at £1.99 cheaper than 2 figures. Also, keep in mind each bed has 2 parts, so you're actually getting 4 parts and not 2.

Each undercarriage (in metal) weighs the same as an average figure. If we sold them for the same price, we would therefore have to sell them for £4.74 (2 x £2.37) and then add the price of the bed part on top of that price.

So per pack, they would cost around £5-6 per pack of hospital beds/carriages.

So back to my main point; Currently (old carriages) sell in a pack for £2.75 (which gets cheaper as the deals get bigger). Which is WELL below the £6. So as they are now costing more to produce, I will have to increase the price. I will most likely make the packs £3.50 which will decrease with the more you buy.

I hope you understand, as I can't make them any cheaper without making a huge loss (which would be bad!)

4. A Supermarket/ local store PDF. Made so you can make it as big or small as you like, with all the extra trade rooms (bakery, butchers etc).

5. Hospital Expansion Pack

Bad news here... I have lost all the files due to a corrupt hard disk. They are the original files that I used to create the hospital. All the colour wards I did have been lost, and the expansion stuff. So I need to replicate everything (rebuild almost from scratch). At least I still have the PDF files for reference which will speed things up immensely. But not to worry, it can be done! (positive thinking and all).

6. Another batch of figures will be started this month. They will not be zombies, well, kinda but not. I plan to do a range of minis, but some of them will be zombie-ish (more undead...same thing?!). More like a walking dead/zombie army (with weapons). So I guess they could be used for zombie games if you wanted to, but they are mainly a walking dead army who are able to fight.

7. More roads! Yes there are more. It's all part of making it super customisable, and you only have to buy the sections you want :)


Ok finally... personal news. Kate (the misses) went into hospital on the 27th of December, but she came home yesterday. She has a hole in her intestine (I know how that feels, I had two back in 2005!). She needs it stitched up, which is scheduled for later this month. She feels fine, which is the main thing, and it'll all be sorted soon. Until then, plenty of rest!

Righty oh then, that's all for now.

Happy new year once again to everyone, and here's to 2013 :)

Residential Roads PDF

I want to start by showing off the "new" logo. I redesigned the monk part to incorporate Gareth more, as he is of course "Grekwood". The old one never quite looked finished as it was more of a "sketch" look. So this is a proper picture now.

Now...for those roads!

As mentioned in an earlier post, we have been creating some roads for personal use, but have decided that since they have been made, why not pop them on the website for others if they want them. If not, we haven't lost anything as we wanted them to begin with, So it's a win win!

We made 6 basic road pieces which should allow for the creation of most road scenarios. The plain roads with no lines are for side streets. It's probably worth pointing out, these are for residential areas and not cities or towns. 

Click to zooOOMM

I have almost finished a documentation/instructions, so they will most likely be online soon. Finally, the corner was made as a "right angle" to make it easier to build and you don't get waste paper/cardboard which you do when cutting out a curved corner.

Each piece is 6" by 6", with the pavements being 1" and the roads being 4" wide. The pavements are also designed to be "raised" by 5mm. But this can be changed. I will explain how to do a conversion in the documentation, but it is really simple to do. So it means you can either have them flat, raise the pavements by 5mm, or anywhere in between.

That's it for now, cheers for reading, comment as always are welcome!

WIP Zombies, and Roads...

Once again it has been over a week since my last bog, so here's another one! I don't have a huge amount to talk about as I've just been busy jumping between a few different projects.

I sent off the 4 figures, HammerMan, Princess Bexi, Grekwood in a Fez, and, finally the sci fi alien. They are currently with a caster, but not sure when I'll get those back.

"Roads, where we're going we don't need roads!" (Back to the Future)...
We are currently working on some "road sections" which are designed to be mounted to foamboard (for pavements) and for the base. Although you can use thinner card for the road part. Either way, the pavements have to be on foam board (I guess if you wanted to you could alter it some how).

