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!

Grekwood Minis Display in Detail

Apologies for not getting around the blogs as much, I have been extremely busy getting everything ready for our first ever show next week, and I have been running back and forth to the hospital as my wife Kate had an operation  about 5 days ago. She is doing better though and will hopefully be home on Monday or Tuesday!

So..Grek Minis news! It's just under a week until Crusade here in Cardiff (UK), the first ever trade show where Grekwood Miniatures will be selling! I have been working hard to put together a display which looks decent enough to "launch us", and I think I haven't done too bad. Here's a few WIP photos of the display which I set up on my pool table which rarely gets used for pool! The edges of the table made things not sit right, but its good enough for a tester.

There are a few things missing from the cabinets as I have them elsewhere for photos. But you should get a general idea in the next couple of photos...






At the front I have the scenery stuff to the left, which I have placed on raised display stands which I made.

To the right (at the front) I have displayed more scenery items including ball bearings, bases, steampunk parts and so forth. I still need to put labels all over it.







Next up, is the cabinet. The right cabinet is all zombies and hospital beds, and the left cabinet is the sci fi/fantasy cabinet, along with putties and glues (and the snow) at the bottom.

If you look closely the Grekwood Sculpt is in the left cabinet. I'm making a label so it'll say coming soon!






In the left cabinet I have put a road section with my new convertible mini (if only it was real!). It's to help give scale and to show that it's what the PDFs should look like.











Next up is the space next tot eh cabinet. This is a "mock up" design, and not the final one. It was just to give me an idea of what it would look like. As I can't take the PDFs with me, I thought it would be nice to alert people that we sell those too.

The Pro Arte brushes and the paints. Those are not the correct paints. They are my collection so they don't all match up. But they will be the proper things on the day. The brushes will also be taken out of their plastic wrappers.

 Finally, here's a little photo of the new design hospital bed undercarriage. They are mainly made because of casting reasons, but they are narrower, which allows figures to "tuck" under the bed more closely, to help with space.







Maybe next year we will get a 12ft table, and actually put the hospital building out on show with our road sections, which by the way, we have 10 different versions now, all of which will be online soon.

Thanks again for all your support!

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 :)

WIP Apocalypse Guy...

Here's a little WIP on the 45mm figures I have been making the past week...or so.

Here's a size comparison with a 28mm zombie nurse. He is meant to be around 9ft tall (ish), so he is in scale with all 28mm figures (and every other figure) we make :)

He is not finished yet, but he will hopefully be completed next week. He has a large weapon which will have a large hammer (with the appearance of a meat hammer ... you know that thing with those spikes/bumps on it that you hit meat with when you are angry.. I mean trying to tenderise it :P)

He has a long apron, which I will extend and make torn at the bottom. He have huge spikes impaled through his back. His head is covered with a bag/mask to help hide his identity and make him more creepy.

I shall call him... HammerMan. He's perfect for an extra addition in a zombie game ;)

Ok, that's all for now. I think I mentioned before that I am going to a show, wel that show has been confirmed and it is called "Crusade" right here in Cardiff. It's at the end of January, so I'm busy stocking up!

Comments welcome as always!

Zombies and a Man with an Axe

We have recently just organised our first show!! In January we will be heading to "Crusade" here in Cardiff. It seems like a perfect place to start shows as it's only a few minutes away, which means cheap travel and no overnight expenses, so pretty much just the table cost!

So yeah, 26th (I think) of January, Crusade!!!!

In other news, progress on sculpting is going well. As I plan to go to a show/convention in January, I have decided that I want to have a few of the "extras" I've been working on ready. They include the Grekwood sculpt (Sculpted by Inso), the Dalek Princess, which I am thinking of making the "Bioblyte Princess" for my mutant guys which I plan to make into a range some time, and finally the 45mm guy who carries a large axe/hammer thing... he's also linked to zombies :P

I will also ave the 16 new zombies ready in time for christmas...hopefully!

Umm I better start getting ready soon; at lunch time we are leaving for Surrey for the CGD weekend! Should be fun, I get to test out my costume... which looks like this:

Righty oh then, oh if you want to subscribe to our newsletter for updates whenever something is released, then go to the main page of our website and fill out your name and email address of the form!

As always, cheers for ready :)