FREE Give-away!! Must like Facebook Page!

I know everyone here who has Facebook probably already "likes" my Grekwood Miniatures page, but I thought it would be worth posting here just in case someone didn't, or you think someone might be interested in this mini give-away.

Basically I have a couple of items, which I thought would be nice to give to a random person who has "liked" the Facebook page.

The winner can choose any of the 3 items A, B or C.

A - The Tenderiser, A 46mm miniature

B - Bexi Warrior Princess

C - 3 of the Zombie Nurses (not 4 like on the website)

Ends August 31st 2013

Please feel free to go to the Facebook page and SHARE this image to get more people involved! Or spread it in any way you can think of.

Cheers to everyone who has done it so far :)

Oh finally: Female Survivors from WGF - I WILL be stocking these later this month, so please check us out if you are in Europe since you won't have to pay heavy postage (like you would buying straight from WGF).

Cheers!

Zombies, Aliens, Humans, and a Banana Man

Hi guys!

Apologies for the delay in getting a Blog out there and for not getting around the blogs as much as I should!! I've been very busy with personal things as well as the business stuff.

I have been up to quite a bit, which most of you probably know already through newsletters or Facebook, but here it all is for the past month-ish with some future plans:

New Releases since the Werewolves: Click photos to zoom!

1) The Tenderiser

2) 4 Resin Vehicles

3) Bexi Warrior Princess (painted and unpainted)

4) Space Ranger

Coming in July/August:

5) Latest additions from Crooked Dice: "Time Lost Detectives".

6) Zombie Bust (possibly)

7) Some Sci-Fi plastic miniatures... but more on those closer to the time :P

8) Extended Bioblyte range: Will include runners with claws, and alien army with guns.

Ok, so that's the plan for the next couple of month/releases. I'll send out a news letter as and when they are available.

No photos for number 7 and 8, and it's a little top secret and 7 isn't 100% confirmed yet, but hopefully will be soon.

All items can be found on our website: www.grekwoodminiatures.co.uk

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Win a Painted Hasslefree Resin Master for Charity:

Finally, but by no means least, Hasslefree have donated a resin master figure and Ben Brownlie, has painted it up (to a very high standard) and is now auctioning it off in memory of my brother Gareth (aka Grekwood). All money raised will go to the CGD (Chronis Granulomatous Disorder) Society Charity, which deals with research into cures and medications to help people with CGD.

CGD is a rare immune system disorder which leaves the individual unable to fight certain infections and can often be life threatening.

A £5 donation gets you 1 ticket in the "hat", and a donation of £10 or more gets you 3 tickets. Auction will take place on the 24th of June (i think), but you have until the 23rd to donate.

All donations can be made here: http://www.justgiving.com/Gareth-K-Sutherwood

PLEASE leave your name and/or blog name so we can contact you if you win.

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Before I sign out, I would just like to wish Bryan (aka Vampifan) a speedy recovery, and I hope we will see him back very soon!

Cheers everyone :)

This Months Releases!

It seems like ages since I have posted anything here, but I guess it was only about 2 weeks ago!

I have a few announcements, so here I go:

1) All 4 interchangeable werewolves have now been released on the website. They retail at £7 each or £6 if all four are bought. They are priced so because they are 40-45mm in height and quite "bulky" in build. They are meant for 28mm scale, so in real life terms they are about 8 to 9 feet tall...so big and scary!

Bottom photo has a typo.. it should say "4" not "3".

2) 15mm Hospital and some roads have been released. I thought it was about time I got those all up on the site.

3) Major news... well it is in my opinion, today I finally received the production lot for "Bexi Warrior Princess", "The Tenderiser (Hammerman), and Aliwen Space Ranger and some more casts of the Grekwood mini!

I am pleased to finally announce that The Tenderiser will be released tomorrow (Monday 13th May). He will retail for £8.25 as he is the biggest figure (weight/metal wise) on my website!

Bexi and the Space Ranger will be up either later this month or early June. This is because I am going to paint up some of the Bexi character as commissions for some people who are not really into the hobby, but would like one as they know the person it is based on (so cosplayers).

4) Umm..what else... I have some 28mm scale resin/metal vehicles which I will also put online soon. So stay tuned for those. They are from a range called "28mm moderns". There will be a small tank, and a few people carrier ones with a few guns here and there. Here's one of them. It's a Pinzgauer. This particular one was painted by my brother Gareth. He also put transparent sheets onto it for windscreens. Oh and to the right is my poor attempt at painting the werewolves...and a base I made for one of them :)

Ok, think that's all for now........... yep, can't think!! As always, sorry for not getting around the blogs, I don't seem to come on here much any more as I tend to do a lot of updates through Facebook, but it's something I don't want to abandon as it's a great community here.

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...

 

Zombie Apocalypse Guy Finished!

In my last blog I posted some work in progress of an apocalyptic fellow I was working on. Today I finally finished him, so here's a photo:

I made the image "Greyscale" as I used 3 different coloured putties on him, plus the brass parts, so by making it grey in tone it makes it blend a lot better.

The figure will come in 4 parts because of casting reasons. The main figure is one part, but the hooks on his lower back, the hammer, and the chain are all separate parts which will need to be glued in place. Alternatively, the weapon doesn't need to be "glued" as it can be swivelled around to either be a hammer of an axe.

The chain will come separate which I will provide off a large reel of chains. This is because chains are often difficult to cast because of all the holes. So the buyer will be able to wrap the chain around the hammer however they think looks best. I like to think of it as customisation!