We plan make them for ourselves, but as I have a webstore, I may as well pop them online in case anyone else would like them! We will make a few different versions, such as tarmac roads with residential style tarmac pavements. Then roads with yellow lines, and then some with paved pathways etc etc. So we should be able to mix and match and get every combo we need.

Next Batch of Zombies: WIP
Here's a little WIP of the current batch of zombies, which is going well. A few of them are finished (such as the ones to the left on black bases). The two in the photo are almost there. The photo is a little old (like a few days), as the two figures have progressed since then. So remember, they are WIP, which means what you see isn't how the final thing will look... It's just a taster.

Clik to zoooOOOOMM

CGD Society Get Together Weekend

Here's a photo of me and Kate from the CGD weekend get together we went to last month... I should have worn the wig... but it was too hot in there! Anyway, who says a pirate can't look after their hair?? :P

Click to zooOOOMM

Ok, that's all for now! Comments as always are welcome :)

PDF Hospital Building, Zombies, and Armless Beings

Yesterday I went to my parents house to set up the single story, two ward hospital. It went pretty well. We set up the table with a grass mat, then placed the hospital down, and placed some trees around the perimeter. There was a gap at the edge of the table, so we placed some buildings at the end of the table to make it look like the edge of a town.

So here's a photo of the end product:

I think it turned out really well. We used some resin roads which my dad made a long time ago for a war game with my brother Gareth a.k.a Grekwood. 

Here's a view of the inside. We set up some hospital beds inside, along with some doctors and nurses, but we didn't have any normal doctors or nurses, so they are all zombies... but they aren't meant to be!! That'll be saved for the derelict version (post apocalyptic version) to come at a later date!

Finally I shall end with a photo of  how the table as a whole looked. We  arranged the trees in a way so that they were all in frame. We thought there was no point filling the whole table if it wasn't going to be in the photo. So that explains the weird arrangement of trees below!

I will finalise things today and the PDF file will be uploaded (hopefully) tomorrow or the over the weekend. I'll update the blog/Facebook when this is done!

Oh and here's an image of the Armless Beings now they are all painted :)

Cheers for looking, all comments are welcome as always!

Hospital PDF Coming Next Week!!

I have been working extremely hard to get the documentation for the PDF Hospital finished. It's almost there.

Below is a screen show (from MS Word) which shows the documentation/instructions. It is about 23 pages long. I know this probably sounds crazy, but I made it as detailed as possible as not all customers have English as their first language. Therefore there are step by step photographs as well as a description.

It is quite a big build (even though it is a small hospital... I plan to bring out expansion packs/apocalyptic versions). It tells you how to build two full wards, two hallway end pieces, a center entrance piece, and finally some entrance steps, not to forget all the different roofing pieces to go with it. Remember, you don't have to print it out as the images can be zoomed in on when on a computer!

I am in the process of designing some signs which will be on a separate page for people to cut out and stick where they want. I want them separate so when they are glued in place, they can be stuck to the wall however you want, for example: at an angle, with an edge curled up and so forth. It's a bit of personalisation. I also have multiple door signs, so people can choose if they want one room to be a storage room or a kitchen or even a staff room or office.

I think on Wednesday I will be heading to my parents to photograph the 2 ward hospital with some proper scenery. We opened up a few bags of trees (from our tree range here: Grek Trees), so we can make a bit of a woods in the background on the image. Once this has been done, I should be ready to upload it to the internet! I have been advised that for this size and complexity, I should charge about £4, but it will be postage free of course.


We are currently in the process of casting some more hospital beds as we have almost run out. I'm also trying to promote the page on Facebook as much as I can, so if you are on Facebook, remember to "like" and share it to anyone who may be interested.

Cheers, and have a great day!

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...

 

 

Hospital Building Progress

Here are some photos of the hospital. I have positioned them in some different layouts to give ideas of what can be done.

  To the left is the "basic" hospital. I plan to pop the PDF online with one ward colour (grey), and the 3 hallway parts shown (which are shown in grey). It will allow the builder to create a ground floor, 2 ward hospital for smaller games. This is perfect for the "Mega deal" of hospital beds as each ward fits 8 beds (so 16 altogether!).

 An expansion pack will be released later which will include a 4th bit of hallway (the part connecting to the green ward). This allows the ward to go as wide as you like. It will also include a stairs/lifts to get to a further floor, and new wall prints for the "longer hallway" part, which will accommodate for the lifts/stair doors.

As the expansion pack allows you to go wider and taller, I will also provide a "fire escape" stairs to connect to the exterior (left).

Photo to the right shows the the "basic" size, which goes up to a second level. I will also be working eventually on an entrance pack, which will connect to the mid section. It's not essential, it's just something hard core gamers might like as an "add-on".






To the left is the "ultimate" layout. It will have 3 wards along the back, and two wards on the front, and an entrance in the middle. This is the design I am aiming to build, although it will take up

Right: Shows how the lift/stairs and entrance would connect to the centre piece of hallway/corridor.

Finally, an alternate layout which I might do one day. I'm only doing this as a side project when I get bored of sculpting and stuff.

That's all for now with the hospital. I'll probably start uploading stuff to the website for it next month. Ohh totally forgot, so a few weeks ago I was talking about moving and houses all going too quickly. About a week after I wrote that blog, a new apartment popped up online, we went to see it and agreed to it there and then! It has a great sized 2nd bedroom, which is perfect to make as a proper office/workroom. It has a master bedroom with ensuite, main bathroom, and an open plan kitchen/lounge. The lounge is a little on the small side, but it should be good enough to get a sofa and dining table in there (with the TV and bookcase of course!). We get the keys on Sept 6th, but we plan to move in on the 7th. So we've been packing things up, which means a lot of my sculpting/hobby/business stuff has been packed up!! But it's ok, I'm keeping a bare minimum of stuff out to keep me going!

Righty oh then, that's all until next time. Cheers again to everyone who has bought some of the recent items!

Hospital WIP and Zombie Figure News

Hello there :)

Figure News:

I believe a parcel has been sent my way containing the production figures of the zombie nurses, Mutants with guns (known as Bioblytes) and the demonic guys with no arms! They should hopefully arrive tomorrow. I have sorted out the website ready for upload, so as soon as they arrive I will post it all online. So be on the look out tomorrow!

I struggled to come up with a name for the mutants, but I ended up with "Bioblytes". The first part of the name (Bio) was used because they are biologically enhanced beings (unless you decide that they are aliens from another planet). The "blytes" part comes from a combo of things. I play "Dragon Age" on the xbox360 where a "blight" is known as something evil, and darkness is spawned to pretty much take over the world, and the work is done by loads of evil beings. So I wanted to use this, but I wanted to incorporate technology  (as they are sci-fi based and some have circuit boards built in). So the second half became a combo of "blight" and "byte" (as in bit, byte,megabyte). It can also represent the fact that if they get too close they will bite you (hence the mouths being large and open). Kinda like a play-on word...bite/blyte...yeah..

Anyway, that's the logic behind the name!!

Hospital:
I decided to go back to the hospital and try and sort out a basic hallway to link the wards together, so here are some WIP photos:

I am building the hospital hallway in 3 sections, all partitioned off by double doors. I thought by partitioning it off, it would make gaming more interesting as you have to clear one area to move on to the next. Or you can have different barricaded rooms and move back as they are overrun. The last image is a diagram to show how the different sections are put together to accommodate a different number of  wards. 

As for doorways, I have decided to do the basic "printed on" doors, which people can imagine that they open close. However, I will provide a solution/easy way to make the doors look open. It's all done using 5mm foam card, but the doors will be made with thin card (like that paper card) to give them a more sturdy feel. All will be explained in another blog when I have put together a prototype.

That's all for now. Stay tuned, spread the news, and leave comments. Thanking you all!! :)