The hooks on the back may also cause casting difficulties, so for that reason again I have left them off (I used blue-tac in the photo haha). So again, it can either be left off, or for added detail it can be glued into place under his belt.

Finally, I will also be sending off the Grekwood sculpt along with the "not dalek" figure, who I shall name after the person it is based on, so Princess Bexi, to the casters. Hopefully these will not take too long to produce.

My full attention can now get back to those zombies!!

Supreme Dalek Princess

I have released to the world of Facebook my Supreme Dalek Princess! Here she is below:

I'm happy with how she has turned out, and Bexi (who it is based on) seems to be very happy and excited about it too, so yay! 

I have one last figure to complete (the 9ft tall man with an axe/hammer thingy-ma-bob). He is coming along nicely, and I am aiming to finish him by next week. Then, it's off to get them moulded along with the Grekwood Mini sculpted by Inso. Hopefully if all goes to plan, these will be available in time for Christmas.

In other news, the Hospital PDF has now be adjusted for American "Letter" size paper. I never thought about converting it from the UK paper size until the other day, as a customer from America bought everything hospital related on my website, so I decided to re-arrange some of the longer printouts so that they fit on American size paper.

So for future note, if anyone from America reads this, the PDF is now available in "Letter" size!

Finally, zombie progress is...progressing. I have focused my time on getting the big 45mm guy and the princess finished so they can go off for casting. But as soon as they are done, I'll be back onto the zombies.

If you haven't already, sign up to the newsletter too (if you want!).

Cheers...

28mm Scale Hospital Almost Ready!

This is my 40th post. I didn't realise I had posted 40 already! Seems like only yesterday I arrived at blogger.

Hospital PDF
Yesterday I started some work on the hospital building documentation. I really want to just get this sorted and online. So I spent most of yesterday doing it and I managed to finish the instructions for building the ward. Only bits left are the roof, and the joining hallway which I will do in the next day or two. I'm hopefully looking at an upload of the PDF files (there will be 2) next week, early if possible.

When I say 2, I mean one set of instructions, and then another file with all the printouts. The documentation is long, but it is a step by step guide which has step by step photos. Hopefully this will make it easier to follow and construct. I plan to release the hospital as just a building, so no interior furniture.  One day I plan to create some resin furniture to be released at some point in the future but for now I want to get this done quickly as I want to "move on" from the hospital setting and onto different things!

Here's a photo example of one of the steps, so you can see what I mean. I photographed it on my pool/snooker table. I thought the green worked well hehe

Grekwood Sculpt, Dalek Princess and more!
I have decided that when I get the Grekwood sculpt cast, I will put him in a mould with the Dalek Princess (in previous post), 8 figures from a new range, which will include a horse, and then maybe an extra one or two "special" figures, possibly zombie related. No idea when this will be done though, but if I work hard I can aim to get it done before Christmas. When casting figures I tend to fill up the mould as rubber for the mould is very expensive, and it just works out cheaper this way (which as a new hobby/business I need to keep costs down). Maybe when I am established like the big companies out there, I can bring things out quicker! I'm currently working on another 16 zombies, so I will work on everything else here and there.

In case you didn't see my last post, here's the Dalek Princess I am talking about.

Click to ZOOOOM

Kate - She's on TV!
I realised I never gave an update about Kate. Her liver biopsy was confusing and didn't specifically pin point anything. So they gave her some steroids (not those anabolic ones!), and that seems to be bringing the levels down.

On a plus, she went to Tenby (South Wales) yesterday as she is filming as an extra in a TV series which I think will air next year. So gotta watch that to see if I can spot her!

Long hair no more!
After just over a year, I got my hair cut. I went from a pirate look, to more of a Dr Who look, something in-between the current doctor (Matt Smith) and the previous one (David Tennant). It took around an hour to cut (longest it's ever taken). I apparently had so many kinks in it that they had to use a hair dryer (to dry the water they put in), then hair straighteners and tons of spray, all to make it easier to cut and help get rid of the kinks! It looks better now :)

Righty oh, have a great day!

A Pirate, A Princess and an Xbox360 Walk into A Bar

Ok, so it's not a joke, but those things are in this blog, so bare with me!!

I spent the past few days making a waistcoat for my costume. I bought some cheap material on eBay, along with some gold buttons. I cut it up and sewed it all together and this is the final product. It looks pretty awesome under all the belts and sashes! I have a few things left to do but it's coming along nicely.

Click to ZOOOOOM

As I have been lacking in the "Miniatures" area lately due to the house move, I have decided to reveal a little something I started working on about a day or two before I moved. It's not finished, so it still needs a lot of work, but I think it looks cool. I have a friend who made a costume which was Dr Who related (part dalek, part human), so I decided to make her into a figure and sell once complete.

Click to ZOOOOM

Xbox360

On a sad note, the Xbox360 stopped functioning properly. The usual green lights are now red, which means it has issues. There are 4 lights, each taking up a quarter of a circle. 4 lights (full circle) means hardware problems, and that it's pretty much stuffed. 3 lights is either overheating problemss, or battery problems. Not sure what 1 or 2 lights mean. Anyway, mine shows 3 red lights. So I took it all apart (which was actually quite difficult despite what tutorials show), and now I just need to put some "thermal compound" underneath the heat radiators/sinks and onto the processors. This should help cool it back down quicker and make it wok again *fingers crossed* as the old thermal compound has been depleted (dried up). I guess photos of that will be in my next blog as I'm still waiting for the compound to be delivered..

So until the compound is here...cheerio!